New friends

I recently made some Chinese friends in Jiaxing not from the university. Let me introduce them. Sunshine is a single mom and former English teacher. She now works at a science museum.


Fang Fang (on the left) is married and has two sons. She owns her own business. Ye (on the right) is a retired librarian and has a new grandaughter. Neither Fang Fang or Ye speak English.


One evening Ye (with Fang Fang's help) made me a wonderful homemade dinner. It included duck, chicken, shrimp, cucumbers, beans, rice, peanuts and more!


Following dinner, we went to get (what they called) our feet washed. Let me tell you, this was no simple feet washing exercise. Feet washing was part of it, but with many extras! It was a 1 1/2 hour session and included a head, arm, back, leg, and foot massage, feet washing, and ginger treatment. During the feet washing, they placed little suction-like cups on the bottom of each foot to draw out toxins. Then at the end, they placed wet wipes soaked in ginger on our legs with warm towels- from what I understand, this is to improve circulation. After approximately 5 minutes, they removed the ginger. It felt great until this unbelievable burning sensation began to occur. It was by far the worst burning I have ever felt. Of course, I am trying to stay calm in front of my new friends, who are treating me to this very special experience. I was literally crawling out of my skin and thinking I am having a HORRIBLE reaction to this treatment. After about 10 minutes of extreme discomfort, I asked if burning is a common side affect. You'll never believe this...they said yes! NO WAY! My friends were acting completely normal and calm like nothing in the world was bothering them. So, I can only conclude that I am a major wimp. Looking back, it was extremely intense, but I would say well worth doing it once. I thought my legs might fall off, but they stayed attached.

Sunshine, Fang Fang, and Ye are so much fun to hang out with or as the Chinese say, play with (that always cracks me up). When we get together, I help them with English and they teach me Chinese- it is good practice. They treat me so well, and I only hope that I can be as good of a friend to them as they are to me.

Good times.