THE GREAT WALL

We hiked the Great Wall of China today, and the weather and scenery and entire experience was perfect. It was unbelievable! We signed up for the tour on Friday, and by Saturday (yesterday) all reports said rain all day Sunday and Monday. We were disappointed and worried that we wouldn't get a good day, but we got the total opposite. They need to fire the weather guy because it was a cloudless, 80-something degree day with a beautiful breeze.

It began early at around 6:00, and we and the two Australian women were picked up in a 15 passenger van and we cruised around to other local hostels until it was full. After about 3 other stops we were full and we ate the crappiest Egg McMuffins we've ever had. Definitely had been sitting around a little too long. Anyways, we seemed to be on our way when suddenly we pulled over and the driver simply pointed and said "your bus". Wait, I thought we were on our bus? We transferred over and suddenly our group of 15 turned into a group of 37. We gained a professional tour guide and we were (finally) on our way. At first I felt apprehensive because there were so many of us. There are 37 people on one bus, how many buses would be there? This was supposed to be the more remote and quieter section of the wall. I let it go, and started to drift back to sleep, hoping to skip most of the 3 hour ride. It was a good thing I didn't, because as we approached Jinshanling, the landscape was astonishing. The mountains were massive, jagged, lush green, and the complete opposite of the smoggy cities we had began to assume China was all about. And then we saw it. For about the last half an hour of driving we saw the wall winding its way along the backbones of the mountains. It really had no end. As we approached closer, or guide reminded us about the age, scope, size, and amount of work it took to build the wall. For hundreds of years people slaved away in this unforgiving environment. Many people died helping to create the Wall, so many, our guide pointed out, that it could be considered the world's longest cemetery. The very people who helped create the brick and mortar helped to fill the earth underneath it. The size is simply stunning, and not really comprehensible. She again noted that if you took all the building materials from the Wall, and reorganized them into a 5 meter tall, 1 meter wide wall, you could encircle the Earth. It's a mind boggling achievement.

We arrived and saw a small parking lot with only a few cars and one other bus. The sky was blue, without a single cloud, and the temperature was just right. Can I just say it one more time? It was perfect! We were given the choice of hiking to the top to get to the wall, or taking a gondola. Now, you know us, we're all for hiking, but we were given a strict 3 hour time limit and the gondola was cheap. We chose to ride up it to save time and energy. Who wants to get to the top tired and sweaty while (more importantly) wasting an hour of precious time? The ride also gave us a chance to soak in some of the gorgeous scenery. We arrived at the top, and there we were, in the middle of it all along the Great Wall. Talk about a surreal, unbelievable feeling! With something this famous, this talked about, and this photographed, it's almost impossible to realize that you're actually there, walking along, living the dream.

We spent about 3 hours on the Wall, making it from the entrance of Jinshanling to the Corner Tower. The Corner Tower was at the top of the highest peak in this stretch and is where the wall rode the spine up one side and turned a new direction down the other side. From here we were fortunate to be able to see for miles in every direction. We could see the Wall wind its way through the mountains all the way to the horizon, maybe 40 or 50 miles each way. The half destroyed, unrestored tower we took our break in was amazing. It was too bad each one was filled with a Chinese local trying to sell you water, beer, or souvenirs. It definitely broke the silence. We were steadfast and said no to all of them right from the beginning, and watched as those who said yes once not be left along for the rest of the day. At the time, it felt as though 3 hours could never be enough, but as we neared the end, we found a sense of relief as we hiked our tired, soon-to-be sun burnt bodies down off the wall. We both doused on SPF 50 at the start, but that was beginning to get wiped away easily.

We walked back to the gondola, which gave us about 15 minutes to reflect on what just happened. As we floated down the mountain, we looked back a few times and shook our heads in disbelief. We looked at each other and understood without speaking that we just shared another amazing experience...together. I am so glad I have Dani. I am so thankful we can share life's adventures together. I never would've believed that I would be doing this. Dani empowers me, she makes me stronger and more confident with every adventure we share together. We have so much fun, and are always on the same wavelength. Now we will spend one more day together in China, and move on to the next adventure in Mongolia on Tuesday. I can't wait!

Arriving in Beijing

Yesterday we arrived in Beijing! After a restful night's sleep on our awesome hard sleeper on the train, we headed to our hostel. It was there we set up shop, waited for our room to be ready, and planned our itinerary for the last 4 days in China. There's so much to do in and around Beijing, 2 weeks wouldn't be enough, so we're just going to have to stick to the main highlights: Summer Palace, Olympic Park, Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City. First however, we needed to secure our tickets for the Trans-Mongolian. We reserved the tickets but needed to pick them up and pay for them at Ocean Travel agency somewhere in the city. We spent most of the day relaxing, organizing, and getting the tickets. We ended the night with the hostel's dumpling party. There were about 4 Chinese women teaching about 10 foreigners making dumplings together, and we made so many! We had about 5 trays worth! They were filled with tofu and vegetables and it was a lot of fun learning how to make them by hand from scratch. It doubled as a free dinner and we spent the evening having a great conversation with a Taiwanese woman and a mother and daughter who just spent a month in Mongolia! It was great to pick their brains and hear about their experiences. They were very interested in our experiences in Korea, too, so we had plenty to talk about. The next day, Saturday, we got up and made plans to see the Summer Palace and Olympic Park. We got to use the subway all day, which is a much better way to go than buses or taxis. Getting around in China has been overall much more difficult than any place was experienced in Korea, but Beijing's subway system has redeemed it a little bit. First stop was the Summer Palace, which we overheard someone yesterday said they spent 6 hours at and didn't see the whole thing. It's absolutely massive and easily hast to be the coolest summer home in the world. The grounds are set around a huge lake that you can walk around for about 4 miles. At the north end there is an intricate set of palace buildings, poem reading rooms, reflection rooms, massive pagodas, and everything else ancient royalty needed. The best part was it was a little crowded, but pretty quiet by Beijing weekend standards. Translation: we could actually get pictures without other people in them, which is amazing. We spent a few hours touring around the grounds and looking at all the beautiful architecture. The bridges alone were amazing mixtures of traditional and creative design. We enjoyed the mild (only 85*) weather and watched the paddle boats and tour boats float across the lake. I was again surprised at the lack of foreigners, which made me think of an article I read a few months back. So many of China's people are slowly growing into a massive middle class that their biggest tourist problem is now themselves. As this country grows wealthier, the transportation systems are being clogged, and the tourists venues will soon be overrun. As a witness as to how things are now, I really don't know what they're going to do with much more people. We've heard stories since coming here of now empty Universities being overhauled and doubled in size in preparation for the next generation to come. The Summer Palace was a great escape from the bustling city and was a very peaceful place. But we eventually made our way around and had to head back to modern China. Our next stop was Olympic Park, and after a few transfers we had made it. What a stark difference. A great open concrete field of modern architecture and smog. We were so close to the Bird's Nest stadium yet somehow could barely see it. The street vendors were back, trying to sell two year old trinkets and overpriced water. They each hound you even after they watch you turn down the 8 people in front of them. The Nest was really expensive to visit, so we did the Water Cube instead. It's another really interesting building, and we got to visit the pool where Michael Phelps won all those medals and broke all those World Records. It was a fun experience, but as we made our way back to the subway we both agreed we could both feel the effect of the smog in our lungs. It looked hazy, but it was just pollution, I'm sure we'll see it in the pictures. I've never sen anything that bad before! After the park we were craving a little Western food and broke down and had some Pizza Hut. It was delicious, but the service was pretty bad (another difference from Korea). We made it back to the hostel and finally had time to blog a little bit. Our hosts taught us how to get around China's web filters (using a Chinese software program, haha), and we had the two computers to ourselves most of the night. And the computers actually cooperated enough so I could fix the Flip! Finally! Feeling organized and prepared for the big day tomorrow, we headed to bead. Tomorrow: Hiking the Great Wall of China!!!

Terracotta Army

Terracotta day today! I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and it didn't disappoint! The ruins are over 2000 years old, and are one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Every time I think about the sheer magnitude, beauty,and craftsmanship of the army the words to describe it all escape me. We got a nice breakfast together at the hostel, and began the day at about 9:30am. Our group was from two sister hostels, totalling 17 all together. We were the only ones from North America, and only 2 of 3 who didn't use English as a Second Language. In the group were people from Australia, Germany, China, Holland, and France. The Europeans have so far easily outnumbered the North Americans on this trip. Maybe it's all the vacation they get!

When we arrived we walked to the pits, passing hundreds of stalls all selling the same thing, doing anything to get your attention. We did the pits in the 2, 3, 1 order because our guide Zsa Zsa, told us we could save the best for last that way. The first pit (#2) was expansive, and felt most like an archaeological site. There were no completed relics, everything was in pieces, half excavated from the ground, and scattered. They did, however, have some of their finest pieces on display in large glass cases, including a general which is only one of 7 ever found. The people were so crazy to get a picture it was frustrating and annoying. But it was amazing to finally see in person, and to see the differences between the types of warriors. The chariots were all taken to the Expo, but everything else was there.

Next was Pit #3. It was small, but the only one where excavation was complete. The soldiers stood tall and proud in the same position they were set in 2000 years ago. Pit #3 was never completed because of the emperor's sudden death. He thought consuming mercury would help him live longer, but it just ended up bringing him an early death. Pit #3 was unique because it wasn't where they kept the army, it was home to a meeting room, food storage, and animal stalls. This gave us our first look at completed horses, as well.

Pit #1 was amazing. It is as large as an aircraft hanger for 3 Boeing 747s, and has thousands of well preserved, completed relics. I had to keep reminding myself that each one was unique. It's all to easy to think that it's a room full of carbon copies. We started at the back, and moved forward, saving the best of the best for last. It was a truly amazing experience, but at the same time, you can't really comprehend what you're looking at because of the sheer magnitude of it all. It will take awhile for it all to truly set in.

After the museum, we headed back to the bus and went for lunch. What a "classy" place that was. An old hotel from a gone-by era was now being used to circulate tourists through the trough at 25 Yuan a head. The grand entrance now had a cheap plastic sign hanging in front of it, the decor was almost absent, and water damage rained down from the ceiling. We were all quickly guided up to the huge gift shop and dining hall on the second floor. Buffet style, us and about 100 other foreigners ate lunch together all wondering exactly what this place was. We had some nice conversation, though, and left with a present for a friend back home.

Before returning to the hostel, we stopped at a little temple in the middle of a dilapidated part of the city. Once again we all tried to figure out what exactly we were doing there. It was quaint and pretty, but not quite worth the side trip. Finally we got back to the hostel, had dinner, and caught our train. Now we're on our way to Beijing in style. We were able to secure two hard sleeper tickets and are sitting across the way from two British girls on holiday. These beds are absolute bliss compared to the seats we had before, but Dani and I have agreed to never talk about that again! Off to Beijing, Great Wall here we come!

Xi'an City Wall and the Muslim Quarter

Today started off great because we slept in until 10, helping to recharge our batteries after the train experience. We started out with a real American breakfast (the first one since February!) and I tried to figure out the problem with the Flip. It says it's full, but it's really not really full, and I'm trying to fix it, but did so unsuccessfully for about a half hour on the slow hostel computer. So, we'll have to use Dani's came for the video for a little while. We're still doing our dancing, and we need 10 good seconds of extra footage every day for a video project we're making for when we get back.

We headed down to the city wall so we could bike around it around 1:00. It was HOT and hazy (read: smoggy), but it was something we really wanted to do. The square city wall is 14km long, so biking is the only practical way to go. It only cost 20 Yuan (about $3) to rent each bike and it was a really cool experience. We rode along past the gates, watchtowers, and sentry posts for almost 2 hours. It's really cool to see how the modern city has adapted itself around the ancient wall. We saw a traditional Chinese performance taking place in one of the squares, and enjoyed a (very expensive) ice cream when we finished. By the way, expensive is a relative term...it was about $1.50, but that's at least twice what it should've been. Here's a quick tanget to the wall conversation, the following is a very rough and quick guide to prices in China:

1 Yuan = about $0.15

Bus Fare = $0.15
Bottle of Water = $0.30
Soda/Juice (if you get ripped off) = $1.40
Tourist Priced Postcards = $2-4
Cab fare across the city = $6 (but varies widely depending on how good you haggle)
Expensive Western meal for two = $15
Entrance fee to most of the sights = $1.50 - $8 per person

Anyways, back to Xi'an. The wall was much bigger than I had imagined. It was 20 meters tall and maybe 10 meters wide at the top, and tapered down even wider. It was a bumpy ride, but you had so much space to ride around. Thank god for our Camelbaks full of water though! We were so hot, and the vendors who were set up were just dying to charge us triple!

We got dinner at the hostel and we splurged on pizzas, but they were delicious. The hostel has a nice kitchen here an the food is great. We made a trip across North Street to the Muslim Quarter after eating, and it was one of the most unique neighborhoods we had ever seen. It was pretty amazing. The MQ is a maze of small streets and alleyways filled with vendors trying to sell you overpriced trinkets and bizarre foods. In my naiivety, I expected the area to be filled with immigrants, a host of middle eastern people and cultures. Dani quickly corrected me though, and I soon realized we were still surrounded by Chinese people. Dani informed me that ages ago, Xi'an was the eastern end of the Silk Road. So, not only did people bring their goods, their food, their products, but they also brought their religion. So now there exists a small but vibrant muslim culture within the city walls of Xi'an. We visited 2 mosques while we toured the strets, which was a first for both of us. The second one we visited is the largest mosque in China. The architecture was largely of Chinese influence (made to be that way to it didn't look TOO middle eastern per gov't requests), but there were arabic signs and engravings throughout. Darkness was falling and the sounds of the city faded away around us in this peaceful oasis. As you may or may not know, muslims pray 5 times per day, and we saw the posted times outside of the prayer hall. One of them was coming up soon, but we weren't sure if it was am or pm. But, the slow trickle of men making their way inside soon became 5, 10, or 20, at a time, and it became apparent. We were fortunate to witness the prayer ceremony! It was sort of unbelievable, sitting in the middle of this Chinese megacity, listening to the prayers in Arabic, and witnessing a sort of blend of cultures not found many other places in the world.

After the mosque, we picked up some tourist t-shirts at one of the little shops, which we bargained down to less than 50% of her original price! Then it was back to the hostel for an early night before the Terracotta Warriors tour tomorrow!

Arriving in Xi'an

Wow, the train trip wiped us out! That was certifiably the worst night of sleep either of us have ever had! The lights were kept on, there was no space to move, babies were screaming, on and on it went. We got off the train feeling as groggy as we did after the plane ride to Korea. Except now we were in the middle of Xi'an, surrounded by crowds in the hazy 95* heat. We had finally arrived at around 1:00 pm, and found the local bus we needed with no problem. Xi'an, as a city, instantly felt more like China than Chengdu did. Right away you are met with a giant city wall with gates that reach over 200 feet into the air. The first impression was amazing.

We found our was through smelly, narrow streets to our hostel. With each step we tried not to get run over by bikes, rickshaws, cars, or mopeds, or step in anything to foul! This place is pretty amazing, it was voted the number one hostel in all of Asia last month on hostelworld.com! We had a lot on our to do list as soon as we walked in. We confirmed our reservations, found out about the Terracotta tour, and inquired about the train tickets to Beijing right away. The next night had already been booked solid, but that's ok because we had an extra day to work with anyways. We asked her about the next night after that and she said, "You're only choices are..." and my head went spinning, thinking we'd be stuck between seats and standing room only. What if we're stuck in Xi'an for days??? "choices are...soft sleeper or hard sleeper..." I don't think Dani and I have ever agreed on anything faster, we both said "soft sleeper!" after that horrendous experience on the first train. Alas, they didn't have two beds together, so we settled for a hard sleeper. Whatever, as long as we'll be able to be horizontal this time! After settling in, we took a four hour nap in our nice, quiet, air conditioned room! We needed a solid rest so badly! On the train I slept 30-40 minutes out of every hour, in 10-20 minute inervals (Dani slept maybe an hour all night!). Not to mention we had peanuts to eat the past 24 hours...literally, we split a bag of peanuts! The hostel's kichen was closed when we first got here, which was one of the most disappointing things ever after looking at the menu for 10 minutes trying to decide what to have.

So after our rest, we went down and both had nice big burgers and cold drinks. We spent a few minutes on the internet and waited for the tasting party to begin. The tasting party was a free event put on by the hostel, and was quite amazing. They sold the idea to us all by saying "come taste the local delicacies". Sounded harmless enough, I thought, it was about time we had some real Chinese food. The catch was that we are in Xi'an, with a famous Muslim quarter, home to the largest Mosque in China. In fact, we're only a couple of blocks away. So the food found here is quite a unique mix of ingredients and flavors. We stood in a circle around a table full of goodies, and handed each one around individually. I'm proud to say out of 25 or so dishes, Dani and I tried all but 2. This included a couple of "mystery meats" which turned out to be duck intestine, pig's lung, and pig's periteneal lining (the lining around the pig's heart and lungs). Some of it was much tamer, like "Dragon's beard sugar" and Persimmon cake. All and all the food was decent, but as Tom (the host employee) put it, this will be our first (and last) time ever trying this stuff. What an experience! I felt like Andrew Zimmer on Bizzare Foods! After the party we hit the bed early and slept for another 10 hours! What a day!

A Day With the Pandas

I woke up before the alarm, although I was still exhausted from our late night the night before. I was too anxious to sleep...it was panda day! Matt and I decided to splurge on a full day volunteer experience at the Chengdu Panda Reserve.

We went to the reception desk early and met two other couples who just wanted a ride to the reserve (they weren't going to be volunteering with us). The ride was another near death experience involving copius amounts of honking, opposite lane driving, swerving to avoid mo-peds and bicycles, etc. China is reminscient of Vietnam and I watch Matt's reaction closely whenever we take public transportation. The look on his face reminds me of my first experience in Asia. And we both thought Korea was crazy!

We arrived at the reserve at 8:15 and met our guide and the two others who were volunteering: Matteo from Italy and Liz from Australia. Matteo had just finished a year at a Chinese university in Shanghai as part of an exchange program. He is studying engineering. Liza is in her late 50's and was granted her long leave from work (in Australia, if you work for the government you receiev 3 months paid vacation after you work for 10 years in the same job.) She took a total of 6 weeks off and is heading to Tibet for a 23 day tour after Chengdu!

After a 10 minute walk through a bamboo forest, we arrived at Panda House #1. In this building are 6 pandas, three are teenagers (1-2 years of age), and three are adult pandas ranging from 3-5 years of age. Adult pandas are kept in seperate pens because in the wild adult pandas are solitary animals and stake out their own large territories. They seldom interact with other pandas unless they find a mate (which is very rare in the wild now).

The first thing we did was don light blue gowns, blue booties to put on over our shoes and gloves. After meeting the pandas, we cleaned out half of one of the adult's pens. First,we cleaned out all of the bamboo, which was covering the floor! Pandas waste a ridiculous amount of bamboo. Adult pandas only process about 20% of the bamboo they eay, and they only eat a small fraction of the bamboo itself. most of it is relased as waste and not digested. This is one of the reasons pandas are endangered. They only eat 30 of the 100 bamboo species, and of that 30, they really only prefer 11 types. Picky animals! Pandas of course were once carnivores, and it's a mystery why they only eat plants now. Pandas are an ancient and resilient animal: they are more than 8 million years old. older than most species found on earth today (the span of most species is usually 4-5 million years long). They shared their environment once with sabor-toothed tigers! The Chinese obviously think that pandas are an extremly special and sacred animal.

After cleaning out the bamboo, we swept up the panda droppings, hosed down the pen, and swept out the water. That didn't take too long with four of us working and the zoo keeper helping along the way. After, we had plenty of time to hang out with the pandas. We got to ped them apples! We put them on sticks and held them out for them to grasp. It is amazing how human-like pandas are. Because they have small thumbs, they can do anything! After we fed them our guide took us on a tour of the reserve. There are 88 pandas housed in Chengdu, which I thought was a lot considering there are a little more than 2000 living on earth today. We visited numerous other panda houses on the tour. Some were eevn allowed outside despite the heat, but were all very lethargic. We then went to the nursery and were lucky enough to see a two week old baby panda! It was the size of a rat and had peach fuzz and just got it's black patches. We were very lucky because the breeding time is only for a few months and the babies are only put in their little incubation boxes whenever the mother panda is eating. There was one other baby, only a week old, but it wasn't on display.

From there we got to see the red pandas, another endangered animal, although not related to the panda bear at all! There were 50 red pandas at the reserve. They are super cute with long, racoon-like tails and adorable faces. They were all pinned together and loved to run around chasing each other.

After the tour we had a 2 hour lunch break, which we enjoyed at the Panda Cafe sitting out on the porch with our friends. It was interesting having a conversation about the similarities and differences betwen North and South Italy, and about the solitiude one might find on the island of Tasmania, Liz's homeland. We mostly answered questions about the economy and teaching in Korea, which of course we were both well versed in talking about both. We lazied the 2 hours away, anxious to get back to feed our 6 furry friends their afternoon treat of "panda cake".

Panda cake was invented as a dessert for pandas, a small supplment to their large bamboo diet. It's made of 8 ingredients: corn, oil, oatmeal, sugar, wheat and vitamins. Along with apples, the panda cake will get any lazy bear off it's butt! We were able to try some once we made our way back to panda house #1. It tasted a lot like a strong rye bread. We broke it into peices and fed each panda four peices. It was a little difficult feeding the three teenagers because they were penned together and all thre heads pushed and shoved for the cake!!

The highlight of the afternoon was being able to touch one of the male pandas on the back as he sat chewing on his bamboo!! We were told we wouldn't be able to touch the pandas, but after I mimicked petting on with my hand, the chinese zoo keeper ushered me closer and let me stratch the pandas back!! This got the attention of the others who all wanted a turn! We really lucked out!!

Over all, an AMAZING day, definitely the highlight of our trip so far! We have hundreds of pictures we can't wait to show you in a few weeks!!

Day 1: Leshan Giant Buddha

Last night was a disaster. After such luck getting a plane ticket, we landed in Chengdu only to have no ride to the hostel. We were supposed to have an arranged pick up waiting for us, but with the flight change and the fact we were a little late getting in, it didn't pan out. The problem was we didn't have a copy of the address or the phone number with us. Long story short, through the random acts of kindness of about 6 strangers, we used a restaurant's internet cafe, got the address, and secured a taxi. He tried to charge us double, but thanks to one of the strangers, we knew better. We finally got to the hostel and settled in at around 1:30am, 2 and a half hours after landing. We made arrangements for the next two days, and finally got to sleep.

Up bright and early again, we got ready for our first day and headed down to the front desk. Here we met with Ray, one of the employees and finalized and paid for all of our arrangements. Today we would be seeing the Leshan Giant Buddha, but we'd be on our own. We were hoping to go on the hostel's tour, but there wasn't enough interest for a trip today. Getting a van for just us wasn't practical, and it would've cost $90. There was an easy way to get there, but it involved a few steps and felt daunting. We wakled down to a huge statue of Mao, and ate some McDonald's for breakfast, pondering whether or not we'd actually be able to do this. I got freaked out for a few minutes. The trip involved catching a Chengdu city bus to an intercity bus station for a 2 hour ride, then another bus or taxi after that. Luckily we figured out the first step and our confidence grew a little bit with each one after that. The buses were decent, and at least air conditioned, but left much to the imagination.

We made it to Leshan and spotted (the only other) 2 foreigners that were on our bus, and arranged to split a taxi. It was an older father and son duo from Holland who are travelling China together for 4 weeks. We got to the Giant Buddha sight, parted ways and made our way inside. The Buddha was quite amazing, and the surrounding grounds and temples were beautiful too. It was so busy, though! There were literally thousands there, yet Dani and I only spotted maybe 10 other foreigners. I think it would be fair to say the line was over a kilometer long, and moving slowly. We spend over an hour and a half just to get near the front, and then the real madness began. We descended a steep, narrow path along the side of a cliff that afforded us some wonderful views of the Buddha. At over 70m tall and 25m wide though, he was not very photogenic. It was absolutely massive. The head was the most beautiful and well preserved part, but it was all quite amazing. The toes were each the size of a person! After the vertigo-inducing decent, we stayed on the platform for awhile taking pictures and soaking it in. We climbed back up, through an exit on the other side, and decided to head out. The josteling of the crowds really wore us out.

This time we decided to take a local bus back to the bus station, and it was the oldest, sketchiest one either of us had ever been on. Driving in China is one of the scariest and most unorganized things I've ever seen. Now we're on the long bus back to Chengdu, and we're going to get some legit dinner and good sleep tonight. Blogger is blocked here, but Gmail isn't, so we might be able to send some stuff home to Heather and see if she can post it for us. We're off to see the pandas tomorrow, which should be a total highlight for the both of us on this trip. We secured train tickets for tomorrow night, but they're hard seat tickets, which the guy from Holland told us are like wooden planks. 15 hours on that? We might need to do something about that...more on that later.