A wonder of the world.

Friend Eleanor,

Climbed up the Great Wall today, a rather intense experience that has left me in my room, curled up on my bed in fatigue. Things I have bargained for and purchased today:

Postcards: from 10 kuai to 5 kuai for a set of ten.
T-shirt for my little brother: from 30 kuai to 10 kuai.
Artwork scroll: from 180 kuai to 40 kuai.
Ice cream: from 15 kuai to 5 kuai.

Still overpriced, mostly the latter two, but what can one expect? My legs were literally trembling when I came back down; Kenina and I engaged in an argument about the fact that the guy selling ice cream was selling it for 15 kuai (but it's ice cream! we bought some yesterday for no more than 5 kuai!), and I think it was more out of amusement than anything else that he agreed to 5 each. (As an aside anecdote, later, having collapsed on some steps and commenced munching contentedly on our ice creams, we watched bemusedly as two Chinese women stood right next to us, with another man holding a camera. Then, apparently not getting us in frame enough, he told them to sit with us! So they both sat on either side; I was incredibly weirded out, but Kenina handed her camera to the guy and asked him to take a picture of us and the two strangers, too. We have proof!)

But see? I am improving in my interactions. Really. Just like a Chinese. I swear... I'm just... so... sleepy...