The Mini Marathon...

So here is the deal... I am going to run over some facts about to today's outings to get you to the epic ending. We went to a coffee shop to visit today, and we learned much about our brothers and sisters here and much about what they have been doing. We got to talk a lot and share a meal with them. We will be able to go with them to the Great Wall tomorrow. Awesome. Once the chats were done, we went to eat at a hong kong restaurant after a siesta. Which is a nap. So we went to eat at this place where we proceeded to spill more than our fair share of noodles and sauce. We then decided it a good idea to find Jared some walking shoes for tomorrow... which is where the epicness begins. We started this idea with trying to get onto a subway... which was fine. We walked to the station, got on, and things where going fairly smoothly except no one could pronounce the street we were heading. We got to where we were going and Jared told us to walk one way because he "knew" where we were going. So we began walking. And walking. And walking. Sweat began to drip. Gimps began to show. Tempers were about to flair. Just at the time, after we had walked almost to Mongolia, was when Jared finally said "we're lost." It is this time when Gabe decided to ask a women who had married father time when he was in his twenties. She and her buddy were old. We only had the name in chinese of the place we wanted to go on a sheet of paper. So we pointed to it and they mumbled Mandarin and pointed in directions as they were leading towards the market. However, we then were again mumbled at and told to walk down a dark alley way. This brought the team together. Imminent death often does. This alley way was dark, scary and different. It appeared to have no end when all of a sudden the women pointed and mumbled yet again in a different direction and we followed her. It looked as if the market was in sight, when she suddenly wanted us to cross an interstate of traffic. It was incredibly intense. When we had crossed the street after almost six accounts of near death at the hands of these women, they proceed to stop at a bus stop. No joke. They led us through a scary corridor and insane traffic to a bus stop. It was here where Jared said "I quit." We gave up the search and headed back home at a speedy pace because all we wanted was this to be over. We finally got back to our original subway and street and finally to our hotel. But that was a most grand ending to a splendid day. So ends Monday, May the 18th, 2009, for our intrepid explorers in Beijing China.

-Jared Parsons