… three precious weeks, day 6.

Chinese oldies classics invaded my sleep… I was hearing Mandarin songs in my dreams… where was I?  I opened my eyes carefully… Huh?  There is a man outside the house!  Whew, it’s only a worker working on the surrounding walls.  Falling back against the sofa, I tried to focus… Oh, that’s right, I am on a sofa in a living room of two gals that I met only face to face 5 days ago. I woozily remember seeing May earlier and even probably said hi to her but went right back to sleep. What time is it now? Oh… my watch is still in LV time… let’s see… add three hours, okay it’s ten something. It doesn’t look like NN is awake so I better wash up first… ah… but I really don’t want to move. I stretched and then look depressingly at my big toe, I also notice that both my ankles were swollen.  I guess I will be wearing slippers today but what if someone steps on my feet? Then I would really be bummed out. The girls did say that there were a lot of people in SZ, and when there are a lot people, there are a lot of feet to watch out for! In the mist of these anxious thoughts one of the phones made a sound. {{Beep}} A SMS… it’s 雁雁 texting me, "瞓醒未?" At about the same time, NN walks out of her room… 雁雁had SMS her too. So NN called her and said yes, we are awake and asked if she will be over soon. She said yes that she got up a little while ago and could be over in a bit. I called her back and asked if she could bring me a cup of coffee… and she ended up bringing an entire breakfast and lunch! She went to quite a few of different shops to get us different types of food. Put it simply, NN and I were just real lazy that morning… by the time雁雁 showed up with her hands full with food and drinks… the two of us were still in our pajamas! We actually lazed around or using the HK term “Hea” until 3 something in the afternoon before we took a “green” taxi to the border. 

I haven’t really looked into why I feel the way I feel about 雁雁, but she is probably one of the few beauties that I can “嗲” and feel real comfortable and relaxed with. I love her so much for it! She is really awesomely warm hearted. I know she is probably younger than me, but she’s just like a big sis that I’ve never had. I bet she was worried about “looking after” me and NN after all the “stories” that she heard over the last couple of days. Everyone was warning her on WP! “Watch them when you cross the street!” “Look for them every five steps you take when you’re walking!” “Make sure Charmed doesn’t get pick pocketed!” “Make sure she has her phones and passport!” So on and so forth. Originally, she had intended to spend the night with her brothers’ family up in SZ but instead decided that she will spend the night with us at the hotel.

The crossing into China was uneventful because the “station” that NN and雁雁 decided we should go thru was not one of the busier stations like “羅湖Port”.  Don’t ask me what port, I still can’t remember.  We got ourselves into a taxi and was off to the hotel. My first impression of “China” was… lots of buildings, a bit industrial and the sidewalk stands with “Roasting chestnuts” and “freshly baked bread”… interesting. (This the first time I ever set foot on China soil since I was 4 months old. Guess at four months, I didn’t actually set my feet down. Mom had brought me to see my maternal grandparents back then.) When we got to the hotel the ground floor was under renovation and we had to search for the reception area. Once we got into our rooms and settled on which beds was ours (I was really worry that I would be keeping these girls up with my “noises” in the night), we headed out to get our hair washed. Wow! What an experience! I figured that I would get my head massaged but shoulders, back and legs too? Never had a massage done by a guy and it was kind of “weird” to have this young, young boy shampooing my hair. But like the saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Who am I to complain, it was so relaxing! When I saw the price, my jaw just dropped. Dang! It would cost me the same thing in US dollars to get just a shampoo in the States. After an hour or so, we headed out for a late afternoon tea. On the way there, 雁雁 wanted to show me this park… but it was under renovations too. It was all blocked off and we had to walk around it. She grins and says… “The hotel is under renovation and this park… it hasn’t closed in over thirty years and when you come, it’s closed and under renovation. It must be you.” Of course, NN pipes in… “The restaurant that we were supposed to have dinner at last night… there was cement falling out.” What can I say? Things happen… A first time for everything… 雁雁 literally held my hands while we were in a crowd or walking across the street. 

When we got to the café, NN mentioned that she had booked an appointment at the photo studio the next day at about 2:30pm. (I am so grateful for her, she really did take care of my scheduling and I, while I was in HK or else I would have been totally clueless at what I should be doing most of the time. Love you, NN!) We sat and chatted awhile then we headed off to do some shoe shopping. After雁雁 got herself a pair of shoes, it was off to get the famous “foot massage”!

Ack! The tub of medicinal water was so HOT!!! I couldn’t put my feet in it… I tried dipping my toes in… Ouch! Then I tried dipping my heels in… same thing… Ouch! I looked over to NN then to 雁雁 to gauge their reactions and there they were… relaxing with their feet in the water and watching “Someday” on TV. Breaking out in cold and hot sweat… I tried again. It took me a total of over ten tries… to be able to finally submerge my entire feet. When the “feet masseuse” came and looked at my feet, he said… “Miss, you have an ingrown toenail on your big toe.” Ah, the mystery of why my toe is hurting is finally solved! He did a wonderful job of relieving the pressure but when he started to remove the “dead” skin on the bottom of my feet… I couldn’t help but kept squirming. I am very ticklish! 雁雁 and NN couldn’t stop laughing at my reaction. Geez, they aren’t ticklish at all so they have no idea what that feeling is like. I had so much wanted to pull my legs back and say “Stop it!” But I gritted it out and “whew” it was finally over. 雁雁’s sister in law and niece were coming over so we waited outside the shop for them. There was a pet store next door and a big dog was sitting out in the front. NN went over to pet him and I just kind of hung back looking at all the accessories on display. I saw the “doggie body leash” and pointed it out to NN. She laughs and said she totally forgot about getting one for me under the recommendations of電電 and 00. After a while, a little poodle like looking doggie took place of the big doggie, and I went over to give him a pet on the head and scratched his ears. Geez… he really got into it and grabbed my leg refusing to let go. It took a lot of cajoling to finally able to say goodbye. The poor thing looked like he was going to cry.

雁雁’s sister in law and niece came and we all walked over to this one street where there was just restaurants. All the chairs were out on the sidewalk and we walked into this one place and sat down. 雁雁’s niece is so cute. She is almost 2 and she has the most expressive eyes! She sat on雁雁’s lap the whole time she was with us in the restaurant and when it was time for her to go home with her mom… she started to pout and her eyes got all watery. You can tell she really adores and loves her Aunty. We had ordered these wonderful oysters in shell grilled with garlic. Yummy! I know that雁雁 and probably NN could eat their food very spicy but they toned it down a bit for me because I was scared that my tummy couldn’t take it. So as a courtesy, they stayed away from the really spicy food. With our tummies full, we headed back to the hotel.

We chatted till the wee hours of the morning about everything and nothing. AND! NN and I both got presents from雁雁!  They were beautiful!  Then it was really time for us to get some sleep.