the great and the not-so-great:

I have hives. It's really fun. Not. No lie, my entire body (except for my face somehow?) is covered. Needless to say, it's been a rough few days. I woke up this morning as the poster child for Benadryl's side effects and wanted to lay in bed all day and mope. Much to my chagrin, today was no day to mope. As Jenna's last full day, it was Great Wall day. What started out as a cold, foggy and miserable day ended up being pretty magnificent. (But still cold and foggy.)

A lot of you know that I'm a snow bunny so you can only imagine my excitement when we got up into the mountains and I watched the amount of snow on the ground seemingly multiply before my eyes as we climbed higher and higher. The more fresh powder that I saw, the more the drug-induced shell around my heart melted and my scowl slowly turned into a smile. That probably sounds really over-dramatic but Jenna can vouch for me-- it's not. Waking up amidst the grogginess of diphenhydramine hydrochloride makes me a very unhappy girl. Not that it happens often, but when it does, watch out. I'm only human, right? Thankfully, my drowsiness and the whole slew of other side-effects had gone away by the time we arrived at the wall. That, and of course my little American heart started beating a little faster at the sight of the Subway sandwich shop that sits at the foot of the wall. Sacrilegious? Probably. Delicious? You bet. Having that as our motivation and reward for a good hike, we headed towards the ski lift to take us to the top.

The view on the way up is incredible. I took a few pictures but they do it no justice. It's quite an experience to be "one" with everything in such a way. It's breathtaking to be suspended on a tiny wire hundreds of feet above the earth, floating amidst snow-laden mountains and fragile pines. When we finally reached the peak and saw The Wall in its desultory glory, it was almost underwhelming when compared to the myriad of cascading landscapes surrounding it. I don't see how anybody could not be moved by such a sight. To feel so small is such a beautiful thing.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur; climbing, gazing, pictures, nice folks saying hi, walking, ski lift back down, sandwich, driving home, second sandwich, itchy, tired, blogging. Doesn't matter though. The mountains were like my own little reminder from God that there is nothing that He can't do and that's more than I could ever ask for. 

As of today, my trip is officially halfway over. Of course a large part of me never wants to leave and knows it'll be hard but it's nice to have days like today to remind me of why I'm here to begin with. I'm getting so many new ideas and am being inspired to do so many more things. Enough for tonight though, I'll save that all for another time.

xo, 

e.m.