This week started with a root canal. Not an auspicious beginning.
I put a picture on my wechat and my teacher, being very Chinese, said the root canal was because of all the cold water I drink.
In China it’s believed that cold water is not good for the body. And every week he totally chastises me for drinking it. We started chatting (I told him cold water had nothing to do with it) and he asked if I had class.
“Nope, no class today.”
“Wanna come over to my shop and sit?”
Sure! I grabbed some soft food to eat for lunch and found his shop, which is actually just a few minutes from my house. He sells china (the dishes and cups) and has some really fancy stuff. He has one nice section that includes some pottery with 24k gold in it. Just one cup or teapot can cost a few hundred dollars.
But most of his shop is less fancy with boxes piled high and shelves filled with stacks and stacks of plates and cups. he gave me a short tour and kept asking me “which do you like?” I was leery about saying anything because I knew he was gonna give me whatever I said I liked and I didn’t want to accidentally pick something expensive. So I just kept saying things like “all of it is really nice,” and eventually he just handed me some pretty little cups with hand painted flowers on it.
Then we just sat down by his desk and watched badminton on his computer. After I finished eating he made us some oolong tea in his traditional tea set with a fancy clay pot and tiny cups to drink from. I got to see all his badminton rackets which he had hanging behind the register area and he showed me his favorites. His most expensive (and favorite) is a 2000 RMB racket! (That’s more than $300.) And he got it for free! As a well known player in Xiamen the factories give him rackets for free. He also showed me pictures of his new badminton court facility. He’s building it from scratch and he said it’s always been his dream. It’s close to where I live and I assume that once it opens, in about a month, we’ll go there for our training. He’s really excited about it.
Tuesday game play was okay, but I barely made it home because I was so exhausted. I blamed the root canal and the ton of antibiotics I was taking. Wednesday started off bad because I wasn’t just feeling tired, but just kinda sick as well. Still blaming the antibiotics (I was taking 8 a day) I went to my training determined but not optimistic for a good day.
Our class perked me up a bit, but he taught me a few new moves that include your feet, wrist, and both arms. When I have to think of my feet and racket hand I have a hard enough time. Add my racket and non racket hand and I can’t seem to coordinate myself.
Thursday I cancelled. It was my last day of antibiotics and I just was feeling too worn out. But my friend suggested that we play Saturday since I missed a day. On our regular nights no one cares about the foreigners. We are old news. But on the weekend we were the exciting attraction and everyone came to stare at us. Not my fav.
