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
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