Amsterdam 4-8-8
4-8-8
Amsterdam, Massage beauty salon Ying Mei
After 4 weeks in te South of Europe I am coming back to my neigboorhood: in Amsterdam.: the red light district or what is left of it.
I am reading the papers, not only of today, but of the last 4 week. They are all full of Beijng , the sports, the streets, the polution, the human rights.
My head is spinning of all the warnings, all the “be careful of”stories.
In 10 days I will be in Beijng.
The red light district is shared by the Chinese. Chinese restaurants, Chinese massageparlours, toko’s , supermarkets, docters, a chinese healthcenter,gambling places and a Chinese temple with lots of Chinese vegetarian nuns.
After 4 weeks walking barefeet my feet are a disaster.
So after dinner I go to massage beauty salon Ying Mei, to have the first real pedicure in my whole life.
Mrs. Fang is helping me. She cleans the scissors, knives, scrapes before using them on me and puts on a mouthpiece and plastic gloves.
I remember all the bad stories I read today about the Chinese.....the whole salon is suddenly a place from hell.
Fang tells me to relax. She looks at my feet and sighs deeply.
Suddenly I feel terribly ashamed. Here I am with my size 42 and feet who look more like the ravines in the grand canyon than like nice little tiny soft feet the Chinese are so fond of, as the story goes.
Fang says no problem.
I tell her “sheshe”, the only Chinese I know: thank you.
Than I ask her what “I am sorry” is in Chinese.
She says something like:” tui butshi”. It will be my second word in Chinese. I guess I will use it a lot 10 days from now.
Than I surrender to Fang. Within half an hour I am standing outside again with soft, clean feet and a big bottle of “ Beauty Spa Life Cure Professor”. I have to use it for a month, every night and than come back to her.
I will be back from Beijng by than. I do not tell her I go there as I planned. I don’t know why.
I do not want to break the intimite atmosphere a pedicure gives.
It is just Fang and me. China in Amsterdam. Home.
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