Hello again all,
This post'll be a run-down of my daily schedule, but I think I'll start with talking a minute about my Sifu(s). If you didn't catch it from last time, "Sifu" means "Master". So, the guy in Kung Fu Panda, Master Sifu, is actually named "Master Master". But it's okay because he's voiced by Dustin Hoffman.
Of course there's Wei Sifu, the Headmaster. I really don't talk to him much unless I have a problem and can't find Joy, his wife. But he seems pretty nice. He started the School in 2008, and whenever there's an announcement, we all line up in front of him, and he talks in Chinese while Joy translates.
Then there's Young Sifu (my Sifu). We call him "Young Sifu" because 1: no one can remember his Chinese name and 2: he's only 21, which is younger than most of the people here. He's basically the coolest guy I know. He trained at the Shaolin Temple for 9 1/2 years. For the past three years he's been a teacher, and soon after he started he realized that speaking English would be a super good idea, so by this time he knows enough to communicate the important things but still has an adorable Asian accent (and I'm just saying it that way because Asian accents in general are adorable). He teaches most of the people for Tai Chi in the mornings, but for the regular classes during the day our group has 6 or 7 people. And by "people" I mean 6 or 7 guys plus me. Sifu also teaches the Tuesday Jumps and Rolls class, which he's super good at. Like, he'll just be walking along and suddenly do a no-handed cartwheel. Just cuz he can.
Bagua Sifu Dude, or Wu Sifu. He only teaches in the afternoons. The second afternoon class is an optional Bagua class that you can take, but actually I've been skipping the afternoon Sanda class that happens every day except Thursday, and instead I've been learning a Wudan Sword Form from him. He's 66 years old and only speaks Chinese, but he's AWESOME. He also teaches an Acupuncture class every other Friday, and he really knows his stuff. Like, one time my shoulder kind of hurt because I had tried to do a pull up but just kind of pulled my arm out of the joint, so I told him about it. All he did was grab my shoulder really hard and move my arm around, and it was suddenly better. Whenever he demonstrates a form, it's hard not to stare in awe because he just floats around so easily. He has a very nice little smiley face. Just your basic unassuming little old Chinese man…
Other Sifu. I'm only calling him that because I don't know the nickname that people have given him. He kind of hangs around with Young Sifu when there's nothing else to do. They seem to be buddies. He only speaks Chinese, so… yeah.
There are a few other Sifus, but they don't speak English and I haven't taken any classes from them. But of course they seem nice. :)
Mmkay, the schedule.
For each class and for meal times, a whistle is blown and you have to hurry quick to get out there, because being late is not a fashionable thing. Not that that stops some of my senior class members. (Hmph. Boys.)
So, 6:00 am, the whistle is blown. Usually I've woken up by then to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and change my clothes so I'm all ready to get going; but once I woke up with the whistle, and just had to jam my tennis shoes on and go. Luckily I had worn exercise-type clothes as pajamas, so I looked okay. Probably. I kind of lucked out room-wise because I live on the ground floor, so we line up practically just outside my door. Once we line up in front of Sifu, he waits until everyone gets there (which takes a little while in the mornings. Come on, guys.) and then comes the "Go. Running." signal and we run around the track twice (once if I can get away with it). This is how it is before every class, so we end up running the track 8 times a day. Then we all stretch our legs, shoulders, and other important joints in preparation for Tai Chi.
I always like morning Tai Chi. It's not stressful unless you've forgotten a step and Sifu suddenly tells you to do it in front of your fellow classmates and you end up looking stupid. But he's very patient. Young Sifu is the main teacher for Tai Chi, so other people besides the ones in our group are there for that.
Then the 7:00 whistle is blown for breakfast. After every class we line up again in front of Sifu, bow, and say "Xie xie, Sifu".
We're all pretty excited to eat breakfast by then, though you wouldn't think to look at all of our "where did my bed go and why am I not in it" faces.
Then there's a break until the 8:30 class. On Monday and Thursday morning we have room inspection at 8:00, so often that break is spent straightening everything up and making my bed. Of course, everyone is then wanting to use the broom and dustpan, so it's a bit hard to get a hold of that.
And then there are two classes in the morning, with a half-hour break in between. I don't really have the schedule for which class happens when all straight in my head, except that on Tuesday the second one is Jumps and Rolls and on Thursday it's Qigong and Conditioning and Friday has Power Stretching. The rest of the time I don't really keep track of whether we're doing Shaolin basics or forms or Wing Chun and it's a pleasant surprise to do any of those.
Let's see… ah, here's an excerpt from my journal on a Shaolin Basics class from September 28.
Because it's raining today, the classes got a little bit rearranged this morning. Our first class (not counting Tai Chi, which was in the Training Hall) was Shaolin Basics, which started out with some super intense stretching. It turned out that I was the odd person out, which I was totally okay with because I didn't really want any of the guys pulling my leg-- but then it actually just meant that Sifu was the one stretching me. To do the stretch, you stand on one straight leg (toes pointed forward), and then lift your other leg so your partner can hold it and then lift it as high as possible whilst keeping it straight. Then once you have it lifted almost as high as you can handle, your partner pulls, simulating a split. I wouldn't trust any of the guys to stretch me without being too cautious or not cautious enough, but with Sifu even though it hurt I felt like I could trust him to stop before I got injured or really couldn't handle the pain. I have a feeling he looks at my face as an indicator for how much pain I'm feeling, so I can't decide if I should show more expression so that he'll stop earlier or less because that's more hardcore.
After stretching, we did warm-up kicks and then we did the kicks again, but this time hitting our own outstretched hand when doing them. Usually the kicks you do in karate are knee-extend-back-down, which we also do in kung fu. But these ones you're really just swinging your leg up as high as you can go while keeping your body straight, and then bringing it back down as fast as you can or else Sifu yells at you. For those, there's Straight, Outside, Inside, and Side.
Okay. You know in that one Avatar episode, The Winter Solstice? When Zuko frees Iroh by breaking his chains, he does an Outside Kick. No, this is not the first time I've thought about Avatar while learning Kung Fu.
Anyway, we did those kicks in such a way that we had to hit our hand while doing it, and then he had us put some of them together, like straight-outside-inside, stop. And then he added a spin to the end of the combo, straight-outside-inside-spin. But as soon as he added the spin he realized that all of us had a terrible sense of balance, so to practice that bit he just had us try to jump, spin in the air, and land. When he demonstrated, it looked so easy! And I immediately thought, 'oh, I can do that, no problem. Prepare to be amazed'.
NOT SO.
And we'll leave it at that.
I don't usually have a good story about a Shaolin Forms class because it's really not that interesting. I mean, learning forms is cool and all, but nothing truly interesting happens. Sifu has us review what we've learned, teaches us the next move, and then we practice by ourselves.
Jumps and Rolls Tuesday is a class that I don't particularly like, but I feel like I should do it because I don't like doing it. The picture up top is what the training hall looks like when the mats are set up for Jumps and Rolls. We all line up and take turns doing whatever Sifu tells us to do. Like, somersaults are easy, but when it starts getting to headsprings and flips and stuff… um. But I think I've improved a bit! I'm pretty close to doing that thing where you're lying on the ground and then spring off of your hands and stand up. I mean, I can do it when Sifu's helping me…
Okay, yeah. I suck at Jumps and Rolls, and it would certainly be nice to be good at them so I wouldn't look like I sucked so badly, but nearly every day at the school I'm constantly reminded that I'm not there to look cool. Really, it's a very humbling experience, and I feel like I'm constantly making "do you really think I can do this?" faces at Sifu.
I love Thursday mornings. The two morning classes on Thursday are Qigong and Conditioning.
Qigong is a form of meditation, so it's not physically exhausting and makes you kind of sleepy (my kind of Kung Fu, amirite?). Basically it's all about moving your inner chi and clearing your mind, and you slowly go into different poses that aren't strenuous at all and try to relax as much as possible. It's especially good in the mornings and evenings. I think we do Qigong to prepare us for Conditioning, our other Thursday morning class.
Conditioning, not surprisingly, has nothing to do with taking care of your hair. The Chinese name for conditioning is "kang ji da", "resist attack hit". Sounds stupendous, right? In hardcore terms, the purpose of conditioning is to kill your nerves so that when someone hits you it doesn't hurt. So there's a lot of hitting trees and letting people kick you and stuff.
Here's a journal excerpt from me about it.
It's about 11:30 now, and we just finished our conditioning class, which is once a week. It's kind of weird: before and afterwards, it seems like conditioning is really fun-- especially afterwards, when you're sore but still feel good. But when you're standing in what I like to call "The Circle of Pain", or wincing from the "Massage from Hell", suddenly conditioning seems like a terrible idea.
It also seems so ridiculous, too. In The Circle of Pain Arm Version, you're standing in a circle with a bunch of boys/men, and you just take turns hitting each other -- punching-- on the bicep. I mean, it looked pretty funny… until it got around to me. El Oh El. In the CoP leg version, you do the same thing but kicking the upper leg. It's hard to say which version hurts more.
Other conditioning exercises include hitting your forearm against a tree, banging your head against the wall (I refused to do that one), hitting your shin with a stick, punching a concrete pillar, and letting people sock you in the stomach repetitively. Oh, and the "Massage from Hell" has you hunch your shoulders forward, and your partner punches all over you back (being careful not to hit the spine). Honestly I kind of like that one, especially *right* afterwards.
The bruises I get from conditioning are the gnarliest I've ever gotten. I once said as much to two of the guys as we were waiting for a class to start. One was from Holland, the other from England. They didn't know what "gnarly" meant. It feels pretty silly, having to explain slang.
The other morning class that sometimes happens is Wing Chun. I wasn't really sure what that was until I watched "Ip Man" with a bunch of the other students (I totally recommend that movie for anyone who likes anything). Now it seems like the coolest martial art evar. For the forms, you basically just beat up a "wooden man"… which, honestly, kind of feels like conditioning. After I did that for an hour my hand was kind of bruised.
Oh! Almost forgot Power Stretching Friday. Not necessarily my favorite class, although of course I feel pretty good afterwards. The main part of it usually has each student in turn getting into a "splits" position, with two people holding your feet in place and Sifu pressing down on your back/shoulders. Usually at the end he has you count to twenty. Last time I kind of sped up at the end:
"Ten, eleven, twelve"
(presses down more)
"…FIFTEENSIXTEENSEVENTEENEIGHTEENNINETEENTWENTY!"
"… Twenty?"
"Twenty!"
"Finish?"
"YES."
Sometimes I actually count in Chinese. That's the best way to improve your language skills: testing yourself under pressure.
In between the two morning classes comes the Bread Man!
Every day a Chinese guy drives in with his little green 3-wheel truck, the back bed of which is full of baskets of bread, 1 yuan apiece. I don't get bread every day, but sometimes the sweet twisty kind sounds like just the right thing and I go for it. I don't usually get hungry between classes-- just tired. If the bread somehow gave you energy we would all be all over it. Usually between the morning classes we all sit on the dorm building steps and stare into space or chat. People who have energy (coughYoungSifucough) will often play basketball or "football" (although that's basically just soccer). I decided that I wouldn't join in, even though I could probably muster up the energy. I look silly enough trying to do Kung Fu, there's no need to make myself look even worse attempting to play basketball. Now, if they had a volleyball, that would be a bit different.
The second class ends at 11:30 and lunch is at noon, though they'll often blow the whistle a bit early because they're ready. Lunch break goes until 2:30, when the afternoon classes begin. Usually during lunch break I'll hang out in my room, write in my journal or sleep or play Sudoku or draw or practice my ukulele. It's hard when I accidentally sleep too long, though, because then I'm just tired for the next class.
On every weekday except Thursday, I skip the first afternoon class (Sanda) because I've decided to instead learn a Sword Form from Wu Sifu. I'm not actually playing hooky, because Young Sifu said I could. Don't worry on that account. I once did a Sanda Take-Downs class because I thought it sounded interesting… haha. No. A liiiittle too much physical contact, and I sucked at it. So after the warm-up I let Sifu know I'm leaving and then skip over to Wu Sifu to swing ma sword around.
Then the second class is optional, so I just continue learning the Sword. I really like the form, but sometimes it's a little hard to concentrate on the same form for two hours straight. But we have a bit of a break in between, and Wu Sifu's a little more easygoing so I sometimes take my own break and chat with the translator who attends Wu Sifu (who speaks zero English).
Here's a little excerpt about that:
Yesterday I was doing really well with the sword. I was picking up a lot of the moves pretty quickly, I was kind of getting Wu Sifu's meaning even though the translator wasn't always there, and I felt pretty good about it. But today Sifu was trying to tell me SOMETHING, and I think I sort of got the gist of it, but after he chattered to me for five minutes I couldn't really say "Ming Bai" (I understand) and basically tried not to look too desperate. The best thing to do is just to copy any movements he shows and wait for him to say "dui" (correct). I figured out, though, that "san bu" means step forward. I think "ko bu" means turn your foot. Anyway, after he told me a bunch of truly interesting things (probably), he showed me the next movements a couple of times and walked away. My head was spinning from trying to understand Chinese and I was physically tired… so the result was that it took me the rest of the hour to get down the next five moves when it should've taken me, like, fifteen minutes.
Of course, on Thursday it's Power Training for the first hour. I was about to put in yet another little excerpt for Power Training, but it looks like I didn't really write about it a lot. Not something I really want to remember, I suppose. Well, it's not THAT bad. The first week was the worst, I think. Part of it was that I didn't know exactly what to expect, so it just made me scared that I would just have to keep doing push-ups for-ev-er. Although, Sifu does get pretty creative. Like, having us put our feet up on a ledge (hands on the ground) and then walk along it. Or doing squats with someone on our shoulders (that's where I drew the line the first week-- but ended up doing it the next week anyway). Or having us run around with someone on our back. All fun stuff.
Whether we have Power Training or not, classes end at 5:00, giving everyone an hour before dinner, which is the perfect time to take a shower. I take a shower pretty much every day, occasionally twice if I'm feeling grody enough. Just because I look like a man doesn't mean I have to smell like one… (ha I fit in a Mulan quote. I feel so proud of myself.)
And then dinner's at 6:00. I'm not sure what else to say about the food… occasionally we'll get dumplings. When we do I eat too many. Chinese food in general is good, so I don't have anything to complain about. I was already pretty good with chopsticks, but eating with them every day at all times has, I think, made me even better.
If there's an evening class happening, it's at 7:00. Monday is Calligraphy, and they get one of the taxi drivers from town to do that. I'm really good at drawing a straight line now, haha. But seriously, it's been very cool to learn a bit about Chinese characters and writing. Before I leave I'm gonna get my own calligraphy set, I think. The other class is Mandarin, Tuesday-Thursday, and the translators Leah and Nelly switch off doing that. Although what they've been teaching us is often what I've already learned on my own, I have definitely been learning some new things.
Then sometimes if I see people sitting on the porch steps chatting I'll join in, but usually by then it's pretty dark, so I go to my own room, get ready for bed, and maybe read or write in my journal or call my family. It's lights out at 9:30 (10:00 on non-training nights), but most nights I'm settled down by 9:00.
My bed is pretty comfortable now. My family came down from Beijing and visited me for a weekend, and they brought me a little mattress liner. I also bought an extra pillow in town, and because it's gotten colder I switched my large towel for a duvet. Overall pretty nice and I usually sleep the whole night, until 5:30ish when the day starts all over again.
Yep! That's my day!
Well. It's now October 15, 2011, and I've been visiting my family in Beijing for nearly two weeks now. I guess my next post will be from the school, once I go back to it. It all feels so far away now. I think it'll be sort of hard to go back to it after such a long break, but I'm certainly looking forward to it.
For future posts I'll do a weekly entry, and talk about anything interesting that happened during the week. It'll all make more sense now that I've set the stage.
Until next week, then!
Sarah
