Today, I started off my first full day in China by naturally waking up at 7am due to some jet lag. Waking up early is not my forte so this was a new experience for me. The class began the day by meeting in a team room in the hotel where we were given an overview of the trip by the Asia Institute program coordinators. Once that was wrapped up, we head out for the Great Wall. On the way we were given a great “story” by Joe our tour guide before we stopped for lunch. For lunch we had several different dishes, including the staples of Chinese meals: rice and broccoli, and other common foods such as fish, fried dumplings, and a lot more. All the food was shared and served on a Lazy Susan. We then took the shuttle to the bottom of the stairs that lead to the great wall. We decided to take the stars instead of the chairlift, which most people regretted because it ended up being over 50 flights of stairs. After the long walk to the top, we were greeted with an amazing view of the wall along the high peaks of the mountains. We entered at tower 10 and walked east to tower 6, where we were able to take a toboggan down. This was definitely the highlight of my day. On the way down there was an amazing view and riding down the giant mountain on a slide made me feel like a kid again. I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. The ride down concluded our time at the Great Wall, which was our only scheduled activity of the day.