Traditional Chinese Medicine

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I wanted a good topic to talk about that didn't just consist of a play by play of my travels in Taiwan.  And today I found it.... traditional Chinese medicine.

Continuing the saga of Taiwan and I's stand off in terms of medical issues... I busted up my right middle and ring fingers on Friday night playing basketball with some of my male co-workers (2 v 2).  My team won though so it's all ok (and I scored half my team's points).  Originally I thought I just jammed them and continued to play the game, however afterwards I realized my fingers hurt more than they should... like a lot more.  The nurse at the school thought they were broken, but other people weren't so sure since I could still bend them a little and move them around. So I decided to wait until the next day to see if my fingers showed any improvement before rushing off to the hospital for x-rays.  I did learn how to eat with chopsticks left-handed that Friday night which was a cool skill to learn.  My fingers slowly improved (meaning they weren't broken thank goodness).  But when I tried to make a fist, my two fingers didn't come down the way they used to.  If anyone is familiar with chiropractic care (which I am a huge supporter of), I felt like my fingers were "out of adjustment" (not dislocated, but not set quite right either).  But where do you find a chiropractor in Taiwan/Asia??? Do they even have chiropractic care here? The answer my friends is yes... and it is called Chinese traditional medicine!

After asking my coordinator Iris if she knew of a chiropractor or a place where I could get my fingers examined because they felt stiff, she recommended going to a Chinese traditional medicine place because they could "pop" my fingers there if need be.  So off we scootered down the street to the traditional medicine CLINIC.  Not "tiny little store on a side street with glass jars full of herbs everywhere run by a really old Chinese man/woman." Clinic.  With a receptionist and "nurse" in full scrub garb and a doctor in a white lab coat.  They even took the national health insurance (ya for alternative medicine taking health insurance!!!). The doctor then proceeded to examine my fingers, wrist, and elbow followed by a series of twists, pulls, and pops.  And my fingers felt infinitely better! But they still weren't quite there.... Chinese medicine doctor: no problem! *pull**pop* How's that?... And I could naturally make a fist again. Granted, my fingers still hurt and are still a little stiff (we'll see how they are after a week post-injury), but this was an incredibly positive experience for my first encounter with traditional medicine.  Afterwards, a nice nurse wrapped some herbal medicine on some gauze pads around my two fingers which then proceeded to feel like icy-hot as well as create cloud of minty-freshness surrounding me for the rest of the day.  Completely made from various natural ingredients. 

In other updates...

Sun Moon Lake

My fellow Taichung ETAs and I visited the famous Sun Moon Lake, which lives up to its reputation as beautiful scenery... however said beautiful scenery has created a tourist town around it as well that is less than ideal.  But you take what you can get.

Look at that fog (Sun Moon Lake)

10/10 Party!

Taiwan's national holiday (October 10... aka 10/10) was last week, and we got to go to the big party with the president, ambassadors, and all sorts of other people that I would never have the courage to approach.  It was also not a very good networking type place, but I definitely got to see what these sorts of people look like in person.  They had TONS of food there representing all types of famous and traditional Taiwanese food.  They had stuff you can commonly find in restaurants anywhere (except this was the most delicious version I have ever tasted), aboriginal food and liquor, and even some western style food (the brie, grape, leafy green thing, and walnut horderve was particularly popular amongst the Fulbright program.... and yes I had to look up how to spell horderve sadly enough). They had lots of cultural presentations from Taiwan and various countries who are Taiwan's political allies.  And did I mention all the free food?

Henna

This past weekend (and this coming weekend too for that matter) was the Taichung Jazz Music Festival and it was awesome. Honestly it was more like a shopping and food festival with jazz music in the background for atmosphere... and if you wanted you could eat your food on the lawn watching some jazz players play.  But besides the shopping and eating, me and my fellow ETA got henna done! It'll be gone in a week or so, but it's fun while it lasts. 

Newest updates on Amanda personally: inspired by my awesome looking students at a dinner I attended Friday night (with my damaged fingers), I will now be joining them on Monday afternoons for their Taiko class.  I will be learning Taiko people!
And I got my ears double pierced :)

Coolest Taiko Group is at JiFeng Elementary School