Friday, February 22

It has been an absolutely beautiful day in Changsha. Sunny, with highs in the mid-70's! We went out for a walk this morning to a local department store, but it only carried mens stuff and we needed some new pants for Jeremy. We walked back to the hotel to shed some layers and grab sunglasses, then caught a taxi to Walmart. There we scored a well fitting pair of jeans for Jeremy. After exiting Walmart, we proceeded to walk down the pedestrian mall/walking street that goes by there. It was very crowded-- with people bundled against the weather!! Heavy coats, scarves, babies in snowsuits!!! Those poor babies looked miserable, but this is how the chinese dress in February. We were comfortable, in T-shirts! Granted, we are from north Iowa where kids will go out in shorts on the first 50 degree day, but wow- they were way overdressed. We would include some pics, but we forgot to take the camera with us today....sorry!

After several hours downtown we returned to the hotel to await Jacky's call that the passport had arrived. He called at 3:30 and said "not yet". At 5:45 he called again and said "almost!". He finally arrived at our hotel 6:30 with that long-awaited, most important passport!! We can now go to Guangzhou. Yippee!!! Our flight out of Changsha is at 10:30 tomorrow morning, arriving in Guangzhou about an hour later. We will check in to the Victory Hotel and shortly thereafter be eating lunch at Lucy's-- with Mary's tall glass of Iced Tea that she's been craving for days now.

Thanks to all for following our journey with us and especially for your comments and e-mails. They have been so encouraging and we greatly appreciate them all.

John and Mary