Day 13: The Moral of the Story is...

People in our group seem to have been taking advantage of the inexpensive services offered in China, including: getting your nails done, getting your hair washed, getting massages, etc. Back in the states, I rarely treat myself to these services because they're typically far too expensive and a lot of effort to upkeep. However, seeing as how they are so cheap here, I can see myself frequenting them much more often.

Today, Tyler and Brent, two teachers from our group, decided to go and get massages. A few others had gone earlier this week and came back with mostly good things to say, so they decided to indulge in a relaxing afternoon and go get Chinese massages.

While the boys were gone, I got so much done; I felt quite productive actually. We spend a lot of our time with these boys, so we are typically on the same schedule and know where each person is, at all times. During the time that they were gone, I got a full week's worth of lesson plans done, I made my weekly student report cards for their parents, made a board game for class, etc. Anyways, the point of me explaining how much I did was to give an idea of how long they were gone.

I walked back over to the apartments and Jenna was in our room and told me to go ask Brent about his massage. He is our next door neighbor, so I just walked on over, knocked on his door, and he began his story.

At first, the massage sounded dreamy. He explained how the little Chinese woman massaged his head, how the arm and leg massage was great, but then how horribly painful his back massage was. He explained it almost as if the lady was manipulating his body into weird positions that sounded like she could've almost, well, destroyed his back. He showed me a few of the positions and slapping motions she performed on him, then he showed me his back. Huge, purple welts all strategically placed, from jars? Apparently, the lady had lit a cotton ball on fire, stuck it in the jar, and then stuck the jar to his skin. The process is supposed to relieve your body of toxins, but Brent just said he went through a load of pain and is now stuck with massive hickey looking welts all over his back.

I must admit that getting a massage from a Chinese lady and having her dance on my back has been on my bucket list for a long time; I was planning on fulfilling that on this trip. However, I think that I can just cross that one off and call it good. So, moral of the story is, don't get massaged in China.