Sorry! I accidentally set up two blogs somehow in the switching process. The one I've been updating is amyelizabethpratt.blogspot.com
Sorry for the mess up! :)

Well, here I sit, slow blogging again in China. Allow me to recount the past few days for you...

We got to the airport in Nashville around 12:30 on Wednesday, said goodbye to everyone and headed off.  Of course, we are flying on the one day it rains in Nashville. Our flight was delayed because of bad weather, and our Atlanta flight was delayed too. We were supposed to meet Brad in L.A. and were worried about missing the flight and him having to fly over by himself. Thankfully we got to the gate as they were boarding. Whew.

We arrived in Guangzhou, then flew to Wuhan. In Wuhan we had to take a shuttle bus to the bus station. Allow me to paint this picture for you. We get off the shuttle bus with soooo much luggage. We each had our two checked bags, plus two carry-on bags. We were hauling well over 500 lbs. Because of all of the luggage and some of it without wheels, we were unable to carry it all. The shuttle dropped us off at the back of the bus station, so we had to go all the way around it to the front. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but imagine tons of Chinese people all doing the same thing. Since school is about to start things are busy. Plus you have the added amusement of 4 foreigners hauling all this luggage. We ended up having to carry the luggage in shifts to get to the ticket counter to buy our Yichang tickets. While we were guarding the bags (drawing quite a crowd), a man started talking to us/picking on us. Since we don't speak much Chinese it became really frustrating and he was enjoying our frustration. After he told me that I was the size of two Chinese women and caused a scene, we finally found a guard to help us carry some of our stuff into the station.

We then have to cram all of our luggage through an x-ray machine while tons of Chinese people are jumping in and around us with their own luggage trying to do the same (What is a line?). We mangage to get our luggage down the stairs and into the bus. Thus begins our 5 hour bus ride to Yichang. Now on this bus, there was a toilet. I assumed it was a western toilet. No no. A squatty. Now, I've experienced a lot of different squatties, but this was by far the most challenging! It was so small! And the ceiling was low...and the toilet was raised up on a platform...and the bus was lurching everywhere...and the door didn't want to stay shut. Yeah. Beth and I both managed to survive the squatty - and then the bus stopped for a bathroom break. You've got to be kidding me.

We made it to Yichang...all of us so tired but unable to really sleep on the bus. When we stepped off the bus, there was Jian, our waiban. I was so happy to see him! Mostly because I knew he could help with the luggage. :) We dragged it all down the stairs and then up some stairs (here's where I'm wondering why there are so many stairs. Bus station = luggage, right?). We all crammed in a van and headed to campus. 49 hours of travel complete.

We got our new keys, grabbed some dinner, then started moving. Beth and I had to move everything out of our old apartments that night because new teachers were moving in the next day. We called some students and in no time we were able to move all of our stuff to our new places. I'm so glad I got to move because everything in my old apartment was covered in mold. Disgusting. So now I'm having to wash everything that was in my old place. A little difficult with small washers and no dryer. Oh well.

So we're here, we're safe, we're tired.  I'll try to post pictures of my new place as soon as I get everything put away. Almost there.

Oh, and rumor has it that I'm not teaching until October.

Today I was helping my mom pack up for their move to Florida...going through a bunch of my old keepsakes. I ran across some huge poster-sized cards my dancing friends had given me over the last few years and was wondering what I should do with them. I decided to open one of them up and read through it, and man, I'm glad I did! It was my birthday/goodbye for China from last year and it had over $100 in it! I had packed it away without getting the money out apparently.

What makes this even greater is that we just found out one of our major supporting churches won't be able to support us this year, so we'll have to rely mostly on individuals to give. I have complete trust that we will be provided for. This is just one small example...