Cupping

Yesterday I went to the massage/spa place around the corner and tried cupping. It's a type of massage therapy in which glass cups are suctioned to various parts of a person's body to relieve tension. Here's a link that explains the technique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_cupping. I don't feel any less tense, but I now have 13-14 circular bruises all over my back:

Today, I walked over to a giant bathhouse down the road to get a foot massage. I'm starting to realize that I really don't enjoy massages, but at least I took a few pictures on the way -

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Here's a street sign advertising a brand new, beautiful park, just around the corner!

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and here's the real Zhongshan Park:

Oh Shenyang. Why do you set the bar so high?

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This will supposedly be a subway entrance in less than 1 year.

Another street scene:

and off in the distance, the Chairman:

Long weekend in Seoul

This past weekend I flew to Seoul to hang out with my cousin Ted, who had come over on business. Here are a few pics:

Beautiful architecture at the Gyeonghuigung Temple


Cotton candy on a motorcycle, outside the temple


Paper shop in Insa-dong



Brushes in Insa-dong

walking around the city -

Checking out the street food:

Ted the kabobs, I got the fried squid. yummm :)

My room at the Park Hyatt. So Lost in Translation!

Hanging out in the Hyatt



Delicious barbeque!

Going up the gondola to Seoul Tower

Slightly nervous...

We saw some kind of ceremony at the top of the hill, right under the Tower. Check out the pig head in the background -

The Tower:



View from the top of the tower -

So far away! :(

Shenyang is much closer...

But not as close as North Korea!

Ginseng at the Namdaemun market

Street food at the market:

A Few Pics from the Weekend

Every Thursday, the Intercon staff gives me a fruit plate and some chocolates. I look forward to it way more than I should.



Over the weekend, I went to the bookstore in town. There's not a great selection of English-language books, but I thought I would take a picture of the doors. All of the entrances to shops in Shenyang have giant, thick plastic flaps instead of real doors. They're really heavy and difficult to push aside, but I guess they keep the cold out better.

Lots of people also sell baked sweet potatoes out of drums attached to bicycles on street corners:

The Kempkinski Hotel:

The Harbin Snow Beer TV tower:

Weird-looking trees wrapped in plastic at the base of the tower:

Baking sunflower seeds and selling them at a stall:

More stalls at a Saturday market:

It's not a stereotype, these dogs actually are everywhere -