lauren in japan

Beijing is huge. China is huge. There are a lot of Chinese people.

All of that seems obvious enough, but sweet motherloving PRC do the bottoms (and sides) of my feet (not to mention my throbbing calves) suggest complete ignorance of the first two. The guidebooks, the Internet, and a handful of students warned me against underestimating the distance of crap in China, but I thought EH, I like walking, and really, it doesn't look THAT far on the maps. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

(Also I realize that third statement about there being a lot of Chinese people doesn't really have anything to do with anything except it's incredibly true and seemed to fit with the theme of mis-expectancy.)

Really though, if you saw the state of my feet you probably wouldn't want to associate yourself with me anymore -- and I'd COMPLETELY understand. I mean, they were never the daintiest of extremities, especially with me having been a fledgling runner for a consistent couple years now -- and even being a little proud of the foot and toe deformities that developed out of that. At this moment though -- yeesh. I won't go into the details since you probably don't have the materials for an appropriate response at hand (such as a puke-bucket, or a monocle to exasperatingly drop in your tea).

Basically, the blisters (upon blisters) on the first day (via Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven Park) and the calf-destruction on the second day (via scaling the Great Wall) have got me walking sort of like I'm bowlegged...and on hot coals...with a limp.

But I guess I'm proud of my bowlegged hot coal limp too -- it means I did stuff. And doing stuff is neat. Especially when it's laced with communism!







Obvs. there's much more to tell. I'll recount some anecdotes this week including how I feel about spitting on the street, why I will forever associate Mandarin with the game show Supermarket Sweep, and my Great Wall friend.

But for Mao OOPS I mean NOW HAR HAR HAR here are some photos. I apologize for apparently only being interested in taking pictures of buildings.