As soon as students start arriving they ply me with coffee and a lovely bag of fruit in which I later discover the largest eating apple I have ever seen and, being free from the UK supermarkets' obsession with fruit unification, two delicious green skinned oranges.
Today we were learning to assess the hip joint and practicing different treatment positions. We managed to get through the Thomas Test, the Ober Test and the Straight Leg Raise. Then an introduction to postural analysis of the lower limb, something everyone seemed to enjoy and eagerly lined up outside to check one and others’ hip levels. As I suspected from having already observed their elbows, the therapists demonstrated some interesting lower limb postures, with half the class having hypermobility in the knee joints and many with bowed or torsioned tibia.
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| Practising leg massage |
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| Practising straight leg raise |
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| Demonstrating iliac crest levels |
It was a busy morning. Students were getting more confident in asking questions and Victoria had worked her socks off interpreting. I was glad for the first break when I was unexpectedly handed a large slice of strawberry pie, another coffee and some sweets. Outside, the check in desk was covered with a selection of food. There were trays of seaweed crackers and a bag of dark cocoa chocolates that came in powdery squares a bit like oxo cubes. The Taiwanese love their food and love clothes shopping. Best of all they like shopping for clothes in shops where food is available. So the restaurant of Mo Mo’s department store is very popular. But today I wasn’t having lunch. Instead, I was taking 100 photos. I had offered to assess the posture of each student and they had all eagerly agreed to share the analysis with their fellow classmates, thus receiving not only an assessment of their own posture, but that of 21 other women. So with what until last year, was the tallest building in the world looming in the fog behind me, I sat crouched with the camera balanced on a chair back and one by one snapped four shots of each student: front, back, left and right sides.
Back in my hotel room I began downloading the photos. Its great that the students are so willing to share their images with one another, and agreed it was ok for me to include classroom shots of them in my Facebook blog (though I’m not of course posting their postures).
After downloading 100 photographs I fell asleep early and woke at 2am, hungry for carbohydrates. There’s a banana in the room somewhere but I’ve forgotten where I put it. I searched the bathroom and even my suitcase to no avail. I looked under the bed just in case it was there. Too early to shower, I made tea but couldn’t face using one of the tubs of pot noodle so ate three boiled sweets that were salty and might be laxatives but as I can’t read Chinese and the restaurant didn’t open for another four and a half hours it was a risk I was willing to take.
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