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Published: April 22nd 2016
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Fire cupping
The cups are suctioned on the skin using hot air (he briefly puts a flame inside of the cup before moving onto the skin). They are left on for about 20 mins, and once they come off as you can imagine the skin underneath is bright red or purple. The purple is an indication of a problem-area. Hey everyone!
The new post is up!
https://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/blogs/kmcgeepugetsoundedu/its-health-thing
In other news, I had a very interesting encounter this week. I went to the supermarket with my host mother one evening after dinner, and she decided that she needed to buy hair dye. So we get to the hair dye isle, and she immediately begins conversing with this other woman (around the same age; 50s-60s), about which brand is best. Eventually one of the workers comes over to help them, and they decide to each buy one of the same brand; I'm pretty sure there was a 買一送一 (Mǎi yī sòng yī - buy one, get one) or some sort of sale going on. So we go to the checkout and they split the price of the hair dyes, etc. As we are walking out of the store, they are still talking animatedly about things, and I hear my host mom telling this woman that I am American, and that I can understand 普通話 (pǔtōnghuà - Mandarin) but not 上海話 (shànghǎi huà - Shanghainese). We end up standing to one side of the scanner things (the ones that discourage people from trying to steal), as they continue to chat.
Chiropractics in action
I promise he was not breaking Mitch's neck. Mitch is still alive. Mind you, at this point I have no idea whether they are friends or acquaintances or what, although I am leaning towards longtime friends with the way they are talking and laughing. They were definitely talking about me, as they kept gesturing to me and glancing at me, although they continue to speak in 上海話, even after my host mother said that I don't understand 上海話 (after the fact, this might have been because the other woman was much more comfortable speaking in 上海話. Even the few things she said to me in 普通話 were a challenge to understand. In Shanghai, the older generations tend to speak more 上海話, whereas the younger people will use 普通話).
Although I am unsure of what they were talking about, I know that at one point my host mother was trying to explain to the other woman that I am adopted, as I heard the word 領養 (lǐngyǎng - adoption) thrown around a bunch at one point. At another, they kept saying 老公 (lǎogōng), which I know means husband, and gesturing to me, so I was absolutely unsure what to make of that, especially when the one woman turned to me at one
Gua Sha
Gua Sha involves lightly scraping the skin with a smooth surface (such as jade or a smooth piece of bone) until bruises are raised. The idea is that within the bruising little purple dots also appear, and raising those to the surface is releasing harmful toxins in the blood. point and asked me if I wanted to find a Chinese husband. It was a really weird conversation. At the end, when the 老公 kept being mentioned, the other women kept touching my hand, which was kind of strange, especially since as an American, I am definitely not used to strangers making physical contact while talking about me to someone else.
After the woman and my host mother said goodbye, I was talking to my host mother, and found out that they hadn't ever met before, that the woman knew someone who wanted to find a wife who looked more foreign than I do, and that she wanted to host a foreign student because she has a large apartment. So basically all of my assumptions about the conversation were wrong.
Overall, I found that the way in which they were talking to one another definitely made it seem like they were good friends: they were speaking in rapid-fire 上海話, they were laughing, and the other woman thought reaching out to touch my hand as they blatantly spoke about me in a language I couldn't understand was okay. I thought it was odd and a little bit annoying that
The triangle
In this form of Kung Fu, the triangle made by your hands is the strongest defense, as an attack from above will only glance off your arms, without being able to make contact with the intended target. they chose to speak about me in 上海話,even after my host mother explicitly said that I only understand 普通話. Usually once it has been established that everyone is able to communicate in one language, that language would be used, unless the people talking don't want the other to know what they are saying, which I don't think was the case, as I don't think they were saying anything particularly offensive. All in all, it was a weird evening.
Until next time!
PS. I was bad and didn't take any pictures at the TCM/Kung Fu demonstration, so all of the photos are thanks to Han Laoshi, who has given me permission to share them.
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