This is the final post of a 4 part series. Hope you have enjoyed following her adventures!
So today we went and got traditional chinese therapies. We each got to try something different. Supposedly these things help things with like digestion, stress, pain ect… but they were weird and I’m not sure they worked on anyone actually. I got scraping, which I’m not sure how, but is supposed to help with pain and congestion. Basically they rubbed me down with oil, and then used this like bone thing to repeatedly scrape my back until it looked like this. which was painful, and still kind of is. I think the marks will be there for a while. I’ll let you know if it actually did anything.
My back just looks like I got the crud beat out of me.
Its pretty bruised up wherever it was red in the picture. lol. I’m not really sure what it was supposed to do, maybe release toxins… in my back? The way Alexa got it, which was not as brutal as mine, it was supposed to help her congestion. I don’t know what mine was supposed to do but it was painful during and after. I never noticed how much people touch your back, until it hurts whenever they do. Hopefully the marks will go away soon. Yeah the acupuncture needles, when I saw them was when I decided not to get it, were not small like they show them on television (where they’re like super thin) they were straight up like shot needles. And they don’t just stick them in a little bit, they shoved those things deep into the meat of the people’s hands and shins or elbows. it was gross and I don’t think I could have done it.
So we learned how to do calligraphy today. This first set was the first characters we learned to do. they’re pretty bad.
So after getting the scraping I didn’t feel much of anything besides bruised. But I did notice I started eating a lot more. In China I usually eat around 2 meals a day, and maybe a little snack, and usually not large portions. But the past few days I’d been eating a ton! I didn’t really think much of it, other than maybe I was finally adjusting to the food. Nope. Turns out, as I found out today in class when we all discussed our Traditional medicine experiences, that scraping has nothing to do with your back, but what people usually use it for is children who aren’t eating enough, it apparently increases their appetite. This I had no idea until today. But it made perfect sense. SO that has to mean it worked right? Because it wasn’t a placebo effect, because I didn’t know that’s what it was for, but I actually did have an increase in appetite… its weird right? How does scraping the crap out of your back make you more hungry? Or maybe its all coincidence. who knows. But its cool isn’t it?
HAIR CUT!!!!
The guy was like in love with my hair, he spent an hour cutting it and styling it perfectly. The way they cut hair here is really different, they add the layers underneath. It was an interesting experience. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but I’m leaning towards like. 🙂
Onward to Beijing. I leave to catch the train in like 15 minutes to go to Beijing. So that’s exciting, I’ll be home so soon! We get one day in Beijing, which will probably be spent souvenir shopping for people. I really still have no idea what to get some people, but I guess I’ll figure it out. And then the next morning bright and early I’m headed out to the airport. I’m going to take a taxi with a guy who’s flight is an hour before mine, so I should definitely make my flight, and my taxi ride will be cheaper too! Our hotel is really far from the airport so it was a pretty expensive taxi ride out.
Anyway, I should get going soon, it’s about time for me to start thinking about checking out of our lovely 2-star, B health rated, (yes I did say B rated, with a neutral face, not a smiley face) hotel we’ve stayed in for 6 weeks. its been an adventure, and while I’m sad to leave, I am excited to be home again.