First Day of Classes and Tai Chi

Hey!!
Rachel and I are just back from our first two hour Tai chi lesson with fans! It was so pretty although not when we do it. Our master and all her students lead us step by step through a dance routine. The fans look so cool when the whole group snap them open. There was one move that i kept twisting my wrist wrong and could not for the life of me get the fan to work and if i got it to work then it was facing the wrong way. My new friend "Cola" spent literally five minutes with me trying to get it right. I will just have to practice more. Also I clapped and moved my feet in rhythm with the music when learning a different Chinese dance- surprising for me right??

Earlier today we had more egg cakes and milk/tea for breakfast then a three hour lesson on traumatology and care. We learned all about acupoints, chi, and cupping which is a technique called "cupping" and it uses a cup and fire that pulls the air out like a vacuum. Rachel and I were volunteers and now have a big circle bruise on our shoulders-pictures to ensue. Our teacher was so interesting and spoke really good English, he also gave us a small sample each of his herbal version of icy hot for massaging.

Next was lunch at a Japanese pork chop restaurant. The food was soo good! I think I have pretty much mastered the chop stick technique. Then more class similar to mine for athletic training at home and then our professional connection. This time was spent teaming up with our host students and competing in balance and agility drills. We also had a taping contest against our buddies and I won!!! Then quick dinner, chicken rice and cabbage. Tomorrow we start our clinical rotation and have another Tai Chi lesson. May be a long day of just class and clinic but our first weekend trip is coming up! People with Camaras on their lap tops skype Rachel and I. 9am-11am (GA time) is best!!
-K



We've decided Katherine is good for listing what we've done. And according to Joey Rosskopf I'm more awkward. Whatever, hope yall are enjoying my rambling. Our first class with Dr. HGB (hemoglobin.. ha!) was awesome, he was so goofy. I had the traditional cupping done with the fire along with "scraping" (moving the suctioned cup around)... so mine looks more like I was severely beaten, whereas Kat's is a perfectly bruised circle. Despite the post-bruising, it did help with the pain in my shoulders.

The thing that blew my mind the most was the acupuncture demonstration. Our professor asked who had some pain and Hannah, who's had ACL reconstruction and had gone running earlier that morning, volunteered. He put a needle in her shin and taped it down, asking her to rate on a scale from 0-100% how much the pain was still there. With the needle in her shin she said it was about 40%. Then he put another straight in at the base of the crevice in your elbow, which she told us made all the pain go away. It was nuts. I can't wait to learn acupuncture.

We've already learned a few pressure points-- for like resuscitation and nausea. It's really interesting to see how different Athletic Trainers are here-- like they're allowed to deal with broken bones; actually the majority of fractures are handled by the ATs.

Our lunch dessert looked like fish eyes in a jelly... and tasted like sweet tea. There really isn't much else I can say about that.

Jojah boys will appreciate Katherine and I have agreed to play frisbee Friday after class. Definitely going to look silly. But not as silly as we looked doing what I can only describe as Chinese-Tango involving acupoints. Don't worry, it probably wont take much past a few beers to get us to demonstrate upon return. Tai Chi with a fan is so hard. Fail on my part. Okay.. once again I'm completely over blogging. Sorry yall, aint my thang. -R