From foot massages to Chinese pizza

Tonight a few of us rented some bikes and rode around to a few new places. There was a returning teacher with us and he took us to a couple neighborhoods around the city. We rode through the park where there were lily pads, beautiful trees and a really pretty lake/body of water, where I heard there is a place where people (typically children) can get inside a giant plastic bubble and try to run inside of it on the water! Its called the hamster ball and its almost impossible to stay up to do, I think that will be my next small adventure :)

Later on we went to get foot massages which were wonderful! The women massaged our feet, shoulders, arms and hands. One of them spoke enough English to say "I teach you Chinese!" and she and the others began pointing out things in the room. She taught us how to say "I want a foot massage" which I can't spell nor will it make any sense to anyone! they were very good about helping us pronounce everything correctly. It was really fun! After taking a few classes I feel like I can understand people better and I am able to communicate with short phrases, so hopefully this will continue and I can go back and have a conversation with those women some day. :)

After massages we went to a popular pizza place where they had every kind of pizza imaginable. I got a pizza with sausage, bacon, onions, etc. when I got it I thought it smelled a little funny which I thought was the cheese, it was mozzarella, so that was normal. Then I saw some meat on it and thought maybe it was something I was unfamiliar with, it was normal as well. Someone else tried it and agreed that it tasted a little funny, so we will know soon enough know what it was, I feel fine but we will see!

So it has been a week now and I feel pretty acclimated to what I have experienced thus far. The one thing that pushed me along was the doctor's office. We went to get physicals and it was a very different experience than in the states. There are about 5 or 6 tests to have done and each person stands in a line and waits their turn while the technicians and doctors go through patient after patient. We did X-rays, EKG's, urine samples, blood tests, and then we got to a room that said medicine and surgery... So we were worried for a while and saw that it was just weight and height! Whew! That was a relief.

Its fairly inexpensive to get around in the city, the bus is 1 kuai, a taxi is 3-5 kuai depending on how far, it costs 1 kuai to rent a bike for the day. There are also motor bikes/scooters but I don't have the courage to get on those yet. Anyway, more of my adventures later!

Amy