Gua Sha and I Didn't Know It

the tenth of november, two thousand and twelve

  We spent Thursday in service doing studies and door-to-door with Sanchong huizhong and were left up to our own mischief.  

  On Friday we met with Wanhua huizhong for meeting and afterward went out and met up with Nick, Jasmine and Mariam?, another sister from Australia.  We went to the Longshan Temple area and the six of us including Charlie got massages.  Jasmine and I went for the full body one hour massage while the others did a foot massage or half body.  We were all in the same room separated by curtains.  It was by far the best massage I have ever had.  Apparently, I was the only one to get oil (probably because I was too hairy for the guy to massage LOL) and he gave me a gua sha massage on my back.  Google it.  It is supposed to be really good for releasing toxins and loosening your muscles and is a very common practice.  They say only if you are really stressed or if you are sick you will bruise.  Well, I didn't know he did this because it didn't hurt at all but later that night Charlie and Grant noticed this:

  It's even a bit worse looking today and only a little sore.  I feel really good though.  Josh and Xian Yu had this done when they had sun poisoning this summer.  It's actually not bad and the bruising will go away in about a week.  

  Today we walked down a block and went preaching with the group.  Coming out of an apartment stairwell an old Japanese woman who has lived here fourty-seven years picked me out of the group and well it was flattering and embarrassing. You'll have to ask me about it later. 

  For lunch we went to an Italian food restaurant (I should say Taiwan-Italian) and the owners wanted our picture taken to be put on the wall.  They said they get very few foreigners and wanted to show us off.  They gave us free iced coffee.  :)

   At four we met Josh and Xian Yu and one of Josh's studies and his friend and went to a fish convention at the Taipei Convention Center.  It was basically like a pool show but open to the public and about fish.  There were a few other animals that somehow snuck into the show too. 

  After six the two other guys left and we met three young guys from Sanchong huizhong, ages 12, 16 and 18.  We took a bus to Xiang Shan for a night view of the city.  It was a hot night and we were sweating quite a bit following the trail to the viewpoint but it was worth it...for most of us ;)  Grant found the zhizhu a bit much to take.  In case you don't know, zhizhu are spiders, and these were BIG spiders.  I'll let him tell you more about it. LOL!