Pedicures in China

Ok, so after the Yunnan trip I decided that my feet needed to get pampered. I decided to try one of the new little shops that opened near West Gate, called Sun Moon Nails (or something like that). I was interested to see how the process was different from getting a pedicure in the US. I am accustomed to a huge seat with a mini whirlpool for your feet, and I knew that that wasn't happening here because water is growing scarce. Once I was seated, my feet were propped up on a beam of sorts and they filled a plastic bowl (covered in plastic) with water from a thermos and had me soak my feet in there. Once that was done, the guy pretty much used the same supplies as back home, squirting disinfectant (at least that's what I hope it was) on each tool. The only part that I didn't really like was that while scrubbing my feet, there was no towel down to catch all the dead skin (sorry there's no nice way of putting that), so I felt like I was dirtying up the store, especially since I was the only foreigner in there AND the only one getting a pedicure done. It's very frustrating not being able to talk to people when they are asking questions; I only got a few answers correct! I felt very silly for just sitting there and people kind of chuckling at me. It took a few tries for me to understand that painting nails would cost extra, but I didn't mind that- that's what I was looking for. I also understood when she asked if I liked my toes, actually she said "hen piaoliang", so I got that! At any rate, another interesting service that they provided was tattoos. I think they were the airbrush kind, which I was a little relieved about because I really like the buzzing noise of needles, so I got to see one of the employees get the machine ready.