The kids are alseep, Pete's working on packing us up (no small chore since I bought out half of China to bring home with us) and I decided I had time for one last post before we close up shop here.
On our last trip we discovered the Shamian Island Traditional Medical Center where a "foot massage" (really a clothes on, full body except what you're sitting on) is about $7 USD for 90 minutes. My parents and Pete went yesterday and today Molly and I took our turn. With all the crazy traffic, crowds, crying children and stressed parents surrounding you, having 90 minutes of Eastern medicine and massage expertise focused on you is just about worth the plane ride over here. Plus they throw in slices of cold watermelon and lemon tea to boot. If you're an adoptive parent coming here, I highly recommend it for restoring your sanity. The brochure also advertises its powers in the area of "dispelling wind-evil and wetness evil". Pete's wind-evil still exists though so I can't make any promises in that area.
We also took our traditional "Red Couch" photo, which all adoptive parents do here at the White Swan. Of about 25 photos, I maybe have one that turned out, if anyone knows the secret to getting a four yr. old and a 2 yr. old to hold still, please contact me. After the Red Couch, Molly brought a birthday cake and we all celebrated Lu turning 2. The way Molly tells it, in China it's tradition for the party guests to put frosting in the face of the birthday child. As you can imagine, this went over big time with our kids, who have enjoyed unusually permissive parents here in China. At one point Clara had covered her entire face with frosting! Molly thought this was hilarious which only encouraged our two sugar-powered cake lovers to continue and soon we all had frosting everywhere. Oh my, I hope there isn't a hotel-maid grapevine in China, between the hallway pee stain and the pink frosting ground into the carpet in our room, I think there must be Wanted posters all over for us.
Time to pack, and then a nice, hot bath and one more TsingTao for the road. We depart the hotel at a bright and early 5:30 a.m. Worth noting, we'll be fast asleep for about 48 hours straight once we get home so if we don't answer the phone, you'll know why.
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