Alors, on se bat, 好了。

So, something very strange is going on in my head. One of my favorite movies in the world is the French film, "L'auberge espagnole," which I watched for the first time during my year in France. It is a film that perfectly captures what it means to study abroad, and what one goes through on an emotional and psychological level when returning home. At some point in this movie, someone tells another person that something isn't a big deal, and I cannot, for the life of me, remember exactly what she says. In my head, I hear her voice saying “没关系，没关系." It is weirding me out. A lot. Whenever I don't know a Chinese word, I search through my head and, instead of looking through my English Lexicon, I look through the French one. I keep trying to let people know that my French and my Chinese are mixing and muddling, but I don't know how to say that just yet, nor do I know how to say that they are fighting each other. All I can think of is the French phrase: "Alors, c'est la guerre..." which, of course, I am not allowed to say aloud on this program, as it is not Chinese.

(Me on the Great Wall of China, courtesy of HBA, photo Credit Stephanie Brandon)

Today was the weirdest. HBA took us to the Great Wall. It was particularly hot today, and by the time we reached the wall (after an extremely long hike up) most of us had drunk at least one of our 3 bottles of water. Almost instantly, all around, I could hear English (for the first time in a week) and French (for the first time in a few months) and my brain started whirling and whirling. It almost made the experience of walking along the wall less painful, because I was so in my own head.

(Andi tries--and fails--to pick up a Butterfly)

I say almost. It was a grueling walk, filled with steps and steep climbs and people. It was also extremely hot. Our teachers had warned us that it would be particularly hot today, but we weren't expecting the sun to be as powerful as it was. The guard towers that pop up every now and then were surprisingly cool, but not enough to last.

(Stephanie on the Wall...it was a long climb...)

Of course, the ever-present haze covered the scenery. If the light had been different, if it had been later or earlier in the day, if it had been cooler, the haze would have looked like mist.

(The haze...)

At the base of the wall, there were tons of tourist stands, and, of course, many of us just had to try our haggling skills. I bought a Mao t-shirt, a Lenin cap, and a painting for about a tenth of what the salespeople were trying to get out of me. Most of them were impressed that we were haggling in Chinese instead of English.

By the time we returned to the BCLU, we were all so tired that we immediately went back to our dorm rooms, 休息休息。