Pain!

Today was a day of pain! Charlie and I went to see a traditional Chinese doctor on Jimmy’s recommendation. Something’s the matter with Charlie’s elbow, I wanted to see about my back, and we figured it was worth a shot. But, damn! The man has iron harpy-claws for fingers! His massage had both of us moaning and squirming with discomfort. Words cannot explain what I was feeling— things were moving, bits of me I didn’t know I had. With that said, I think he worked some improvement into me. I’m definitely a return customer (we’re planning on luring Tom in for something too, it’s pretty hilarious as long as you aren’t the one on the table).

We left the Dr.’s and Jimmy showed us to a Korean place he likes in the Yantai market. The food was awesome, and cheap! I can’t get over what a deal food is here in China— all three of us ate to bursting (rice, BBQ beef on lettuce with hot-sauce and garlic, veggies, pepper tofu, and frybread) on 81 kwai, twelve bucks. Best of all, I memorized the way from Jusco to the market, so I can go on my own (or meet folks there) if I please. After the food, we stopped at a traditional pharmacy to fill our prescriptions from Dr. Lee before heading home. I haven't a clue what all’s mixed up in my treatment (some dried orange rind, dried ginger, and several kinds of mystery twigs), but it won’t be a great loss should they prove useless. My three days of mojo cost 5 kwai, Charlie’s cost 6.

Jimmy gave me a lesson in Chinese when we got back. Neither of us were too into it, we were wiped out, but I still learned some important words. Plus, I got to practice pronunciation and sentence creation. That about brings us up to current, polishing off the tomatoes Master brought me, listening to tunes, and about to go to sleep.