huo boy! What a day. (ok, 24 hour day) I don't have as many impressions of this trip as I have on other times of travel. I was surpised by a praire dog popping up outside our guide's appartment. (like a squirrel without a tree) and the mountians are actually ever present but not oppressive as in the appalachas. We are about 2 hours away from them at the moment and you can always see them off to the west. At least until they get up towards Denver, where they disappear into the smog. I begin to appreciate exactly how much Pgh has done to clean up its air.

The general atmostphere around town is a cross between GR and PNS. Streets are big and wide. People are polite drivers. Signs are well marked. Streets end and start without warning. It's a big grid. Other than that, the people we have met are more like GR folks, church oriented, evangelical in practice, all around nice folk.

I'm also have some trouble adjusting to the time zone - though that could easily be attributed to the pace of our schedule. We've been buzzing between offices trying to catch people before a big event or before they leave town. There are some very cool endevours happening around this office. I'm sitting next to the Japanese Christian Fellowship office which is education and support for Japanaese who are abroad both while they travel but also once they are back in Japan. It's neat because it is a grassroots movement among students.

Tonight is dinner and then some time to crunch through some of the reading we've been given. We also need to wrap up our spiritual gifts inventory and disc thing soon. Lots to do in a short amount of time. We hope to do something like a hike later this week, but for now its talking and more talking.