Who needs a stairmaster?

I will take a break from embarrassing my brother this week. It's only fair, right?

4 years ago today, I was climbing the Great Wall of China. I can't believe it has been that long!

Here's a picture of me in a stairwell on the Great Wall. There was a group of us who climbed as far as we could before we had to turn back around to leave. One person in the group counted the stairs on the way down and according to him it was 1,660 stairs one way. By the time I got back down to our bus, my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly walk. Luckily I had a package of Skittles in my bag to bring my blood sugar back up.

Here's a picture of the Great Wall from where we stopped. If you look close enough you can almost make out the parking lot. We met some interesting people on the wall. There were two men and their families from somewhere in the Middle East. One of the men, when learning where we were from, began to break out in song. To this day I have no idea what he was singing. We also saw one lady climbing the wall in 3 inch heels.

This is my cousin Abby. We climbed together and this is how we felt after awhile. Thank goodness they had a handrail, although I'm pretty sure that isn't original to the wall. The sponsors from my year, Len and Caren (Papa Len and Momma C) are leading the group again this year. I am incredibly jealous of the group that is with them. The fall semester of 2005 is hands down my favorite memory from college. Probably because I lost 15 pounds in China, 7 of which I'm sure I left on the Great Wall.