LiGuanXing

The rose at the mountains is PiaoLiang.

At least once a week I try to get a foot massage at Ozone and when I do I always ask for LiGuanXing. There are massage parlors all over the place here and most of them charge less, but my friends and I like it that we can do everything in one place. So I usually make an appointment for a foot massage when I arrive at Ozone, then I workout andshower. LiGuanXing is an excellent masseuse, as any one who who has been lucky enough to have him will tell you. His hands are large, the kind that are made for giving massages, and he loves his work. He doesn't just go through the motions; he finds the problem spots and gently but firmly works them out. But I really like him the best because we give each other language lessons. On a slow night last week I had a two hour foot massage/Chinese lesson while he got a 2 hour English lesson. His English has really improved and I've picked up quite a bit of Chinese that has come in handy. For example, "Where are you from?" Ni lai se nali? I really have no idea how to spell the lai se part, but I have the pronunciation down pat. I know most of the body parts and am getting pretty good at time of day, including greetings like Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening.

So far, though, the best use I have made of my Foot Massage/Chinese Lesson is the following story. The past couple times I have gone for a foot massage, the people who work there have stood around me saying, Ni shi hen piao liang. I had no idea what they were saying but one of the women is studying English and she explained it this way. She said, "We think you are very beautiful." I figured I could make good use of that phrase so I took extra care to tuck it away in my memory. Sure enough, when we were at the mountains this weekend, Cathy and I came across a man who seemed to be a guard of some kind, although he wasn't wearing the ubiquitous uniform. He was hands down the most handsome man I have seen in the two months I've been here. Since we were waiting for the rest of our group and had nothing better to do, I asked him if he could speak English. Wo bu dong, he responded. He didn't understand. Well, then, he was fair game. We agreed he was extremely handsome. Wondered if he was married. We asked him what he was doing that night, etc. He really couldn't understand us. Then I remembered the phrase I had been saving for a special occasion. I walked up to him and said, Ni shi hen piao liang. He sputtered a few words including thank you and something about me...I recognized Ni. Cathy and I left him standing there red as a beet. She had no idea what I had said, which I explained to her was something like, "You are extremely handsome". The rest of the day I noticed Cathy frequently pointing at things and exclaiming, Piao liang, Piao liang.