We had a lesson on Chinese diet. This was a really cool introduction into dietary medicine because it showed us what the basic doctors base medicine and recovery on. This diet balances all the seasons and uses food color to classify what they help with. Such as white foods or silver are considered part of the metal class and help during winter. These white foods are normally spicy like ginger. They recommend a balanced of all the colors: green, red, yellow, silver, black, and blue in every meal. Also with each season certain colors are more preferred and should have a larger ratio when compared to the other colors. The American diet is just based on quantity of different vitamins and things inside food. It is also not based on season. Although they do recommend a balanced diet it’s less based on the fact it has on the body.

We didn’t just visit the center today but did tai chi. Which I can honestly say I am really bad at. It requires a lot of coordination. But even though I didn’t do everything the instructor did I still felt like I had done a real work out afterwards. In fact most times I have to sit down early because I get too tired. Whenever I do a lot of movement with my knees they tend to hurt a lot, but I think because of the less strenuous exercise my knees didn’t hurt. I loved this because it made me feel like I could really work out. Most exercise I hear about is about pushing yourself until you can’t do more, but with tai chi you don’t need to do that. The workout is still fulfilling even if you aren’t hurting yourself.

We had another acupuncture lesson. During today’s lesson Dr. Flatt’s knee was popped back into place. This was done by Dr. Li during the lesson. When she had gone to the doctors in the U.S. To try and fix her knee, none of the doctors even attempted to touch her knee. They just said to come back in 6 weeks if there was still pain. This is hilarious because western medicine is supposed to be this great thing, when they can’t even fix a knee that was out of place. But within two appointments with Dr. Li her knee was back in place and had a tremendous decrease in pain. I think that is just amazing.

We went back to the spa and Dr. Flatt got to try some massage moves on Victor. It’s really interesting to watch this happen because you don’t see the effort being put into your own massage. You also don’t really understand the techniques in the massage until the technician explains them. It’s a pattern that is followed during the massage. You only move on to the next moves after opening qi and warming the back up. The scraper can’t be used until a certain point either. Which I believe is different than most western massages, which can go in any order really. As far as I know the body does not have to be warmed up to continue on with certain parts of the massage. They explained more about the release of dampness, which can cause all sorts of diseases. They also explained the reason for releasing black blood which can build up in the body. This is bad blood that has no use and must be physically released by puncturing the skin. Also they explained the sugar tea that is given at the end of the massage which helps to increase blood volume so that you don’t pass out after a massage.

Today we went to the spa… Not the fun happy calming spa, but a different evil one. Don’t get me wrong the massage felt amazing, but afterwards not so much. So in traditional Chinese massages to help you become healthy they put pressure on the different meridian points and massage in specific ways. Then they use this scraper thing that is supposed to release the “dampness” that is in your body. And it feels like the back of a comb being pressed and dragged into your back. Fun right? Then for me they did suction cups and dragged them on my skin. Which again was not that fun, but did feel nice. This whole experience left my back bruised, see photo, but I think it made me feel better in the long run. It’s also supposed to be a lot better for you than our normal massages. Most people go to a massage to relax and not feel any pain, but if you don’t feel pain then how do you know you’re fixing the problem? No pain, no gain as they say. Even with the differences and pain involved I do think that this form of massage is better in the long run. Clearing the blocked qi and releasing dampness could be very beneficial.

We met Dr. Li today, who is a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. He explained a little about acupuncture and how it can be used to fix almost any problem in your body. He also did to practices on Hadeel and Dr. Flatt. It was really interesting because for Dr. Flatt she felt almost instant relief from her knee pain when the needles were removed. Whereas for Hadeel the relief wasn’t as great. This difference in acupuncture between traditional and what is mainly used in the U.S. Is depth of the needles. For traditional medicine the needles go however deep is needed until they hit a meridian point. For the majority of acupuncture in the U.S. The needles are only placed superficially. This does not allow the problem to be fixed, which could be why acupuncture is so ineffective in the U.S.

We visited the tai chi center for the first time today. It was really cool to see that this form of exercise was given a high regard. From studies I did on qi gong I know that the benefits can be tremendous if someone practices this exercise everyday. I am glad to see more people in the U.S. Practicing tai chi, which is a branch off of qi gong. Hopefully this practice increases the amount of students attending. This exercise can help improve the overall health and well being of the individuals practicing it. It was quite exciting to see the students who had been practicing this all their lives.

Visiting this amazing paragon garden was breathtaking. It was very cool hiking to the top of the pagoda and seeing the city from so far away. We didn’t really learn much about the gardens other than that they were a very nice place to visit. Walking around we got to see a lot of how the city grew. You could see where it started and how they were always expanding in size.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Last one!

As I explained before, this comes as a slight delay. With all the craziness of traveling and re-adjusting to reality, I found myself consumed in just being home. I actually find my postponed blogging to be of benefit, because it gave me more time to reflect. At this point, I have been home long enough to totally re-integrate. In fact, it didn’t take me long. Only being gone for a month has its benefits, one of them being a shortened recovery time. The major differences that I noticed were as follows:

I understood what people were saying! I got so used to not comprehending the conversations as I passed them on the street, but the moment we got on the airplane headed back to the United States, English was everywhere! At first it was almost annoying, hearing everyones private discourse, which was surprising! But eventually it was comforting.

Next, the food… this was probably the most disappointing thing about coming home. Not so much the variety, but the quality! I missed the freshness, the abundance of fruit, the organic and free range meat! It is much easier to notice the difference in processed food when you are spoiled for over a month. I also found it almost offensive coming back and being rushed through a meal! I got used to sitting at length when we would go out to eat, and hardly ever having a waiter come and bother you. The simple difference of having to ask for a check versus them handing it to you after a mere half hour was notable.

Lastly, the pace of everyday life. I grew up in the country, so living in a city was interesting.  I appreciate the calm streets, green scenery, and wildlife at very turn. In Barcelona, there was a constant buzz of noise at all hours of the day, the city never went dark, and many people stayed up until the early morning! The only animals I saw were pigeons, seagulls, and dogs on leashes. I was definitely happy to drive home from the airport and see mountains, valleys, forests, and rivers.

Needless to say, there was a roller coaster of emotions as a result of coming home. I do believe it when they say that returning can actually be more difficult that arriving! This entire experience has opened my eyes to joys and pitfalls of so many types of travel. Whether it be for business, school, vacation, asylum, immigration, etc. No matter what, there are adjustments that must be made, and I was lucky enough to have had immense support and guidance throughout my entire journey. I will forever look back and deem this trip as totally necessary and worth it.

Adios..