My Dumb Idea

So it has been forever since I have written a story so I have a lot to tell. First of all you will notice that I have placed two new galleries online. One is from the flag football game we played before Thanksgiving and the second one is from my trip to Xi’an. I am also placing a few pictures of my back up; I will warn you do not view those pictures unless you have a strong stomach. I will explain these pictures in a moment; also I will be putting up a video of my time in Xi’an as well. Also some of my pictures will show you what I ate for Thanksgiving as well. So I guess we need to get right to it.

Thanksgiving Day and the 1st Annual International Flag Football Game, were held on 11/25 and 11/26 respectively. On Wednesday afternoon we took the field of play, me, a German, and two Chinese players versus two Americans and two more Chinese players. Most of the game involved us trying to explain to the Chinese players how to actually play football. We would draw out simple plays, like go forward 8 steps and turn right and I will throw you the ball. So after I called hike they would promptly run backwards and stand and stare at me. My favorite part was how many times we had to explain that once you catch the ball you just keep running and don’t stop and throw it again. For maybe the first hour we had to keep stopping the game when a Chinese person would catch the ball and then turn and throw it again. It was quite an epic game, we played for about 3 hours and then all the old men (me) had to go home and take some ibuprofen because all our joints were sore. Then the next day I rolled out of bed at 11:00 a.m., it was more of a wobble than a roll actually, got dressed and went down to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. It was a glorious meal in which the only thing that was missing was the turkey. We had sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, dressing, rolls, homemade Hawaiian bread, chocolate pie, and of course pumpkin pie. I ate one meal at 3 o’clock and was still completely stuffed the next day, it was great.

So about my back, a few weeks ago I pinched a nerve in my neck and it has been getting increasingly painful with time. So I asked one of the students to take me the doctor. The first doctor I went to was not exactly what I wanted, so I asked another student to take me to a different doctor. He was a rehabilitation specialist; he was in fact exactly like a chiropractor and exactly what I needed. He worked out the muscles on my neck for like 30 minutes; his fingers were like iron as he dug them into my neck muscles. He then snapped my neck a few times, and with the muscles in my body still aching we went down stairs to visit the traditional Chinese medicine department. In which I was giving the traditional Chinese treatment of fire jars. In this treatment they stuck jars to my back while using a heater to change the temperature in the jars which creates a difference in pressure and causes the jars to stick. As you can see from the pictures of my back, there are still brown spots on the back of my back. They are still there, it has been two weeks. Two weeks and my beautiful body has been marred. The spots don’t hurt at all they are just sit there mocking, making remember the 15 minutes I laid on a table in the hospital with jars stuck to my back. I have been assured on more than one occasion by a Chinese person that this treatment not only works, but is quite successful. I would say that it is not exactly as successful as I have been told, because my back is still a little sore, but I do have an ice pack for that now.

As for my trip to Xi’an is was quite possibly the best two days I have spent in China. You might think it was because I got to go to Terra Cotta Warrior Museum or the National History Museum, I am a history student. I also got to spend the weekend with a few of my friends form America, who were on a trip visiting major Chinese cities for about 3 weeks. I also got to eat Pizza Hut for the first time in like forever and it was glorious. However the best part of the trip was Subway. We went to Subway the first day for a late breakfast/early lunch, I got the steak and cheese with extra bacon. They slapped 6 fat strips of bacon top of my sub, followed by all the fixin I wish I could get to make my own sandwiches. So as you see in my pictures I took some of my sub and then one of my pizza. You will also see pictures from all of the places we visited.