Geoff's friend Nikola came in from the US to visit him, so those two plus myself and Syrena, another facilitator went out to Pyro Pizza for the night. It came time to head back and someone came up with the idea to go get massages. Now I've had calf massages and they're pretty nice, so that coupled with the fact I didn't want to take a taxi back by myself, put me in agreement with the idea.
So off we went.
The sign said Chinese Massage and advertised a special of full body massage for 78RMB ($11) for an hour. What it should have said was "Beijing Masochists Ltd. Ask about our sadistic deals!"
All four of us were in the same room with our own little Chinese guy.
"Yay, I get to torture foreigners and get paid for it!"
This guy had a deep interest in seeing just how far elbows could go into a spine or if he could separate the muscle from the bone with just his deft little fingers. The whole time through he would say "fangsong" which means relax, in a very calm, emotionless tone, as if meditatively saying relax would make you forget that he's tearing muscles away from your back.
Towards the end, mine and Geoff's masseuses told us that our backs were much more tense then usual and would we be interested in cupping to release some toxins and realign the body? It's an ancient Chinese art, you know.
"Sure, why not."
You know how when you do something stupid on a computer, it warns you about it and you have to think about it before you go ahead and do it? Life should have something like that.
Cupping as we learned involved putting a glass cup on the skin and lighting a flame underneath to eat all the oxygen, thus creating a strong suction cup to the skin. This is how it looked like on Geoff.
Towards the end, mine and Geoff's masseuses told us that our backs were much more tense then usual and would we be interested in cupping to release some toxins and realign the body? It's an ancient Chinese art, you know.
"Sure, why not."
You know how when you do something stupid on a computer, it warns you about it and you have to think about it before you go ahead and do it? Life should have something like that.
Cupping as we learned involved putting a glass cup on the skin and lighting a flame underneath to eat all the oxygen, thus creating a strong suction cup to the skin. This is how it looked like on Geoff.
All in all, it didn't feel that bad, kind of how you would expect 15 glass cups suctioned to your skin by fire to feel....Then they took them off. That kind of hurt. By kind of I mean, it really hurt.
A couple of days later, both Geoff and I have deep dark bruises along our back, much darker than the picture above. I don't feel any better, as a matter of fact, I still feel like a pinata at a birthday party where all the kids were on speed. But if I had any aches and pains before then, I've forgotten all about them now, so I suppose in that instance it worked. :)
A couple of days later, both Geoff and I have deep dark bruises along our back, much darker than the picture above. I don't feel any better, as a matter of fact, I still feel like a pinata at a birthday party where all the kids were on speed. But if I had any aches and pains before then, I've forgotten all about them now, so I suppose in that instance it worked. :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting. However, please keep in mind my location and purpose and censor your comments on my behalf. Thank you!