I loved this movie. At first, I debated waiting to just get it on Netflix, but then I decided that I wanted to help boost its box office. And I’m really glad that I decided to go! The comic book and video game effects were BRILLIANT, it was filled with the quirky nerdy humor that I’m a big fan of, and I laughed a lot. The storyboarding was far from perfect, and character development could’ve been taken way farther, but all-in-all, I enjoyed myself. Michael Cera did a great job, and it was awesome to see him kicking ass.

If there’s one thing I hate about the world other than war and prejudice, it’s how much our lives are shaped by money.

Just had an argument with my parents about the furniture for my new apartment. You’d think most parents would be proud of their kids learning to be frugal and finding good deals and trying to save money. Especially if it’s the parents’ money. Not my parents; they get mad at me for being too thrifty. It seriously infuriates me.

I’d figured out a plan for my bedroom furniture: a bed, mattress, and desk from Ikea along with some stackable drawers from Target. Simple. Cheap. Practical. Even cute. Would probably be under $500. Pretty good, considering that all the rest of the furniture is already accounted for (my housemate Katie’s mom has a friend who left the country and gave them all of his stuff), right? Yeah, no, apparently not. My dad flipped a bitch about having to assemble the furniture. I was like, “DAD. You see my desk here in my room at home? And my bedside table? And my bookcase? Yeah, um, I ASSEMBLED THAT ALL BY MYSELF. WHEN I WAS NINE.” What the fuck is the big deal? He was like, “What if you assemble it wrong? No.” And I was like, “Are you serious? THEN YOU TEAR IT APART AND FIX THE MISTAKE.” What the hell? And then he tells me to look up furniture stores in Berkeley. No, that is freaking ridiculous! I’ll have to pay a gazillion dollars for the furniture, pay a ton for delivery, and then not be able to lift it myself. And it probably won’t be as cute as Ikea furniture anyway. GOD. And Ikea furniture is GREAT. I don’t care how shitty the make is, it lasts years upon years. And it’s SO CHEAP. It’s not like I’m moving into a fucking house with a family or some bullshit! It’s just a freaking college apartment. I am SO pissed. Can you tell?

My father is such a fucking snob. He wouldn’t even believe me when I said that my friends were taking secondhand beds up.

Who the fuck do you think you are? Believe me, I am more than grateful for how much bank he makes, but it gives him NO RIGHT to be ridiculous like this. It makes me so fucking angry. And of course my mother just sees it as him having the right to make the decisions regarding this kind of thing because the money that he wants us to splurge with is the money that he makes.

And all of this just makes me look like this stupid, cheapass, stingy bitch.

Jesus, sorry if there are things I’d much rather spend my money on. Like, um, FOOD. Or like, ELECTRONICS. Or BOOKS. Not fucking FURNITURE.

And trust me, this is not a one-time thing.

GAHHHHH SO MUCH RAGE

Not pictured is Superman #702 (I’m mad that Red Robin #15 was sold out) and Netflix’s Vol. 4, Disc 2 of Batman: The Animated Series.

This is how I’m spending the weekend. Well, between the craft party (I need to finish my new photo collages), the ten-year cousin reunion dinner, watching Inception FINALLY OMFG, and hanging out with friends for possibly the last time before I leave and don’t get to see them for another three months.

BUT YES EXCITEMENT

Yesterday, I finished one of the Tiny Titans books, which was amazing and adorable and hilarious all at once, as usual. And I read the Artemis Fowl book today, and wow, it was really good! I love action/adventure books because so much stuff happens, but the characters are always so much fun, too. Also, Atlantis Complex thing made everything so much more fun. Orion indeed! When Jess saw me with the book she was like, “Didn’t you read those like when you were ten?” and I was like “Hell yeah! And why shouldn’t I continue reading them as they come out?” Other people (even avid readers) seem to grow out of children’s series as they get older, but I say there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a kids’ book, especially if you’ve been following it since you were little! And hell, I absolutely loved Percy Jackson & the Olympians, and that was definitely a kids’ book. Okay, honestly, I actually make a note to stay on top of the bestselling kids’ series. I dunno, adults just seem to have this tendency to take the fantasy/sci-fi stuff way too far. Takes away the fun of it for me. It’s the suspense of disbelief that makes the worlds people create for stories so interesting, after all.

Then again, this is coming from the girl who likes cartoons and animated films better than live action television shows and movies, so…

Then, we went to this silk carpet center in the city, which was kinda lame but since I was having so much fun socializing, I didn’t really care. Oh, and their food was really good! We got to have Mongolian-style barbecue, which I absolutely love. I had some very tasty garlic-soy sauce chicken and chow mein, which I had been craving the whole trip. Yum.

After lunch, we went to a bazaar for some cheap shopping, which was a lot of fun. I got really good at bartering, woot! It was actually very nice to practice making people bend to my will IN MANDARIN! Got some pretty epic deals, including a $4 Iron Man shirt. Yeayuh. Everyone was in a pretty good mood after that, haha. After that, we went to visit Xin Tian Di, which was this district that had a BUNCH of Western stores. I’m used to Chinese Starbucks and stuff, but it was a real surprise to see some of this stuff, like Coffee Bean, which I had no idea was an international thing. Pretty cool, but definitely made more interesting by the socializing. Yay!

After dinner, a lot of people left to go to the World Expo, which Katie and I didn’t get tickets for just because we’d been forewarned that we’d basically barely get to look at any of the pavilions, since there would be crazy lines for everything. So we went back to the hotel and hung out with Adina and Nick, which was a lot of fun.

I want to take a moment and talk about them.

Nick was the most amazing kid I’ve ever met. He was nine-years-old, his parents were divorced, he loved skateboarding, he got motion-sickness, and he made me really, really consider having a kid. This is like, monumental. I don’t mean “Oh, I guess it would make sense for me to have one” or “Maybe I would make an okay mother” or “Well, I need to advance to a different stage in my life eventually, I suppose” (and these are rare for me already, haha). I mean, straight up, “I want to have a child, to raise a child, to teach and learn from a child.” Pretty remarkable. I don’t know, Nick was just such a good kid. He was by no means perfect; sometimes he was hard to keep up with, sometimes he argued with his mom, sometimes he whined when he didn’t get something he really wanted. But spending a week with this guy, it really, I dunno, opened my eyes to how maybe having a kid wouldn’t be so bad. He really took to me, and I became his surrogate sister or something for a few days. I translated stuff for him, I bartered stuff for him, I kept an eye on him and hung out with him so that his mom could get a break and chat with adults, I laughed and played with him. At one point, I bought him an ice cream bar, and he was so amazed at the gesture that he started calling me the nicest person he’d ever met, something he said again and again up until we parted ways.

Mark seemed incredulous of the idea that I suddenly understood wanting to have a kid because some kid had told me I was nice; he reminded me that my kids would probably not think that, haha. But I don’t think he got it. It wasn’t the compliment that got to me — it was the idea that I had done everything right. Ever since I stopped “raising” my sister (when she got all bratty and mean at seven, pretty much) and met Diana, I pretty much was turned off of the idea of having/raising children. I mean, my INTENSE FEAR of childbirth is one thing, but the mere thought of having a kid that I wouldn’t be able to handle (or god forbid, that I wouldn’t like) is just so unpleasant. And then there’s the whole domestic dealio with the cooking and the diapers and the cleaning and then WTF would I feed it since my diet is so freaking weird… Anyway, Nick made me realize that despite all that, I think I’d make a pretty bomb mom. I mean, with my whole obsession with self-improvement thing, I’m sure I’d keep striving to improve as a parent. GOD, listen to me talking about this. Ugh. ANYWAY. If you’d told me beforehand that I would meet a kid I actually liked on the trip, I would’ve denied the possibility. But I really did love spending time with him. He was just such a great kid. I can’t do him justice with words.

OH and our meeting was so totally meant to be, because believe it or not, this kid and I had the most random things in common, including the same favorite color (yes, my exact shade of electric-turquoise blue!) and THE SAME BIRTHDAY. (It was the coolest thing, I just randomly asked when his birthday was, and he was like “July 13″ and I just started flipping out, LOL.) Also, he deals with scary movies/nightmares the same way that I do — that is, thinking about the scariest stuff when you’re trying to fall asleep so that you don’t dream about them. I’ve done that since I was a little tot, and when I heard that he did this, we SUPERBONDED, especially since he’d always told his mom about that strategy but had it dismissed for its irrationality. We kept saying “OMG, I’ve never met someone else who does that!” for like ten minutes straight, LOL. I also was very pleased when he declared that I was a total tomboy. I’ve waited all my life to hear that, you don’t even know! Since I was little, I always thought tomboys were the coolest ever. (I know, I know, such a lesbian. LOL) No joke. I always strived to be one but could never manage totally becoming one because I enjoy working on my appearance too much. I also cry easily, am abysmal at almost any physical activity, and am an absolute wimp about the dumbest things — things that are always pinged as girly. So yeah. I always failed. Honestly, this past year at Berkeley has been the most tomboyish I have ever really been, what with the whole T-shirt-and-Vans deal, being open about what I totally fangirl over, and my blatant disdain at a lot of girly behaviors. And yeah, I know that’s not even saying much. But that’s what I mean, and that’s why it was so nice to hear that. And then it was even better to hear Nick admit that he was something of a “tomgirl,” but he liked weapons and sports and such about as much as I liked dressing up and doing makeup and having painted nails. I dunno, he was just so cool!

And then there was Adina, his mom. What a fantastic lady. That last night, we talked for like hours, and it was just…so easy. I’ve never been very good at talking to adults or making them respect me or think that they can converse with me as a peer. I don’t connect very well with teacher figures, and I’ve never really had older friends, except online. All my life, I honestly haven’t really met anybody older who’s like a role model for me. My older cousins are not exactly inspiring, and I only have a younger sister, and my parents aren’t exactly what I want to end up like. TL;DR Adina may have been the first adult that I’ve ever really connected with. We talked about all sorts of things, from nature vs. nurture to divinity to job hunting to charisma to school to kids to marriage to self-improvement and gosh, it was just so amazing. It was like talking to Katie or Hill. We shared opinions, we discussed controversial ideas, we applauded each other for our insightful/interesting insight… I don’t know. It was just so great, and I think I’ll remember it for a long time. She even told me that she saw me as someone who would be successful, because I had such a good attitude about everything and treated everyone with such respect and had new, interesting ideas and a lot of charisma.

Now that’s something I’ve never heard before. Definitely not with such faith, anyway. It made me really happy. Whether or not it’s true, I think everyone just needs to hear that kind of thing said really, really sincerely at least once in their life. And I know she was sincere because she didn’t just say it once, and she didn’t just say it when it was nice to say it. What I mean to say is that it’s a good feeling to have someone believe in you that strongly, after only having known you for a week.

Anyway. I am so glad to have met them. And hopefully Katie and I can reunite with them at Berkeley, which is where Adina is going to school right now. That would be pretty awesome.

This is the news that I woke up to, and I hardly even know what to say about it. I am flat-out floored. Delighted. Thrilled. Triumphant.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been really passionate about gay rights ever since I found out there was controversy over them at all (I think I was eleven, maybe?). It’s an uphill battle, but civil rights is what I’m all about. I know we can’t win everything, because our society is not ready for that kind of advancement yet. But I am absolutely confident that we LGBT(QQIA) folks will have equal rights in the name of the law (de facto discrimination is another thing entirely, of course) eventually, even if I don’t know how long it’ll be until that day. I just hope I live to see it, or dare I say, even experience it!

The fight over Prop 8 was a beautiful thing to behold. I am so glad that I turned eighteen that year and could put my vote in what I believe is right. Besides just voting, though, I also did a fair amount of campaigning back in Fall 2008 (protests, door-to-door stuff, Facebook posts and debates) in my rather-conservative Orange County city, but part of me was always convinced that despite the tremendous effort put into the campaign, we would still lose because so many Californians just weren’t ready for this big step. But this is seriously amazing! It’s so good to know that the fight wasn’t for nothing and that this will really encourage everyone who didn’t give up fighting, along with bring the fight to the forefront of the minds of everyone who stopped paying attention.

And yeah, I know Prop 8 backers are going to appeal and all that, but this is a fantastic victory for us! The fight goes on!

“But you know what happens after you look into the abyss? After you realize how easy it would be to let yourself be swallowed by that dark, unfathomable unknown… And after it looks back into you? One thing. One thing then becomes very clear. You figure out pretty fast that no matter how hard it is, or how impossible it gets… You don’t… You can’t… You shouldn’t ever give up.”
- Dick Grayson, Nightwing #128

Today is August 3rd. On this day last year, Mark broke up with me. It was tragic. It was unexpected. It, and the day that followed seamlessly, was the worst day of my life.

But today, that day seems like a lifetime ago. Saying that I’m healed is a complete understatement. The truth is that I’m better. And not merely better than I was at my lowest point, but better than I was before. Better than I’ve ever been.

My demons stopped chasing me the moment I stopped running. The moment I stopped trying to get better, trying to prove that I was getting better, trying to move on, trying to find emotional stability — the moment I truly accepted the way things were and saw a truth that I had been blindly fighting against the whole time (the moment when he said “You’re no better than her” — how could anyone who really deserved me say such a horrible and untrue thing to me?), that whether or not it would work out eventually — well, maybe I didn’t need it to.

Amanda: you got over it pretty quickly now that i think about it

It’s all about willpower. Like Dick said, it’s so easy to give in to depression, to feelings of helplessness, to the belief that there is nothing left for you and that you will never get better. It’s easy — but aren’t you worth more than that? I know I am worth more than the “easy” path. I know I am worth than the tears, the burn marks, the hopelessness. I am worth more than a damn relationship.

I’d be lying if I said the feelings were gone. When I feel that strongly about anything, those feelings don’t simply disappear. But what’s important is that those feelings aren’t killing me anymore. I’m not lonely. I’m not trying to get back with him. I’m not trying on anyone new. I don’t want to try anymore; it’s only ever given me trouble. I don’t want to depend on someone else for happiness anyway. If something comes along, then sure, I’ll give it a shot. But I feel like I’ve spent half of my life chasing after people, and I’m tired of how that seems to always turn out.

The other day, at the airport, I joked with Katie that maybe our planes had been delayed for some higher purpose; maybe I was going to meet my soulmate. Then I laughed and said nonchalantly, “Naw. Already met him. Didn’t work out.”

And honestly, that’s how I feel about it. Yeah, it’s tragic. Yeah, it’s a huge part of me. But it doesn’t have to consume me. And so I don’t let it.

And so in reality, this day doesn’t really mean much to me. All it represents for me is how far I’ve come in this past year, and how much I’ve grown from the chick who cried and cried and couldn’t fall asleep because she couldn’t comprehend what had gone wrong in a great relationship.

I’m damn proud.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? I AM THAT USER, DUMBASS.

Commission work can suck my balls. Every time I come across a problem, I calm my rage and trial-and-error my way out of it — only to come across ANOTHER problem. This is getting ridiculous. My head hurts.

Well! At least I’m certain now that this is not the career path for me! I don’t care how able/talented/creative anyone thinks I am, I seriously can’t deal with people depending on me for creativity like this. It’s not good for my mental health.

OMG, that night was probably the best, though. Since our hotel was in the middle of a pretty busy area (and near the railroad station), we were pretty excited to explore on our own. First, though, Katie and I had to get some money since we’d been broke since earlier that day! So we went to the currency converter desk at the hotel…and were told that they didn’t have any more money. What? LOL. And when I asked if they would have it later or tomorrow morning, they were like, “Umm… I dunno. You can check the bank.” YEAH. I KNOW. Luckily, we ran into Alexandra in the foyer, who was flipping out because she’d lost a little bag of hers that had a camera SD card, $100, and a battery. So Katie and I decided to help her. We hailed a cab to go back to the restaurant, where she thought it might be. This took like, at least half an hour, and consisted mostly of running to the middle of the street to shout at taxis and praying that they would be more excited about the prospect of money than annoyed by the Westerner noobs trying to get them to stop. Eventually, we got a cab, and the driver TOTALLY ripped us off, but Alexandra was so stressed out that she didn’t care. So we searched all over the ground around the restaurant and parking lot and stuff, to no avail. I felt so bad for her! I even talked to the restaurant people and stuff in Chinese. (On this trip, I got very good at demanding things from Chinese people, LOL. It was totally bomb to be able to play the “Worried Translator Traveling with White People.”)

We walked around the area for a bit, and then Katie hailed a taxi without even meaning to, which was awesome. Rode back (for much cheaper, haha) and ran into Jake, who asked if we wanted to go clubbing with them. (He, Alexandra, and a few others had gone to a super expensive club called “Gaga” the night before and had had an epically great night.) I was totally down, but Katie wasn’t so sure. She said she was super exhausted, but she didn’t want to not go. I went back to the room with her while she decided and told her it was totally cool if she didn’t come, but I also reminded her of all the times at school when she’d gone out with us reluctantly and had ended up having fantastic nights. She ended up coming, haha, and was happy about it, too.

So we took about three taxis across the lake (or under it, rather, which was pretty cool) and met up at the club. (We’d also joined up with this group of four girls from our bus that was celebrating one of the girls’ birthdays.) At first, the people there were totally sketched out by our story, which was that Jake and the others had met the owner of the Gaga Club chain (LOL, Asian people are hilarious) the night before, in Suzhou, and he had told them that he would let them into the Gaga club in Hangzhou for free, since they were so awesome. (Obviously, anyone who they brought would also be part of this awesome package deal.) After like a gazillion phone calls, the people in charge were finally like, okay, come in. (I overheard them saying that the manager told them to let us in because if people saw foreigners hanging out at the club, it’d be good for business, LOL.) But then they were sketched out again when we told them that the owner guy had told us he’d give us two bottles of whiskey, on the house. We finally convinced them to, though! And after enough drinks, the guy who was the most sketched out by us ended up totally becoming bros with Jake and Aldo, who were the two outgoing guys who had hooked us up with the deals.

OMG, my night was so freaking legit. I mean, the place needed a dance floor, but we just ended up dancing on the platforms in front of the DJ’s. And when I say platforms, I mean platforms. I was pretty nervous about falling on my head and like, um, DYING, but mostly I was having too much fun to be troubled with my usual Elaine paranoia. Also, I’ve always loved surprising people with how much I love to dance, even though my friends at home always say I look like I’m having a seizure. WHATEVER! I can totally get low. And I had a great time doing so with my new friends while a gazillion Chinese people watched on in either fascination or horror. And I’ve got to say — it sounds gross, but whiskey + bottled green tea made like, the most amazing mixed drink ever. IT MADE NO SENSE. BUT TASTED SO GOOD. I did some shots with the guys, too, which were nummy.

You know what was probably the best part? No creepers. (I just like to dance!) No dirty frat bathrooms. And no drink limit, haha, since they just started giving us whatever drinks we wanted after a while. It was awesome. I ended up staying until the very last group left, since Jake asked me to take care of him and be his translator because he was too wasted to be able to make it home by himself, LOL. I asked him, “Doesn’t Aldo speak Chinese?” And his answer was, “Not anymore!” Hilarious. They were both actually very chill. Aldo felt bad that Jake was making us stay and showed no sign of wanting to leave, so he told us we could go back to the hotel and he’d take care of Jake. I said it was okay, and besides, Katie and I didn’t really have money, LOL. Luckily, he wasn’t mad or anything and just found it hilarious. (I tried to pay him back later for the taxi ride but he said not to worry about it and to friend him on Facebook, haha.) Anyway, it was an epic night. So much fun. And we all got back safely. Nobody was out of control, nobody was sick, everyone had fun. It was a good night. (And Alexandra found her missing bag in her suitcase the next morning! …The cashier desk still didn’t have any money the next morning, though. Good thing I had a lot of 1 yuan coins.)

Me with the girls. Epic night!

The next morning, Katie and I actually managed to wake up after only like three hours of sleep, woot. We went on a cruise on the West Lake of Hangzhou, which was gorgeous. The boat ride itself was super relaxing, too. We just sat and watched the view and talked to Alexandra and stuff. It was a nice way to start the day.

After we got back on land, we went to the Dragon Well Tea Plantation, which sounded boring but was actually very cool. We drank some very good green tea (this is coming from someone who doesn’t even like tea usually, so trust me, it was good) and listened to probably the best presentation we saw throughout the trip. The presenter was this super charismatic rep from like some division of the government that managed tea (I know, right? Totally WTF but he was such a legit presenter); he even majored in Tea. Ohmygod. So crazy. Anyway, my favorite part of the presentation was when he did an experiment for us, showing us that water doesn’t stop oxidation but green tea does, which is why you should always drink green tea after a meal and why you should still drink it no matter what your daily intake of water is. It was the coolest thing. So he poured some rice into a clear tumbler and put a few drops of iodine in it, which…oxidizes it? I’m not very good at chemistry, sorry. But the rice turned totally black. And so he poured some water into the cup — and the water itself turned black, too, so that was no good. But when he poured green tea into the mixture, the whole thing turned back to its normal colors! The rice turned white, and the iodine-y water turned clearish/he color of the tea! It may sound dumb but it totally blew my mind, haha.

Then, after lunch, we drove to Shanghai, during which I wrote a lot. Later that night, we went on another cruise, this time a nighttime one on the Huangpu River, which runs through Shanghai. Katie and I were really tired, but it was really gorgeous and a lot of fun. My camera was out of batteries at that point, unfortunately, but luckily Alexandra posted her shots up on Facebook, which turned out pretty amazing! And I had a good time with Katie, Alexandra, Adina (recently divorced mother who decided to go back to school — at Berkeley!) and Adina’s kid Nick (9-year-old kid, who seriously — I’m not joking — was such a wonderful boy that he inspired me to change my stance on raising children), all of whom I came to like so much.

Shanghai skyline from the river. I loved all the very modern and creative architecture/lighting.

On a more random note… So the hotels were nice and had signs that instructed us not to drink the tap water. And they also gave us two complimentary bottles of water a day! And then the tour group gave us each two a day. So we ended up with a LOT of water. Which Katie and I found hilarious, somehow. I mean, c’mon, look at this…

Heh. We weren’t quite sure what to do with all the extra ones when we were moving cities, so we ended up just lugging them around. Definitely came in use! That hot, humid weather is freaking killer.

On an even more random note, Katie was poking around the hotel room in Beijing and found a book about AIDS where you’d usually find a Bible in American hotels. Even better was that inside the book was a free Chinese condom. A CHINESE CONDOM! Obviously, I found this the most awesome thing in the world and decided to take it home as a souvenir.

Then, we headed over to the airport to fly to Shanghai. I’m a snob about airline food, so I got instant noodles instead (for some reason, Chinese airports all have cold and hot water dispensers!), yum. The flight was cool and stuff, except for the fact that I DISCOVERED THAT MY COMPUTER WAS BROKEN.

So when I was in line for security scans, I pulled my netbook out of its case in my backpack…and dropped it on the ground. Yeah. I know. Clumsy Elaine strikes again. But seriously, I have never broken a computer before. Every time I get a new computer, it’s always been due to a lack of space on the hard drive. I know I drop my phones and iPods a lot, but this was something else entirely! This was my connection to the outside world! This was the tool I used to read my saved stories and comics! This was the thing I needed during my free time! This was my freaking netbook, my precious Starscream! And it just kept telling me that it had no operating system. UGH! And as is typical of me, I had a breakdown on the plane when I discovered this fact. Oh man.

So that almost ruined my day, except I didn’t let it, because I was still on vacation and damned if I was going to let it be ruined by my own stupidity and clumsiness. So I decided that after the flight, I was only allowed to think of solutions and not dwell on the problem. SIGH. At least I read and wrote a lot during my free time later that night, I guess. That night, we traveled to Suzhou and lodged in a hotel there with a teensy tiny bathroom.

The next day, we checked out the Zhuo Zheng Gardens (I think they called it the “Humble Administrator’s Garden”), which are supposed to be super famous for their beauty. I was more impressed by the freaking vastness of the place! It was like a damn labyrinth, though, so I was grateful for Katie’s good sense of direction!

I thought these circle doorways were the coolest thing ever. Katie didn’t quite share my enthusiasm, but then again, her last name doesn’t start with an O!

Then, we went to go visit a silk factory, which both fascinated and grossed me out. Silkworms are still wormy little things, even if they produce gorgeous fabric. After lunch, we went to visit Tiger Hill, which is this leaning pagoda. When we asked if it was intended to be leaning, our tourguide was like “Oh, uh… No.” LOL. Kinda cool nonetheless, though.

I’m pretty sure my Asian eyes got even squintier by virtue of actually being in Asia.

Look at how unstraight that tower is!

My favorite statue. So powerful.

The jade expert guy told us that this cabbage represented fortune and fame. Color me a little skeptical.

After that, we climbed the Great Wall! Now that was epic. I’m not sure what I expected, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. I started getting hella scared the moment I actually saw the damn thing, which was ridiculously steep (the tour guide said the stairs were positioned at like 60 degrees). There was an easier set of stairs and a more difficult one, and I think like everyone chose the harder one, and of course Katie the Athlete wasn’t going to take the easy way out. And I guess I’m glad we went for the crazy one, but OMG, at the time, I was so not okay, LOL. Katie ended up going way ahead of me, while I slowly progressed up the damn wall and stopped every few moments to flip out about being so high up and pondering what it would be like to go down the thing. I actually met a lot of people on the way and got to know a lot of people on the way! Haha. I didn’t reach the very, very top, but I was pretty much one set of stairs away from it. I would’ve gone for it if time hadn’t run out, I think. At that point, we were all already like half an hour late, too, so yeah. Anyway, it was totally one of those life-changing experiences. Okay, not life-changing exactly, but one of those things that I’m totally going to use against myself when I’m doubting my ability or being daunted by something. It’s like, I climbed the Great Wall, bitch! ___ should be nothing. I hope.

The way down was slowgoing for me, but I made it, obviously, so it’s okay! This random Chinese was hitting on me half of the way down, ahaha. He gave me his namecard (seriously?) and talked to me a lot; I tried not to let it show that I only understood half of what he was saying, LOL. He wasn’t unattractive, and it was actually cool because he distracted me from the TERRIFYINGLY UNEVEN AND VERY HIGH STEPS by telling me about all the places I should visit in China. Coolios.

Before climbing the Great Wall!

Stairs upon stairs upon stairs! It doesn’t look too steep here, but trust me, it really was.

Almost there…

The group of us who took the challenging slope!

For lunch, we went to this…Manchurian? place that was famous for its “Firewater,” which is basically like a really strong Chinese hard liquor. Apparently at a lot of traditional restaurants in that province, some hot chick would stand outside the front door with a jug of it and wouldn’t let you in until you took shots of the Firewater with her, LOL. What an awesome and hilarious tradition. So we all tried some, and a lot of people were appalled by it, but it tasted like vodka with the burn of good tequila to me. I dug it. So I took another shot with my buddy Nir. And then we did some Firewater bombs (how cool is that name!) with the free beer we got at like every meal, which were FANTASTIC. Uh, by the way, China’s drinking age is 18, which was freaking awesome. It wasn’t the fact that we could drink but rather the lack of restriction that I liked, if that makes sense.

Anyway, after lunch, we headed over to the Temple of Heaven, which was pretty cool. It was super hot, though. I feel like the heat definitely cut into my enjoyment of a lot of the tourist sites on the trip, haha. But that’s okay; it was expected. And it was still cool to see things that were not only so damn ancient but actually like, part of my heritage and stuff. After that, we went to a pearl factory, where I bought some stuff for my mom, my sister, and myself. I got these cute black pearl stud earrings! Very plain, just the way I like ‘em. And I’ve always loved black pearl stuff; I think it’s so totally badass, and I figured that I’d wear the earrings more than I’d wear a pendant, so ya.

That night, we had Peking duck for dinner! Which I absolutely fell in love with, OMG. I’ve gone like all my life avoiding duck, which my family always orders when we go to formalish Chinese restaurants and stuff. But in China, I inhaled like two plates of the stuff. Nobody else at my table liked it that much, so I had free reign, which was awesome. Katie liked it a lot, too. Now I’m excited to be able to say that I eat seafood, fowl, and raw vegetables (and, ya know, like, normal things such as pasta and pizza and sandwiches). It was a great way to end a very cool day!