On Wednesday morning, the 14th, yesterday....we had a great breakfast at the White Swan - there were families all over with their babies and children. Three of the original families from our trip were also there and so we had a planned tour of Shamian Island (where the American Consulate, White Swan, medical center for the babies and many many shops were located). The guide was there and walked with us to see the original photo shop where we had all our babies photographed for their passports and to the medical clinic where all our children were examined when we originally adopted them. The photo shop had changed little. However the medical clinic had improved vastly! The place was air conditioned, seemed cleaner. The families are now required to get more extensive examinations, and apparently five shots for the babies. Apparently also, the fees that we had originally paid for the exam has tripled! 
It was fun to show the kids where they were actually examined and Hannah thought it would be fun to be in my lap sucking her thumb with Ben sitting next to me as we did almost 8 years ago - so she did!The guide was ready to take us to some gardens that I know we saw two times before and out to lunch. All of us in the group bagged out and told the guide to have a nice afternoon off! We were all tired of organized anything. I took Hannah to the pool where we hung out for awhile. We went shopping at the little stores for last minute "stuff" and just walked around - I came back to the room for a couple of hours and got caught up a bit on blogging. Herb did a little research and found a really reputable massage place.
This story is worth me going into detail -- We walked over and he left me there for a 70 minute massage. Now, this was called a foot massage. 70 minutes - about $9.00 (!) so I was taken into a room with a leather chair and foot stool. I sat down, and this tiny Chinese lady came out - young - maybe in her 20's. She had a wooden tall bucket, lined in plastic bag - asked if wanted to soak in Chinese herbs, milk or ginger juice. I went for the herbs. I was wearing a skirt conveniently, so dropped my feet into this bucket. then she asked me to turn around and now sit on the footstool. She then proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes on my back, neck, arms, lower back, shoulders - It was amazing. She beat me, pounded on me, stretched and cracked me - she hit tickle spots in my back I didn't know I had - she laughed when I giggled. Then I turned around, sat back on the chair and she worked over my feet, chins, calves, knees and thighs. all through my clothes - It was incredible. Her hands felt like massage equipment - I could not believe how strong she was. She told me I will still very tight in my back and told me I needed to come back tomorrow for another massage. I told her I would love to but I was leaving. She then suggested (she was working me!!) a ginger wrap - for another $6.00 and 20 more minutes. Whatdid I have to lose! So she took me to another room and told me to take my clothes off, except underwear below the waist - so I did and laid down on a table more typical of a massage table with a hole for my face. She brought in this huge bucket and it did smell like ginger. She then proceeded to paste my entire back from my shoulders to the top of my butt with this hot ground ginger - she said that was all it was - it was very pasty. She then put about 4 or five layers of hot towels on top of me and let me cook for about 15 minutes - and I mean cook. At one point I wasn't sure I could take the heat - it was like my back was on fire - but it felt like it was getting pretty loose. She then took it all off, washed my back and that was it -- 90 minutes of amazing massage and wrap for $15 plus a tip! I floated out of there and guess what I walked by on my way back --- a STARBUCKS! I was so excited I got the largest coffee they had - not even thinking about the fact that it was 4:30, and that I had had no Starbucks in 3 weeks -- uh oh! When I got back to the hotel, Herb left to get a massage from the same lady - she gave me her card - I asked her her name and said she had no name there, just #52 - so Herb got a massage fro her also but passed on the ginger wrap. By the time he got back we were going to our final dinner in China - and I hate to admit it but all the families voted for going to Lucy's - even though we had been there the night before we didn't care - frankly we are very, very tired of Chinese food and the kids were thrilled to get burgers again. The funny thing was I ordered this Asian seafood soup with my salad and I will say it was my favorite soup I had since I had been in China. We sat there - all 14 of us - with the other families still left from our group and sat there for about 2 hours talking about our orphanage visits, our trip in general, our children and just unwound! It was a great night. We came home, the kids took showers, went to bed and I blogged and got caught up through the orphanage trip till midnight -- I was wide awake and when I finally went to bed laid there wide awake until about 2:00 a.m. and then we were up at 5:30 this morning - July 15th...on our way home!!
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