Chinese Hospital

Here are two pictures from our visit to the hospital in Chengdu. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures in the ambulance but it was a lot like our ambulances inside. The actual vehicle from the outside looked a lot like a station wagon.

Back Home

After 5 1/2 weeks (10 days for Shawn), we arrived in Atlanta last night around 10:00 p.m. We ended up staying up till 12 doing some unpacking but with 5 suitcases packed full, we made little progress ;)
As I reflect on this trip, I cannot thank Shawn, my mom, my dad, Mrs. Robertson and Joni for encouraging me to stay in the beginning when I wanted to come home. This trip has been the best experience of my life so far. I will miss the people I came in contact with and the friends that I left behind. I had so much fun living with my host family, teaching a classroom of 40-50 fun, energetic students and learning about a culture I knew so little about. I enjoyed the experience and would love to go back one day. Thank you for following my blog. I had fun writing to all my friends and family and hope I get an opportunity to share my pictures and stories with you in person.

Summer Palace, Lunch at HuTong and Peking Duck

Today was another fun day. Both Shawn and I were very sore from climbing the Great Wall so we were a little slower walking around the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was a beautiful garden surrounding a lake where emperors would spend their summers. After the Summer Palace, we headed off to HuTong to have lunch and a tour. HuTong is basically Old Beijing located in the middle of the city. Beijing is a city created by a series of rings (think 6 increasing larger 285's). HuTong is in the middle and there are the orginal houses of Beijing, some 600-700 years old. The government has not allowed buildings to be built inside the 2nd ring tall than a certain height, so from two time towers located in the middle of the HuTong, you can see the old town of Beijing and in the distance, all the new, tall buildings. Before the tour, we had lunch. It was the BEST lunch at the home of a local family. Apparently, they cook for people on tours in their home. The food was so good! We then took a fast tour (too fast) in a tricycle of the HuTong town and went into the Drum Tower (in the old days, drums were beat to tell the hour at night) and the Bell Tower (which we didn't go into) kept the hours during the day.

We visited one more place as our last stop on our tour of Beijing, YongHe Palace. There we learned a lot about the history of Buddha. There are 3 main Buddhas (no big stomachs): Past, Present and Future Buddha. The fat, big bellied Buddha we've all seen is called "Laughing Buddha" and he is connected to Future Buddha. There are also Buddha's for many other things (a blue, green, and white one for north, east and south and a female Buddha for women). Buddism is one of the most popular religions in China followed by Christianity.

For our last dinner in China, we had Peking duck. Apparently, everyone who comes to China has to have Peking Duck. It was fun to watch a man cut it in front of us and it was good, but our home-cooked meal earlier for lunch was better by far.

Busy in Beijing (Entrance to Forbidden City, Great Wall, Walk Way to Ding Tomb)

Leaving Chengdu and Coming to Beijing

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. Once we got to Beijing, our days became much longer. We are getting up at 6 a.m. to start our tours around 8 a.m. and not getting home till close to 8 p.m. so there is little time to blog. We left Chengdu on Wednesday after spending the previous day at JinLi Street and visiting WuFu's Temple (two pictures above). Tuesday night we went back to Vanka to have dinner at Ou and Sonnia's house. Sonnia was working so Ou fixed us an amazing dinner. Chengdu men are very good at cleaning and cooking ... start that trend in America? We got to Beijing Wednesday afternoon and were picked up by our tour guide and driver. They were very sweet so we were excited to begin our tour the next day. We spent the evening with Sara's cousin Sunny. She was so sweet and she is the same age as me and teaches primary school. We had a lot in common and had a wonderful dinner together. Our 1st tour started on Thursday. We visited the the Forbidden City, Heaven Temple and saw a show that evening (Peking Opera). It was a ton of walking and by the end of the show, we were exhausted. Yesterday we went to the Great Wall. We went to a section that was less visited so it wasn't too crowded. Shawn and I walked the entire section (about 6 miles). We then visited the Ding Tomb (an emperor who ruled during the Ming Dynasty) which contained a huge underground palace built for his final resting place. It was so interesting and the pictures we put up are only a tiny piece of what we saw.

Panda's on Sunday and Kids on Monday

Sunday morning we got up bright and early and went to the Panda research center. Once again, Sarah was very sweet and gave us a guided tour of the area. I think Shawn really enjoyed it and I enjoyed learning even more about the Panda and China. After the Pandas, we were both very tired from our stomach ales the previous day so Shawn went to bed around 3 p.m. and I messed with souvenirs and packing until 9 p.m. when I went to bed.

Monday morning we both woke up feeling much better. We headed off to the lab school to see where I had spent most of my days while in China. Shawn met my primary school teachers as well as my middle school teachers. He saw many students and saw that we weren't kidding when we said "Hello" was the word of the day. Shawn was very popular with the kids and everyone wanted their picture taken with him. During the afternoon, we went to a popular shopping street and enjoyed it but couldn't find a cab back to the city for the life of us! We ended up taking a tricycle back to town to meet some friends. We had originally made reservations for dinner and a show at a tea house but traffic was so bad that we had to change our plans and find somewhere for dinner around town. The friends we met were girls I had met at English corner. Nancy and Agnus were excellent English speakers and we really enjoyed eating with them and walking around afterwards. Thankfully, we picked a good eating spot and Shawn was able to taste some wonderful Chengdu snacks and other popular dishes! After dinner, we walked to a newly built water-park in the middle of the city and watched beautiful fountains spray water according the music played. I had never seen anything like it in my life. It was a wonderful day.

Climbing Mountains and Ordering Food

After a rough start to our vacation in China, Shawn and I both woke up feeling better. We had some breakfast at the hotel and at 9 a.m. on the dot, a green car pulled up in front of the hotel to take Shawn and I to climb the mountain. Our ride was set up by a wonderful Chinese friend named Alice who found someone to drive us there and back for half of what it would have cost using a travel agent. We got to mountain around 11:00 a.m. and started climbing. Now, I had climbed this mountain my first weekend in China which is why I knew about it ... what I didn't know is that when we climbed it, we only climbed it half-way up! Shawn and I climbed 3 hours and made it to the top! It was beautiful and well worth the work-out. We even had lunch at the top and ordered ourselves some tomato and egg, tofu, rice and chicken soup (really just broth that you drink as your beverage). At 5 p.m., our green car picked us up and we headed home. Shawn feel asleep in the car :)

We got back to the hotel and decided to go eat at a restaurant I had been to with my host family. I had saved a business card from the place so we showed it to the cab driver and were off. We ate there because the menu had pictures (a big plus when you can't read Chinese). We ordered Chinese sandwiches (much like Moo Shu Pancakes but healthier, they are on the rack in front of Shawn), some green vegetable, Chinese fried dessert sticks (actually really good) and then something we didn't know but the waitress suggested (you can see it in the picture-the yellow stuff in the plate). Big mistake (the yellow stuff)! Whatever it was looked interesting but didn't taste all that great, we think it was some kind of cooked egg/jelly thing. We tried to eat as much of it as we could but looking back, we should have just passed on the item. Because later Shawn was in the bathroom for more than half the night and I had an upset stomach during the day today ... so much for showing Shawn how great Chinese food is! I've been a lousy tour guide in that department! But the food on the Mountain was excellent and we're hoping for better luck tomorrow ;)

Measure of a Man

After a long rest yesterday, I felt better and we decided to go to my host family's house for dinner. I am so glad we did. There were nearly 10 people at the house and we all sat around and made dumplings (must have made 100 at least) and Shawn was a pro! In fact, everybody wanted to know how tall he was. We told them 6'4 feet but they didn't feet so they took out a metric tape measure and he is 1.85 meters tall. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed listening to music played by the father and singing by a talented music teacher who joined us for dinner as well. It was such a nice evening and I was glad Shawn could spend time with the family I had grown to love so much over the past month. At the end of the evening, my host mother presented me with 3 beautiful traditional tea pots as well as several nice teas that I look forward to using when I get home. A lovely ending to a rough beginning of a day.

Airports and Hospitals

Shawn arrived safe and sound last night. Joni's wonderful host mother, Jin, took Joni and I to pick him and after he had arrived she put us in a cab to go the hotel. The hotel we are staying in is beautiful and I am very grateful to Mr. Han and Mrs. Jin for taking me to look at two different ones (Chinese people are so generous).
Once we got to the hotel (and even at the airport), my stomach had been hurting. I didn't sleep well last night because it hurt so bad. I figured it was just something I had eaten that didn't agree with me. Well, this morning we were going to go meet the girls at the school and ride with them to the airport to see them off. We went to down to eat some breakfast and I thought my stomach had gotten better. However, after eating a small piece of banana bread and some dried grapes, I started to feel hot, cold, sweaty and my stomach was on fire. Shawn tried to get me back to our hotel room but I passed out on the floor in the eating area. I couldn't stop sweating or sit up so the hotel called an ambulance and a sweet lady from the hotel rode with Shawn in the ambulance while I lay on the stretcher. Once we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to an IV and did a few tests. They started putting fluids in me and I rested. Around the second bag of fluids, my hand started to hurt. I looked down and the fluids had created large bump on my hand! Talk about not helping with my sickly feeling. I immediately asked them to remove the IV (Shawn had gone to get medicine) and told them "No More". Thankfully, they listened to me but I'm not sure they ever understood that my stomach was what was hurting me. They kept saying something about my blood pressure and the change in the weather? Around 11:00 a.m., they told me I could go back to the hotel so I got up and started walking out of the hospital but passed out again the parking lot and Shawn had to carry me back into the hospital.
After having to come back into the hospital, they insisted I stay overnight but I really didn't want to. If I was going to be in a hospital, I wanted to come back to the States. So after sitting up for a while in the bed and then walking slowly up and down the hall, I was able to make it back to the hotel. Talk about an ordeal! My stomach feels much better but I am going to be very careful about what I put into it for the rest of the day. Shawn and I are going to try to go over to my host family's house for dinner at 6:00 p.m. So far, so good (it 4:22 p.m.). Please pray my stomach stays better and I don't pass out any more. (Shawn did take pictures of me in the hospital but they are on his film camera ... :(

Interesting Stuff

Mom - Dragon (great year to be born in, China's Symbol! - compatible with Snake)

Jon - Rabbit (good year to be born in; smart, wise and lucky)

Dad - Snake (bad year if you're a female, good if you're a male - clever, determined to succeed in everything they do)

Shawn - Ox (good year - you are hard working and are good in business)

Tracy - Dog (good year - loyal and honest, terribly stubborn ;)

The pictures below are of the students doing their daily eye exercises (10 minutes around 10:30 a.m.)

Last Day of Teaching and Lunch with Primary Teachers

Yesterday was our last day of teaching. I had two great classes so I enjoyed my last day. The picture you see if my 4th grade class. It was so much fun taking pictures with them. After our morning classes, the Primary teachers took us all out for lunch and gave us beautiful gifts (a mask and wall hanging. It was very sweet and once again they ordered enough food to feed a small army. Dinner was just the mother, daughter and I but it was nice and the food was good as always. After dinner, the mother and I had tea and she gave me 3 beautiful Chinese teapots! I cannot wait to get them home to show everyone. They are made of some type of clay which I think is cool because everyone thinks of China teapots when they think of China but the tea pots they use are not China at all. Anyways, my last day of teaching was fun and tomorrow we give our speech and I pick up Shawn at the airport!

Chinese Karaoke

After school today, Hali, Hellen, Joni and I went downtown for the afternoon. We had some ice-cream, did some shopping and spent about an hour at Starbucks just sitting :) At 5:30, we went back to school to met up with some of our Chinese friends. They ended up taking us to a Chinese Karaoke bar. It was very different from what I know a Karaoke bar to be. We ended up having our own personal room with a big-screen tv and a computer to choose songs off of. We also went into this mini-grocery store inside the club and picked out snacks and drinks. It was really fun. We had our own little party in this room. We sang, we laughed, we danced ... we had a good time. The GSU girls sang English songs and David, Spring, Samantha and Diana sang Chinese songs. Joni and I left around 8:30 p.m. to head back to our host families but I think we had had enough singing for one night. Who would have thought? I got to go to Chinese Karaoke at "ATT Bomb" (name of the club).

My second time cooking a Chinese meal!

My host mom and dad cooking :)


Me cooking! It gets hot in that kitchen :)

Weekend 3 (Last one as a teacher in Chengdu)

This weekend was my last weekend with my GSU girls. We had a de-briefing meeting on Friday at an ice-cream place downtown with our supervisor, Donna. They had some good ice-cream. Then at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, Donna’s husband, Wayne flew into Chengdu. They only stayed till Sunday morning then left for Beijing then Shanghi.

On Saturday all 5 of us (GSU teachers) got together to work on a presentation we have to make the Thursday before everyone leaves. It has to be 2 hours and will probably be in front of 100-200 people. Should be fun! Saturday afternoon we went to JinLi Street, a cool little shopping area and walked around till 5’ish. Our supervisor and her husband went to the Opera so it was just the GSU girls who went to Grandma’s Kitchen … again! Joni and I split another

cheeseburger (I’ve had one every time we’ve gone) and I got a piece of carrot cake for dessert.

On Sunday, my family took me to a river outside the city. It was a long drive but we had a lot of fun once we got there. In total, 10 people came with us so we all piled into 2 cars…cozy J When we got the river, we had lunch and they caught the fish in front of us. It was a huge fish and they made it into 4 different dishes. One was sushi grade strips of fish and that was my favorite! After lunch, I played with Henny in the water (9 year old little boy). We caught slimy tadpoles in the freezing water then explored the different parts of the river and even played UNO on the rocks by the river. It reminded me of when Jon and I were smaller and use to play outside together. We stayed there the whole day and the adults had a table they sat at and drank tea and talked. But, even the adults got up to walk around and look for neat rocks and pick flowers. It was very refreshing to see so many friends and families outside. I really enjoyed myself. We stopped for dinner and I had a Chinese Sandwich (much like moo shu pancakes) and a Chinese Hamburger (not so good). They had a picture menu so I’m going to take Shawn there one night ;) All in all, it was a great weekend!

Teaching in the Primary School

Once again, another week has flown by. I haven’t talked much about my teaching so let me catch you up on how Primary School has been treating me. All 5 of us went into this week ready to teach 8 classes (2 classes Tuesday – Friday). I ended up with a lot of 1st grade classes (the youngest age group at the school) and I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive. My first class didn’t go so well but that was only because I wasn’t use to having 40, yelling, excited 1st graders all around me. But by the next day, I was in the swing of things. I taught all my 1st grade classes body parts and they loved it. I would point out the different body parts on myself and they would yell them out. Then I would have them one at a time come up to the board and draw a part of the body. We ended up with some interesting looking bodies. I would then read a book to them (with a Chinese translator) that they thought was hilarious. If there was time at the end, we would sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and see how fast we could sing it every time. It was exhausting but SO much fun. 1st grade turned out to be my favorite age group in Middle and Primary School.

And a side note, 2 little boys in my 1st grade classes wanted English names (most students and teachers at the school have them) so I gave 1 a choice between Mark and John. He wanted John. And the other boy a choice between Peter and Sam. He decided on Sam. I’ll take some pictures next week and post them of my little ones.

Show and Tell

I feel like I am the object at a "Show and Tell" :) Last night my family told me we were going out to eat around 6:30 p.m. At 6:00 p.m., two men came over who were friends of my father. I knew 1 man because he had given me a beautiful Chinese drawing he had made. We started walking to go eat and ran into 3 more men (they had been invited to dinner too but I didn't know that). One of them was a senior in high school who wanted to practice his English. We got to dinner and sat down at a table for 9. During dinner, I chatted with the high school student. Apparently he wants to be a doctor (Western and Chinese). The difference is Chinese doctors don't use medicine and believe your pulse can say a lot about your health. Even though he wasn't yet a doctor, everyone at the table wanted him to listen to my pulse. I went along with their request and after a few minutes of feeling my pulse, he said "Something is wrong with your head". "Great" I thought, now my host family thinks I'm crazy. He tried to explain more to me about my head but I really couldn't tell what he was trying to say ... so I guess I'm a little off my rocker ;)
After dinner, we walked home and Henny came over. Henny is the cutest, smartest little boy. He is in 6th grade and speaks English as well as I do. I love spending time with him, he's a lot of fun. We (the 4 kids) started playing cards when 2 other high school students came over (2 girls) who wanted to meet the English girl and practice their English. This was about 9 p.m. and honestly, I didn't want to talk anymore. But I did :) Then at 9:30 p.m., Donna and O (her host husband) showed up at our house. It was a party! Everyone stuck around until 10:30 when Donna and I were finally like "Ok, time to go to bed".
This morning I got up around 5:45 a.m. and at 6:30 a.m. went with Joni, her host father, host child and Hellen to McDonalds for breakfast. It was nice to have a change in scenery for breakfast and I even drank some coffee. Right now I'm resting a Joni's house until 3:20 p.m. when we have to go back to school to give a speech ... that should be interesting :)

First Day In Primary School

Well, it's been a long time since I was with the little ones ... like 1st grade. I student-taught in 4th grade and really liked the middle school here in China so it was totally new to walk into a classroom with 40 yelling, excited 1st graders. They were all hot and sweaty from running around during their 10 minute break and they all wanted to give me a hug. During the class they were SOO noisy but apparently this class is always like this. I had a better time in the 3rd grade class I taught and really enjoyed teaching them about different types of food.
Last night a husband and wife came over to our house to have dinner. I heard someone come in (I was in the computer room planning a lesson) and the daughter came and brought me to the guests. They spoke English! I was so happy. Apparently, they moved to the US (Penn.) in 1987 and come back to visit Chengdu once a year. They were very sweet and it was nice to have dinner with my host family and have someone to translate. The visiting couple told me my host father is very smart and he and my host mother own and run their own business. Actually, the mother does most of the business work and they both share household responsibilities (the dad and mom are both WONDERFUL cooks). My host mother loves tea and only buys the finest (think $100-$200 for different types of tea). She is so cute and young enough to be my older sister. My host father was in the Chinese army and when he was 40 was in a car accident that caused him to break both his arms (but he's fine now). I love learning about them. BTW, chicken feet were on the menu last night. I picked one clean but that was it ;)
Tonight, Joni's family is taking me downtown to look for a hotel for Shawn and I to stay in. They are going to take us to eat Japanese food so I'm looking forward to that. I'm trying to set up things for Shawn and I to do while he's in Chengdu. So far, I have us going to climb a mountain on Saturday, Friday we'll see the school, Sunday night is Hot Pot :), Monday is Panda's and Tuesday will probably be touring around downtown but I'm sure I'll come up with more. I'm really enjoying my time here but I am counting down the days till Shawn comes (9)!

Weekend #2

Hello everyone!
Two weekends down, only 1 more to go! I can’t believe it, only 10 days until I see my wonderful husband. The time has gone quickly and I’ve had fun but I’ll be ready to see Shawn soon! This weekend was SO busy. On Saturday we visited the Panda Research Center in Chengdu. There is a woman who graduated from GSU who works there so she gave us a personal tour (Shawn, you and I get one when you come :). After the Panda’s, we went to an old, historic Chinese town but it was very hot and crowded. We had dinner again at Grandma’s Kitchen (I had another cheeseburger, SOOO good). On Sunday, my host family and another family and Donna and I went to another historic Chinese town. This was more fun. We walked around, played some games, had lunch, went on a boat ride, sat by the river and ate snacks and drank tea. People in China eat so much. Donna and I were stuffed after lunch but our families wanted to eat snacks and 3 hours later we ate dinner! We eat and eat and eat! After we left the historic town, we went downtown and a famous Chinese character writer gave me a beautiful writing he had made! Then we went to a mall (very much like Lenox) but Donna and I were so tired by then that we said we wanted to go home. I am glad there is only 1 more weekend left because they tire me out ;)

English Corner, Trip in the Van, Cooking and Sports Day

I apologize if I have already posted some of this information. I can't see what I've written on my blog so I'm posting blindly. Let's see ... this week has flown by. Tuesday night I went over to Joni's house. Her host family cooked us spaghetti! It was very good. After dinner we went to the English Corner. It is basically a little meeting place in the park where Chinese students wanting to improve their English come to practice. It was a little overwhelming because for an hour6 people stood around me asking as many questions as they could. Earlier in the day on Tuesday we went on a sight-seeing trip in the middle of the school day with the Headmaster of the middle school. It's interesting in Chinese culture how you change things in an instant and nobody seems to care. 9 of us piled into a mini-van and set out looking a flower gardens and flower shops. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant and finally got back to school around 3 p.m.
Last night, I got home before my host family. I let myself in and sat on the couch to read. Right as I started reading, my host mother came home. She motioned for me to join her in the kitchen. Together, we made dinner! It was so much fun and I learned a lot ... how to prepare some of their foods, wait until the oil smokes before adding the meat into the wok, ect... It was just the daughter, mother and I for dinner. I was given a choice between rice or dumplings ... I picked DUMPLINGS! So GOOD! After dinner, we went for a walk then came home and had fresh oranges for dessert.
Today (Thursday) was sports day for the elementary school students. The GSU students were asked to join in some of the activities. We ran a relay and played jump-rope. Those Chinese teachers were very good at jump-rope! Tonight I have been told I am going to have "Hot-Pot". I will be interested to see what it is. I have heard good and bad things about it. The bad things are that it is hot (spicy) and greasy ... but I'm up for trying anything. People in China are typically very thin but they can eat A TON!
More to come :)

I passed the Praxis II !!!!

I was so sure I had failed the Praxis II but tonight I called Shawn on the web-cam (so good to see his face!!!!) and he read the letter and told me I passed! Yeah for me! Now it's on to Kentucky to get a job!

Climbing Mountains

Hello! Here goes another post. I'm over at Joni's house right now during a break (they call her Roni ;) I had a fun weekend. On Saturday we climbed a beautiful mountain in Chengdu. We also visited a water reservoir that is nearly 1,000 years old. Saturday night we went to a place called Grandma's Kitchen. Grandma's Kitchen has American food. I was saying before I came that I was only going to eat Chinese food ... yeah right! We got there and I had 4 diet cokes and a cheese burger. Afterwards we went to Starbucks. On Sunday my host mother and daughter took me and Donna Robertson into the city to shop. We got Cotton Candy :) After the visiting the city, we came home and they taught us how to make Chinese dumplings. We made like 70! The mom also made Grape Wine for dinner. I hardly ever drink wine but I did since they offered it to me. It was very sweet and one of the few times I've had something to drink with my meal since getting here. We start a new week of teaching this week so I have to run but so far so good! I miss everyone but I am doing well.

Doing Better and Having A Blast

Hello Everyone! I am finally able to sit down at the computer and type a little! Things have gotten much better since I last wrote. I am with a new host family and they are wonderful. I have my own big room but my bed is as hard as a rock ;) I am teaching 8 English classes a week in 7th grade and love all four of my classes. The students are wonderful and speak English amazingly well. Some of them speak as well as I do! Today was Friday and the middle school had a performance. Our GSU group (including Mrs. Robertson) did the Cha-Cha slide for 400 students and teachers as well as sang a Backstreet Boys song and "My Heart Will Go On". It was crazy! We are through our first week and everyone is doing well. Hopefully I can get some pictures up but it may have to wait until next week. BTW, this week there was a group of French students visiting the school also! Imagine that, we played basketball with French students in China?!? Who would have ever guess? :)

Rough Startings

Hey Everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Things did not go as smoothly as I had anticipated. I do not have Internet access as I had thought I would (I do but only at my friend Joni's house) so I will not be able to keep up my blog everyday :( I am having trouble adjusting at the moment. I didn't realize I would miss Shawn so much or that a month was really so long ... but it is. Please pray for me. I am struggling but am hopeful I will get into the groove of things. I will try to write more later!

In Amsterdam

Really quick, I only have 3 minutes left on my Internet time. I made it to Amsterdam and chatted with Shawn, mom and dad. I barely made it onto my flight from Atlanta but had a row all to myself on a completely booked flight! God is good :) I'm here till 8:25 p.m. Amsterdam time so I'm going to camp out on the floor and sleep then get a shower. Then it's on to Chengdu. More to come :)

On my way

I have a flight that leaves tonight at 5:40 p.m. from Atlanta. From Atlanta I'll fly to Amsterdam and have a 12 hour layover until I fly to Chengdu. I checked the Amsterdam Airport Website and it seems they have places where you can shower and even sleep for a couple of hours. I will definitely be looking into that once I get there :) My dad will be seeing me off since I sent Shawn off to see his Granny for the weekend :) My friends who left for Chengdu yesterday were stuck in Chicago until 10:00 p.m. (9 hours) last night so I'm not sure when they will get into Chengdu. Seems like everyone is having travel troubles. I am sad to leave but know I am in God's hands and everything will work out accordingly. I'm ready to go :)

We plan and God laughs

Around 12 a.m. last night, we realized I wasn't going to be able to get to Chengdu on time. We finally got into bed and slept till around 6 a.m. I woke up hoping it had all been a bad dream but it wasn't. Even though we are probably going to end up loosing money on my plane ticket inside of China, I am more upset that I will not be with the group at the introduction meeting, able to meet and spend time with my host family on Sunday and will also miss the first day at the school. I was very upset this morning (and still am) that everything has gone from perfectly planned to incredibly messed up. Please pray God opens a window when it seems like He has shut a door. I am anxious about other flight options I have been given and what to expect when I arrive in Chengdu. Thankfully, I have a mom and husband who won't let me back out and are always good for a pep-talk :)

Flight to Beijing canceled

At 9:00 p.m. tonight I checked my voicemail on my cell phone. Good thing I did - my flight from Newark to Beijing has been canceled. No word yet on what will happen ... Shawn is on the phone and on hold ...

Weight Restrictions in China

I made my first call to China but not for a good reason. I happened to be looking on a website with tips about traveling in China and saw a mention about luggage weight restrictions on some airlines. Turns out a passenger in economy class (that's me) are only allowed to have 20kg (44lbs) of luggage ... carry-on AND CHECKED. The problem is that I was counting on US limits which are 2 checked bags being 50lbs. each not including carry-on. I had 1 suitcase and 1 duffelbag weighing almost 75lbs! I know what you're thinking, I'm high-maintenance. Well, shame on you if you think that ;) The reason all of our bags will weigh a lot is because we are taking a ton of school supplies with us that they don't have in China. 400 sheets of construction paper weighs a lot! Anyways, I called the Airline I'm flying on in China and found out they do enforce these weight restrictions so I'm working on making lighter bag ... so far I'm down to 50 lbs.

13 days and counting

Last night we had a meeting at my supervisor's house about our trip to China. We had 3 girls come and talk to us about their experiences from the previous year when they went. Sounds like it will be an adventure to say the least. We will be staying with a host family (1 student-teacher per host family) and teaching at the middle school (we think ;).

In the picture: Our GSU Supervisor and adult on the trip is in the middle with the short, gray hair: Mrs. Robertson (she's so much fun). To the left of her is Joni, one of my best friends ... SO glad she's going. You can see Shawn one person over from me on the right. He went to the meeting too since he'll be spending some time in China :)