I love free stuff

Two weeks ago Cynthia and Armando took us to a health center for a tour. Well, the facility was pretty small so it wasn't much of a tour, but we did get to listen to some sort of doctor. He is from Cuba and talked to us about ozone therapy. I only caught about half of what he said but from what I can understand, they do ozone therapy at the center. It seems to be a cure all but I don't understand how. He told us that one of the ladies who works at the center had a really bad knee, so bad that she needed a knee replacement but instead started receiving ozone treatments and her knee feels better! Maybe you're asking, "How do receive ozone treatments?" Well here it is. They inject ozone gas into your anus. Yeah. Their theory- you pass gas so it's not that bad to receive gas the same way. They passed around some of the gas in a syringe for us to smell, and it was very metallic and gross. In February the doctor is going to France to present his findings to some convention or group of scientists or something. He was using all this medical jargon in Spanish so it was hard to follow.

But they showed us other stuff too. They had a fish tank that you can stick your hand in, and the little fishies will "kiss" you and eat your dead skin cells, so it's an exfoliation treatment. I don't like fish so I didn't do that, but other kids did. Seemed cool.

They also showed us their oxygen bar, a place where you can breathe flavored oxygen, their massage chairs, and their feet massagers. They also had these two different machines. I didn't get a good look at one but apparently you stand on it and it somehow shakes you and it stimulates your muscles so 10 minutes on the machine is like running for an hour. Hard to believe but whatever. The other thing was similar but it's a belt that sits on your abs and does the same thing. Then at the end of the tour they gave us each a card for three free sessions! I ended up with two! So six free sessions for me!

So today I did my first session. After class I just continued on the bus to the spa, and I got two different activities with the free session so I wore the belt for fifteen minutes while sitting at a foot massager. Then I got to sit in a massage chair for fifteen minutes while watching a relaxation video of some places in the Netherlands. Pretty sweet deal for being free, right? We'll see if my abs are sore tomorrow or if it's a big hoax.

From there I walked around a little bit and checked out the train station. They had a tourist office so I snagged a couple of brochures. Found some more free activities. I just have to get to the place. Maybe I'll get a group of students to go or maybe I'll plan something for my family when they visit in June. I don't know if they'll make it to Alicante though.

Then I walked and got churros con chocolate with friends! A few of the madres told people that this was the best churreria (churro place) in town, and let me tell you, I haven't gone anywhere else, but there is no need to look for another restaurant. For 3 euros we each got a cup of warm chocolate sauce and a tray of churros to split between 3 people. They were delicious! Apparently churros con chocolate is a fairly common thing in Spain. I thought churros were a Mexican thing but I guess not. We stayed for about an hour and then some people went to church but I just came home.

Speaking of church, when I was in Granada I went to mass with this kid from MIT who's in my program. We went on Sunday morning to this huge church. I thought since Spain is predominantly Catholic that there would be a good amount of people there. Nope. There were maybe ten other people. And the church was freezing. And it was super hard to follow. Like I was trying to pray along with the Nicene Creed and the Our Father, but it was really hard. My mind was translating the Spanish version and couldn't speak the English version at the same time. I kept trying to figure out which part of the prayer it was but then I couldn't remember what came next in the English version. It was a mess. And the church was a little scary. And I was freezing. So I decided not to go tonight.

Random, but I was thinking about what else to write and I wanted to share that I've been shaving my legs with men's shaving cream because apparently women in Spain don't use shaving cream. Only Veet.

Also have I told you that in Spain they don't really drink the tap water. It's safe, they just think it's gross. So my family filters their water, and in restaurants they only serve you (and charge you for) bottled water unless you ask for agua grifo (tap water). I hope Spain has a good recycling program.

So that's all for now.

Besos! (kisses)