Trip to the massage venue, BIG rain, chicken with the kids and a happy ending.

 Trip to the massage Venue.

Now for those of you with slightly more dodgy minds, there is a certain irony in the title; don’t just skip to the last story!  And, if you have just read the last story and haven’t yet read this one yet, then shame on you!

In the morning I had helped one of my friends with some translation work, and I decided that, as the first draft of my presentation work was completed and logged, then it was time for something different.  I decided I’d try a massage.  The other day after a chance meeting in the street, I had paid a visit to a massage venue. (I hate the word parlour).  It looked nice.  So, I started to walk into town and headed in that direction.  I stopped at the bank to pick up some cash.  Just before I got to the bank, I got a message from the ‘massage lady’ that I had met the day before.  What a coincidence!..and maybe a good omen? 

I got my money and walked off in the general direction of the venue.  Halfway there I got a tap on my shoulder, “Mike”.  It was one of my pupils that I’d nicknamed ‘monster’.  I’d nicknamed him monster because in class he had worn a top with the ‘monster’ logo on it.  Monster is also the stage name of a member of the once popular Taiwanese band called ‘Mayday’.  He was also the guy who on day one came to the office and offered to hire a four seater tourist bike and take me and his friends to Fanjingshan mountain*.  Anyway, we chatted in Chinese!!  I am nearing the breakthrough point with my Chinese.  I am just starting to get the hang of basic Mandarin and am starting to ‘tune my ears into’ the local dialect: it’s quite exciting in a slow sort of way.  Anyhow he was going to renew his ID card.  He said he had applied for College because his English was not good enough for University.  I suggested that we could meet and speak a little English.  He jumped at the idea!  Then came the difficulty.  When I first arrived, all of the kids wanted to have my telephone number and WeChat id.  I had discussed this with my boss, who, although said this was normal and teachers often shared social media contacts with the children (see below), understood that thousands of phonecalls and WeChat contacts would be difficult to manage!  She then told the kids that, because in England sharing of teachers’ details was not allowed, then they must respect the wishes of the foreigners.  They understood this.  So back to the story.  How would monster contact me for a meeting.  In the end I threw caution to the wind and gave him my phone number.  I asked him not to share it around and I believe that he will respect that.  Hopefully we will meet one day and talk in English.  It would be nice to help him. 

Meanwhile, a few messages had been pinging on my phone, it was ‘massage lady’. Eventually I arrived at the venue and was given the appropriate bowed welcome and led off to one of the three bedded rooms.  I then spent maybe twenty minutes trying to explain to the pleasant young woman what I wanted.  Eventually we decided on a particular massage.  She switched on the air conditioning and the TV and left.  Twenty minutes passed, and she returned with a glass of water.  We tried to talk again.  I asked her where the masseuse was.  She wrote something on her phone…in Chinese and pointed it out to me.  I told her that I could not read Chinese.  I told her this in Chinese and used google translate to confirm this, both in writing and voice.  I asked her to speak into google voice translate and showed her how it worked.  She didn’t seem to understand, but she nodded, wrote on her phone in Chinese and showed it to me.  I told her that same as before.  She walked off.  I’d now been there forty minutes and was starting to get fed up.  Ten minutes later she came back and we started all over again.  I asked her when the masseuse would arrive.  She showed me the Chinese on her phone, I told her I couldn’t read it.  I asked her to speak into google translate, showed her again how it worked.  She either didn’t want to or couldn’t understand.  Again.  I’d now been there an hour.  I told her that I was going.  I told her why.  I showed her this in google translate.  She seemed to understand.  I picked up my umbrella and hat.  She spoke into her phone and a few minutes later there was a knock on the door.  Outside there was a little woman, maybe no more than five foot tall, carrying a battered plastic box.  She was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt.    She put the box on one of the beds and walked out.  Maybe it was the masseuse, but to be honest, at this stage, I didn’t care, I had other things to do.  I smiled and walked out past reception.  The small woman was there talking to the receptionist.  They both looked shocked at my leaving, but I smiled and left.  About twenty minutes later I got a barrage of WeChat messages apologising for my experience.  I hope it does not reflect too badly on the woman who originally ushered me to the room.  She was trying. The writing on the phone may seem strange, but I have a theory.  Please don’t judge me on the following description, it is in anyway meant to judge anyone.  The theory speculates that the people in this area are not all very well educated.  Two different languages are spoken in this area:  Mandarin and what I shall call Jiankouish, which is a dialect, and not everyone understands both.  Generally, if you speak Jiankouish you are less well educated than if you speak Mandarin or both.  However, there is a common writing: simplified Chinese.  The speakers of both languages understand the writing and know the meanings of written words even if they do not pronounce the words similarly.  The speakers of Jiankouish, assume that if you don’t understand them, then you will understand the common written language:  Chinese!  They hear me speaking what sounds like Mandarin and assume that I will understand the common written language.  Strange how the brain works, isn’t it!

*  I think back to that incident now and se how much my attitude has changed.  To be invited out for a bike ride with pupils, rings all the safeguarding alarm bells.  At the time my boss said it was just how kids are here they are open and want to show their friendship.  I was surprised to think that this was behaviour, and my bosses reply were normal.  But it is, and she was.  Safeguarding just does not exist.  Older people are automatically trusted, and at least here, that trust does not seem to be abused.  It’s like never never land!  

BIG rain.

I had left the massage venue and intended to go home.  but it started to rain.  It is the rainy season and it does BIG rain!

 So I stood under a shop overhang for a while, maybe fifteen minutes whilst the torrent landed.  As I was standing there I noticed someone quickly run out of a shop and place two items on the floor in teh rain.  You can just see them between teh two people with umbrellas in at the top of the photograph below.  They were potplants!  How enterprising!

 

Potplants in the background and a tofu streetfood grill in the foreground.  Small pieces of tofu are grilled and spiced.  It is fairly cheap but I dont much like it!

Chicken with the kids.

As I was standing under the shop overhang, I looked up into the sky and saw a VFC, a kind of KFC.  I've written about it before.   

Anyway, it was dinner time and I thought I'd treat myself...when the rain stopped.  Eventually it did, but not after the irony of the street water spraying/cleaning lorry passed!  I had also noticed for the first time a balcony level in this shopping area. I decided to explore.  I went up the stairs and wandered around.  I bumped into the kids that I had met the day before and spoke to them.  They understand my Chinese.! .Yeeees!  Finally! After that I went to VFC and sat down for my food.   The kids wandered past and waved, it was like a cowboy movie and they were the Indians.  They circled and closed in as I finished my chicken.  We did magic tricks and I teased them about who waswhose boyfreind and girlfriend.  I asked to take a photo.  The boys went shy, but the girls said ok.  I shared the photo with them, but unfortunately it seems not to have saved.  Not sure why.  Anyway, one less for the safeguarding officer to find.  (Joke, bad taste joke I know, buit in the context of the above I hope you'll allow it.)

 A happy ending at a massage venue.

 So despite the lack of massage, meeting the kids again and doing the magic tricks had cheered me up and I headed home via the supermarket.  I thought back to a previous night out and one of my friends had tod me that there was a good massage venue near where I worked.  No pictures yet, just one from the outside.