She Speaks

Today, Friday the 9th, is a travel day. We leave later this evening for Guangzhou, where the American Consulate is. We will stay at the White Swan Hotel on Shamain Island for six nights.


We have enjoyed our time in Changsha, but poor Mikel is ready for a dinner that isn't so spicy.


Below is a picture of our travel group in Tian'an men Square. There are seven couples, five of which are first time parents. Just a great group of folks.

Never can have enough pictures of a cute girl in the tub. Although it might not be apparent, Sarah does enjoy a bath. Even when mommy goofs with her hair.

The other day at the park, it was pretty chilly and we did not bring a pair of gloves for poor Sarah (even though Anna and Molly made a special trip to our house the day we were to leave and brought us a pair! Oops!) Another mommy offered up a pair, but as you can see, they were a bit big on her. (She still has the candy in her hand given to her by the nice elderly lady! :-) )

Sarah has made nary a peep since her crying spell on Gotcha Day. But yesterday at dinner, while Mikel was holding her nose in the restaurant bathroom, Sarah uttered her first words. Since then she has occasionally muttered and each hour babbles just a little bit more.

Yesterday, March 8, was National Woman's Day in the Peoples Republic of China. Mikel and Rui celebrated by going to have a traditional foot massage. We walked a block or so from the hotel to a place Rui knows. There we enjoyed a private room with digital TV (watched an old Jet Li movie - hai YAH!) and 90 minutes of heaven.

First, we soaked our feet in bamboo buckets of steaming hot water with Chinese herbs and medicines (it looked like dirty water but smelled wonderful!) While we did this for about 15-20 minutes a masseur rubbed and pounded our necks shoulders and backs. We were fully clothed except for our feet. Wherever the masseur worked (except our feet), he placed what looked like a flour sack dish cloth and rubbed on top of it.

For the second part we lay back on divans, sipped large mugs of hot green tea (white-gloved smartly dressed gentlemen came in to make sure we had plenty of refills) while they worked on our feet for about 20 minutes each foot. Then they massaged each leg for about 10 minutes each.

The last part we laid flat on our stomachs for a back and neck rub. Ahhhhhhhhhh! All this for 50 yuan plus a 20 yuan tip. Yes, that is less than $10.00! Mikel is DEFINITELY going again when she gets to Guangzhou!

Believe it or not, for Mikel, the best part was when she returned to hotel to find out that when Sarah awoke from her nap, she cried missing her mommy! Daddy had to distract her until mommy returned!

Typically, we would have lunch in one of the hotel restaurants. The last few days we had a sweet gal named Sophie wait on us. Her English was not very good, but considerably superior to our Chinese. She is a trainee and worked hard to please us. Besides, Craig always likes having cute waitresses serve him.