(Deanna)
We headed about a 15 minute drive to Tiananmen Square where we saw the buildings of the China National Museum, statues commemorating people who fought during the revolution and the front gate of the Forbidden City with a large portrait of late Chairman Mao Zedong. There were two gates before entering the Forbidden City that contained 9,999 and a half rooms but today there are only over 8,886 rooms. The Forbidden City is about 3,153 ft from North to South and is in the centre of the city of Beijing. We then went to lunch where we ate a vegetarian food, unfortunately, Veronica and I are allergic to tofu and so we ate all the vegetable dishes and the rest of the bears ate the 5 tofu and 4 vegetable dishes. As a person who honestly eats meat in my meals, I found this lunch difficult but I enjoyed what I ate for sure.
After lunch, we went to the Summer Palace where the Empress Dowager Cixi lived. The Summer Palace is about three quarters water of an artificial lake called Kunming Lake. We learned all about the history of the Empress Dowager while enjoying the beautiful architecture and scenery. We took a boat from one side of Kunming Lake to the other side to continue to enjoy the scenery and then Michael, Patty and Brandon did some recreational rock climbing of the rocks which were not high. I talked to Lily about the friends I made in Hangzhou and talked about my travels. We drove to dinner where we ate a delectable Roast Duck dinner.
After eating dinner, we decided to take on a challenge. A challenge that we had promised from the beginning we'd face and endure. Before this challenge, we went to buy sports drinks and soda. We took on the challenge of eating a scorpion! I told myself in 9th grade that I'd eat a scorpion in China. We slowly approached the Night Market Stand that sold scorpions along with starfish and other bizarre eats and we all freaked out a little in the beginning. I was mainly nervous about how to eat it but first, Michael took on this challenge. He ate the scorpion and then after told us what he thought of it. Next, Brandon tried it, and then Veronica, Patty and then me. Each of us nervously looked at the scorpion but promised to fulfill this promise to both ourselves and each other and ate the scorpions. My reaction was "what do I do? How do I do this?" but after some thinking to myself that I can do anything because I am the type of person to try new things, I went for it! Honestly, it was crunchy and fried and didn't taste like much of anything. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. I felt proud of myself and told myself that maybe another day I might do it again. We walked around the market and Michael decided that he wanted to try something else, a spider. I, myself am arachnophobic and so is Brandon, so this idea was just terrifying for us. Michael valiantly went for it but his reaction to the spider was different then from the scorpion. He most definitely preferred the scorpion over the spider and we were all just astonished and grossed out from what we had just witnessed. We headed for the hotel and settled in for a relaxing evening.
I'm very sad to say that this is my final blog post from China, I have had the great pleasure of reporting to you all the Bears' adventures for the past two months.
Until I see you again,
Deanna M. Biddy
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