Realigning my qi

At ~$20 each in China, I can hardly be blamed for indulging in full-body oil massages occasionally (first massage--solely on legs--noted here). It'd been a while (one month!) since my last massage, so when my friend Taylor came into town, it easily made it on the short list of things to do. After a bit of convincing of his wife to let us go (massages here are known for ending up as "massages+"), we headed over to a parlor in Wudaokou after dinner.

Things went normal- we bargained the price down from 165Y to 135Y (I should've tried harder, I know), disrobed, and got our rub on. My masseur was working on my back when he noticed the "negative energy" in my back (especially presenting as a pimple or two). He offered to perform acupressure, and even though I'm not totally sold on traditional Chinese medicine (my previous experience here), I'm always up for fun cultural events and I gave him the go-ahead. And he said that I'd sleep and work better. Note: my lab mate used to come into lab with welts on her arms and legs as an acupressure weight loss procedure, so I knew what I was getting in to. Basically, they heat the air inside orange-sized glass balls and then place the mouth of the orb on your skin. As the air cools, it creates a partial vacuum that sucks up your skin, thus purging you of toxins and rearranging your qi. (for a demo, check out this brief youtube description).

The guy carted in the instruments, lit a flame, and deftly deployed hungry glass hickey-makers.

 

I guess I was expecting him to place just a few on my back, but TWENTY-ONE fwipps later I felt as though I was feeding a legion of eels. Actually, it really didn't hurt much- just kinda felt like someone was pinching my back fat. He left them on for about 15 minutes for maximal detoxification.

After shot:

apparently the darker welts are sites where more toxins needed to be released.

Side shot:

I always thought I was part velociraptor, but now I'm part stegosaurus.

Sleeping was interesting. As time passed, the welts started to feel more and more tender and now, 24 hours later, they feel like a moderate sunburn. Oh, so the guy mentioned that I'd sleep better, right? Well, I have to say that I had some fantastic dreams: one where I babysat the Harry Potter kids at Hogwarts; another where I--as the "chosen one" of zombie fighters--was killing zombies (complete with moral dilemma of stabbing pseudo-living things. but these things were fiesty and wielded knives); and one where I had a jam session playing the cello (they were out of violins) (I don't play cello) with the kids from Harry Potter (again). Oh, and guitar-playing Tom Felton (Malfoy) really dug my cello skills. Who needs LSD when you have acupressure?