first day!

wow. so much!! we woke up at 6:30- ugh- and went to the awesome breakfast buffet at the hotel (this hotel is so nice and obviously i am blogging once again about food) but they had like american stuff, chinese stuff, japanese stuff- oh man. then we went to the temple of heaven which was beautiful. there were all of these retired people dancing and playing games outside (mind you its freezing) which they pay a monthly rate to go into the park and exercise! awesome. the palace was sooo pretty. then we took the bus to Mao's tomb. so intense. he's really in there. in a class box. preserved. intense. tienanmen square is HUGE- like beyond explanation. its cool here too cause everyone uses the south entrances as the main entrance- i assume north but nope. we went through all of these buildings with saw the coolest architecture. everything is made of wood but no nails - all just joints- and everything is painted with gold/gold leaf. very cool. we had an awesome lunch- first chinese meal! and it was all delicious!! then we went to the forbidden city which is huge as well. it just kept going and going and going- entrance after building- man. the emperor had 3000 wives plus concubines FYI. interesting? gross. we were going to go to the summer palace but we were all exhausted plus we're not even done- we have a traditional peking duck dinner tonight! its like a 45 minute drive away too- some people want to go out tonight but i am tired so well see..  thats all for now! more soon..