Flashback? only January and already need a flashback? to where? to a group of people that are more strangers than friends and yet we managed to keep it together for 3 years and counting, cheers to my crew:
From this… 
To this!
Who would have thought that one day I went to a “travelers event” with Hanna and bumped into JP and he just asked us “what are you doing on weekend? me and my girlfriend together with her friends are going to Great Wall to camp there, do you want to join?” my first question was “is there a place to take shower there?” he said “Marlyn, its historical place and it is a wall, but we will be stinky together” I was a bit afraid first because I cannot not shower but at that day it was an impulsive thought and I said to Hanna, “Hanna, f#$! it and do it, let’s book the train ticket”
From this… to this… and 
all 
of 
this!
We are mostly from Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina I believe? then UK, Russia, Ukraine and me. Most of us are working in Shanghai only Victor was travelling and Ariel being omg the most epic guy I ever met, he doesn’t speak English so good so Lina need to translate it every time. There are two things that I will never forget about him ever. First is when you are with a complete stranger, you just want to throw some small talk, it always begin with “how long have you been in SH?” and his answer was “2PM” hahaha! im not even sure if he understands my question or if he really just been in SH for less than 7hours turns out he literally just got off from the plane and went with us in the evening to Beijing and the second one…. you must follow the story 🙂
After our 5hrs something train journey from SH to Beijing, we had our breakfast in bread and egg or sth like that then went to do last time shopping for 3L of water each and so on and so forth.
The hike….was not a hike at all, there was no trace, we really relied on our climbing and leg holding ability. And here is the second thing I was amazed by Ariel, he has the smallest backpack among all of us and he managed to bring 12 cans of beer, I forgot the number, either 12 or 17 cans? for sure it is not less than 12! he hold it perfectly on his arms haha
his beers! 
Many things happened while we climbed up and down the so called “stairs” that doesn’t even have any proper steps, because it was just simply ruins. Some jams from Hanna’s backpack was fallen out and it hit my head so Victor need to clean me up, I cannot climb up because I the steep are too high, JP need to pull my hand and Victor need to push my leg, Eiman took Monica’s leg and put it to some stones that she need to stepped on, Eiman’s backpack falling down and she was just sliding her ass down the ruins and landed on the ground.
We were all very happy when we reached our destination and set up our tent!
To see the sun rise in the morning, its just magnificent.
However, not too long from our encounter, we had to leave Shanghai one by one. JP and Monica back to Mexico, followed by Tania that also went to Mexico, Lina to Colombia, Eiman to Hongkong and me to Germany, only Julia and Hanna that still in Shanghai.
On JP’s birthday I wrote to him and was so happy that we got in contact again, we can’t wait to have our zoom call 🙂
We decided to set the date after Eiman’s exam so she can relax and celebrate it with us, little that we knew, she’s not even familiar with zoom, started by giving the invitations at the wrong date and when it is on the right date we all waited for her to let us in…
And she just said “hello hello can everybody hear me? I can hear all of you but I cant see you” and I said “you need to slide your phone” and there she was! just knew there are a function called “sliding” 😉 then we need JP to be able to share his screen so she need to make him a host and Lina, JP and I need to teach her how to do that and when the first 40 mins are over we need to get back in again and she said “I will never host this zoom again its too frustrating” haha!
Ofc we need more than 40mins because so much things are going on, Lina is getting married in March and “just” bought a house yes that’s why she do on a regular basis 😉 Tania is happily living in Mexico and able to speak Spanish, Monica that will get her second passport, JP with his business and Eiman that currently sleeping on the sofa because she was afraid the Coronavirus will get through her window as her neighbor in front of her apartment that was separated by a 3 meters road and a concrete was on lockdown haha 😉
I think Tania’s face expression describes it all haha Eiman you are really another level 🙂
I am so glad to be able to talk with them again and see what they are all up to. We talked about many things from our office outfits, the “innocent club”, the fact that Eiman admit to us that she is such a Karen 😉 and when the border are open again Eiman is ready to visit Mexico, so do I! You can’t go to them without me! haha Oh Gosh, funny always with them <3
Back to the bottom, our friendship wouldn’t happened if it wasn’t for JP and Moni, thank you for having the idea of camping in Great Wall and thank you for including us 🙂
Keep holding on everyone and see you all for sure when the borders are open and we got vaccinated, until then…. Bleibe gesund! (need to speak some Germans here) haha 😉