first foot massage

After dinner last night my colleague Sarah asked me if I wanted to go for a massage. I told her I'm not really a fan of getting a full body massage right after a meal, but I was interested to find a decent place. Then when I saw the menu of foot massages, I gave in and tried the "cao ni" foot massage which was supposed to mean sea mineral foot massage. In Chinese, at least the pronunciation for that sounded just like what translates to "f*ck you" foot massage so I was a little curious to see what it would be like, thinking this is my really bad bad bad Chinese just hearing the tones wrong, or not hearing tones at all. It turned out to be quite nice, in a comfy chair with chrysanthemum tea to drink from a tiny teapot and cup; tv if I wanted or just music. The girl told me she is 18, which in the west means 17. Frankly it was a bit more "Chinese" style than I like, that is, quite heavy on pressure and I had to tell her to lighten up. She told me I'm afraid of pain...she's quite right! I don't go for massage to get pain! And she wanted to know why I didn't want to go to sleep! But overall it was a good massage, removing more toxins than I probably would have back home. And the place was charming too with old-style doors, glass beads, stones and waterfalls inside.

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