A very loooong day...

After 24 hrs of travel, we are finally in Shanghai! No swollen tongue, no crashing planes, but plenty of swollen feet. :)
For those of you have never been on a horrendous 14 hrs flight, swollen feet are some of the fun side effects. Here are some before and after shots of our feet (excuse the un-pedicured toes...I plan on fixing that while here).

Before....

After...

We actually had a pretty nice plane ride, considering. The bump up to economy plus was HUGE (plenty of leg room, for a plane and not first class) and the plane wasn't full so I had an empty seat next to me! Some very nice man with United Airlines bumped us up for free. Jon & Jaime had an extra seat, and Emily and Michael had a whole row of 4 to themselves! We were a little spoiled, so coming back we might need to upgrade :)

Well, the flight went well, but not so well at the airport. All the bags showed up except mine. We waited around, couldn't find it and had to report it to the airport. They said they should find it by tomorrow (if they could find it) and get it to our hotel. Matthew got a call about an hour ago from the airport...they have my bag and will deliver it by tonight. Someone had picked it up by accident! It wasn't even the airline's fault! Which means, had that person not been a kind soul and had dumped it on the side of the road, I would have NEVER seen my bag. I'm curious to see if everything's still in it though. But at least I'll have it back!

To make matters worse, a couple hours after we arrived at our hotel, Matthew looked at me and said "Where are our passports?" He had been holding them in the cab on the way over to the hotel, and in the hustle and bustle to get our luggage out, must have left them in the seat. So we got in contact with the cab company (fortunately we have a receipt with the driver's name and number) and fortunately, the passports were found (just found this out about 15 min ago). If we hadn't found them,though, the hotel clerk said that the American embassy is really close and it's very easy to get a passport (especially since we have copies- thanks mom for that advice!!)

I really think the Lord wanted to teach us patience today.

Meanwhile, our apartment is fabulous! Few things that could be better, but can't complain, we are living the life of luxury here. It's 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom with a spacious kitchen and living room, and a "den" (a room with a bookshelf and a chair). Matthew and I got the bathroom with a tub and a shower handle, but it sits low so it's not an overhead shower. So basically we have to sit in the tub and use the "wand' (i don't know what you call it) to wash. If that's roughing it, then I'll take it :)

Here are some pics thus far from the trip...

Arriving in Shanghai after a very loooong plane ride...

Our bedroom...

our bathroom (notice the bathtub, in case you want a visual for what I was talking about...that's the shower head on the end, but don't you just love the sink bowl? I do!!)