The Griggs Gazette

Running in the 10K let us enjoy the scenery of the Great Wall and lots of great company from members of our branch here. Having fun staying in the hostel up in the mountains, running, and cheering with everyone for the race was worth the effort struggling to find our way around without speaking the language to get to our destinations. People were there from all over the world.

Each new group of students has their own feeling about them. This past week we had a particularly united and outgoing group who wanted to involve us in all of their out of class fun. This gave us the opportunity to be exposed to karaoke and going out to eat with them. One thing is for sure, those who may be shy to speak English seem to have their tongue loosened after a few drinks. They are all amazed when we tell them that we don't drink. Michael's manliness was even questioned with the persistent declines but don't worry that misconception has dissipated with his newly grown lumberjack beard and the fact that he can beat any police officer in an arm wrestling contest. Needless to say we think there should be more spontaneous singing after meals with friends in America (preferably not initiated by drinking alcoholic beverages).

Sorry that there will be no pictures until next week, we can't even log onto our blog to see what it looks like, but we can update it! We think that China has blocked some of the blogging websites.