Summer Palace in Winter

So after a day of sick and coughing rest, I ventured out to the Summer Palace. Kitz and Dad were both at work, so I had to find out how to add money to the metro card and get out there on my own. I got the typical stares from the occasional person on the subway and at the Summer Palace. I got to climb around on some hills to the top of the hill with the Bhuddist temple housing an incredibly large bodhisattva right behind another temple with another large bodhisattva. I got to take some pictures of other Chinese people visiting (blonde girl by herself in China looks safe or like she won't steal a camera) and got my picture taken with some Chinese tourists. I also got a few Chinese trying their English out on me including a couple really young soldiers who seemed to only know the word "beautiful." In between this failed attempt at flirting and conversation attempts, I did get to see some amazing vistas, many with caves and stairs leading to them. Some buildings were even built directly into the rock. Despite the cold weather, I spent about five hours outside walking and wandering around. I'm still a bit sick, so wandering around the entire lake and up and down hills was not the beat decision, but I'm tired of trying to recover by lying in bed since it hasn't seemed to be helping. So I wandered and thought about the stupidity of building a marble boat. It seems completely purposeless. So did most of the bridges, but they were all beautiful.

An interesting thing was the acceptance of breaking the rules. There were signs all over the place that no one should walk on the iced lake which the Summer Palace is built around. But considering the hundreds of people walking across the lake with the police looking on, it seems like rules don't really exist

except as signs. Whole families were all walking across with babies balanced between adult hands. This was their ice skating with shoes and a short cut to walking around the lake. I thought about joining for a few seconds, but the danger of walking across a lake with warnings not to walk on it dissuaded me easily. I prefer ice skating with skates and at a place where I am not scared of falling through the ice. It probably makes me a less exciting person when I decide to not walk on a lake, but I was cold enough without being wet. Frankly, breaking the rules is exciting because it makes you different. If everyone is breaking the rules it is not as fun or exciting, so less attractive. But all the people on the ice shuffling along was beautiful.

During all my wandering and climbing, Irena called because she needed a place to stay and Kitz and Dad thought I was at home. I had Dad take a break and walk over to let her in eventually then I finished my frigid wandering and took the metro home. It was not until I warmed up and ate a very late lunch or early dinner that the cough began again. So, I stayed home for the night and watched something on television. I don't remember what.