Finally! We made it to the Great Wall! Eschewing the overcrowded Wall outside Beijing, we opted for the quieter, less overrun section a short drive outside Dandong right on the North Korean border. We encountered only handfuls of people as the sun beat down on us as we climbed and climbed. Most of the murderously steep hike up the big hill the ancient Doodles cleverly built their wall on (really, only a deranged fool would consider attacking a fortified wall on a hill named Tiger Mountain) was gawking at North Korea, the lush scenery, and looking for border guards. That is besides the ritual Oozing of Sweat and Panting.

Per the Lonely Planet, there’s a section of path around the Wall that narrows to a point where you can poke a toe actually on to North Korean soil… if you dare! Chris was hell bent on finding this little spot so after descending the big hill loftily named Tiger Mountain on shaky legs, we followed the path back round the Wall instead of hiking up and down the damned thing again. Wall on one side, cornfields, North Korea and an 8 foot barbed wire fence on the other. A big creak appeared where a couple small boats waited to ferry passengers further upstream to the start of the Wall. Fears of recent kidnappings on the brain, we opted to follow the path that took us up and over the river by a metal stairs and walkway that clung to the side of a cliff that eventually deposited us safely on the Doodle riverbank at the start of the wall. 

Resting near the water edge, we finally saw the spot we think, maybe a hundred feet away where the line between China and North Korea shrunk to a tiny step. A few Doodles milled around the area, a couple playing in the shallow river and weeds. We looked for the border guards that were supposedly in the area but, disappointingly, now armed North Koreans. When the Doodle tour groups boisterously amassed behind us, each guffawing old man and lady with a camera snapping a picture of his or her friend by a rock scribbled with Doodles, we took that as our cue to haul our wet, stinky carcasses back to the hotel for a shower and nap.

Besides beer and Drunken Fun Times, going out with Doodles is great because you get to try all the really weird dishes you would never, never order yourself. Unless by accident. 

First:

Peking Duck! Those are great dishes. The plates, I mean. Duck parts in a duck plates. The plate on the left contains the cooked skins of the duck (“the best part” I’m told) and the duck meat is on the right. Yep. At the top of that plate is the head of the duck sliced in half so we all can see poor little duck’s little cooked brain. Below the duck are an assortment of sauces for dipping.

Next:

Fishy fishy! Don’t know what the technical name is but it was delish! Cooked in this garlicky brown sauce! All the fish I’ve been served in a restaurant comes whole. All the bones and eyeballs still intact and, in the this case, it’s gaping mouth left open. I can’t bring myself- I don’t want to bring myself- to eat the head.

And…

This. Some find of sweet fruit dish. Always weird, sugarified fruit. Often with multicolored sprinkles so I’m a tad disappointed with this one. The red blobs are cherry tomatoes that have soaked or been cooked in a sugary paste. The orange pieces maybe peach? No ones knows what the green things are. Tastily bland, but that electric green color cannot be part of nature. Can it?

And part of the party:

Robert, me, Chris, and the man responsible for all the shenanigans, Mr. Wang. That’s all normal Doodle food in the foreground. Robert about made me heave when he gnoshed on the eye of the big fish from the middle pan. Eck.

This is a behind the scenes look at the latest piece of propaganda the university made us do. This year is the university’s 60 year anniversary, which means they’ll harangue us into doing something weird in the new term. I bet it involves singing. But for now, it was just some pictures of us sitting in a circle outside in the 100-degree heat chatting with some English majors. Which turned out to be not so painful because the process didn’t take more than 15 minutes and I knew and liked many of them from previous classes. Embarrassment: one of the students and I were wearing the same dress! The photographer/school wanted one of us to stand in the center of this circle and give a speech for the camera but we, or at least I, did what the Doodles do sometimes when they don’t want anything to do with the foreigner, only I was more polite. A brisk,”No thanks” and then I ignored future prodding until they gave up. Haha!

Last they shot a short 30-second video that only Chris, Adam, and Annie were asked to star in. (Robert and I mocked from the sidelines). Here Chris is! Chatting with a couple of my former students beneath the shade of the swaying willow(?) tree:

Chris and I have a new pet!

In my class on Friday, my students presented me with a ni gu gu. He is a bird made from local black dirt from a neighboring province, Hubei. If you blow into a little hole in his rear feathers a wispy little song emerges from his belly. He now perches on our living room windowsill so he can chatter to the tweet tweets outside. 

His name was inspired by a movie we watched last night, Der Untergang. 

Meet Luftwaffe!

I left for class this morning for my 8:00 class at 7:35 and was shocked, amazed, aghast (!) to see a layer of heavy wet snow covering the ground!  The first snowfall of the season!  I would have skipped down the road had I not been afraid to slip and fall.  

My classes today were at the new campus, a 10-minute drive away from the old campus where we live.  Usually there’s one if not four taxis sitting right outside the apartment complex waiting to chauffeur the many teachers and school officials living in this complex to the campus.  But today? 0.  I noticed the slow, tortoise pace of traffic, the dirty snow ground into the road and realized this was due to the 1/8 inch of snow!  People on bicycles and their motorbikes slowly creeped by as the cars still blared horns at them, but they weren’t moving any faster.  I waited and waited, two taxis came by but other, sneakier people beat me to them.  I finally walked down to a major intersection, about a seven minute walk slipping on a couple slick spots along the way. I finally got a taxi.  I was 10 minutes late.

The afternoon remains of Anyang's snowstorm

More photos, more photos!

Go to Chris’s group on Snapfish to see a few Christmas pics of us in Doodleland.

The password is chinaphotos.

Happy viewing!

Just thought I’d brag to y’all that my class just serenaded me with a pretty good version of Titanic Girl’s hit song, “My Heart Will Go On.”

(This song is played everywhere like it’s Britney Spears latest triumph).

This was, of course, after I serenaded them with “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and “I Saw Three Ships.” How could they not love my singing voice- and my dancing?

A little coffee is freshly brewed and ready to be savored.

Enjoy!