Finally in China

We are finally here...and I can finally access the blog. (Marcy is a genius!) Our travel group is great! We have been so many places so far I dont know where to begin, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. China is really beautiful and has exceeded my expectations! The food (so far) is great but I would be lying if I said I didnt want a real cheeseburger with real ketchup! I think we will be OK as long as we dont drink the water! That hasnt been a problem. I cant really seem to get a handle on the time difference here. Right around lunch time we all really fade out. Probably because its the middle of the night at home. The Great wall is just that....Great! It is much steeper than you can imagine and a workout in itself just to make it to the first watch tower. We lucked out with the weather and had a clear view for miles!

We have a little boy in our travel group. Alex is 41/2 years old and is a pleasure to have with us. He is a blonde hair, blue eyed guy and he gets lots of attention from locals. At Ming's tomb a group of people swarmed him in his carraige just to look at him. It was very funny. Its like people have never seen a fair skinned, light eyed child before. Maybe they havent! He and parents, Jeannine and Stephen were gracious and didnt panic. I was impressed. I even jumped a little when I saw people's reaction to him. There were about 20 people crowding him and staring at him. He was a little prince though and just let them get a look! Just goes to show the cultural differences. We are really the foreigners here.

Tomorrow we are going to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City, then in the afternoon we are off to the airport to catch our flight to Nanjing. Monday I should finally meet John-John! I've watched the wait go from 6 months to now just a day or two. The anticipation is killing me!