Rocket Women

We’ve had two good days in a row! Yesterday morning we left that awful hostel in a hurry. We had just taken a morning video and started packing our gear when I decided I wanted some breakfast. We finished the leftover sweet potatoes from the previous night and I started washing the apples we had purchased for breakfast. As I was washing the apples in the bathroom/closet, I noticed that a chunk had been taken out of one of the apples.

‘That’s weird,’ I thought, ‘Why would Ann have taken a bite out of the apple before I washed it?' Justas I was about to ask her, I saw tiny little teeth marks on my apple. It wasn’t Ann who was gnawing on my apple….IT WAS A RAT! I threw the apples down on the bed and proceeded to freak the fuck out.

‘OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! THERE’S RAT BITES OUT OF THE APPLE! A RAT WAS GNAWING ON MY APPLE! EWWWWWWWW!!!! THAT’S SOOOO GROSS! OH MY GOD. WE’RE LEAVING. RIGHT NOW. WE’RE LEAVING!’  I thought the situation was absolutely was appalling. Ann thought it was hilarious. Thankfully, Ann caught it all on video.

‘Welcome to China!’ She said. It was disgusting and awful and disgusting.  I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

We started in the wrong direction, so we had to backtrack a few minutes. Then we got going in the right direction, but on the wrong side of the road to cross an overpass. Frustrated, we took this as a lesson of how important it is to take the time to get our bearings straight before beginning to walk. We walked 8 kilometers until we entered Guangzhou, our first big milestone. When we first saw the Guangzhou South station, I was taken aback by its size. It reminded me of the Dallas Cowboy stadium in Arlington. It’s HUGE. I had my heart set on ice cream and Ann needed a coffee. We sat in the station and enjoyed our treasured foods. Ann and I decided to take the subway to the north side of Guangzhou to avoid walking through so much traffic in the heart of the city. We took a short ride and started walking again after a quick lunch. We walked all afternoon, covering 13.1 kilometers in three hours. Ann is walking much easier now. She is teaching herself how to stride with ease instead of a high-impact, pounding motion that characterizes the way many Chinese people walk. She can walk much faster and be so much more relaxed this way. Her nasty blisters are also healing quickly! This is the best development, as she and I were both plagued by them (me with worry, her with pain). We arrived to the Home Hotel late- around 5:30pm after a full day. Home Hotel is like The Ritz Carlton compared to the previous night. We collapsed long enough to get cold (Southern China doesn’t do heaters) and then rallied ourselves out for noodles and beer. When we returned to our room we quickly got showered and cozy in our beds. It was a very good day 5.

While I walk, I’ve been listening to podcasts. Some are extremely interesting such as an interview of the first woman to ever see a giant squid, and some are mere background noise while my mind drifts away to my past and future boyfriends. Today I came across an interesting one (podcast not boyfriend. none of my current boyfriends are interesting). It was on Ted Talk radio, on the subject of fear. Guy Roz interviewed many people who each had an interesting perspective on fear- an astronaut, an author, a magician, and a folk singer. The astronaut’s interview caught my attention. He was describing the hype leading up to the day of a launch. After decades of training for space, the day finally arrives, and there is a surreal feeling about the charade. People are watching, you’re wearing abnormal clothing, and the chance of failure is a small but terrifying seed in the back of the mind. I resonated with the astronaut’s description of his launch. We had our own launch last Sunday, and now we are six days into our journey. The astronaut described the intensity of coming back down to Earth, hurdling through the atmosphere at five miles a second. He said the only reason that he and his fellow crew members are laughing through the nerves instead of screaming is because of how thoroughly prepared they all are. We too are prepared. Though, it only took us six months, not two decades because our mission is on a bit of a smaller scale. Ann and I have been given everything we need to succeed on this walk. We have everything from hiking boots to cash to massage oil. If two humans have ever been ready, motivated,

and equipped to do a mission such as The Walk, we are those humans. And, like the astronauts, we are able to laugh our way through it. There have been some miserable moments such as dealing with blisters or being tired with throbbing feet at the end of the day, but we have laughed through every single one of them. For example, our feet are taking such a beating that the first thing I do every evening when we find a hotel is to take my shoes off and put my feet up on the wall as I lay in my bed. After about ten minutes of this, I can finally hobble over to the kettle to heat some water. In an attempt to alleviate this pain, Ann had a genius idea. She once heard that putting pads in your shoes is an effective way to achieve superior comfort. No, I’m not talking about Dr. Scholls. I’m talking about Always Feminine Hygiene products. I laughed until my stomach hurt as I watched Ann sit on the edge of her bed and rip a sanitary napkin off of its wrapping, stick it on the bottom of her sock, and shove her foot into her boot. Fortunately for

Ann, it didn’t rain that day.

There are two great parts of the day. The first is when we make an afternoon stop for ice cream. I’m greatly enjoying being able to eat anything without consequences. The second is dinnertime. After a bit of rest in out room, Ann and I venture out to find something to eat. Usually it’s noodles, vegetables, and beer. As we eat, we game plan for the next day and break down the one we’ve just finished. We’ve also talked about the impact The Walk is making on us and how we think it will change us. It is still unknown to us how this experience is growing us. Maybe it’s too soon to tell. But it is comforting to know that no matter what happens, we’ll be able to laugh our way through it.