The past two days have been fabulous! Busy, but fabulous. We have attended two lectures by NTSU professors. Yesterday's lecture was on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). We were told to temporarily forget about what we've been taught about western medicine, which is very difficult to do. The teacher lectured on the theory of Yin and Yang, herbal medicine, and the body's meridians. TCM is complicated and hard to understand, but very interesting! Today's lecture was on pain point therapy and it was awesome! A main point that the professor emphasized was to always treat the source of the problem instead of just treating the symptoms. To treat any injury or illness, there is a point on the body (usually on the back of the body and always proximal to the site of the symptoms) that can be stimulated. We practiced some different strokes and worked on different points on each other's bodies, which was really neat. Our professor said that he has used Pain Point Therapy to treat a myocardial infarction as well as a cancer patient. They have not yet figured out how the treatment works, they just know that it has been very successful.
We had our first day of clinicals today and I was assigned to the training room (other students were assigned to a specific sport). I can not say enough good things about my time spent in the training room. It's amazing how I can be in a foreign country with a huge language barrier, yet I feel so at home in the training room. The three hours went by way too fast! Their students are very smart and are completely trusted to treat their athletes. The students do everything from the initial evaluation to creating the rehab plan. I helped a badmitton athlete with a sprained ankle and a judo athlete with a meniscal tear. Luckily, these are common injuries that I had seen many times before, so I was able to help out.
We ate lunch yesterday in NTSU's cafeteria which was similar to our dining halls. I'm not exactly sure what I ate and I was too afraid to ask. My body may punish me for it soon. There is a drink that is very popular here called "bubble tea" which is milk tea with "bubbles" in the bottom. The bubbles are some sort of gummies and it's a surprise every time one comes up through the straw.
Last night we took a Tai Chi lesson from the gold medalist in Tai Chi in the World Games. We probably all looked like idiots but it felt great and I was so energized afterwards. Apparently we are going to put on a Tai Chi performance for the NTSU students at the closing cermeony...should be interesting! Tonight we did yoga instead. I had forgotten just how bad I was at yoga. It was a reminder of how tight my muscles are...probably something I should work on.
It's 11:30pm here and that's the latest I've stayed up since I've been here. Definitely my bedtime now! Check out my photo album. I'll add more pictures tomorrow...or the next day.
