Adventures in Vanity: Like all Chinese people, I'm inherently drawn to discounts, and when I received one for a local salon and spa that I had visited in the past, I was thinking, why not get a facial? I had recently gotten my hair cut and coloured, so those options weren't very feasible. Utilizing the spa aspect didn't seem like a bad idea. For those of you who may have experienced facials before, you will probably understand when I say that, at one point during the procedure, I suffered through some unanticipated pain. While this was going on, I had two main thoughts. 1) This was not in the brochure, and 2) Thank God I decided to stick with the half-hour facial and not go along with the full hour that the lady had tried to sucker me into at the beginning. The lady actually joked with me about that last point while she continued to puncture my face. Evil. So, I emerged from the salon a little redder than when I had walked in, contemplating whether I was ever going to subject myself to that again. I think that if I ever do venture down that road again, I'm definitely going to prep my face in advance.

"I am beautiful, no matter what they say"