Friday
Ever since i got the tattoo my right arm has been a bit sore. I have been using my left hand a lot more lately. i could barely pick up chopsticks with my left hand on Thurday but so far I am getting pretty good.
Today was packing day. Packed up my suitcase and since it has been snowing pretty hard lately we decided to go to Yantai tonight so we wouldnt get snowed in at the academy and miss the flight.
So around 6pm Danny, Sam, Olivia, and I headed to Yantai. Had a nice dinner to celebrate Christmas and then went back to the Hotel because we were all tired and needed rest for Beijing.
Saturday
Went to breakfast and had DIMSUM for the first time since i been in CHINA! I L.O.V.E Dimsum and i could never find a place that had it until now. Danny said it is not popular here because Dimsum is a southern china style of food and we are in the northern part of china.
After breakfast we went to do some shopping and played some aracade games in Parkson while Danny took his laptop to get fixed.
Then we decided to go to KTV since Sam has never been and we felt like singing. We were singing for 3 hours straight! So fun!!
After dinner I got some snacks at Walmart for the hotel since we weren't going to drink the tap water.
Got an early night sleep...well i couldnt sleep because i cant wait to go to BEIJING!!!
Ill tell you the plan what we will do in beijing.
GO to the Great Wall.
Forbidden City
Summer Palace
University in beijing where one of the students at the academy went and we want to check it out.
More places but it has Chinese names and Danny knows what its called...not me.
I told them i want to go to the Zoo and see Pandas for sure! Or even a Panda Reserve if they have any in Beijing.
The trip is pretty relaxed. we have a good group going. We are all up for anything.
Sunday
Woke up. repacked my bag. Headed to the airport. On the way the taxi put our bags in the trunk. It didnt fit. He told us itll be ok. We said no the trunk wont even shut so the bags would can fall out! the taxi said its fine he "promises" that it wont fall.
Well for some stupid reason we let him do that and i kept an eye on the bags the whole time.
We made it to the airport with all our bags and checked in.
Now we are waiting for the plane to come and board so i decided to update my blogs.
while we waited for the plane to arrive Danny has only been on a plane once in his life and he is terrifed of flying. I also found out Sam who was acting a bit nervous was not a fan of flying either! I sat next to them on the plane so i knew i would have fun messing with them.
On the plane Danny was looking everywhere, sweating, and nonstop talking. Danny immediately buckled his seat belt in. Unfortunetly he bucked it in with the relese side on his stomach...and he made sure it was tight. Sam and i told him its backwards and to take it off and when he tried to reliese the belt it wouldnt open because he had no room. He started to panic even more. i couldnt help but laugh but we got it loosed and buckled him in the right way. Sam was trying to close his eyes and relax and i was just watching them laughing so hard i was crying. I talked to sam and made him laugh a bit more and helped him relax too. I couldnt bring myself to be mean and joke around with them about being scared so i tried to help calm them down. Once we took off they both immediatly relaxed. I dont understand that. I would figure if your on the ground your calm and then nervous when in the air...i didnt want to ask and bring that up.
We landed after an hour and had to take a shuttel. Which took an hour then once we got off we took a taxi to the hotel. The hotel is nice for only 13 dollars a night. Danny got us a good deal.
Went out to eat dinner and now back at the hotel. i still cant believe i am in beijing. It feels a lot different than Yantai or Kunyushan!
Tomorrow we go to The Forbidden City.
Goodnight
Scott
I came to China to learn Kung Fu from the Best! But I have also learned about myself and Life. I will never forget this Adventure!
Monday, December 27, 2010
My Chinese Tattoo
As for training this past week. Training was good. Training was cold.
While we have two weeks off from Training, I am going to Beijing!!
Here is a quick update of the last week
Wednesday
Class learned more moves in my form in wing chun and baji
Master Gao was in a great mood today. not sure why
I went to the Everything Store with X and Jake and bought some shoes and some snacks for me and Sam.
Had a regular power training session. Master Gou made us do jumps across the whole training hall so i was a bit tired before we even started!
I couldnt sleep because of tattoo. I am getting it tomorrow morning. I don't know what I have already written about this tattoo but this place is where several guys have gotten tattoos. Me and Kjetil were wanting to get a tattoo but wanted to wait until the semester was over so we would not sweat on a fresh tattoo or worse do sparing on a fresh tattoo. My tattoo was going to be of a dragon since my Chinese name is Dragon.
Thursday - Tattoo Day
Woke up went to bank to get money for tattoo. Went to phone store to put more money on my cell phone for when i go to Beijing. Went to McDonalds for breakfast.
Went to tattoo place at 10:25 am. Keep in mind last week the tattoo guy said this tattoo will take about 5 hours.
Did the drawing on my arm to see how I want it. I had seen the artwork of the tattoo and liked it. There was some discussion whether the dragon's head was going to be near my chest or near my biceps. I talked with my dad who likes the tattoo but said the dragon should be 'looking out' so should be more on the arm. Well, after trying to explain where I wanted the dragon's head and where I wanted my Chinese name written in Chinese Characters the guy started drawing. But the guy kept drawing. I was expecting a tattoo as large as my hand. If you put your hand over your heart like you were going to 'Pledge Allegence to the Flag" that was how big I expected the Tattoo. I thought it was going to be from the chest and down the bicep a little. Well this guy kept drawing and drawing. He even drew the dragon's tail behind my head all the way to the spine between my shoulder blades.
When he was finished drawing I was shocked. I loved this dragon. When I found out that this big tattoo was not going to cost me more than I expected to pay I made up my mind and said 'go for it'.
Started the needle work around 11 am.
I still couldnt believe i am getting such a big tattoo. I love it.
Kjetil came to visit me around 3pm. I was pretty hungry by then so Kjetil bought me some street food close by and i devouered it quickly...bad mistake. He stayed with me while tattoo was being done till around 6 to meet up with Kyle and some friends. 6 hours have passed... I was hoping we would be finished soon.
Around 8pm i started feeling a bit sick to my stomach. Could of been the food or the 9 hours of work being done. But he was almost done so i toughed it out. I originally wanted red to be put in on the tattoo but i will add it when i get back from Beijing.
I finished around 9:45pm. almost 11 hours of tattooing. I was so happy when it was finished. I love the tattoo so much. I still look at it and cant believe its that big. It goes from my forearm to my spine.
Since it was so late i couldnt go back to the Academy so i called Danny to tell the academy that i am staying at the bath house. The tattoo guy heard me and had Danny translate over the phone that the tattoo guy will go with me to the bath house to keep an eye on my tattoo and to make sure I am ok. The tattoo guy doesnt speak a lot of english but I was able to understand him a little with gestures and understanding a few words here and there.
In the morning we got some breakfast and headed to the tattoo shop to meet Kjetil for his tattoo.
Hung around from arounf 10 am to 2pm with Kjetil watching him get his tattoo. During that time Kyle came by to see how he was doing and around 3pm we took a taxi back to the academy to make it back in time for the Christmas feast.
Washed up and got ready for the feast just in time. The food was pretty good. Great Dumplings. Whole fish in sweet n sour sauce. Chicken, Beef, maybe Lamb or water buffalo, and more meat. It was very tasty. Where have they been hiding all this food?? Then some performers sang, danced, played some instruments such as the Saxaphone and the Chinese string instrument which is played like a piano combined with a cello. Very interesting.
I was very tired so I headed up stairs to rest. Have a big week ahead of me. BEIJING! WOOHOO!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Here is what I have been doing lately
Tuesday December 7
Morning training was fun. It was application today. Shifu demonstrated the moves on me again and this time one of the moves was a throat attack. When he grabbed my throat it shocked me a bit because it felt like he was going to rip it out!
Kjetil and i paired up to practice and we were throwing punches pretty hard so when we countered the move we would hit each others face or hit eachother pretty hard. It was a fun way to condition.
Then it was Lunch. I was about to go to the dining hall when Matt, Gram, and Siggy told me they were going to muping and i should go.
went to muping with matt and siggy beacuse the taxi came a bit later and Gram went to lunch.
got lunch in the top floor of the super market after we got lost. We went to one of the workers and Mimed out eating at a table. They pointed us where to go.
Then we went to the bank for matt. They wouldnt be able to get his money out for an hour so we decided to go back to school because it was training time. Before we left i bought a whole stick of Sugar Cane. It was amaizng. When i got back to the academy i gave some to my friends and even tried giving Master Gou a little but he laughed and said he doesnt like it anymore. when he was younge he did but now he doesnt like sweet stuff.
Then afternoon class was stance training.
Matt had to go back so he asked me to go with him. So we went back to muping for bank. He got his money and we stopped by a store because i wanted to buy some stuff. i bought myself a nice pair of gloves and wraps for sparring this friday.
When i got back i went to train for a bit. I did leg workout jumps with jospeh for about an hour and a half and then abs n calistectics with rob for about an hour.
Before i went upstairs i spoke to X about training. we are going to train and sparr tomorrow to get ready for friday.
Monday December 13
Training was so hard but fun. It was cold and snow everywhere. Before we ran we had announcements. Two new students joined the academy today,Husband and Wife. The Wife will be joining the Wing Chun group and the HUsband is doing Shaolin. The Husband is from New Zeland and the Wife is from Brazil. Luckily we were able to do the morning run inside the training hall instead of running to the tree. The masters even joined us on the running as well. The masters look a bit more playful when it is cold because they where laughing, running around, and actually smiling.
Clement did the warm ups today. He used to be a Ski Instructor back in France so we did extra warm ups to keep warm. We did basic drills. While we did it Jospeh had me teach the Wife, Vivian, the drills. Then practiced our forms. I learned more to my sparring form with Jospeh.
Second class was Chigong and Conditioning. Didnt do moving Chigong today which is more fun. But once we finished we conditioned inside the Wing Chun hall instead of by the trees outside since it was snowing.
After class instead of lining up for lunch, Matt and I started making Snowballs and throwing them at people. Matt is from Saint Martin and he never seen snowfall before! We had a blaste. The lunch bell rang and we were still throwing snowballs at people till Master Gou yelled, "Zi Long! Zi Lu!" Pointed to the dining hall and laughed. We stopped playing and went to stand inline for food.
Then once we finished lunch we ran outside and started making snowballs to throw at people again.
Had baji for afternoon class. Practiced our forms. Master Gou taught me a lot of moves today. I picked it up quick. Im still only half way through this form. It is a long Form.
Showered up.
Had dinner. Cup of hot chocolate. And bedtime.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Tuesday
It was so cold waking up this morning. All i wanted to do is lay in my warm bed.
Went to morning class and did drills. Master Gou had Clement teach Vivian more of the drills and Shifu had me lead the other line with Jospeh.
During break Mattchew and i made snowballs again and hid them so we were ready to throw them at people after class.
Today was acrobatics. We did jumps, rolls, and take downs in the ring.
Had a huge snowball fight before lunch with MAttchew against Kjetil, Ben, and Danny.
Then when Mattchew and i were walking to class, we got our hidden stash of snow balls and threw it. Hit sam in the head which was the best hit of the day.
We ran inside before we started the afternoon class. I saw Master Gou sweeping the side walk to get the snow off. I told Mattchew lets help. We ran over to him and asked if he needed help. We got brooms and started sweeping. Then we started clearing the drive way and Master Gou gave us these snow pushers. By that time Clement and Jospeh joined us. They thought we were being punished for throwing snowballs. I thought it was fun sweeping the snow. Clement taught us a way where we line our snow pushers together side by side and push at the same time and cleared a lot of snow very quickly. By the time we finished it was 30 minutes into class time. We did a quick warm up and a quick stance training. Since Master Gou times the stances which we hold usually for 3 or 4 minutes. He made us hold it for 1 or 2 minutes since we were a bit late but made us hold the stances a lot lower. It hurt a lot. I can feel my legs getting stronger though so i am not complaining.
dinner. Found out it was grading tomorrow. Practice my Wing CHun fist form and then showered up and bed.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Wednsday
Today was power training. The Sun was out this morning...well more than it was the past few days so it was a bit easier to get out of bed. Actually no, it was still hard leave my bed this morning even though the sun was out!
Morning training was pretty light since it was power training today. Did basic drills and then learned more moves to the sparring form. Since today was grading i practiced my Fist form in Wing Chun after my sparring form. I have been practicing my Sparring form so much i havent really practice my Fist form. So i was a bit nervous to grade today.
Second class was grading. I had to go first in our group but our group was after the shaolin group. Kjetil, Luigi, and Mario were grading the same form as me. Luckily i had Sam record my performance. I am trying to figure a way to email the videos but its so long that it wont upload on AOL. Anyone have suggestions?
After grading Mattchew and started making snowballs to throw at people who wait in line for lunch.
Once we finished lunch we ran outside to make more snowballs and have another fight during break. About 7 of us were throwing snowballs at each other. When someone finishes their lunch they would have to walk past us to go into the acadamey so we would bombbard them with snowballs. It was really fun. Throwing snowballs at trained Kung Fu students are a bit hard because we train our reflexes so we dodge a lot. Some guys even kick the snowballs before it hits them. I call it Kung Fu snowball fighting.
Afternoon class was power training. Instead of running in the hall Clement, Matt, and I ran to the gate outside which is what we normally do on POWER training days. The sun was out so it wasnt too cold but the air was still freezing. It was fun to run on the road because there would be road then on the side would be snow and running on snow is fun.
After we did warm ups and drills we usually do power stretching and then abs and such but to day we put the mats together to make a small ring. Master Gou had us practice take downs on each other. The game was one guy stays in the ring and one person goes into the ring one at a time and tries to take him down. No punching or kicking only grabs and take down moves were aloud. It was really exhuasting. Had a lot of fun doing it though. Afterward we were all so sore. Kjetil had a busted lip. One guy landed on his neck so he was a bit sore. I got elbowed in the face. They call it pain. I call it conditioning. Itll make us stronger i say.
Instead of going to dinner Sam and I went next door to eat some good food to celebrate out grading. I talked to Danny who was the translator for the grading and he told me i did well on my scores. He does remember what my score was but my score was number three after Clement who got first then Phil who have been at the acadamey for over 5 months. So i thought i did pretty good.
Showered up and now going to bed.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Lets get ready to rummmblllleeee... well next friday anyway
Tuesday
Morning training was fun. It was application today. Shifu Gou demonstrated the moves on me again and this time one of the moves was a throat attack. When he grabbed my throat it shocked me a bit because it felt like he was going to rip it out!
Kjetil and I paired up to practice and we were throwing punches pretty hard so when we countered the move we would hit each others face or hit eachother pretty hard. It was a fun way to condition.
Then it was Lunch. I was about to go to the dining hall when Matt, Gram, and Siggy told me they were going to the City of Muping and wanted me to go along.
So I went to Muping with Matt and Siggy. Once there we wanted to get lunch in the top floor of the super market but we got lost. We went to one of the workers and Mimed out eating at a table. They pointed us where to go.
Then we went to the bank for Matt. They wouldn't be able to get his money out for an hour so we decided to go back to school because it was training time. Before we left I bought a whole stick of Sugar Cane. It was amaizng. When I got back to the academy I gave some to my friends and even tried giving Master Gou a little but he laughed and said he doesnt like it anymore. He said, when he was young he did but now he doesn't like sweet stuff.
Then afternoon class was stance training.
Matt had to go back so he asked me to go with him. So we went back to Muping to the bank. He got his money and we stopped by a store because I wanted to buy some sparing stuff. I bought myself a nice pair of gloves and wraps for sparring this friday.
When I got back I went to train for a bit. I did a 'leg workout' jumps with Jospeh for about an hour and a half and then abs n calisthenics with Rob for about an hour.
Before I went upstairs to my room, I spoke to X about training. We are going to train and spar tomorrow to get ready for friday.
Going to rest. Pretty exhuasted.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Goodnight.
-Scott
Monday, December 6, 2010
Kung Fu kids watching Karate Kid
I just checked the statistics of this blog and I want to say "Welcome" to the readers from Russia, Denmark and Malaysia as well as all my other readers. I would like it if you have not done it yet, please click "follow" if your computer system allows that.
Today I planned to go shopping with Gram and Kjetil in town today. Our plan was go to Muping and go to the weapon shop, post office, supermarket, massage, and dinner.
I wanted to go to the weapon shop because I am looking for 6 meter wraps for boxing. I have 3 meter ones which are ok but Master Gou said the 6 meter ones are better. Couldn't find any. I will look in Yantai next weekend for some.
Then we went to the post office. Kjetil wanted to mail stuff home. I also want to mail some things back for the holidays so I checked out the shipping prices. for a 15kg box, its 300y by boat or 900y by plane. Plane takes about a week. Boat takes a MONTH. looks like I can't afford to ship presents back home.
On the way back to the taxi I saw a small pen shop. I looked inside to see if they had any caligraphy stuff. Luckily they had some so I bought more caligraphy supplies. (Hey! Maybe when I get good at calligraphy I can ship that home as a gift?) Comment below if you would like me to send you one.
Then we drove to the supermarket. Before we went in we stopped by the tailor to pick up grams pants. I saw the cutiest puppy. (I took a picture and when the internet is better I will post.)
Then went to supermarket to buy some breakfast supplies and any kind of shelf so I can organize my room a bit more. While i was looking two little kids saw us and was staring at gram, kjetil, and I. We saw kids and kjetil said "Ni Hao." No response. Then Kjetil sang a chinese kid song he learned from Mandarin class and once he started singing the two kids started mouthing the words like they knew the song too. I thought that was pretty cool.
After we shopped we went to massage place. Kjetil and I got massages while Gram talked to the owner who is a Doctor at the near by hospital.
I asked him what they where doing because HE began to massage HER. He told me he gets lessons from her. So I asked the Doctor if she could teach me. She agreed and will teach me on weekends.
Then Gram invited the doctor to dinner with us and the doctor took us to a near by dumpling resturant. The food was amazing. This was Grams last time he would see the doctor because he leaves this weekend. It was a nice goodbye dinner.
Then home.
Monday
Woke up later than usual. Had to speed clean then help Jospeh sweep the training hall. I missed last week and a bit of this week because when I got down there it was practially finished so I told him to stop by my room. When he came by I gave him a small jar of nutella to say sorry that I bailed on him twice and I felt bad...plus I dont want to be punished by shifu.
During the morning run it was freezing cold. The weird thing was the Sun was out, the sky was blue, but my face felt like it would have froze if I didnt have my face mask. I saw an iceicle longer than my hand on the water faucet by the dining hall.
Then morning class was fun. Practiced and learned more moves to my sparring form.
Today there was grading after second class so we would not do condiditoning today but we still did chi gong. Before we started class we ran a bit because Shifu said to warm up. He even ran a bit with us. Then we did moving chi gong instead of standing and meditating. We had to do stances and jumps and different movements but I did not feel cold at all which was good.
The grading was basics so i could not grade since I graded all my basics. On the 15th of this month is the regular grading so I will grade my wing chun form. Then we had lunch and break.
The afternoon class was baji and I learned more moves to that form as well. Unfortunetly I have a long way to go till I am close to finishing the form.
After class i went upstairs and started to watch the movie karate kid with Matt. After a while, we paused the movie and went to dinner.
Talked to Joseph last week about the workout he does with Phillip after dinner every day. They invited me to workout. It was really fun we had to do 50 jumps onto 8 stacks of pads which reached the top of my abs.
Then on 3 pads jump 25 time on one leg. Twice on both legs. Then 50 jumps with two feet but without bending the knees.
Once we finished we stretched. Jospeh has a stretch routine that helps with the splits. the routine is stretching each muscle indiviually. Phil just does each splits and holds it for three minutes. I chose to stretch with Jospeh.
After that, Jospeh was waiting for Phil to finish so they can practice a form so I said "while waiting, lets do abs". He didn't want to and instead we agreed we would do abs on Thursdays but since he was still waiting i talked him into trying the Stomach exercises today. I showed him my abs curcit that I usually do back home. 50 leg lifts. 50 leg climbs. 50 scissors. 50 bicycles. 50 sit ups to the knees. By the time I finished my first 50 leg lifts he didnt want to do it anymore. Said it was painful and an "evil" work out. He gave up but said i can create an 'evil workout' for thursday and he will do it. I plan on making it the hardest workout ever. Once i finished the rest of my abs i then did 30 push ups on finger tips to knuckles then 20 push ups on nails.
I went upstairs and on the way i saw Matt so i told him lets finish the movie.
Finished the movie and going to bed.
goodnight,
-Scott
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Thank God It is the Weekend
Friday
Woke up feeling better. Trained a bit harder today and felt great. Went over forms in wing chun and baji class. Then the mountain run after lunch.
I did about 10 bear crawls until i started feeling a bit sick so i headed back with a few other guys as well. I made it back in time for the caligraphy class with master gou. I was talking to phil about it and its only him and Master Gou in that class. I decided to go check it out. Master Gou taught me how to write the first stroke which is a horizontal line, then how to write Kunyushan Mountain where we train and, my chinese name Zi Long.
After class i showered up and went out to dinner in Yantai with Kjetil. We both had a T-bone steak..first time in 2 months since i had a steak. It was amazing. Then we stayed the night at the Bath house relaxing from a long hard week.
Saturday
Woke up, washed up, and got breakfast at McDs...first time pancakes in 2 months.
Then walked to walmart shopping center. Took a look at the tea shop and took a picture of the different pots when i was take a picture of the tea the lady stopped me and said i cant take pictures.
Kjetil and i went to tattoo shop since Kjetil, Mattche, and i want to get a tattoo of our chinese name. He didnt understand what we wanted to get done when i told him name. Since i went to my caligraphy class i knew how to draw out zi Long, so i got a pen, drew Zi Long out in characters and showed him thats the name i want. He understood me then. I was quiet impressed with myself that i can write Chinese characters! Kjetil will bring a picture with his name written down along with Matt. we decided to do it on Christmas since we have a couple weeks off for the holidays so we wont train and be sore. I wont say more about my design of my tattoo. Ill let that be a surprise for your christmas day. Communicating with the tattoo artist was easy. He does not speak English but we showed him Dec. 25 and asked if we can do it then and he said yes. Bargined the price of the tattoo down a bit and discussed colors. We are so excited to get our tattoos done. This will be Kjetil's and Matt's first tattoo. I showed the tattoo artist my tattoo i already had and he looked at it and said i should make it bigger. I laughed and said i will think about it.
After we left the shop we met up with gram, aldo, mario and luigi, and Daniel. We went to the bookshop, weapon shop, and the Dvd shop. I bought about 10 DVDs there. only 6 yuan each. I bought movies like Clash of the Titans, Sherlockholmes, KungFu Panda, and few other favorites of mine. Once we all met back at the taxi, we went to Jusco for dinner. We ate at a Japanese resturant...first time i had Japanese food in 2 months. We sat by the window and all the local chinese people would walk by starring at us through the window. i said, "I feel like we are in a fish tank." after eating we walked around shopped a bit and Gram and I got some good donutes at the bakery.
Had a pretty fatty day today but we earned it...well thats what gram and i keep telling ourselves. Then we came home and now im exhuasted. I have to clean up and do laundry tomorrow but thank god its only Sunday.
Goodnight
-Scott
Woke up feeling better. Trained a bit harder today and felt great. Went over forms in wing chun and baji class. Then the mountain run after lunch.
I did about 10 bear crawls until i started feeling a bit sick so i headed back with a few other guys as well. I made it back in time for the caligraphy class with master gou. I was talking to phil about it and its only him and Master Gou in that class. I decided to go check it out. Master Gou taught me how to write the first stroke which is a horizontal line, then how to write Kunyushan Mountain where we train and, my chinese name Zi Long.
After class i showered up and went out to dinner in Yantai with Kjetil. We both had a T-bone steak..first time in 2 months since i had a steak. It was amazing. Then we stayed the night at the Bath house relaxing from a long hard week.
Saturday
Woke up, washed up, and got breakfast at McDs...first time pancakes in 2 months.
Then walked to walmart shopping center. Took a look at the tea shop and took a picture of the different pots when i was take a picture of the tea the lady stopped me and said i cant take pictures.
Kjetil and i went to tattoo shop since Kjetil, Mattche, and i want to get a tattoo of our chinese name. He didnt understand what we wanted to get done when i told him name. Since i went to my caligraphy class i knew how to draw out zi Long, so i got a pen, drew Zi Long out in characters and showed him thats the name i want. He understood me then. I was quiet impressed with myself that i can write Chinese characters! Kjetil will bring a picture with his name written down along with Matt. we decided to do it on Christmas since we have a couple weeks off for the holidays so we wont train and be sore. I wont say more about my design of my tattoo. Ill let that be a surprise for your christmas day. Communicating with the tattoo artist was easy. He does not speak English but we showed him Dec. 25 and asked if we can do it then and he said yes. Bargined the price of the tattoo down a bit and discussed colors. We are so excited to get our tattoos done. This will be Kjetil's and Matt's first tattoo. I showed the tattoo artist my tattoo i already had and he looked at it and said i should make it bigger. I laughed and said i will think about it.
After we left the shop we met up with gram, aldo, mario and luigi, and Daniel. We went to the bookshop, weapon shop, and the Dvd shop. I bought about 10 DVDs there. only 6 yuan each. I bought movies like Clash of the Titans, Sherlockholmes, KungFu Panda, and few other favorites of mine. Once we all met back at the taxi, we went to Jusco for dinner. We ate at a Japanese resturant...first time i had Japanese food in 2 months. We sat by the window and all the local chinese people would walk by starring at us through the window. i said, "I feel like we are in a fish tank." after eating we walked around shopped a bit and Gram and I got some good donutes at the bakery.
Had a pretty fatty day today but we earned it...well thats what gram and i keep telling ourselves. Then we came home and now im exhuasted. I have to clean up and do laundry tomorrow but thank god its only Sunday.
Goodnight
-Scott
Friday, December 3, 2010
week in review
Before I start todays blog I want to talk about about the chocolates I brought to China. I left America with few bags of Ghirideli Chocolate to give out as gifts. I gave Sam some chocolate when I first came here to be a nice roommate and to show I'm a nice guy. I gave one bag to Jenny, one of the translators who helped me when I was in the hospital. I even gave a few to my other classmates who've never been to America. I told them they have to try some American chocolate. During Halloween I gave some out to guys just for fun. I even had a bag out for Thanksgiving. I have about 3 bags left out of 6 bags of chocolate. I suggest if you want to make friends quick in a new place...bring some chocolate.
Tuesday
Woke up and went down to breakfast.
morning class was applications so I was excited to train. during warm ups Shifu gave Matt a chinese name. Last week I choose Zi Long, 子龙 after the Chinese general meaning I am very respectful,honest, loyal, and brave, as my chinese name. Matt wanted a chinese name as well. So this morning Matt choose his name. He picked Zi Lu, 子路 meaning Beautiful Jade. Master said our names are brothers which is funny because Matt and I train together a lot during sparring, applications, or just practicing forms together.
After applications we had acrobatics. After jumping around and doing take downs I didnt feel so good. I had no appitite at lunch. My stomach was killing me.
I had to go to afternoon class. about 6 people were out of class today because they were sick (and/or) they didnt want to do stance training. I had to go to class or else Master would think I'm weak. I made it through stance training without throwing up which I felt I cuold have done at any moment. After class I collasped in my room. I had no appitite for dinner. Sam was nice enough to get me a cup of noodles from downstairs and a can of sprite. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling a lot better.
Wednesday
I woke up feeling sick. I went down to Master Gou's office and told him I feel really sick and I will have to take the morning off. He said if I still don't feel good in the afternoon then don't do power training.
So I went back to my room and stayed in for training hoping I would be better by power training....unfortunetly it didn't happen.
I felt so sick I didnt even go to Lunch or Dinner. I just tried to rest and drank water.
Thursday
The weather is changing slowly but surely. There has been a bit less sun lately and more freezing winds. The windows have ice on them in the mornings which stays there until afternoon break. I have been waiting for the snow to fall. Last year the snow fell in November. Now we're in Decemeber and there is no snow. It feels so cold as if there could be snow. Many students are getting injured more badly ever since it got colder. Even the masters said be careful when training in the cold. My left ankle has been killing me for the past week. I have to buy myself an Ankle brace this weekend. My Right knee is starting to act up every once in a while as well. Training will get a lot harder now. I can't wait, this will be fun.
In the morning I felt a little better, I wanted to train. I can't handle being in bed all day for two days straight so I really wanted to train and today was circut training which I love.
circuit training was hard. I sweated a lot hoping that I will sweat out all the bad Qi in my body and get my blood flowing so I can recover faster. I dont know if that really helps but I felt better after training.
After lunch I relaxed until San Da training. I paired up with Gram and we worked the bags pretty hard. We also even did slap boxing for points. My reflexes are getting faster. I was going to start Spar training with X today but Andres is leaving so X and a few other guys are going to take him to the Airport to say Goodbye. I didnt mind since I still had a bit of a stomach ache so we will start next week. It's sad that Andres is leaving. He is one of the older students in the Wing Chun group. He said he is going home till May to make money then come back. He has been here for 8 months already.
Had an appitite for dinner which was a good sign and after I washed up and went to bed early so I am fully rested for the Friday mountain run.
Goodnight
-Scott
Woke up and went down to breakfast.
morning class was applications so I was excited to train. during warm ups Shifu gave Matt a chinese name. Last week I choose Zi Long, 子龙 after the Chinese general meaning I am very respectful,honest, loyal, and brave, as my chinese name. Matt wanted a chinese name as well. So this morning Matt choose his name. He picked Zi Lu, 子路 meaning Beautiful Jade. Master said our names are brothers which is funny because Matt and I train together a lot during sparring, applications, or just practicing forms together.
After applications we had acrobatics. After jumping around and doing take downs I didnt feel so good. I had no appitite at lunch. My stomach was killing me.
I had to go to afternoon class. about 6 people were out of class today because they were sick (and/or) they didnt want to do stance training. I had to go to class or else Master would think I'm weak. I made it through stance training without throwing up which I felt I cuold have done at any moment. After class I collasped in my room. I had no appitite for dinner. Sam was nice enough to get me a cup of noodles from downstairs and a can of sprite. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling a lot better.
Wednesday
I woke up feeling sick. I went down to Master Gou's office and told him I feel really sick and I will have to take the morning off. He said if I still don't feel good in the afternoon then don't do power training.
So I went back to my room and stayed in for training hoping I would be better by power training....unfortunetly it didn't happen.
I felt so sick I didnt even go to Lunch or Dinner. I just tried to rest and drank water.
Thursday
The weather is changing slowly but surely. There has been a bit less sun lately and more freezing winds. The windows have ice on them in the mornings which stays there until afternoon break. I have been waiting for the snow to fall. Last year the snow fell in November. Now we're in Decemeber and there is no snow. It feels so cold as if there could be snow. Many students are getting injured more badly ever since it got colder. Even the masters said be careful when training in the cold. My left ankle has been killing me for the past week. I have to buy myself an Ankle brace this weekend. My Right knee is starting to act up every once in a while as well. Training will get a lot harder now. I can't wait, this will be fun.
In the morning I felt a little better, I wanted to train. I can't handle being in bed all day for two days straight so I really wanted to train and today was circut training which I love.
circuit training was hard. I sweated a lot hoping that I will sweat out all the bad Qi in my body and get my blood flowing so I can recover faster. I dont know if that really helps but I felt better after training.
After lunch I relaxed until San Da training. I paired up with Gram and we worked the bags pretty hard. We also even did slap boxing for points. My reflexes are getting faster. I was going to start Spar training with X today but Andres is leaving so X and a few other guys are going to take him to the Airport to say Goodbye. I didnt mind since I still had a bit of a stomach ache so we will start next week. It's sad that Andres is leaving. He is one of the older students in the Wing Chun group. He said he is going home till May to make money then come back. He has been here for 8 months already.
Had an appitite for dinner which was a good sign and after I washed up and went to bed early so I am fully rested for the Friday mountain run.
Goodnight
-Scott
Monday, November 29, 2010
Weekend Report
Friday November 26 2010 -
Woke up so tired and sore I didnt go to breakfast. Had a power bar for breakfast before class. did make it to class and I am glad I did because class was fun. Worked on my new form, the Sparring form in Wing Chun. Got taught a few extra moves from one of the older students as welll.
Second class was Baji. Didn't learn any new moves but I practiced and worked on my performance. After class, Master Gou told us instead of going to do the reuglar Mountain run we will go to the 9 Dragon Pools. Will send pictures when I can.
At lunch we were all talking about the Dragon pools and everyone was excited to go.
The dragon pools are about a 10 minute drive from the academy. Master Gou said we will stay as a group and walk there. So I got ready. This means I packed my back pack with power bars, filled up my Camel Pack (which is a big drinking water bag inserted into my backpack), and brought my camera.
I was starving when I got back so Sam and I went next door for an early dinner.
After i showered, got in bed, and was watching a movie on my laptop when Kjitel knocked on my door to ask if I was going next door for Maggi's going away dinner. So I got dressed and headed over for about an hour. Chatted with a few friends then went back to my room.
Time to sleep
Goodnight.
-Scott
Saturday-
I planned a trip to Yantai with Kjitel, Kyle, Rob, and Jacob during breakfast. We are all on a budget so we decided to go the cheap way into town...by bus. I had never taken a bus before but it is 1/10 the cost of a taxi. We met up at 1pm outside, walked down the road to the bus stop by the everything store and got in. I was expecting an old, dirty, smelly bus, but it was actually really nice with nice seats. By taxi it takes about an hour to go to Yantai, by bus it takes 2 hours. I brought my ipod and with Kyle, watched a few eopisodes of family guy on it. We get into town and we shoped around for a little bit. We split up because I wanted to go to the weapon shop with Rob and Kjitel and Jacob and Kyle shopped around in the mall. I never walked around the city before because I always had a taxi. It was nice walking everywhere. Rob and I never took the bus before until today. We walked around the town, got lost in some markets, found a few new cool stores, and then met up with Kyle and Jacob after a few hours. We walked to the bath house. I never been to the one in Yantai before. This place looked like a 5 star hotel. It made the bath house i usually go to in Muping look like a Motel. The baths were nicer, the beds where we sleep are nicer, even the pajamas they give us were a little nicer. I usually pay 20 yuan a night at Muping which is extremely cheap for all the services we get but this place charged only 50 yuan and it was amazing.
After we showered up and relaxed a bit we went out to dinner to celebrate Kjitels birthday. Then after that we went back to the Bath house had a a great shower then off to bed.
Sunday-
Woke up at 8:32 am. I never slept in so long without waking up ever since I got to China. I felt great. We wanted to do a little last minute shopping. I didn't want to buy anything so I just went along. While the other guys went into Walmart, I went to a tea shop with Rob. They served us sample teas which they made right in front of us. It was amazing. We decided we should go to a real tea house one weekend. I went here last weekend with Mark, Danny, and the taxi driver after the tattoo so I knew we can drink the sample tea and leave for free but Rob didnt believe me. Then he wanted to buy something in Walmart and asked if I would go. I told him I will wait here. After a while Kyle came and joined me and we also had some tea. Then we left and got some food upstairs at KFC. Met up with the guys after we ate and we decided to go home. We walked around for an hour and a half looking for the Bus station. we found 3 other stations but they didnt have a bus that goes to Kunyushan. We finally found the station and the bus to Kunyushan left already and it was the last bus! So we walked about another half hour to a bus stop to take us to Muping. Took about an hour on the bus to go there. We didn't take a nice bus this time. Everyone on the bus to Yantai yesterday and on the way to Muping today stared at us like we were Aliens. We caught a bus from Muping to Yantai and made it back before dinner. Took us another hour to get back.
It was nice to shower and lay down in bed.
Had an early night
Monday
I was so sore this morning. I do not know if it was from walking, but my back was hurting a lot.
Morning class hurt. stretching hurt so bad. Learned more of my sparring form.
Conditioning was not too bad. Jospeh and Matt punched my Lats muscles and my ribs for conditioning. this week i was feeling pretty good so I had them punch me harder. The sensation of being punched very quickly and hard feels incredable. At the end of class Rorey and his brother graded their last forms because they leave today.
At lunch we had a good chat about politics in China. I will not state what we said because we all have our own opions but I will say I am glad I am learning how to speak Chinese.
Afternoon class was Baji. Learned a couple new steps in it. I was a bit fustrated that everyone in the class is further in the form than I am. Matt offered to teach me more moves but Shifu was coming so I said 'no its ok'. I don't know if Master Gou would allow that. I learned a few more moves in the sparring form because my partner knows more than me and we are taught together by Master Gou. In Baji, Master Gou teaches me by myself which is good because the guys who are on the same move get taught together and have less time with the Shifu. So it has its Pros and Cons.
At dinner I talked to Joseph and we might go climb the Dragon Pools again and go down a different path that is supposed to be awesome. I asked him if Master Gou would get mad if we get taught by another student to learn the form sooner. His answer was pretty scary. He said if I do learn it from someone else I better not even bother showing Shifu because if it is wrong, he might not help as much since I am learning it from someone else. I am glad I didnt let Matt teach me. I can be patient.
Today was a long painful day.
Going to get some rest.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Woke up so tired and sore I didnt go to breakfast. Had a power bar for breakfast before class. did make it to class and I am glad I did because class was fun. Worked on my new form, the Sparring form in Wing Chun. Got taught a few extra moves from one of the older students as welll.
Second class was Baji. Didn't learn any new moves but I practiced and worked on my performance. After class, Master Gou told us instead of going to do the reuglar Mountain run we will go to the 9 Dragon Pools. Will send pictures when I can.
At lunch we were all talking about the Dragon pools and everyone was excited to go.
The dragon pools are about a 10 minute drive from the academy. Master Gou said we will stay as a group and walk there. So I got ready. This means I packed my back pack with power bars, filled up my Camel Pack (which is a big drinking water bag inserted into my backpack), and brought my camera.
We drove there and our class got out and started walking as a group like Master Gou told us to. After 3 minutes of walking, the Head Master pulls up in his car beside our class. Master Gou walks over to the car and surprisingly he starts to get in the car. As he is getting in the car, Master Gou just points to the other classes with a smile on his face. (??) That is when hell began. Master Gou and Head Master drove off. One of the other Masters came behind our class. Our class was the last class on the road to the Dragon Pools because we were walking. This Master came up to us and started yelling at us in chinese! I looked to see who this teacher was who was yelling at us and I discovered unfortunately it was Master Terminator (He isnt a 'terminator', he just looks like a machine from his expressions and how BUFF he is) who was the one yelling at us to run. Clement took point and we all ran in a line because we were in the street. My backpack was a bit heavy (all the extra water?) but I managed to keep a good pace. We had to catch up to the other classes. The other classes would walk a little but' when our class caught up they would start running again. We didnt get a break! We ran non-stop for 30 minutes. When we got to the base of the Dragon Pools Master Gou was waiting there smiling. I walked over and said, "Wow Shifu (master in chinese) you run fast!" and we both laughed. I thought we were at the Dragon pools...i was wrong. We walked down a narrow path, over bridges, and Jacob, matt, and i were the last ones because we would stop and take pictures.
Behind us was Master Gou and the Head Master. we got to a water fall at a base of a mountain where there were nine pools in a row. The water was amazingly clear. we start walking up, and I managed to get a picture with Master Gou! He pointed out something on the ground. Then I heard him say Ice...I looked and by the waterfall there were patches of ICE! it was freezing cold so it would make sense for ice to be forming. We continued up the mountain. Winds are blowing harder, its getting colder, and the worst part was the sun was going down. But I was still taking pictures with Matt, Jospeh, and having fun. I told Jospeh we have to come back and explore. We made a big circle, after stopping at the Dragon Kings Tomb where Matt and I got a picture with our Shifu, and started walking down the mountain. My feet hurt extremely bad, my backpack got a little light when i drank my water and gave Matt and Josph some power bars. we got out of the Dragon pool path and back to where the cars where. Lots of the other students started walking back. It was just Matt, Joseph, four other guys and me along with Master Gou, Master Terminator, and the Head Master. The other guys were hoping to get a ride with the Head Master but I told Matt and Jospeh let's just walk. I figured if we asked for a ride our Shifu will think we are weak, especially the Head Master. after some convincing I got Matt to walk with us. I was extremely tired, my back hurt, and my feet were on fire, but
I would rather suffer through the pain rather than look weak to Master Gou. We got half way down the hill almost to the street and we see the four guys who were planning to beg for a ride with the teachers. They were not in fact sitting in a comfortable car next to Head Master. No, instead we saw them running down the hill with Master Terminator chasing them to make them run even faster. We kept walking but then when they catch up to us, Master Terminator yells at us to run! We ran the whole way back.
I would rather suffer through the pain rather than look weak to Master Gou. We got half way down the hill almost to the street and we see the four guys who were planning to beg for a ride with the teachers. They were not in fact sitting in a comfortable car next to Head Master. No, instead we saw them running down the hill with Master Terminator chasing them to make them run even faster. We kept walking but then when they catch up to us, Master Terminator yells at us to run! We ran the whole way back.
I was starving when I got back so Sam and I went next door for an early dinner.
After i showered, got in bed, and was watching a movie on my laptop when Kjitel knocked on my door to ask if I was going next door for Maggi's going away dinner. So I got dressed and headed over for about an hour. Chatted with a few friends then went back to my room.
Time to sleep
Goodnight.
-Scott
Saturday-
I planned a trip to Yantai with Kjitel, Kyle, Rob, and Jacob during breakfast. We are all on a budget so we decided to go the cheap way into town...by bus. I had never taken a bus before but it is 1/10 the cost of a taxi. We met up at 1pm outside, walked down the road to the bus stop by the everything store and got in. I was expecting an old, dirty, smelly bus, but it was actually really nice with nice seats. By taxi it takes about an hour to go to Yantai, by bus it takes 2 hours. I brought my ipod and with Kyle, watched a few eopisodes of family guy on it. We get into town and we shoped around for a little bit. We split up because I wanted to go to the weapon shop with Rob and Kjitel and Jacob and Kyle shopped around in the mall. I never walked around the city before because I always had a taxi. It was nice walking everywhere. Rob and I never took the bus before until today. We walked around the town, got lost in some markets, found a few new cool stores, and then met up with Kyle and Jacob after a few hours. We walked to the bath house. I never been to the one in Yantai before. This place looked like a 5 star hotel. It made the bath house i usually go to in Muping look like a Motel. The baths were nicer, the beds where we sleep are nicer, even the pajamas they give us were a little nicer. I usually pay 20 yuan a night at Muping which is extremely cheap for all the services we get but this place charged only 50 yuan and it was amazing.
After we showered up and relaxed a bit we went out to dinner to celebrate Kjitels birthday. Then after that we went back to the Bath house had a a great shower then off to bed.
Sunday-
Woke up at 8:32 am. I never slept in so long without waking up ever since I got to China. I felt great. We wanted to do a little last minute shopping. I didn't want to buy anything so I just went along. While the other guys went into Walmart, I went to a tea shop with Rob. They served us sample teas which they made right in front of us. It was amazing. We decided we should go to a real tea house one weekend. I went here last weekend with Mark, Danny, and the taxi driver after the tattoo so I knew we can drink the sample tea and leave for free but Rob didnt believe me. Then he wanted to buy something in Walmart and asked if I would go. I told him I will wait here. After a while Kyle came and joined me and we also had some tea. Then we left and got some food upstairs at KFC. Met up with the guys after we ate and we decided to go home. We walked around for an hour and a half looking for the Bus station. we found 3 other stations but they didnt have a bus that goes to Kunyushan. We finally found the station and the bus to Kunyushan left already and it was the last bus! So we walked about another half hour to a bus stop to take us to Muping. Took about an hour on the bus to go there. We didn't take a nice bus this time. Everyone on the bus to Yantai yesterday and on the way to Muping today stared at us like we were Aliens. We caught a bus from Muping to Yantai and made it back before dinner. Took us another hour to get back.
It was nice to shower and lay down in bed.
Had an early night
Monday
I was so sore this morning. I do not know if it was from walking, but my back was hurting a lot.
Morning class hurt. stretching hurt so bad. Learned more of my sparring form.
Conditioning was not too bad. Jospeh and Matt punched my Lats muscles and my ribs for conditioning. this week i was feeling pretty good so I had them punch me harder. The sensation of being punched very quickly and hard feels incredable. At the end of class Rorey and his brother graded their last forms because they leave today.
At lunch we had a good chat about politics in China. I will not state what we said because we all have our own opions but I will say I am glad I am learning how to speak Chinese.
Afternoon class was Baji. Learned a couple new steps in it. I was a bit fustrated that everyone in the class is further in the form than I am. Matt offered to teach me more moves but Shifu was coming so I said 'no its ok'. I don't know if Master Gou would allow that. I learned a few more moves in the sparring form because my partner knows more than me and we are taught together by Master Gou. In Baji, Master Gou teaches me by myself which is good because the guys who are on the same move get taught together and have less time with the Shifu. So it has its Pros and Cons.
At dinner I talked to Joseph and we might go climb the Dragon Pools again and go down a different path that is supposed to be awesome. I asked him if Master Gou would get mad if we get taught by another student to learn the form sooner. His answer was pretty scary. He said if I do learn it from someone else I better not even bother showing Shifu because if it is wrong, he might not help as much since I am learning it from someone else. I am glad I didnt let Matt teach me. I can be patient.
Today was a long painful day.
Going to get some rest.
Goodnight.
-Scott
Thursday, November 25, 2010
My Thanksgiving in China
Thursday
I woke up sore. I didnt think I would be because yesterday power training wasn't too hard. But this morning I had a hard time getting up. I had a power bar instead of going down to breakfast because 1. I was too sore to get out of bed. and 2. I was still kinda full from food from next door when we celebrated Kjitel's birthday.
Anyway made it to class. Morning class was painful. Kjitel stretched me like crazy but I got my revenge. Then the drills were not to bad. After drills, we hit the punching bags, and then at the end Master Gou had us run and kick a pad that he held up pretty high while he stood on a stool. It was fun.
Before lunch I started watching a movie called Ip Man. It is an amazing movie! I was so into the movie I did not even go down for lunch. The movie is about a man who practiced Wing Chun. This is a biography of the guy who trained Bruce Lee. It really made me want to learn Wing Chun 10 times more. If you havent seen it I suggest you watch it.
(You can see a sample on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67D9I5MRqg&feature=related
Ed.)
Afternoon class was Baji. After drills I paired up with Gram and we did Wing Chun slap boxing. You are supose to hit the houlders and hips for points. The trick is we can grab and kick so it made things a bit more difficult. It was a good way to practice my speed. After that we did some pad work. When I was punching I reopened a scab on my knuckle I got a few days ago and blood was all over my hand and a bit on the pad.
After class I went upstairs. Joseph was walking by my room and I remembed it was Thanksgiving today so I wished him Happy thanksgiving. He totally forgot all about it. I told him my parents sent me some precooked turkey and gravy dinners and he can have some with me if he likes. While I was showing him the food, Matt stopped by to pick up the movie I borrowed off of him. I told him we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving and he can have some. These are turkey and stuffing dinners that are in little plastic tubs. didn't need to be in refrigerator nor a can opener. My dad suggested I warm the dinners up on the radiatiors, I thought that was a great idea except for the fact that radiators don't get hot 'till nighttime. We didn't want to wait that late. So I got a bucket the academy gave us. People use it for washing stuff. I never used mine. I told Joseph to come with me to fill up two water thermos' with hot water, while Matt got the spoons. we got the stuff all together. I showed the guys I even got a can of Cranberry sauce (from care package) but no can opener. Joseph went to his room and got a knife and started trying to open the can. I got the bucket, filled the bucket with hot water and put the dinners in. The academy won't allow us to have microwaves in our rooms. But I did have the drinking water cooler that had a side for hot water so I had an unlimited amount of hot water.
Afternoon class was Baji. After drills I paired up with Gram and we did Wing Chun slap boxing. You are supose to hit the houlders and hips for points. The trick is we can grab and kick so it made things a bit more difficult. It was a good way to practice my speed. After that we did some pad work. When I was punching I reopened a scab on my knuckle I got a few days ago and blood was all over my hand and a bit on the pad.
After class I went upstairs. Joseph was walking by my room and I remembed it was Thanksgiving today so I wished him Happy thanksgiving. He totally forgot all about it. I told him my parents sent me some precooked turkey and gravy dinners and he can have some with me if he likes. While I was showing him the food, Matt stopped by to pick up the movie I borrowed off of him. I told him we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving and he can have some. These are turkey and stuffing dinners that are in little plastic tubs. didn't need to be in refrigerator nor a can opener. My dad suggested I warm the dinners up on the radiatiors, I thought that was a great idea except for the fact that radiators don't get hot 'till nighttime. We didn't want to wait that late. So I got a bucket the academy gave us. People use it for washing stuff. I never used mine. I told Joseph to come with me to fill up two water thermos' with hot water, while Matt got the spoons. we got the stuff all together. I showed the guys I even got a can of Cranberry sauce (from care package) but no can opener. Joseph went to his room and got a knife and started trying to open the can. I got the bucket, filled the bucket with hot water and put the dinners in. The academy won't allow us to have microwaves in our rooms. But I did have the drinking water cooler that had a side for hot water so I had an unlimited amount of hot water.
While turkey dinners were warming up and Joseph worked on the can, I got some crackers out, nutella (also from care package), and other snacks. Once joseph got the can open we started thinking who else were Americans.
Joseph said how about Exavier, AKA X. So Joseph went down the hall to find him. X is a vegitarian but he came to join us because today is the day when he will eat meat. X is a cool guy. I never talked to him much besides seeing him in the halls and around but he came to join our little feast and he is cool. I added another dinner to my hot water heater. I put another bucket on top of the 'cooking' bucket so the heat would stay inside a bit better. X was so shocked we were doing something. Joseph told him it was all my idea because he forgot about Thanksgiving. I told them my parents sent me several turkey dinners so I can celebrate with a few of my friends here. They all said, "We love you and your parents." X was even shocked how I figured out a way to warm up our turkey dinners.
After a while we checked the dinners and they were very hot and ready. While we ate we all talked about different stories of home, about what we would be doing with our family if we were there today and about different stories of our masters. It was a great bonding time. I had two more turkey dinners left, X and Matt didnt want any more since they finished off their dinners and had started eating some peanuts, crackers, and easy cheese (canned cheese from care pack), so Joseph and I threw those two dinners in my hot water 'cooker' and waited for them to warm up.
 |
| Mat X Me and Joseph at Thanksgiving |
 |
| Mat X Me and Joseph at Thanksgiving |
I do not think I could have spent Thanksgiving any better than in my room with three of my Kung Fu brothers. Joseph is from Gorgia, X is from Florida, Matt is from Saint Martin in the Caribians so he never celebrated Thanksgiving before, but I can honestly say, I will always remember this Thanksgiving. After we all ate we didn't know what to do next. X went down to dinner to get a vegitarian dinner, so Joseph borrowed some of X's movies and we decided to watch a movie. We chose "House of Flying Daggers" and watched it on Joseph's laptop since his screen was bigger than mine. We had a great time watching it. Even Sam watched a bit of the movie with us when he came in to the room. Joseph bought us some cookies from the store downstairs to eat and dip in nutella and my peanut butter and jelly.
After the movie the guys went back to there rooms. I cleaned up a bit and now going to bed.
Tomorrow is the mountain run.
I was sad when i was coming here because I knew I would miss Thanksgiving with my family and all the food. Today I had Thanksgiving with my new family.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
-Scott
After the movie the guys went back to there rooms. I cleaned up a bit and now going to bed.
Tomorrow is the mountain run.
I was sad when i was coming here because I knew I would miss Thanksgiving with my family and all the food. Today I had Thanksgiving with my new family.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
-Scott
Happy Kjitel Day
Wednesday
The Sun is out! It is amazing! The wind is getting stronger but the SUN is still out. Each day I wake up to sunlight is a good day. I can wait for the snow. Snow comes with cold and training in the cold now is not fun therefore training in snow will be extremely hard. Two more students joined the academy today. Two guys from France. hope they dont mind the cold.
Learned the first part of the Sparring form in Wing Chun. I picked it up very fast. Master Gou taught me 5 moves. There are 27 moves in total. I will try to learn them all before the next grading.
Lunch was good. I learned a new trick for lunch. Since afternoon training is always in front of the dining hall and we end class around 15 minutes to lunch, instead of going to my room, I might as well wait and be the first in line. I have been waiting all week but today I improved my trick. Lately Kjitel cuts infront of me when we get in because I stand on the door that opens. There are two doors, only one opens. So Kjitel would wait at the door that doesn't open so when I get pushed back from the door that opens he sneaks in! So now I stole his spot and since I wait there I am first to get food now.
Afternoon run was good. Duriung the run I ran the whole thing a bit faster. I can feel my legs becoming stronger so I can run faster. Today before we ran, I found out it was Kjitel's BDAY! We all sang to him before we ran.
POWER TRAINING was not too bad today. We did regular drills only half way across the room. The other class was training inside so we couldn't do drills all across the hall...so sad. Not! But we didn't do the 'leap frogs' which I was hoping for because those were actually fun. After planks we had to do finger push ups. Not on our fingers but on the last knucle on our fingers, the one closet to the finger nail. IT IS VERY DIFFICULT. I had to do the push ups on the mat because the floor hurt too much. If we did it on the mat we had to do 30, on the floor only 10. After those we had to do 30 "finger to knuckle" push ups. I can do those easy.
After dinner I went upstairs, took a shower, chatted online, and then right when i was in bed about to sleep i hear a knock on the door. It was Kjitel. He came up to ask if i wanted to go next door with him, his roommate, danny, and a couple other guys to celebrate his birthday. I couldnt say no! So i got dressed and headed over. After a couple chicken wings and fried rice we headed back.
It was a good night. Kjitel turned 27 today.
Goodnight
-Scott
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Morning breakfast was good. I ran out of Bananas to put in my oatmeal so i will buy more this weekend.
Morning training was really fun. We did Wing Chun applications. We paired up and did moves on one another after the line drills.
Afternoon class was Baji applications. That was even more fun. During the applications I paired up with Kjitel for both classes. While we practiced the moves for each form, we would add a 'take down' or swipe the leg or take out the knee just to see if it will work then we asked Master Gou if we can do the extra move and he would smile and nod. It is cool just adding extra moves that we know to the forms.
Lunch was really good. Lately class is over about ten minutes to lunch instead of 30 minutes like the other weeks, so I just wait in line with Kjitel and usually he gets to the food before me. I am the second one to get food because no matter if I get in line first in front of kjitel while we wait outside in line he always cuts in front of me.
Afternoon class was stance training and my legs are still sore from class.
Then before dinner I met my new next door neighbor who replaced Rodney, a man named Si. He is about 42, but looks like he is 30. He was born in England but came here from Brazil, but lived in India longer. He is very energetic, a few people around here thinks he is a bit crazy. I never really had a full conversation with him until today. I was in my room reading a new Book called the Three Kingdoms, which was given to me from Joseph, when Si comes in and asked how I was doing. I said 'fine'. We started talking about where he was from, how he lived in India and then went to Brazil to do kappawara and teach yoga. Then I asked if he teaches yoga here and he mentioned on Sundays he got a few guys including Sam to do a yoga class. I want to practice yoga on a daily basis if he could teach me. He told me actually he does do yoga on a daily basis in the morning starting at 5am! Oh, I did not ask if I could join him for a 5am class..... I was thinking of something more in the afternoons. He showed me a couple moves and explained different types of yoga to me. I told him my sister does Bikrum yoga and when I tried it I almost died.
Morning training was really fun. We did Wing Chun applications. We paired up and did moves on one another after the line drills.
Afternoon class was Baji applications. That was even more fun. During the applications I paired up with Kjitel for both classes. While we practiced the moves for each form, we would add a 'take down' or swipe the leg or take out the knee just to see if it will work then we asked Master Gou if we can do the extra move and he would smile and nod. It is cool just adding extra moves that we know to the forms.
Lunch was really good. Lately class is over about ten minutes to lunch instead of 30 minutes like the other weeks, so I just wait in line with Kjitel and usually he gets to the food before me. I am the second one to get food because no matter if I get in line first in front of kjitel while we wait outside in line he always cuts in front of me.
Afternoon class was stance training and my legs are still sore from class.
Then before dinner I met my new next door neighbor who replaced Rodney, a man named Si. He is about 42, but looks like he is 30. He was born in England but came here from Brazil, but lived in India longer. He is very energetic, a few people around here thinks he is a bit crazy. I never really had a full conversation with him until today. I was in my room reading a new Book called the Three Kingdoms, which was given to me from Joseph, when Si comes in and asked how I was doing. I said 'fine'. We started talking about where he was from, how he lived in India and then went to Brazil to do kappawara and teach yoga. Then I asked if he teaches yoga here and he mentioned on Sundays he got a few guys including Sam to do a yoga class. I want to practice yoga on a daily basis if he could teach me. He told me actually he does do yoga on a daily basis in the morning starting at 5am! Oh, I did not ask if I could join him for a 5am class..... I was thinking of something more in the afternoons. He showed me a couple moves and explained different types of yoga to me. I told him my sister does Bikrum yoga and when I tried it I almost died.
When we looked at the time it was 5:50pm. Dinner started about 2o minuts ago and here, if you don't get food within 5 minutes after the 5:30 start, all the food will be gone! We ran to the dining hall and found out that there was no more food. So I told him lets go next door for dinner. He never ate there before so we got some money and went there to eat. Met up with a few other people from the academy going to eat there too and had a good meal. Now I just got back from dinner. POWER TRAINING is tomorrow so going to get a good sleep. I hope I can do some yoga in the afternoons, I think that would be fun.
Goodnight
Scott
Goodnight
Scott
Monday, November 22, 2010
Zi Long, Fei Hu, or Zhui Feng, help me choose
(Three posts today Editor)
Breakfast was once again longed for when I woke up this morning.
In morning class I learned the whole second form! I hope I can grade this form soon. It might be as early as tomorrow because a student is leaving and he might grade. I do not know if I can grade tommorrow as well. After class I asked Master Gou if he can think of a chinese name for me. He said he will tell me later this afternoon. I could not wait.
Afternoon class was conditioning. As usual it was cold outside so when we hit each other it stung a bit more. After we did the usual of hitting each other, Master Gou showed Andres how he used to condition his shins. Master used Andres as a partner. How to 'condition' is that one partner would kick the other partner's side of the shins on both legs, then the insides. once one partner finished they switch. Master Gou demonstrated this on Andres. When it was Andres turn, Andres could not kick or lift his leg much after Master beat on him.
I asked master "when we kick each other does the kicker use his shins or his feet?" Master said, "I show you". I braced myself for pain. He kicked me once and my leg went numb. Then he kicked my other leg. With great speed he then kicked the inside of my shin, I almost collasped. then he hit the other leg. each time he kicked me, my leg would move back because he hit me with so much force. Then before I could thank him for the 'instruction' and walk away, he said "or you can kick like this" and hit my left shin AGAIN! then he laughs. My shins hurt for the rest of the day!
Lunch was amazing. I was so hungry. Maybe it was from the extra cleaning this morning (Yes I still do chores Mondays) or the conditioning but I was first in line.
Afternoon training was Baji, I am not close to finishing my Baji form yet. There are a lot of moves to this one. Once class ended I asked Master Gou if he thought of a name for me. He said he thought of three names. Zi Long, Fei Hu, and Zhei Feng.
He said these three name reseble me the best. Chinese have three names. Surname-Last name, Givin name-First name, and a Style name- which is giving at a coming of age ceremony which was famous back during the Six Dynisties. Today i am not sure if people use style names. Style names are only givin to one by their Master, or Friends, but never a family member. Style names are only used by supiriors and friends to show respect or gratetude to one. Family can never call one by a style name. Master Gou gave me three style names to choose from:
Zi Long-Means Sub-Dragon. A famous General in the Three Kingdom Era. His name was Zhou Yun but his style name is Zi Long. Zi Long served Lui Bei in the war as his best and most loyal general. The history behind him is amazing but I will not go too much into detail here. Zi Long was known to be very loyal, brave, a skillful warrior as well as very chrismatic and even a bit of a ladies man. ( Sound like me yet?) He says I display all these attributes during class, i am not sure how ladies man fits in, maybe i just got lucky.
Fei Hu-means Flying Tiger. This is the most powerful animal in chinese history. Master said chinese say Dragons are powerful but no one ever seen one. A tiger is known for power. But a tiger who flies like a dragon is the most powerful. He says I display a lot of power in my training so this resembles me.
Zhui Feng-Means. Follow the wind. Master says that i pick up forms very quick and I move fast and always going like the wind.
I am not sure which iname I should choose. I like all three!
Any ideas?
Going to bed. Goodnight!
-Scott
Lunch was amazing. I was so hungry. Maybe it was from the extra cleaning this morning (Yes I still do chores Mondays) or the conditioning but I was first in line.
Afternoon training was Baji, I am not close to finishing my Baji form yet. There are a lot of moves to this one. Once class ended I asked Master Gou if he thought of a name for me. He said he thought of three names. Zi Long, Fei Hu, and Zhei Feng.
He said these three name reseble me the best. Chinese have three names. Surname-Last name, Givin name-First name, and a Style name- which is giving at a coming of age ceremony which was famous back during the Six Dynisties. Today i am not sure if people use style names. Style names are only givin to one by their Master, or Friends, but never a family member. Style names are only used by supiriors and friends to show respect or gratetude to one. Family can never call one by a style name. Master Gou gave me three style names to choose from:
Zi Long-Means Sub-Dragon. A famous General in the Three Kingdom Era. His name was Zhou Yun but his style name is Zi Long. Zi Long served Lui Bei in the war as his best and most loyal general. The history behind him is amazing but I will not go too much into detail here. Zi Long was known to be very loyal, brave, a skillful warrior as well as very chrismatic and even a bit of a ladies man. ( Sound like me yet?) He says I display all these attributes during class, i am not sure how ladies man fits in, maybe i just got lucky.
Fei Hu-means Flying Tiger. This is the most powerful animal in chinese history. Master said chinese say Dragons are powerful but no one ever seen one. A tiger is known for power. But a tiger who flies like a dragon is the most powerful. He says I display a lot of power in my training so this resembles me.
Zhui Feng-Means. Follow the wind. Master says that i pick up forms very quick and I move fast and always going like the wind.
Zhui Feng Xi Yin Qian- means
Wind Following Silver Cleansing Spear which is Zi Long's Weapon.
In chinese Zi long- 子龙
FEIHUI-飞灰
ＺＨＵＩＦＥＮＧ－追风
I am not sure which iname I should choose. I like all three!
Any ideas?
Going to bed. Goodnight!
-Scott
Quick weekend report
Saturday
In the morning, I did some sparring training with Gram. We worked dodges, stances, and when someone rushes us with punches we practice moving instead of standing there with our guard up and panic. I can feel I will get stronger training with him.
At 10am i went into town with Gram, Andres, Mark, Matt, Danny, and Aldo. First taxi ride with only WING CHUN guys. Thought that was funny. We went to the book store then Gram, Aldo, Mat, and Andres went to do their own shopping, while i went with Mark and Danny to the tattoo shop because Mark wanted a tattoo. Mark wanted a tiger on his side so i wanted to go with to check out the place since i am thinking about a tattoo also. The place was really nice, the tattoo artist had a lot of pictures of him Tattooing Foreigners and other pictures with cool designs. I even saw Rorey in one of the pictures. Mark has about 6 other tattos so this wasn't his first time. Mark is about 38, or 39, from Germany, and is leaving the academy in a few days so he wanted a tattoo. I realized age has no meaning here at the academy, i have so many older friends who feel like they are the same age as me. I am the youngest in my Wing chun class. Everyone is in there 20's or older. It is strange but at the same time cool.
After the tattoo i went shopping at Walmart with Mark and Danny. And then Danny and I met up with Kjitel, Kyle, and Thomas and went to the bath house to sleep.
In the morning we went to get some breakfast at a noodle shop i have been dying to go to and picked up my Kung Fu jacket at the tailors. Kjetil wanted to buy some stuff at the grocery store so we stopped there then headed back to the academy.
It was Sunday afternoon when we got back so I did some laundry, cleaned my room, and relaxed to get ready for monday.
Goodnight.
-scott
In the morning, I did some sparring training with Gram. We worked dodges, stances, and when someone rushes us with punches we practice moving instead of standing there with our guard up and panic. I can feel I will get stronger training with him.
At 10am i went into town with Gram, Andres, Mark, Matt, Danny, and Aldo. First taxi ride with only WING CHUN guys. Thought that was funny. We went to the book store then Gram, Aldo, Mat, and Andres went to do their own shopping, while i went with Mark and Danny to the tattoo shop because Mark wanted a tattoo. Mark wanted a tiger on his side so i wanted to go with to check out the place since i am thinking about a tattoo also. The place was really nice, the tattoo artist had a lot of pictures of him Tattooing Foreigners and other pictures with cool designs. I even saw Rorey in one of the pictures. Mark has about 6 other tattos so this wasn't his first time. Mark is about 38, or 39, from Germany, and is leaving the academy in a few days so he wanted a tattoo. I realized age has no meaning here at the academy, i have so many older friends who feel like they are the same age as me. I am the youngest in my Wing chun class. Everyone is in there 20's or older. It is strange but at the same time cool.
After the tattoo i went shopping at Walmart with Mark and Danny. And then Danny and I met up with Kjitel, Kyle, and Thomas and went to the bath house to sleep.
In the morning we went to get some breakfast at a noodle shop i have been dying to go to and picked up my Kung Fu jacket at the tailors. Kjetil wanted to buy some stuff at the grocery store so we stopped there then headed back to the academy.
It was Sunday afternoon when we got back so I did some laundry, cleaned my room, and relaxed to get ready for monday.
Goodnight.
-scott
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)