My Adventure in the Orient.

Blog 11

Chinese word of the day:

British word of the day:Buff-means-Cute

                Slept in for the first time since I have been at this school.  Instead of getting up at 6:30am, I slept all the way to 6:55am.

Today is Saturday.  On weekends we have free time.  No training on weekends.  So this Saturday morning I went with Sam.  Our plan for today was for us to go to the Tailor, Massage Parlor, supermarket, McDonalds, and to the ‘Fake Market’.

Went to the tailor first. Got one top n two pants. 400 yuan. It was really hard trying to communicate with the tailor. Told him I wanted a top with no sleeves and what kind of fabric. Then for the pants I told him I want two different colors one red to match my top and one black. Then he sized me up and I paid. I will check back there in a week and hopefully he made the right stuff.

Went to the market. Got snacks, honey, oatmeal, shower stuff, and a pillow. The market was huge! Everyone was starring at us. In the market we saw a couple students from the academy. They stood out so it wasn’t hard to spot them.

Then we went to the massage parlor to work out some of the soreness from all the training. I’ve had plenty of massages back in the states, but I had the weirdest experience at this one.  I laid down on my stomach and I had a guy massage me.   When I turned over on my back an old lady started massaging my legs. She spoke English well because after she massaged my legs for a little bit she just told me four fingers down from my knee is a good point to heal my stomach. I thought ‘ok?’ Why is she telling me this? Then she moved onto my arms and she told me that if I massaged a line from my bicep to my hand is good for my heart. I thought ‘ok?’ This is a little weird. Then she showed me three more spots that’s good for me. Then she started massaging my stomach and then she looked at me and said, “There’s something wrong with your stomach.” I said, “What?” She massaged it again and in different places and then she took my pulse. I was starting to get a little worried. She asked me, “Do you feel sick in your stomach sometimes after you eat?” I actually do but I always thought I eat too much. Then she said some things in mandarin to her assistant and her assistant left. Then she turned to me and said, “You drink and eat a lot of cold food?” I guess I do. Then she told me she is a doctor and on her days off she runs this medical massage parlor. She told me she sent her assistant out to get me some medicine for my stomach. The assistant came back with a couple boxes of this kind of herb tea and the doctor told me to mix it with warm water and drink it twice a day. I said ok and then she kept massaging my stomach. Then she took this cup and in the other hand she lit a stick on fire and I’m just thinking….oh crap I’m going to lose a kidney!  But she put the flame in the cup then on my abs and it made a suction feeling. Many of the guys at the academy get this done on their back its called hot cups. But I didn’t know you can put it on your abs. I asked her how serious my stomach problems where. She told me it’s not bad. I asked her if it got worse would I die. She looked at me and laughed and said, “Oh no not that serious!” She turned to the other masseuses and they all looked at me and laughed. I actually began to relax at that point. I told her I will come back next week so she can check how I’m doing and I won’t drink anything cold anymore. I don’t know if I should drink the tea she gave me. I will ask one of the translators to read the box for me first.

                After that we went to McDonalds. I got a burger and a cup of tea instead of the cold soda I was so looking forward to drink this morning.

                Then we walked around the mall McDonalds was in nothing special there except a Nike store. I told Sam, “Look there’s a Nike store.” And Sam said, “Its Nike.” No E sound after Nike. Now I’ve always called Nike Nike-EE but Sam says in England they just say Nike like Mike. Any thoughts on that guys? Who’s right?

                We left and went to the “Fake Market”. There were a lot of fake watches and fake shoes. I didn’t see anything worth buying. Neither did Sam. So we left and we went back to the Academy. On the way we past a fruit market at the bottom of the mountain and I bought about 10 Apples. They also sold scorpions, mushrooms, and these weird alien looking type drinks in jars. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a real Alien.

                When we got back in the Academy there was a blackout. All the lights were out, internet was out, and even the showers were out of hot water. So I just cleaned up my room a bit, put away my shopping items, and relaxed. The power went on about three hours later.

                Tomorrow is laundry day and then Sam is willing to go with me up the Mountain to where we did the run so I can take pics for all of you to see.

I had diner at the French table at the dining hall today. Two French speaking students are from Canada and two are from France.

One guy been to Caye Caulker, the same island in Belize I had been relaxing in oh so few weeks ago.  We talked about the island for a while then we talked about the Philippines and how I’m Pilipino and they asked if I knew escrema the Pilipino stick fighting. Then we talked about the sparring and how it’s an all out fight--not sparring and how one of the French guys from France fought the French guy from Canada and they were all laughing and I got it on video and I will see if I can get that video posted.

                It’s a quiet Saturday for me. Going to bed early and rest.

Goodnight

-Scott