Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Reprise)

Gee wiz, that week went by quickly! This past week our class trained under "Stripey" Sifu, which was interesting and actually rather cool, except that I missed most of that action because I was sick for two days.

 

On Monday morning, we ran over to line up with Stripey's class. Hm. It somehow seems impolite to call him that… we'll just call him the Other Sifu.

 

Yeah, so the first Basics class under a different Sifu was, in essence, just like any other Basics class. We have a whole routine that we go through of running two laps, stretching, warming up, and then we do warm-up kicks, regular kicks, "punch kicks", "push kicks", "slap kicks" (hitting your foot when you kick-- it's supposed to make a sound), and then if there's time after that we'll usually move on to forms or something. But before I knew it, the class was over! He had us go slower than we usually do, I guess. For the whole week we added our numbers to his three students, making us about ten total regularly.

 

During forms I continued to practice my Chain Whip. My Sifu showed me all of "Part 1" of the form, so I've got all of that down pat. I'm not sure if the Other Sifu is going to teach me more of it… if he is, we've only got three days of training left. Monday and Tuesday is off next week for Chinese New Year (hence the title-- it means "Happy New Year" in case you missed the update from three weeks ago).

 

I spent the lunch break on Monday walking over to the 10-minute shop with the two new American girls. They both turned out to be really amiable and talkative, which was certainly nice. We had a fun week together.

 

Before we started running to start the first afternoon class, I managed to tell the Other Sifu that I don't do Sanda, so I went and finished up my straight sword form. Then I tried to do Floating Cloud (my first Straight Sword form), and was shocked and embarrassed that I had forgotten bits of it so that Sifu had to show them to me. He wasn't all that happy about that. "Bu lian" (didn't practice), he said , shaking his head. I think he chewed me out on it, but that guy never stays in a bad mood for long. :)

 

Monday night, it snowed! That was exciting for me. The only reason it hasn't snowed so far is because hardly ANY precipitation falls from the sky, because it's definitely been below freezing every night for the past month. It's a really weird contrast to Seattle, where it's ALWAYS overcast or rainy. But by noon on Tuesday, the thin carpet of snow had melted away to make the ground unpleasantly soggy.

 

Tuesday morning we for some reason were told to do Qi Gong. That was rather chilling, with the thin patches of snow providing visual confirmation of the day's coolness. I had dressed to train tough (meaning, I didn't wear very many layers), so I really think that's when I caught my cold.

 

Yep. I haven't been sick at all since I got here (well, except for a few days of indigestion issues, which weren't serious), and on my second to last week, I had watery eyes, runny nose, stuffy head… the works. So I missed all the excitement on Wednesday and everything on Thursday. I think I got my new roommate sick because she was sounding pretty congested too, but since she didn't have a lot of time here she trained anyway.

 

After dinner on Wednesday night, I got treated to a rather loud impromptu fireworks show, put on by some of the boys. That was pretty cool. Well, the uncool part about it was the smoke that hung heavy in the air afterwards and then managed to creep into our room. Six months ago I would've had a small panic attack at the sound of explosions outside of my door (IS THAT A GUNSHOT), but now it's my cue to run outside and see if they're gonna put off any more. I wish I could bring some fireworks back to America, they're so cheap here…

 

Anyway, so my downtime was spent battling my half-melted modem, listening to music, drawing, watching stuff, reading Lorna Doone (that there is a long book), and working on my talk. I got assigned to speak on Sunday, but I'll get to that in a bit.

 

Friday I was still a bit sick, but I was more sick of staying in bed, so I went back to training. Sifu taught me a new Chain Whip flower which I still haven't really figured out properly, but what can you do. Near the end of class he told me to start doing the one where you sit on the ground and jump off your butt while the chain whip goes under you… haven't actually tried it yet. Why did I want to learn chain whip again? Haha.

 

After training on Friday, I went with Mintoi and her boyfriend into town and we got our tickets. They're also flying out early on Saturday, so we all got the Friday afternoon speed train. I was planning to take a taxi back as per usual, but then I found out that it was going to be 20 or 30 yuan more expensive, so I took the bus back (there's a bus station just outside of the ticket office). That was an adventure! I got a seat about two stops before a whole crowd of people got on. And then getting off was the problem. The school is on a long road just outside of town, and I was hoping that everyone would get off before we got to that road, but I wasn't quite so lucky. So as we approached, I had to weedle my way in between people, shouting "Xia Che!" (it literally means "off bus"-- it's what you say when you want to get off the bus), and with the assistance of a few of the other passengers, the bus driver pulled over before going too far past the school. Adventure concluded.

 

And then Friday night I had a lovely time hanging out with the two American girls. We watched Aladdin and stayed up until like midnight, talking. They both left soon after breakfast on Saturday. This left me with an empty Extra Bed, which I have utilized to start packing. Because I'm leaving. In less than a week!

 

That's so crazy.

 

Through packing most of the stuff that I plan to bring home, I discovered that I have a bunch of extra space in my suitcases. I'm not sure how I am on weight, though (I should check that out), so I'll either just leave it as is or fill the extra space with, like… Chinese snacks. There's a really good rice cracker that I have to stop myself from buying every time I go to the 10-minute shop because the entire package will be gone in, like, two days if I get it. I found out I can fit my sword, by the way! If I bend it, that is. Luckily it's a training sword so the end is bendy.Now I just need the certificate from the school that lets me pack it.

 

I wasn't up to a repeat of Friday's adventure, so for fruit shopping on Saturday I just walked myself over to the 10-minute shop garbed in sweats and my big red coat and shoes that had been shoved on without socks. I was a bit chilled, but made my exit quickly. Dude, I got a pair of cheap-looking van-type shoes for NINE KUAI. 9 kuai! 9 kuai. That's, like, $1.50. I'm guessing they would last about a month of regular wear. While I was checking out, it was super obvious that the shop ladies were talking about what I was wearing. I didn't think to do anything about it until afterwards, of course (not sure what I would've done, really. Given them the evil eye?). Oh well. One of them ended up asking me in a slightly raised tone, "Leng ma?" (Aren't you cold?), and I was like "Bu leng" (Nope).*

 

And then Sunday morning I gave my talk! For anyone not in the Mormon Know, a "talk" is basically a short sermon, usually 10-15 minutes**. Each week, 2-3 people are "called" to give a talk during the Sacrament Meeting hour (one of three different hours that are held). Because I attend a virtual branch, I got to sit in my room and talk into my cell phone instead of having to stare down a crowd of people while I talked to them about Honesty. We only had one hour of church, although we usually have a second hour that rotates between Sunday School, Relief Society, and Whatever The Guys Do.

 

Sunday evening at midnight was the official start of Chinese New Year! Happy Year of the Dragon, everyone! Because the kitchen ladies had the afternoon off, we all went to a restaurant. We were all kind of excited about this, assuming we would be going into town. But we ended up having to walk there. That was… a bit cold. We passed two small herds of sheep. I'm in China, guys.

 

Although of course everything they served us was fairly good and there was a big variety, there's something about eating off a tiny plate that just isn't satisfying. I'm excited to go back to America, where I can eat off a plate or bowl that will fit more than a cup of rice. Well, to be fair the bowls at the school that we eat out of fit more like a cup and a half of rice. It's a significant difference.

 

The walk back was dark, and in honor of the new year people were already starting to set off fireworks. But I didn't really notice the distant cracks until midnight, when I finally got up to see what all the explosions were about. I went up to the balcony to get a better view, and every corner of the horizon was shooting off fireworks into the sky. We noticed Shu Shu and his wife lighting small fires, and upon closer inspection, they were making small piles of what looked like shiny gold ornaments and lighting them on fire, every 30 feet or so. This means something. This is important.

 

By 1 am the fireworks had finally quieted to a point where I could go back to sleep. And now it's officially the Year of the Dragon! Yay.

 

Well, that concludes my second-to-last update. This time next week, I'll be home. Probably sitting in Red Robin, eating a swiss mushroom cheeseburger.

 

 

*That's not a literal translation. The word "leng" means cold. "Ma" is the word you put at the end of a sentence to make it a question, and "bu" means not, making the literal translation "Cold?" "Not cold."

 

**5 minutes or less if you're a kid, up to half an hour if you're an older man. By the way, about 60 people "dialled in" to listen to my talk, which as I understand is a bit less than usual because people were traveling for the New Year.

 

 

Thanks for reading! It's been really fun to make a weekly account of my doings in China. So, will Sarah ever do a no-handed cartwheel? Will the speedtrain go over 300 km/h? Will the flight home EVER END? Find out next week in the last installment of

 

SOMEWHAT SHAOLIN

 

When You're Racing With The Clock

Um, that title isn't really referring to anything except that it feels CRAZY that there's only two weeks left in China (less, even). You get extra points if you can name the musical that it's from. Also it was my last week training with Young Sifu, and it just sped by.

 

Monday! Hurray, Basics and Forms. For most of the lessons in the week, Sifu was just trying to get everyone to learn their forms so they could practice it for the next two weeks and be awesome when he comes back.  On Monday I learned how to do a direction-change using my leg on the chain whip. Apparently I need to kick higher (story of my life). But I feel like chain whip is going pretty well, now. There was a move that frustrated me for a little while cuz I JUST DINNA GET IT, but now I do, so…. there… Sifu said that I was getting "better, more practice".

 

The Wudan Straight Sword Form continues to go pretty well. Honestly, it's kind of easy. I think that it's easier for me because the first form I did was both longer and more difficult. The only hard part is remembering to practice it in between classes so I don't forget anything.

 

Tuesday we had more forms practice, and then no Jumps and Rolls. Instead we did some Wing Chun, which was pretty cool as usual. I realized that there's no way I'm going to finish the form that we do on the wooden dummy. I am disappointment.

 

Then in the afternoon we learned some of a two-person Shaolin Short Staff form. Hardcore. It felt more practical to practice a form whilst going against an actual opponent. You certainly can't forget to block.
 

Wednesday was the usual Basics-Forms-Bagua (Wudan!) formula. I spent a lot (see: all) of my free time drawing.

 

On Thursday, we had a short Meditation lesson from Sifu, and then meditated for a while. Meditating is SO hard because you have to clear your mind, and then you're thinking about needing to clear your mind, and then a song gets in your head and you're thinking about trying to get the song out of your head, and… ugh. More practice needed.

 

My Grammy submitted a question about Qi Gong. Basically what it is, is a type of breathing meditation. There's no chanting involved in the forms we do (so far, anyway), but a lot of it is relaxing and slowly stretching your muscles into different poses, breathing through your nose and collecting your chi in the lower part of your stomach. I keep spelling it 'chi' because that's how I first saw it spelled a long time ago so I don't want to confuse myself, but it's the same as the 'qi' in 'Qi Gong". Qi is the combination of your breath and the energy in your body. Besides being great for your health, Qi Gong helps you learn to control and channel your chi into different parts of your body. It's useful for when you're cold.

 

Of course we had conditioning. Of course. It was in the Training Hall this week, and all the other Sifu's students were in there as well (it was a bit windy outside), so we got to watch everyone else get kicked and punched and stuff. Why is that so funny?

 

For Power Training we literally did 500 sit-up type things. He mixed it up, of course, and we got to switch and hold our partner's legs, but… yeah. Doesn't make your stomach feel great.

 

For Wudan Straight Sword, I went over my form and then basically just hung out and talked with people who were also hanging out and talking. One of the guys who just came back from Christmas break from Germany brought out some German chocolate for everyone to try, which was awesome. It was awesome. It was awesome. I ended up doing a bit of qi gong and going over my Wudan short staff form (I'm on the verge of forgetting it oh noes).

 

We had Mandarin every night this week because Nellie left us for her Chinese New Year holiday for the next two weeks. Most of the time she had me memorize a page of words that I should've memorized three months ago and quizzed me on them, but halfway through the week I realized that what I should've done is just make her teach me a ridiculous amount of words so that I could study them for the two weeks she'll be gone. Oh well.

 

On Friday I didn't realize that it was "Friday the 13th" until, like, dinnertime. It has no particular significance. My last Power Stretching with my Sifu was about as painful as usual. I have pictures. Oh! I should attach that as the picture for the e-mail. I'm not making a very flattering face, though.

 

Saturday was my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday, Aubrey! To celebrate, I went to a Chinese restaurant that everyone calls "The Korean" for dinner. That was nice. Saturday was also the day my Sifu left, so he said goodbye to everyone in the morning.

 

Sunday I dialed into church and then spent most of the rest of the day re-reading Tarzan of the Apes (thank you, Project Gutenberg). Now I have to decide between reading Lorna Doone (my awesome aunt's suggestion) or finding out if JANE AND TARZAN WILL EVER GET TOGETHER. I could do both.

 

In the evening we were suddenly informed of getting a new roommate, so Mintoi and I had to scramble to get all of our stuff cleared off the extra bed and desk. It's two American girls, actually, though the other one is upstairs. They're only here for a week, and are both very nice. It's nice to be able to speak American with someone.

 

Anyway, that's it for this week. Sorry I was late!

 

Love you all,

 

Sarah

 

PS I was even later than I thought I would be this week because my internet decided not to send it through yesterday. Sorry for the delay!

Week 18ish

I think it's 18 weeks, now. I sorta just counted in my head rather than use a calendar.

 

Well, we had Monday off for the new year. Usually that would've been exciting and special, but the week before we had had Friday and Monday off for Christmas, so really it was just getting close to tedious. For New Year I did absolutely nothing. Oh, except my darling sister woke up at 8:00 her time to say hi to me at Midnight. Happy 2012, everyone!

 

Anyway, this week I've been spending a lot of time drawring. I've already filled one sketchbook while being here, and am now several pages into the second. It's been fun. I'm not sure I've really talked about it here, but I've been working on a plotline that will someday be a comic, most likely a webcomic (meaning, a comic that is on the internet for people to see rather than in a printed book form). I optimistically decided last year that I would have it ready to start updating in April, but… isn't that when college starts? Haha. I'll just keep plugging away at it and maybe by this summer I'll be able to start putting up pages somewhere.

 

Sad news:  My Sifu is leaving on January 15th for two weeks to visit his family. As I'm leaving China on January 28th, we'll just miss each other. So this next week will be my last week training under him. Depressing? I think so.

 

Basically, what's been going on with Mandarin class is that nobody except me has been going recently, so I've been working on memorizing words, and during class Nellie just tests me on the words I memorized since the last lesson (and all the ones before that, unfortunately), and then answers whatever other questions I have. On Tuesday Sifu sat with me after Nellie had to leave and helped me for a little while, but his Chinese accent is such that he can't really teach me Chinese words effectively, so basically we just started talking about different things… mostly about family, really. And, of course, his life in the Shaolin Temple. You know, they have visitors every day at the Shaolin Temple. It must be such a singular experience to grow up in a tourist spot. It's like, people walking through and taking pictures of your home, and of you. Weird.

 

Most of the week was kind of same-same, monotonous. But Friday contained an interesting experience, because I FINALLY went to the "10-Minute Shop", which, predictably, is only 10 minutes by foot down the road. Way less of a hassle than taking the bus into town and a taxi back. Cheaper, too. I think the change of scene helped break up the feeling that China's getting old. It's a funny little convenience store that really only had the basics. There was no refrigerated section, but at this time of year it was cold enough that the four produce items they had didn't go bad. Amongst the classic carbohydrate snacks there's also some medicine, fireworks, beebee guns, and shoes. I understand now why people at the school are always setting those off. They sit on the shelf so temptingly.

 

For the free afternoon class on Friday I finally asked Sifu to teach me how to do a backflip. And the answer is, I've got a long way to go. It takes quite a bit of coordination to get enough height so you won't injure yourself when you go backwards, and I'm not quite there yet. So for the second half of class I tried to do a proper cartwheel, and FINALLY started improving at that near the end. The next step is one-handed cartwheel, and then no-handed cartwheel. Apparently the chain whip form has many such aerials. Yay, chain whip...

 

And then we had Qi Gong Theory again. That was interesting. Apparently if you do Daoist Qi Gong improperly, then you could go insane.

 

Quickie Mandarin Lesson Time, requested by my sweet Grammy.

 

"Xin Nian Kuai Le", meaning "Happy New Year". "Xin" means "new", "Nian" is "year", and "Kuai Le" is the two words that you use to wish someone a happy something. (Sheng Dan Kuai Le is Merry Christmas). It's a bit different from "gao xing", which also means "happy", but in an emotional way. "Wo gao xing" (Whoa gow sheeng) is "I'm happy".

 

Chain whip's going well, and I don't remember if I said anything, but we're learning a Wudan Straight Sword form (when we're not doing Qi Gong Theory, that is), called "White Rainbow". It's quite a bit shorter than the Wudan Straight Sword form I've already learned, "Floating Cloud". Cute names, huh?

 

And that's about it for this week. Questions and feedback are appreciated. Is it just me, or are these getting shorter?

 

Love you all! And tune in next time to read more stuff about Kung Fu on

 

SOMEWHAT SHAOLIN

 

 

PS I seem to have partially melted my modem, so if you guys are trying to contact me and I don't reply via internet, you know why.

 

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

So I was all like, "Happy New Year!" and she was like, "New Year's not until next month".*

 

At least, I think that's what she was saying. I don't actually speak Chinese. But I know how to say "Happy New Year"**, so… there you go.

 

Well, here we are at the weekend again!

 

This week felt a little weird because we had Monday off, and so they decided for Tuesday classes that Basics were more important than Wing Chun. Maybe they're right, but it doesn't make the Basics class any more exciting. But they did have the usual Jumps and Rolls class, which I decided to go back to. I think it went rather well. Not as much leaping about as usual. Still can't do a backflip.

 

I finished the Short Staff Form! That went a lot more quickly than I thought it would. Maybe it's because Bagua took so ridiculously long to complete. Yeah, I need to practice that one. And my Straight Sword. It suddenly feels like I have a whole lot of forms, and I can never get around to working on them all.

 

On Wednesday I felt super sore the entire day, and I heavily suspect that it was the four-day weekend break that made it so. It reminded me of the very first week I got here, when my legs were just constantly sore, and I started to dread staying here for five months, assuming that it would stay that way. But your body gets used to such things pretty quickly. By Thursday I felt completely better.

 

After a few weeks ago when Power Training felt like it would simply never end, I haven't dreaded it nearly as much. This week's theme was Sit-Ups, and if I remember correctly I did over 300. But doing so and then holding your feet for your partner so he can also do so takes up a lot of time, so we didn't do anything too crazy afterwards. Just the usual push-ups and chicken steps (squatting down all the way and then taking tiny steps forward, with your arms held together behind your back. It's harder than it looks.).

 

Friday! We, of course, had Forms and then Power Stretching in the morning. We've officially finished Tonbei now (the Shaolin Fist Form), and so Sifu asked us if we wanted to start on the Broadsword form. But I've opted instead to do the Single Chain Whip. If you're gonna learn a weapon form, you might as well learn something portable, right? So I was able to get one from the weapon shop here for 30 kuai and "take it for a spin" (ha, get it?) during the free class on Friday afternoon. For the first fifteen minutes of swinging that thing around, I was like, "this is gonna get old really fast", but then at the end of class I was like, "LET'S KEEP GOING". Weirdly addicting. Except when it smacks you in the shin. That's not all that fun. It has a spike on the end, but Shu-Shu recommended that I wrap it up so I wouldn't injure myself. I thought that was sound advice.

 

For Power Stretching, we "combined" with Wei Sifu's class, meaning that the two people from their class who hadn't left for the holidays joined us. Surprisingly, the latter part of this week has seen the fewest number of students that have trained while I've been here. I would've thought that Christmas rather than New Year's would be the time when it would all trickle down to a dozen students. Nope!

 

In my spare time this week I read Wuthering Heights. I'm not sure I can recommend it. It kind of freaked me out. I decided that if "Secret Garden" were a bit longer (like, if it covered the rest of the kids' lives), then it would be the antithesis of "Wuthering Heights". Is it just me, or did Francis Hodgson Burnette have a little more faith in people's goodness than Emily Bronte?

 

Recently I'd taken a bit of a break from Mandarin, but I decided to go back on Wednesday, to discover that others had also dropped the endeavor. So I had Nellie to myself. To her astonishment, she discovered that I don't actually speak Chinese. I've been trying to convince her of as much for several months now. I can't decide if now is a good time to really try to learn, or if I should just wait for an actual college class because I've only got a month left in China.

 

Yes, there is but one month more. *cue Les Miserables Music*. That seems super strange. But I think I'm about ready to go home to my family. After a while China loses its charm, you know? Riding in a taxi has gone from frightening to exciting to "I don't even care that we're on the wrong side of the street right now". It'll be strange to go back to a place where they have traffic laws.

 

Because we're getting Monday off for New Year's, I figured I could use the second Saturday to do my weekly Fruit Shopping and use the actual Saturday to get some rest. Which basically meant that I stayed inside and re-read half of the Scarlet Pimpernel before my smart mother convinced me that I should read one of the classics instead. I've decided on "Moby Dick", but I haven't had the courage yet to get into that "whale" of a book (heh).

 

In the last half hour of daylight on the last day of the year, I decided to take the puppy out for a walk. Here's a cultural thing about China. They don't really care about their pets all that much. In some households in America, it's like the dog is one of the kids. But here? I don't think I've even seen dog and cat food for sale in the supermarket. The dogs that live here at the school eat leftovers. And all of the stray dogs I've seen here have a funny build, with a long body and short legs, like they're descended from household dogs that were turned out on the street. It's sad, really.

 

Anyway, I really didn't do anything exciting for midnight on the New Year.  Had we been near the ocean or something I might've arranged a polar dip, but as it was, 85% of the students went to the local international youth hostel to drink in the New Year; so I stayed in my room and, like, read fanfiction or something until midnight, when my sister got up at 8:00 am her time to say Xin Nian Kuai Le to me.

 

And there goes 2011. According to the Mayans, the world's gonna end this year. I don't put any stock in that; I'm pretty sure those guys practiced human sacrifice.

 

The morning of January 1, 2012, came wrapped in an extremely thick fog. That's pretty much what the next twelve months look like to me. While I can see fairly clearly the things that are coming in the next few months (flying back home, etc.), the way ahead of that is a little more indistinct. But even though that fog was so thick I couldn't see the dining halls, when I stepped into it, it gave the illusion that everything around me was a greyish white. Just because you can't see the future doesn't mean that it's going to be dark.

 

I think it's gonna be a good year.

 

-Sarah

 

*Not only do people here celebrate Chinese New Year, most of them actually go by the Chinese calendar. For them, it's still December right now! It's actually made it a little difficult to figure out when my Sifu's birthday is. All we know is that it's in November, December, or January some time.

 

**"Xin Nian Kuai Le" literally translates to "New Year Happy" and is the common greeting expressed whenever you see someone around the New Year. It's pronounced "shin neean kwhy luh", and I had the pleasure of learning a song to remember the phrase set to "Oh My Darling Clementine".