This was supposed to be the day of the massage. That didn't work out so well. The guy at our hostel only knew of one place and it was called The Chinese Massage Hospital. Right then, I wasn't too pleased with my options. We got directions and then headed out. After Julia, Katherine, and I walked down a couple of wrong hutongs, we saw their bus and walked through the gate. The place looked kinda like a mental health facility. The signs weren't exactly helpful either. Some guy pointed us in the right direction and the walkway was filled with construction equipment. We made our way to the room and found 8 empty massage tables and nobody in the room. I opened a door and saw some dude passed out on the massage table. One - I'm not waking this mofo up. Two - I don't want that mofo touching me. Three - This wasn't exactly the relaxing setting I was looking for. So we scratched the idea and figured we'd head to the market and see if we can find massages along our way.

Katherine went back and Julia and I set off for the subway. This was the most crowded we've ever seen. We were pretty much face to face. That made conversation rather weird. At the first transfer station, a lot of people got off so it made for a more comfortable ride after that. We ended up getting off a stop too early and had to walk more than needed but it worked out to our advantage. We got hungry and stopped at some place that was selling roasted Peking duck. I wanted to try it while I was here. They served them with these tortilla like things. I think they were the kind of things you make spring rolls with. So we were eating Chinese duck tacos. They were pretty good.

We finally got to market and more madness began. I just bought some gifts for my sisters. I didn't really see anything that I wanted. I did leave with some great quotes from all vendors in China. I'm sure I'm offending anyone who is Chinese but oh well... "Looka looka, t-shirt", "For you, best price", "You want Rolex... USB", "You so beautiful", "That's final price... I lose money". Don't be surprised if you're walking with me and I blurt out "looka looka, t-shirt". That's probably my favorite line from the market. The night ended with group dinner at another fantastic Chinese spot. Jean-Luc was the man when it came to picking restaurants. I guess he should know since he lived here for 2 years. They made me try this nasty liquor called "bai jiu". Bai is white and jiu is alcohol. That shit was nasty. But after a couple of shots of that, it set the tone for a night of boozing. We ended up in the alley at the kabob shack like usual. We ordered several pi jiu (beer). It was international. We had an Englishman, an Aussie, a Finnish girl, a French Canadian, Americans, and some girl from Missouri. I’m just kidding Jill. We stayed out too late and stumbled back to the hostel to pass out immediately.