Ever ride a tandem bike?

I can safely cross that off my do-to list as my roommate and I rode through (太阳岛） Sun Island Park on a tandem bike creating the most picturesque scene of roommate bonding. CET took us to Sun Island on Saturday, and by Sun Island, they really mean SUN--it was about 100 degrees outside. We sipped on frozen bottles of water as we explored the park and rode on a water ride. The best part about the trip: it was my second time there in less than 12 hours. One of the guys in our program was invited to a huge beach party the night before and convinced about 15 of us to go with him. As we told the taxi driver Sun Island, he dropped us off in the middle of the park. We proceeded to wander around for over two hours trying to find this giant beach party. As we declined invitations from what seemed like Chinese fraternities, we walked in a huge circle around the island. When we finally found the party, it was so late that we left within half an hour. What a fail.

The next day after returning from biking in Sun Island and shopping in Zhongyang Da Jie, we decided to visit a Russian bar. And if you're looking for a Russian bar, why not go to a bar that is called the "Russian Bar." I thought it was a lovely name choice, as the guys grabbed beers, and we watched the Korea-Uruguay soccer match. A very boisterous Korean exchange student also joined us as he cheered for the ultimately unsuccessful Korea.

Another highlight of my week include fire cupping--a Chinese traditional massage/medicinal technique that basically involves setting a glass cup on fire, then putting it on your back. The hot air inside the cup creates a vacuum that suctions to your skin. The end result is a very dark and painful bruise on your back. According to Chinese traditional explanations, the dark coloration is from the violent expulsion of excess qi (air) from your body. Your body has a balance of hot and cold air, and when your body has too much of one or the other, you will feel very tired, restless, agitated, or even sick. Fire cupping will expel the imbalance in your body (排毒). I think an adequate western explanation for why people might like fire cupping is that it will stretch and move deep muscles that normally don't get stretched. Although the bruises may hurt, but a few days after fire cupping, you will feel like your back muscles are more relaxed (although this could also be the result of the 2 hour massage I got before the fire cupping).

See you next week!