Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Ladies Night

8:00 a.m., fountain, Warner Garden...this was our meeting spot to leave for Ladies Night in Beijing. I walked out of the apartment building and heard Ileana coming out of her apartment so I waited for her. When she walked out we looked at each other and laughed. We were dressed almost alike. She said "Sister". Later in the morning Sharla called us "Sister from another Mister". Everyone thought this was really funny. At 8:10 2 vans and 2 cars pulled out and headed for the interstate. We drove for about 15 minutes and realized there were a lot of cars coming at us on our side of the road. There was an accident or something so the road was closed. We turned around and headed the wrong direction too. Big trucks coming at us but it was ok because we had our flashers on and were driving on the side of the road. Yeah, that made us feel better. Back through TEDA to get to the other road. Finally, cruising at normal speeds and on our way.

Sister from another Mister. Too funny.

We had an 11:00 appointment at Pussycat Dance Studio. One van got to the studio at 11:05. Our van and the other 2 cars went to the wrong spot. We finally got proper directions and arrived at the studio at 11:30. A couple girls hurried to change and we entered the studio. We saw 14 poles and a giant mirror. Yep, we were taking a Pole Dancing Class. There were 17 of us and the instructor. We each found our spot. We started out with a stretch. We then were shown how to spin on the pole. Did you know that the poles spin and are not stationary? None of us did until we touched it. All this time we all thought pole dancers were spinning on the pole but actually the pole was spinning. Amazing. We practiced the different ways to spin. It was super hard. We practiced walking. We then practiced walking "sexy" around the pole. The instructor made each one of us walk around our pole one and a time. It was a little embarrassing but funny. We all had an open mind and just had fun with this class. We then got down to business. We learned a dance routine to music. At the end of the class we had to break our group into half. Each half had to do the routine in front of the other half. It was great. It was amazing in the hour how much we improved. We still can't take our show on the road but we were good for a group of girls from TEDA. Overall, the class was a blast. We had bruises to show off and tired bodies. We were all amazed at what a great workout this class was. Fun, exercise, and great friends.

Learning to spin.

Learning to walk "sexy".

Showing our routine to the others.

I started higher on the pole but I was almost on the ground by the end.

The TEDA Dancers.

This is our instructor.

Yep, she was a little better than us.

Our next stop was suppose to be The Hard Rock Cafe for lunch but during our class Stine received a message from Heidi. She said The Hard Rock was closed for a wedding. Plan B. We headed to Element Fresh. We had a delicious lunch. After lunch 6 of us went for foot massages and the rest went in different directions shopping.

The foot massages were excellent. Crista and Bigette (Ba gee ta) had never had foot massages so they were surprised that their necks and shoulders were massaged too. They also couldn't believe how they could hurt at certain times. The massage was 75 minutes long. The 6 guys doing the massages had fun with us. Luckily Bigette speaks really good Chinese so she was our translator. There was a lot of laughing. At the beginning my guy looked over to the guy next to him and kind of whispered. They both laughed. I looked at Stine and said "I think he just said my feet are big". She started to laugh and said that is what he said. Then later, all of a sudden my guy looked up at me and said "wo ai ni" and the guy next to him said "I love you". I knew what he said so I said "Awww, wo ai ni". My guy laughed. We all laughed. About 3 minutes later he stood up and said "Bye, bye". That was it. We all laughed again. The massage was fun. Ileana was so relaxed we thought she was dead. Good times.

Ready for a foot massage.
Ileana, Me, Brigette, Stine, Crista, and Heidi.

View from the other side.

Ileana was the most relaxed.

We headed back to the hotel. By the time we got there we had a half hour to get ready and head to the lounge. We were suppose to meet at 5:30. Ileana and I were sharing a room. We quickly got ready and headed to the lounge. We had some snacks and drinks. While in the lounge I got an email from Todd. He sent me an add he found in a magazine. It was about a pole dancing competition. He's a funny guy.

Rachel, Sharla, and Annie with big smiles.

The gangs all here.

None of us were quite ready for competition.

At 7:00 we jumped in vehicles and headed to The Saddle Cantina. In our van we took about a hundred pictures trying to get a couple good ones. It was a hilarious ride. We reached the restaurant and headed up to the roof top balcony. It was a gorgeous night to eat outside. We ordered our food and had more drinks. Pretty good food. I definitely think we will be going back. We chatted for a couple of hours. Sharla told the waitress Olivia was getting married (even though she was already married). She brought her a yard glass of lemon margarita. A couple minutes later Sharla told the waitress I was also getting married. They brought another margarita. I wondered how many free drinks they would bring us until they realized we were all already married. My only problem with the restaurant was the wait staff was very crabby. Still a great evening.

Annie, Ileana, and I are in the back of the van.

Olivia, Sharla, and Stine are in the backward seats.

Cheers!

A better view.

Our "bride to be" drinks.

After dinner photo.

This one is better.
Claudia, Sharla, Erica, Mette, Andrea, Natalia, Annie, ??, Heidi, Stine, Crista,
Brigette, Olivia, Kellie, Erica, Ileana, Jessica, Me, and Rachel.

After dinner we jumped on rickshaws and headed to The Mango Bar. It was a fun ride. Once there we paid our 50 RMB, the other girls paid 25 RMB, and 2 other girls would not get out of the rickshaw because the driver wouldn't give them the change they were owed. They sat there for almost 10 minutes while the rest of us laughed. They were bickering over about 80 cents. Finally we all headed in to the bar. First floor was a restaurant. Second floor was a bar. Third floor was a roof top bar. It was completely dead. No people. We all headed across the street to The Chocolate Bar. The first thing I saw was the midget bouncer. Exactly what is he going to bounce? Honestly, he was the smallest midget I have ever seen. He was so small. I tried to get a picture of him but he doesn't like that so I was doing it slyly. Unfortunately, I never got him in the picture. Sharla finally got one but it didn't show how small he is. Once inside it was pretty dark. Lots of singing and dancing going on. We grabbed drinks and seats. Some of us danced. There was a band and there were "dancers". One of the dancers was a man wearing a fish net shirt, a furry skunk looking long skirt, 5 inch high heals, and he was working his spot on stage. Some of the girls commented how well he was rocking the high heels. Wow, he was a different breed. He seemed to enjoy his job though. 12:15 6 of us decided we had had enough fun and headed back to the hotel. 4 of us took rickshaws again because they are so fun and the other 2 jumped in a cab. Once at the hotel we paid but then they tried to change the price again. We were having no part of that. The other rickshaw driver told the two girls (Stine and Annie) they were so fat his tires were probably flat. That was so rude.