VacAsian Day Ten (Monday, 12 May, Beijing and Badaling)

After breakfast today, we hopped on our coach and headed for Badaling, one of the sections of The Great Wall of China that is closest and most accessible to Beijing. It was a scenic and serene 90 minute drive out of Beijing and up in to the surrounding mountains, as portions of the only man-made structure visible from outer space came in to view ahead of us. When we reached the Badaling Pass and were ready to climb it was cold, damp, and windy. Seriously cold. Colder than [INSERT YOUR OWN ADAGE HERE]! What better reason, then, for Robin to purchase a fleece pullover emblazoned with an image of The Great Wall and the proud slogan "I Climbed The Great Wall."

If you've been reading along, you know that Huey has already regretted not doing more cardio in preparation for the trip. That negligence once again took its toll, as, regrettably, Huey did not make it to "the top" of the section of The Great Wall that we climbed. Instead, he collapsed in a sweating, shivering heap about 2/3 of the way up, where he became ready prey for the parasitic vendors who lined The Great Wall and seemed to metastasize by the minute. Robin, on the other hand, who you may recall "played college ball [SNIFF]" and did six years in the United States Navy [SNIFF], once again forged on and made her way to the top.

Most of you reading this know that Huey proposed to Robin on Thursday, 6 March in Austin and she said "Yes." A few of you may also know that, before impatience and excitement got the better of both of them, Huey intended to propose to Robin at The Great Wall. When asked the question "Where did he propose to you?" many women can answer "At a restaurant," "At my parents' house," "In chat," or "In the conjugal visits room"; few, however, can answer "At The Great Wall of China." So despite having already successfully proposed to Robin, Huey was nevertheless poised to repeat the ultimate entreaty at this most auspicious of locales. Little did he know that Robin would make it so easy for him.

At breakfast this morning, Robin informed Huey that she left "The Ring" in the room because she was concerned about what the conditions and climbing might be like at The Great Wall. Ironically, Huey already intended to return to the room after breakfast to change shoes, but with this news, he devised a plan. He left Robin downstairs to wait for the bus while he scurried up to the room and frantically searched for "The Ring." Finding it, he wrapped it carefully in a clean handkerchief and placed it in the pocket of his shorts. Unbeknownst to Robin, he carried it with them up The Great Wall (or as far as he got anyway), and when she came back down, Huey dropped to one knee and reproposed to Robin on The Great Wall of China! Fortunately for Huey, in spite of the opportunity to rethink her earlier decision, Robin said "Yes" again, and for the second time in less than three months, Huey is both The Happiest AND The Luckiest Man Alive.

There you have it, friends: The Bada Bing in Badaling (or as Robin now refers to it, Bada-BLING)!

We had some overpriced and basically average hot chocolate at the base of The Great Wall before we piled back in the bus to return to Beijing for lunch. Today's lunch was better, i.e., there was more meat and less unrecognizable goo, than past group lunches, and we stopped briefly outside the colossal, one-of-a-kind, jaw-dropping Olympic Stadium, affectionately referred to as "The Bird's Nest," to take pictures. Like The Great Wall itself, this is a building that must be seen with one's own eyes to be believed. But until you can get over here, please enjoy these photos, taken especially for you.

We (and apparently most everyone else in Beijing proper) were clueless, but at or about the time we were having lunch or taking pictures of "The Bird's Nest," the most catastrophic earthquake to hit China in over thirty years was hitting Chengdu in the Sichuan Province, nearly 1000 miles away. Huey just happened to see a passing reference to the earthquake on Yahoo! when we returned to the hotel, right about the time sketchy news reports were reaching the US and incorrectly reporting that Beijing was at or near the epicenter of the quake. Thankfully, we were untouched and unaware, safe in China's capital. Sadly, tens of thousands of Chinese citizens and others were not so fortunate.

We did a little souvenir shopping and sampled McDonald's and Starbucks adjacent to our hotel (just to say we did), before getting ready for Robin's Farewell Dinner. This was the official "last hurrah" of the UT Executive MBA Program, and the sit down affair offered an open bar, exquisite food, great company, and, of course, CAKE!!! Though Huey was too full to enjoy dessert, Robin gave the "Opera Cake" a commendable HACS rating of 7.2. (Way to go, Grand Hyatt Beijing!) Lots and lots of pictures were taken, hugs exchanged, tears shed, and goodbyes said. It was a festive occasion, but a bittersweet one, indeed. For Robin and all her classmates, the evening marked the end of something momentous and the beginning of something even bigger for each of them.