just when i thought i was safe

so, i went back for another round of accupuncture yesterday afternoon. this one was even more exciting than the last.... as i mentioned before, when i went into the room where they do the needles, i was greeted by two chinese men's butts... soon, i was in the same position with bottom exposed for all to see....
yesterday, my butt was much more exposed than i had ever imagined
so, the doctor i'm going to is a little famous here and was asked to go to turkey to treat the premiere.... now they call him the "premiere", but i'm not sure what his position is exactly so i can't use an official name.... i looked up possibilities, but none them were called a "premiere", so i'm not sure who it was he treated... anyway, its unimportant... what's important is that he went for a month and did such a great job, they asked him to stay for two more months to treat other people in the "premiere's" family. sooooo, he has just returned from turkey and when i went into to be treated yesterday a newspaper and video news reporter were interviewing him. his wife is a doctor there as well, so she took me to do the needles and said the doctor would do the massage when he was done with the reporters.... well, once again i have to expose my butt so they can put the needles in and this time it wasn't so bad i felt like an old pro.... as i'm lying there trying to relax, lu haibo comes in and asks if the newspaper reporters can interview me as well... i say sure thinking when i'm done someone will sit me down and talk to me... not the case... 2 minutes later i'm bombarded, ass fully exposed, by three photographers and a man with a video camera! the woman doctor had not but the herbs on the end of the needles, so this of course was a great photo op... to get the doctor treating the american patient.... i'm on my stomach trying to relax even thoug there are cameras all around me and the photographers are like look at me, look at the camera, can you smile????? i'm thinking i have about 15 needles in my ass, no i don't want to smile and if i move too much it hurts... but smile i did and i can't imagine what a ridiculous photograph that will be!! after they were done with the "photo shoot" and the treatment was complete, they set the video camera up to finish the interview. however they set up the shot, so that the doctor was standing in front of my face, but you could still see me and another woman with our needles hanging out.... i'm not sure how much you could see on any of the video or in the photographs. i had dinner with a student last night and didn't get home till after the news was over... the newspaper reporter however said he would email me the pictures he took.... after some consideration i may or may not post them here or on flikr... i don't want to scare anyone, my butt is awfully white these days... in the end, the doctor gave me an extra bit of massage and back cracking for free.. and a chinese medicine patch to stick on my back where it is sore. i'm just wondering why no one here thinks it is odd?? anyway, i'll keep you updated on the fame and misfortune of my buttocks and the doctor who cures all.
on a more normal note, i had dinner with a student last night. she wanted to ice skate, but i told her i was having trouble with my back and couldn't do anything to active or that could result in my falling very, very hard on a very, very hard surface... so anyway, we just decided on dinner. her parents drove us and on the way she says, "i remember that you like mexican food so we will go to eat mexican... i've never had it before" so sweet! and i was really excited to be with her for her first time eating it... although, its kind of crappy food. anyway, we had the quesadillas... that's the only vegetarian thing they have on the menu and she got hers with beef.... she said it was "so, so"... i felt the same way but the salsa is quite good and i was tempted to just do shots of it, but thought better of it since i was with a new friend... she did comment on how much i liked the salsa cuz i was using so much.... she thought it was too spicy.
well, i must close now i have to go eat lunch and then pack and then teach and then to hong kong for the night and to bali tomorrow!!!!! i will write more from bali...........
"one's destnation is never a place, but a new way of seeing things"~henry miller