guahsa

I went with some friends the other day to get massages and I tried guasha for the first time! Guasha involves putting oil on your back and using an animal's horn (still in the shape of a horn, not carved into any other form) to essentially scratch your back. Hard. It's supposed to be relaxing and they're supposed to especially go after knots and kinks.

And apparently sometimes they scratch a pattern into your back!

I expected this to be scabs the next day, but a full 24 hours later these are just bruises.

I wasn't necessarily a big fan of this, I don't think I'd do it again. I was talking about it with a student of mine afterwards, and she thinks the guy did it too hard. She does it at home to/with her family and they do it very lightly to relax and help open up the energy flow in your body.

My friends and I were actually supposed to go to the bath house instead of the massage parlor the night I did this, but that plan fell through. A bunch of the foreign (and Chinese) guys I hang out with like the bath houses here, but the girls don't so much, and none of them want to go with a girl they know because they feel weird about being naked with people they know. This kind of sucks because, going with the guys, I will basically just be hanging out by myself for a lot of it. Also, having never been to a bath house here, I will have to navigate for the first time on my own. I don't see the minimal Chinese I have in my arsenal being particularly helpful in that situation (I won't be ordering food, giving directions, or introducing myself...)!

The bath houses here are different from Korea. The girl's sides don't have pools and there seems to be a lot more coed spaces (where you wear pajamas). Hopefully next week I'll get to check one out.