We are in Changsha!

Sorry, no good pics yet. This one shows Marc eating Chinese food and practicing his chopstick skills at JFK airport. A warm-up for the meals yet to come!

Our flight from Beijing to Changsha seemed really quick (probably in contrast to the 14 hour flight from NYC to Beijing which seemed to last about 3 days). We were met by our guide, Amy, who seems great. She also works for Love Without Boundaries. Amy took us to the Dolton which seems like a top-notch hotel. She then managed to activate the China Mobile SIM card in the phone I bought off Ebay to use in China, so now we can call home. And somehow, my laptop seems to work again, so all is well! I am using gotrusted.com to access blogger here and it is working well.

Marc and I really don't have much to do today and tomorrow, so I guess we will take advantage of the $7 massages available near our hotel, go to the hotel gym, pool, and bowling alley, and just be lazy. We ventured out to the local grocery store to get water and snacks. Changsha seems like a typical Chinese city to me so far- tons of cars, scooters, people, and concrete. On our way back from the store, we did see a disturbing sight which I can't make sense of. An elderly woman was laid out, unmoving (dead? asleep? sick?) on the sidewalk on a very busy corner in a sleeping bag, and a younger woman was on her knees, wailing, next to her. People just walked by as if nothing was wrong. We didn't know what to do.

We will meet Nathan on Monday morning. Praying this goes well and he feels comfortable with us. We will complete his adoption on Tuesday, sightsee on Wednesday, visit Zhuzhou (where Nathan is from) on Thursday, and leave for Guangzhou on Friday.

Hunter kids make sure one of you has your laptop on and signed into skype tonight (Saturday night) so we can chat!