I was really kind of stuck on a title for this update until I walked out to brush my teeth, and one of the guys said that a lunar eclipse was happening. Pretty cool, right? Wish I had a good camera. And something that repelled the cold.
Basically, this week was another week of training that went by super quickly. (cue day-by-day summary)
On Sunday, I got to dial in to church via cell phone. You can totally do it by Skype if your internet is trustworthy. Mine isn't. Because there are very few members in China (Chinese government policies are to blame for that, unfortunately), my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), has a Virtual Branch in China for existing members that have moved to different cities in China. I'm not sure exactly how many people call in, but it's been so nice to have an hour or two of something that feels like home every week. I also got to talk to my family through Skype Chat, which was great. And entertaining. <3 you guys.
And then, all too soon, the weekend was over and "normal life" resumed. I sort of don't remember Monday. The classes were Basics and then Forms for the morning, and Sanda in the afternoon-- which, as usual, I skipped in favor of Bagua. Some time during the week I finished my Bagua form! Finally! That thing is, like, over 200 movements, man. Not counting all the times that you walk in a circle. It feels weird to have finished it. Like there should be something more. But now Wu Sifu is teaching me the companion Qi Gong form so that I can do the breathing in it properly. That part is super cool. I have a video of Wu Sifu doing some Qi Gong, and then he puts three bricks on top of his head and one of the other Sifus takes a sledgehammer and breaks the bricks. That are on top of his head. And then he walks away from it, laughing and smiling like "That was easy! You guys ready to try?". That's one hardcore cute old Chinese man.
Tuesday was pretty cool in the morning. First hour was Wing Chun, and then second hour I would usually go to Jumps and Rolls, but I somehow couldn't muster up the gumption for it this week, so I sidled over to Hair Sifu's Wing Chun class, which is what everyone else does instead of Jumps and Rolls. I totally liked it. There's an exercise that people call "Sticky Hands" that's sort of like sparring. You touch wrists with your partner, standing far enough apart that your elbows are bent and your shoulders relaxed. You have one wrist inside, one outside. Then you sort of relax your wrists and flop them over each other, the point of which is to feel what your partner's about to do. When one of you strikes, the other can then feel how to block it Wing Chun style, and pretty soon you're not connected by the wrists anymore, but are just blocking and striking like nobody's business. Sometimes it just sort of ends up looking like a catfight. But when Hair Sifu demonstrated a little, it just looked awesome. Like Ip Man. How does he do that? (wistful sigh)
Also on Tuesday we had a little bit of a hullaballoo… well, basically someone has been sending letters to the local government, claiming that students in our school have been doing some disreputable things. It's all lies, of course. The letters were sent anonymously, so Wei Sifu can't request that his accuser look him in the eye. Maybe that's a good thing, because that could end in an Agni Kai*. Anyway, some of the students finally came forward about an issue that's been bothering pretty much all of us: that the rules aren't being enforced properly, especially about staying out late.
That was to be resolved on Thursday, which I'll talk about in a minute.
Continuing on, Mandarin on Tuesday night displayed a class full of three students who hadn't been here more than three weeks between them all… and me, who's been here for three months. So the stuff we learned was super basic. But maybe it's a good thing for me to take a break from "learning" new stuff and going back to my old lessons which I haven't even kind of memorized. Chinese has a lot of words.
Wednesday. Morning was, again, Basics and Forms. Because I'm officially done with my Staff form, I've started onto the next Shaolin Fist Form, Tonbei**. At first I was hesitant to learn it because I felt like I could be learning something cooler (single chain whip, anyone?), but now that I've started it, it feels pretty cool. Like I'm firebending. Yeh. Afternoon class was Bagua. The second hour of Bagua, Wu Sifu took us to the training hall and taught us some applications to the Wudan Tai Chi form that a whole lot of people have been learning. That mostly consisted of blocking someone's punch, hitting them where it hurt (such as a shoulder pressure point, which he kindly demonstrated on me), and throwing them to the ground. Pretty fun stuff.
Wednesday evening, Nellie wanted to watch a movie to improve her English, and someone had suggested The King's Speech to her. I've been wanting to see that, so we watched it together and it was great. Admittedly, it was a little weird to see Colin Firth as a somewhat older man than he was as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 A&E Pride and Prejudice.
Thursday. After breakfast, I looked over at the bathrooms, and saw that a bird had flown into the sink area. It looked sort of charming, perched there at the edge of the sink. I walked over and saw that the window was closed. I guess it had flown in through the door? So I tiptoed over, opened the window, backed away, and watched it run into the glass several times before finally finding the open window and escaping to freedom.
Qi Gong and Conditioning were about the same as usual. When I go home I think I'll miss having gnarly bruises on my arms. Not that I want people at home to beat me up (pft, I know kung fu now. I'd like to see them try).
But Power Training this week was brutal. I think. No, yeah, it was because I was super sore afterwards. I still am, a little bit. But it's sort of a blur. I remember running. Chicken Steps. Push-ups. Lifting stones over my head. Ledge Walk. Ledge push-ups. 2-person Squats. And at the end he made us do some wheelbarrow. Yeah. Nothing quite like power training, where you do ridiculous things while a Chinese guy follows you around, urging you to go faster.
So, as per the issue raised on Tuesday, on Thursday afternoon we all sat in the freezing Training Hall and had a Student/Staff meeting to decide what the rules and punishments are for smoking, drinking, and staying out late on the weekends. Pretty much, the punishment for violating any of the Big Three will be doing horse stance for half an hour, then subsequently holding a push-up position for half an hour and running ten laps. We're not sure it's possible. Monday might bring that to the test. After being punished like this twice, a student will be dismissed from the school if they do it a third time.
Friday, was (Tai Chi), Forms, and Power Stretching. For forms I worked on Tonbei some more. We actually got a new guy in our class, so I soooort of feel like Sifu didn't go as hard on us as usual with the Power Stretching. I learned how to count to five in Hungarian. Then we had the Friday Afternoon class… it's usually a Free Period, but Sifu had the three of us who graded the Staff Form learn some Staff Applications. Fighting with staffs, man. A little bit scary, actually, because if you don't block someone's attack, it really will hurt when they hit you. I mean, when someone's punching you in class, they sort of give you time to block it, or it's become such a habit that you block it automatically, you know? But at first, hitting your staff against someone else's staff so it makes a loud CLACK was sort of… sort of like when you first get into a Chinese taxi and the guy's veering around people and honking his horn and you realize that there's no seatbelt buckle so you're in real danger. But then you get used to it and pretty soon it's kind of fun. It's like that.
Friday night I sort of stayed up late, and got to chat with my awesome Mom, who happened to be on the computer at five in the morning, her time. When I said I'd lost my Nook (grrr), she sent me a website that had a whole bunch of free ebooks (somehow made legal because of expired copyrights and such). It's called Project Gutenberg. The majority of my Saturday was spent reading Anne's House of Dreams. Man, L. M. Montgomery is good for the soul. I couldn't decide if it cured my homesickness or made me even more homesick.
So, yeah. Saturday. Today. Basically all I did was read, spend some time on the computer doing other things, and run to the supermarket for this week's victuals. I'll be trying out some apples that look special because they have that wrapping around them that Americans put around Asian Pears. And to be adventurous I decided to give Chinese pastries another chance. They still suck.
And that was my week. I didn't get any official questions from anybody, but my mom asked me if I was cold.
Yes. Yes I am. But I'm pretty much always wearing a sweatshirt (or "jumper" as people around here call them. That took me a little while to get used to), and sometimes I feel like I'm the person who's wearing the fewest layers around here, especially compared to my roommate who always has another longsleeve to put on. But the cold basically doesn't bother me a lot… especially during training, right after I've run three laps. And the thermals I got are really nice. I discovered on Monday that one of the pairs that the lady at the Underground sold me was made for guys. Luckily, I have a sewing kit. No longer made for guys.
Well, that concludes this week's update! Feel free to send me any comments or questions as usual. You are also free to send me any presents for Christmas. If you want it to be a surprise, the address for the school is on their website, www.shaolinskungfu.com. ;)
<3,
Sarah
*A Firebending duel, usually initiated when one firebender has insulted the honor of another. See Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1, Episode 3: The Southern Air Temple for a good example.
**Don't take my word for it on that spelling.
No comments:
Post a Comment