Let me just apologize to anyone who still reads this blog. I have a few posts written but have been unable to successfully post them using the mobile app (if this posts it will be a miracle). I have left China and am now traveling through New Zealand and Australia before heading back to the States. Hopefully I will be able to post something on here eventually but if not I may just have to wait until I get back to the States. If you want to see some pictures of my escapades currently check out my Instagram as this is the account I usually update (willsgotskills13).
When you meet Alyssa, you like her. She's bubbly and charismatic and open. You might say she's my opposite. We've been friends since high school and while a lot has changed in both our lives since then, our friendship has not. We traveled together after high school with another friend to Ireland and England and had no issues so when she decided to come visit me in China I was thrilled. She was only here a week but we fit in a lot and were even able to make it to Beijing for a very quick trip so she could see the Great Wall. When I went to the Great Wall before it was packed with people so I wanted to do something different with Alyssa. My friend Lauren who was here in November on a business trip had gone on a private tour and highly recommended it, so we used the same tour guide. It was so worth it. The wall was practically empty and rather than see a reconstructed area we got to see an original part of the wall. My only complaint was having to climb the wall with Alyssa. She is a talented athlete (and anyone who knows me knows I am not) so she bounded up the wall like a mountain goat. I huffed and puffed, which was expected. What was unexpected was the stream of commentary from my sunny friend. "This is INCREDIBLE! How cool! Sarah, look at this! Isn't it amazing! You're doing great! What do you think of this? Look around! The world is beautiful!" and so on. I'm giving death glares through my labored breaths but could only manage one or two snarky comments rather than my usual volley rate. We made it to the top of the highest tower in our area and it was beautiful. But only one of us got there smiling and skipping all the way. We did a pub crawl for New Years arranged by my other very bubbly and social friend, and as you might guess she and Alyssa got on like a house on fire. Sitting between the two of them with their joyous laughter made me wonder how I keep convincing naturally jubilant people to be my friends. It was a fun night but the ringing in of 2015 made me remember spending last New Years on a plane on the way to China. I sound like a grandparent (so I sound like myself) when I say time flies. |
SARAH ELLENTPA - SHA - BNA Archives
December 2016
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