Dear Family and Friends,

I apologize for the lack of coherence in the last e-mail. The opportunity to write that e-mail was rather unexpected, and so much had happened in the previous weeks that my thoughts were all jumbled. The fact that I only had 30 minutes to write that e-mail also left me with little time to collect my thoughts. As the English teachers among you will attest, time for editing and revision is necessary for good writing. Unfortunately, that is not always possible.

So this time I decided to write my letter a little earlier so it was more coherent should the opporunity to write arise. Much has happened in the last week. We don't have an official team count, but it is probable that 3-14 have chosen to believe. I was personally fortunate to watch 5 people choose to believe. What a blessing!

I have been meeting with two of them, and they are growing like weeds. They are very hungry and enthusiastic about what they're learning. Hopefully, we're looking at a lasting commitment, and not simply something that is happening because an American has come to visit East Asia. One thing I really like about the students is that when we first approach them, they are very friendly, and almost always ask "can I help you?" or "where do you need to go?".

My language is improving, though it is still limited. You could say it has grown exponentially, from ni hao, upwards :-) I've been able to successfully navigate from our hotel to some of the universities on my own, even with my limited language.

We've been taking one of the buses known as the "little 5". The drivers are pretty crazy, and very apt to drive on the wrong side of the road if traffic isn't moving at their desired speed.

On Friday, we went to something called English Corner. It is a place where many people go to specifically speak English together. People of all ages and walks of life come. I talked to an Economics Professor who studied in at U. Colorado, a person who works for Bell Labs, a para-legal who works on Intellectual Property cases in China for companies like Microsoft, and a number of students from Junior high to college. It was really fun and very interesting. The cool thing is that being able to speak English without an accent attracts mobs of people. A few of my team mates were able to share G with a number of people at once. It really reminded me of Peter and John. I wasn't deft enough to sway the conversation in that direction, but I received some tips, so next time we go, I'll be ready.

I'd love to write more, but I'm running out of time again. I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again. having e-mail access two weeks in a row is supposed to be unheard of for this team. I may write again from H, but not likely from B. We leave for H on the 21st.

One last note, we went to visit TS and the FC yesterday. We couldn't actually go inside the FC as it was closed, but it was interesting. I think TS is overrated. It's litterally a giant square in the middle of the city. Nothing to interesting. I took lots of pictures, so you'll be able to see them when I get back. Next Saturday, we'll go to the GW, supposedly to the most famous part.

That's all for now. Keep up your p's.

Love,
Brian