I’m turning Taiwanese, I think I’m turning Taiwanese, I really think so…

Ok, so if you don’t get the title, I just changed the words of The Vapors’ song titled “Turning Japanese.” The subjects of this post are yoga and acupuncture afterall, so I thought the lyrics were appropriate. I have just started taking yoga classes at a little gym/yoga studio in my neighborhood. Right now I have an introductory membership for 10 classes, but I’m pretty sure that I will continue it throughout my time here. It’s all in Chinese, of course. And I’m the only foreigner. I kind of get the feeling that they’ve never had a foreigner take classes there, ever! But that’s fine with me. They’re all nice and try to explain things the best way that they can with limited to no English speaking abilities. I didn’t want to go to one of the big gyms downtown because I wanted the experience to be in Chinese and with all Chinese people. So I’m really excited about it and I think it will be a good experience for me. They have basic classes and advanced classes. So far I’ve been to one basic and two advanced. The advanced is more my speed (I did take one semester of yoga in college.) But I am still no where near as flexible as the other women in the class! I did, however, do one crazy back bend that I never thought I could do in the last class! So I am going to try to go to the advanced class more often, but will probably also benefit from the basic class on the days I can’t make it to the advanced one. Classes are in the morning so it works perfectly with my late afternoon/evening work schedule. I will be going a few times a week. I have also been running some. Running in the streets is nearly impossible, so I have been going to Chiang Kai-Sheck Memorial which has a huge plaza and is two subway stops from my apartment. I have also been running at an area called Peace Park which is three subway stops from my house. It’s like a very miniature Central Park with ponds and fountains, places to sit and relax, playgrounds and some small temples. Running is a bit difficult with the awful air quality due to pollution, but I'm trying to keep up with it. Running for exercise is a fairly foreign concept here, especially for females (gain muscle? what?!), so you can imagine the stares I get as I run. As a Taiwanese co-worker told me last week: “Taiwanese girls get their exercise from shopping.” Enough said.

In other news, I got acupuncture for the first time ever last week. I went with a friend who speaks very good Chinese and gets acupuncture often. With the Taiwan health insurance card I have through work I paid the equivalent of $3US for acupuncture and a visit to the “chiropractor” at a modern medical facility. It was quite an experience. I didn’t go for any particular reason, just wanted to try it. I had four needles in my right shoulder and two in my upper neck. You sit there with the needles, under a heat lamp for about 20 minutes. (No privacy in medical facilities here, so I was in the front window, facing the street. So again, imagine the stares. A white girl getting acupuncture?!) It didn’t hurt at all and was actually a really cool experience. They say it’s supposed to relieve pain, but I didn’t really have too much pain other than tightness in my shoulder. So I’m not really certain about how it affected me, but I definitely want to go and try it again! Then saw the “chiropractor” who kept insisting on cracking my neck (by whipping my head to one side). I declined and he was mad and kept insisting, but I didn’t give in. (My friend translated through all of this, of course.) And he told me my back was very tight, asked me what time I went to bed and said that was too late, that if I went to bed earlier my back would be better. Anyway, he gave me a good shoulder massage which was painful, but I know it did some good. All the Chinese people were laughing at me because they knew I was in pain! The “chiropractor” kept telling me to “suck it up.”

Other random things…School is going well. The Halloween activities were fun. The office staff came to each class for “trick or treating” with the students. I added a bunch of pictures to my photo site under the new “School” album. I went to a really cool (and free!) art festival called the Open Air International Arts Festival which was held at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall this past weekend. I saw an awesome acrobatics show on Sunday night. It was amazing! I am always adding to my “Around Taipei” album on my photo site, as well. There are some photos from the art festival on there, as well as some other stuff. So take a look! This weekend I’m going to have my first KTV (aka karaoke) experience in Taiwan. It’s a HUGE thing here. They have these super nice facilities where the lobby looks like you’re in a five star hotel. You rent out a room (with a stage, catwalk, etc) for your group. Should be an experience!