Sunday out and about

You might notice a couple changes to this blog. There is a search thing at the end of this blog if you want to look up anything I mention in my blog here. Also I put an advertisement at the top. Google sent me an email saying that if I put an Ad Banner on this blog, and people click on the ads, I could earn a little money. I am waiting to see if Blogger.Com agrees with this. (Blogger.com says ‘pending’) I am hoping I can earn enough money to get back to the States for winter vacation. We will have two weeks off from training in December. My mom agrees that I can come home for those two weeks, my dad…. Not so much. Well, if you like this blog, or want to see me come home for winter break, visit this blog’s sponsors

Back to today’s installment

 British word of the day: butchers-means-have a look


I am celebrating Halloween in China...first time I have ever said that. For me Halloween day started with me sleeping in again till about 730am. Not too late but still felt good to rest a bit more than usual. I even stayed in bed till about 9ish listening to my audio books and chatting online. Sam asked if I wanted to go to the town of Muping for lunch. I thought this was a great idea because I have been wanting to go to a noodle restaurant since last night. Plus I want to buy a Chinese tiger poster for the wall of my dorm room. Sam wanted to go to town to buy more track suits. We decided it would be better to shop in Yantai so we will have to just go to the noodle shop in Muping another day. 




Sam and I got ready for another adventure in Yantai. This time it was just me and Sam with no one else tagging along like yesterday.


We left the academy around 10:30 we had not eaten breakfast and planned to get something in town. When the taxi showed up I saw that it was the same driver who took me and Sam to town my first weekend. This was also the same driver who picked me up from the Hospital. Before leaving the Academy, we had a translator tell him we wanted to go to McDonalds, (for breakfast) the clothing market, and then to the Electronic market just to have a look. The driver nodded his head then we were off. After a while of driving the driver pulled the taxi over and said, " My friends go Yantai. Ok?" I figured he meant he was picking his friends to share a taxi with us. I was used to sharing taxis with strangers from my taxi ride from the airport but I looked at Sam to see if he minded having extra people in our taxi. Sam did not mind either. Sam said "I’d rather not make the taxi driver mad by telling him he can’t take his friends because he can really make our trip horrible." I agreed with Sam and turned to the driver and said “Sure that’s ok," and the driver smiled and said, "Thank you thank you." Soon an old Chinese man and woman got in our taxi. We were on our way to Yantai. 




 After dropping the old man and woman off the driver took us to a market to shop. It wasn’t the clothing market or the electronic market. It was someplace we had never seen before. The problem is, we were starving and had planned to go to McDonalds first! But since we were at a market we had never seen before, we decided to have a look around.


Sam and I have been looking for good training pants and at this market, we saw a booth selling some Addidas and Nike pants. They looked perfect for training. I bought two Nike pants. They looked like really nice quality as well. Sam bought one Addidas and one Nike pants as well. We were happy to finally find good training pants thought we got pretty lucky that the taxi driver brought us to this market. But we were REALLY hungry now. So we told the taxi driver, "Mc....Don...alds." The driver replied, "ok ok." But he ALWAYS replies “ok ok” to whatever I say. Like yesterday, Sam and I usually bring a paper with a list of places we want to go that the translator has translated to Chinese but today we forgot it. The taxi took off down the road and we were hoping for the best. Well, we were hoping for some food anyway. After a while of driving the driver brought us to the Clothing market. We were really hungry but since we were here we decided to have a look again. I wanted to see more stores rather than going in the Clothing market building so we walked further down than usual.


For the first time I saw a weapon booth that had a bunch of knives, batons, lighters, even had a taser! Then on a shelf in the corner I saw he was selling a Shaolin chain whip. That’s the one weapon I wanted to learn while I am here in China! I asked how much for the whip and he said 85 yuan. Since it was a booth I knew I could bargin so i asked for 45. We have to write the prices down on a sheet a paper. So the whole bargining goes like this, he writes a number down then hands me the pen and paper and then I write a number down. He says ‘no no’ and points up in the air. I guess he meant higher. So I wrote 50. He thought for a little bit then he said, "ok ok." I got it! It was the best thing I’ve bought here so far besides my camera. 

Right next to that booth was a booth selling movies. I asked, "Any English." And the lady pointed to a section of movies. I picked out two cds. Each CD had about 10 movies each. The movies were like Gladiator, 300, Transformers, and others. I asked how much. She said 30. I said how bout 25 and she went for it. I can’t wait to find out if they really are in English or if they really work. So we walked down the aisle of booths and Sam saw a booth selling some leather gloves. He wanted a pair but the lady asked 85 yuan for it. He told me he really didn’t need the gloves so he wrote down 40 expecting that the lady will say no and we’d walk away. But she looked at us and said a few words in Chinese, and it didn’t sound like they were nice words by her tone and eventually she said ‘ok’. 

After Sam paid for his gloves. I saw a scarf hanging up in her booth and I asked how much and she said 45 yuan. I knew thats way too much for just a scarf so I smiled and said ‘no’ and gave the scarf back. She gave me the pen. I didn’t want the scarf that bad so I said ‘no its ok’ but she insisted that I write down a price. I thought about it and was like ok just to get her away from me I wrote 25. She looked at my number and she said ‘no no’. I didn’t expect her to go for that number anyway so I said ‘ok’ and handed the scarf back. Instead of reaching for the scarf, she said some Chinese words to me, and her tone sounded like, "Damn foreigners, trying to get things for cheap huh!" Then she said ok to my price for the scarf. I couldn’t believe it. Well at that price it was definitely a good deal so I got it. 

We walked further down and saw some dogs in cages. They looked so sad! One was black and looked like a mastiff, the other dog was a husky, there were also smaller cages with smaller dogs but I couldn’t tell what they were. I wanted to buy the two big dogs and take them home to the academy with me!

After we saw the dogs, we stopped by a track suit store. They had nike jump suits, addidas jump suits, and a bunch of other types of jacket and pants. I saw a Nike track suit that looked like Master Gou's track suit. Sam said if I got it he will take a pic of me with Master Gou when he has the same track suit on. So I asked for the price. The shop keeper said 180. The shop keeper was this really tall buff Asian man. He looked more like a bouncer than a shop keeper. I really wanted to bargin the price down. I like bargaining for the price but this guy was big. I was not sure if bargaining too low would make him mad or not so I finally asked 150? He thought about it and said ok. I love BARGINING! It’s really fun! Sam ended up buying a Nike track suit too but a different color. We didn’t see any more good stores so we walked around the Clothing market which is like a building with a bunch of small shops inside.


We didn’t see anything else good so we walked back to the taxi. This time we begged the taxi driver, "McDonalds," and with our hands gestured eating food. He said, "ok ok." All Sam and I could do was hope. Luckily, this time he did bring us to Mcdonalds. FINALLY! Sam basically ordered two of everything on the menu, Two big macs, two fries, two shakes, and even two cokes. I ordered some chicken nuggets, a double cheese burger, and fries. The food tasted fantastic. Then after we finished, we headed back to the taxi. 




The taxi was parked but facing away from us. The driver was in the taxi and had his window open and was reading a newspaper. I snuck up behind the drivers side of the taxi and grabbed the taxi driver’s shoulder while I yelled in a deep voice, "NEE HOW!" he jumped so high I was laughing so hard it made my stomach hurt. The taxi driver realized it was us and he too started laughing. So we hopped in the car and told the driver take us back to the academy. On the way back I was looking for stores that sold posters. I didn’t see any while we shopped. Finally I saw a store with a tiger poster in the window. I pointed and asked the driver to go there. He said “ok ok” and went and parked by the store. Well the poster ended up to be a jig saw puzzle that needs to be put together and not a poster...crap.


On our way back we made one more stop. A store that sold electronics, bags, home supplies, and toys. It was pretty big. I went over to the toy section and saw they were selling ping pong paddles. The academy has a ping pong table but no paddles or balls. I called Sam over and he told me he brought his paddle but doesn’t have any ping pong balls. So I picked out a paddle and a box of ping pong balls so we could play a game later. Then we headed back to the taxi which took us back to the academy. I didnt get my poster or eat noodle soup but I managed to buy some good stuff and was glad that we made a couple stops that weren’t originally planned.


Once we unpacked all our bags in the room Sam and I headed down to play a game of ping pong. Sam won the first game, and I won the second game. The third game was close but eventually Sam beat me in that game too. By the time we started the third game, It was getting dark and it was hard to see the ball and the lack of light was my reason why Sam won the last game. We decided it was late so we got our stuff and got ready for dinner. Since we spent so much money shopping I didn’t think Sam wanted to go next door for dinner but he said he wanted the chicken wings which did sound good. So after inviting a couple guys from the academy, we walked next door.


I forgot my flashlight so it was pitch dark, but the worst part was we heard someone whistling. While we walked the whistling got louder and louder like we were getting closer but we couldn’t see anything or anybody. It was kind of creepy. The other guys started walking faster and I kept my hands out of my pocket just in case something jumped out at us. When we got to the restaurant, the whistling stopped. That kind of spooked us all out. A good little spook for Halloween I guess. We had a great dinner, talked about the different things we did over the weekend, and then headed back to the room.


When I was walking upstairs, Peter Pan had a bag of candy and was decked out in his kung fu outfit while wearing a monkey mask. 

He said to us “you can’t pass until you say trick or treat” and gave us a treat from his candy bag. I thought that was nice and grabbed a piece of chocolate. While I was writing this blog I heard a knock at the door and it was one of my neighbors with a bag of chocolate as well saying ‘trick or treat’ but he was the one giving out chocolate. So it was backward trick or treating.


I can say this was the most interesting fun Halloween I have ever had. But it is late now, and tomorrow is… well I will see what tomorrow holds and I will let you know in tommorow’s blog.


Goodnight


-scott

Italians got spaghetti from China... China got Pizza Hut

Chinese word of the day: huanying-means-welcome

British word of the day:vertually-means-litterally/nearly completed.

Slept in this morning! Got a whole extra 20 min of sleep... When I woke up I wasn't hungry. I guess I was still full from dinner last night next door. 

Me and Sam at our 'next door' place to eat

So I grabbed my laptop and went online. After a couple hours Sam and I decided to go into the town of Yantai and get some PIZZA HUT for lunch. I wanted Pizza real bad. So we ordered a taxi through the academy and while we were waiting one of the new guys, Rob, asked us what we were doing today. Rob is 26 years old and from Germany.  We told him we were going into Yantai for lunch. He told us how he wanted to get the basic supplies one needs to stay at the academy such as shampoo, toilet paper, some snacks, and especailly some breakfast food. I remembered how lucky I was to have Sam help me on my first weekend trip to town and Rob didn't have a nice roommate so I felt bad and asked him if he wanted our help. We told him we would take him to the supermarket to get his supplies. He sad he would definitely like for us to show him around. So the three of us got the taxi and headed to Yantai to the clothing market. We walked around and I bought a couple things like a belt and wallet. 


The fun thing about the market is you can bargin with the sales people. When i was looking for a wallet the lady told me a me a high price. Sam told me that we have to bargin the price down. Sam and I got the price down to half the offered price. It was fun bargining. Soon I started wanting to buy things just so I can bargin with them... But i knew I didn't really need a new pair of pants or shoes so I walked out of the market trying to resist the urge to stop and heckle some sailsperson. Sam got a jacket and Rob got some pants and a jacket. Then after that we were pretty hungry since none of us ate breakfast. Now we wanted to eat at Pizza Hut. 

Before we left the academy Sam and I went to one of the translators and had them translate "Pizza Hut", "Clothing Market", "take us back to the academy" so all we would have  to do is point at the word and show the driver. When we pointed to the word 'pizza hut' on the paper and showed the driver,  we were surprised when the driver  said in passable English, "Ah, pizza hut ya."  The school always highers the same taxi drivers and I guess other students been to Pizza Hut as well. Soon we got to the resturant and i was surprised that it was a really fancy resturant. Pizza Hut back in my home town of Stockton is a decent resturant but the Pizza Hut in Yantai had two floors and looked like a 5 star hotel's resturant. Maybe since it serves 'foreign food' the prices are high so it can have a rich apperence or maybe it's so pretty since it is in a new building and eveything looks perfect. We got our seats and we all ordered our own personal pizza and I got a side of spaghetti. after we devoured this 'foreign delicacy'  


we walked out of the Pizza Hut and saw that across the stree there was a WalMart Super Store. So we went to the taxi but we didn't have the word Walmart written on our paper. I hoped the driver understood 'Walmart' as well as he knew 'Pizza Hu't so I tried.  I said, "WalMart?" He nodded and took us to Walmart. The weird thing was that the store was under ground. We had to take an escalator down under the street like we were going to a subway train.  There were so many shops. It was like a whole city underground. We found the entrance to Walmart and we split up. I bought a blanket and a pillow for my room. Sam didn't get anything and when I ran into Rob I helped him find some oatmeal and other stuff he would need. 




After Walmart we headed to a "milk shake shop" Sam said was near by. I got the best Gelato milkshake I ever had. Then Rob asked if there was a place we could get massages. This was the end of his first week and of course his first week made him sore. Sam and I decided we could use a massage too. So the three of us went to the medical massage place that Sam and I went to before and we all got a quick massage. Then we headed back to the academy but we were out so late we missed dinner. After I showered up, Sam and I went next door for dinner and our friend Issac tagged a long.Issac was the guy I mentioned who had the Hebrew writing on his shirt the other day. Issac said this was a Jewish dinner  since all three of us were Jewish. We started talking about religions and how Issac served in the Israeli army for two and a half years when he was 18. (he is only 21 now.) He told us some crazy stories of his training days and how everyone had a gun walking around the city. I was fimilar with some of the things he described in Israel because I saw somethings he was talking about when I went to israel. Then after dinner we headed back to the academy. No drunk guy this time. And now I'm about to go to bed. 

Goodnight

-Scott 

Weekend Pictures

from our left first guy is Emad, issac, michgeal, and then Clemet on far right. making music at 8 pm at night. Banging on kitchen tubs and migeal playing a banjo wen me and sam went to watch them issac left to join us for dinner

Everybody is Kung Fu fighting... (But if you are drunk, don't try it)

Chinese word of the day:MamaHuhu-means-Its ok/in the middle (Rorey taught me this word last night) British word of the day: Barmy-means-crazy I cheated at breakfast this morning. I brought a packet of hot cocoa mix with me to breakfast when I was suppose to skip today but I really wanted chocolate oatmeal again! 


Morning training went quick. We did warm ups and drills but then we ended class a little early and headed down to the main hall to the ring. I asked whats going on and my friend told me it was 'sparring day'. I got excited! I've heard stories about the sparring here. I heard that lots of guys get broken noses, busted lips, and even knocked out. It's not regular sparring, its a full out fight! The fights for today were already schedualed. The first two guys were pretty good. One of the guys was so quick you couldn't even see his hand hit his opponent. Other fights were ok. Not too many hits but they did well. 


Then my roommate Sam started gearing up! I didnt know he was going to fight!  I did see that when they fight here they really do wear lots of protective equipment.  Sam put all the gear on and he went out to the ring.  I cheered him on. He did well. It was a good fight. It lasted a while and I could tell they were both exhuastred because they were barely punching each other.  Eventually, Sam got a good hit in and busted the other guy's lip which ended the fight. I was proud of my roommate. It was pretty shocking. But watching them fight made me want to fight!  


This event happens once a  month and  I want to fight next month.  Well I did find out a little more about these sparing matches.  It is the new guys who get hurt because they lack training to block and spar correctly.  The guys who get in the ring and act reckless are the ones who get hurt the most.  Maybe I will wait two months before trying this myself.... after my body is better conditioned.                            


After the fights, we watched a few guys grade who were leaving this weekend. Guys want to get their final grade (we'd call it 'getting their belt' here) so they can get a certificate to bring home to show their true level of training.  Soon it was time for lunch. I did my trick where I waited a couple minutes extra after the lunch bell rang before getting in the lunch line, this was easy since I was so into my book I didn't mind waiting. When I got to the dining hall the line was super short so I got my food, went back thru the line to get 'seconds' on the same plate even before sitting down.                 After lunch there wasnt much to do besides read my book. The power was out since this morning so I just kicked back and read my Lost Hero Book. Sam saw me reading and asked me what page I was on. I was on page 473 and I had just started reading my book on Tuesday. He told me I'm probably the "most intelligent reader" he's ever met because I read so fast. He read only 4 pages last night in his book while I read over 200 pages. I managed to finish my book today and I even told Sam about the whole Percy Jackson series and I explained how I'm addicted to those books.             


After the break it was time to do the 'mountain run'. But when  we got into our line up, Master Gou said we were do the 'fall cleainng' instead. The weather was perfect today. The sun was out. Not a single cloud in the sky and we had to waste it cleaning?! We have to clean the academy once every four months. So I guess doing it today wasnt too terrible. We had to wipe all the windows in the acadamey...with wet newspaper. Why? I have no idea, maybe its an ancient shaolin trick. Or maybe they are saving paper towels. After we wiped all the windows, we went to the sand box to pull weeds. Master Gou had a shovel and was using it to get at the weeds on the rocks. I grabbed a shovel and started helping him. We shoveled the whole path chopping the weeds and putting them in a wheel barrel. Master Gou took the first load and dumped it and when we loaded the second one I offered to take it. It wasnt far but I wanted to help Master. We continued shoveling and soon I was dripping with sweat. After hours of shoveling, wheel barreling leaves out, and sweating, we ended class and I went upstairs to shower and get ready for dinner. Sam asked if I was going the the little restaurant next door for dinner to 'chill' with everyone since it was Friday night.  I told Sam why not. So after I showered and got ready, Sam and I headed over for dinner. No one was there yet so we ordered and started eating. Slowly guys were showing up and even a few of our other friends like Rorey, Rob, and Biron.  When they got there, they asked us if we saw that drunk Chinese guy on the road. Well, just after we ordered our food, Sam and I did notice three drunk guys walk out of the back room of the restaurant (where poker games are usually held). But we did notice that one guy was super drunk because he looked like he could barely walk. Well Rorey told us how that drunk guy ended up walking into the academy. the masters came out to tell him to leave but the drunk guy started PUSHING the master. Then the master takes him down but I guess his head hit the stairs on the porch so the drunk guy's nose started bleeding.  As this was happening the other masters were on the phone probably calling the cops. Rob laughed at the sight of the drunk guy trying to take on the Master of a Kung Fu school. After the excitement died down, they all walked over here. I wish I was there to see that!


After we all hung out for a bit I started getting tired and Sam and I both wanted to go back to our room and get some sleep because were going into Yantai tomorrow. 


Goodnight.

-Scott

Are You Tired? What was that? I didn't Heeeeeer Yooooooooou.....

Chinese word of the day: Zao Shang Han-means-Good Morning 

British phrase of the day: 'Ello Mate' -Means....can you guess? Hey friend.

Thursday Morning.  Breakfast with hot chocolate powder...FINALLY! I shot up in bed this morning because I knew I get to use my hot chocolate mix with my oatmeal!

Morning practice was fun,  we got to practice with punching bags. Just hitting the bags made me want to fight! We did basic drills but on the bags and it was fun feeling contact with the bags. After the bags we all lined up arms length apart and one by one a person would weave in and out of the line of people and do the drill. It would be punches, then kicks, then more banging forearms, but instead of partnering up we would stay still as each person in the class would hit you then when it was my turn in the line to go I would follow the line and hit everyone else. I guess I hit a few of the guys kinda hard  because they said my punches hurt and when it was their turn and they got to me they went full force. My arm started to go numb but hey! its conditioning and its suppose to feel like that so I would just laugh and embrace the pain. I sitll thought it was fun anyways.

Second class break for accupuncture and massage class. I didnt go because I was so sore from yesterday's training so I just relaxed and read my book

lunch was good nothing new or interesting like squid just the usual chicken. 

Afternoon training was San Da. Did a lot of kicks and hook punches. Its more kick boxing style so a lot of cardio for warm ups. then went and partnered up for punching the hand pads. I partnered up with guy named Gertle who's from Norway. Hes a tall blonde always happy guy. A lot of people here are very happy...little weird. But hey this place is fun and feels like a dream so  why  wouldnt people be happy... besides the hours of training, pain, and the constant chicken, veggies, and rice. 

Anyways, Gertle was my partner and I was first to hit the bags. He would move around making me jump around and hit the bags quicker. Then iI did the kicks and he had to take a break after each time I kicked the bag. He said, "each kick makes his brain rattle." I didnt know I was kicking that hard. Then back to punches. He would say "keep your guard up" and hit me on top of my head with the pad. Well it was easy for him to do that because I was low and guarding my face. Then he would go BOP and hit my head and say keep your guard up. After a few times of him doimg that i got a little mad and told him "do it again and I'll punch you in your face" but in a joking way and we both laughed even though I really wanted to punch him. But as a good training partner he kept trying to hit my head but soon I learned to block those 'bops' and counter that with a punch to his his chest. He realized he couldnt  bop me anymore and he stopped trying because each time he reached for my head, he made it it easy for me to punch his chest. I would say "keep YOUR guard up!" 

After class we went down to watch Andrew grade. He had two forms to grade and he is leaving on Sunday. Sad to see him go,  but he has been here 9 months. So we all went down to see him grade. He did a 15 minute Ti Chi form. It was super long but he made it look easy. After that form he did a form on the Wooden dummy. Which is a wooden punching bag with sticks sticking out to hit and pull depending on the moves. He performed the form so well I wanted to learn it ASAP. But I knew it would be a couple months till I could attempt to learn that form. 

After that I showered up and read my book till dinner time. When I went to dinner and stood in line with Rorey and we  talked about his Power Training today. He told me how his Master, the same master as my roommate Sam, would line them up and have them sprint across the room at the same time he would chase them with a stick and hit the person who was last! Sam had told me that his master BEAT them if they stopped during a drill or just gave up.  This would make them work harder but chasing them with a stick to make them run faster was insanely funny! While we were in line, Rorey told me that while doing pull ups Sam could only do one pull up.  Sam wanted to get off the bar, but Master would hit Sam every time his feet touched the ground so Sam is dangling on the pull up bar trying not to get hit. But Rorey said one of the other classmates got it hard too. His master asked the group if anyone was tired from training. One of the guys said he was. So the master said "ok do 30 push ups now." Then when he finished the master asked him are you still tired. He said "No" so the master said "ok good do 30 more push ups." Then after that the guy was exhuasted and everyone felt really sorry for him and the master asked him again still tired? Rorey said he didn't say anything and the master laughed and said "good" and they continued training! I felt bad for them but Rorey said his master is hard on certain guys because he knows they have potential but the ones who don't have potential he will beat untill they have it. Then I asked Rorey, since he's been here a while, why does my master, Master Gou, make his class so laid back such as he doesn't chase us and beat us with sticks. The other masters all beat their students but my master doesnt. Rorey said he would hate to have my master. My master is very quiet and observes a lot so if someone slacked off Master Gou would just not talk to them and be like 'why should I teach you if you dont even try'. Rorey was SPOT ON. Master Gou does look at some of the other students who don't try in the class like that! He never looks at me like that because I try 100% everyday not just because I want to learn a lot but I want to complete as many forms so I can get to the stick fighting form! But when Rorey said Master Gou would just not talk to the person instead of beating them it seemed like a greater punishment. Rorey and Sam's master would play the guilt card every now and  say something like "you were here to train and if you just want to 'play' then he will find you a 'toy' to play with but I don't want to waste my time." When you look at Master Gou, you KNOW he won't even waste his time teaching you the move if he thinks you just want to play around. I've seen him just walk by students who don't practice. Having that chat with Rorey really helped me realize that Master Gou is pretty strict. He always seems to smile and laugh when he trains me but maybe thats just because im one of the good students. I would NOT want to see his bad side. 

After dinner I came to my room to write this blog to keep you guys updated. Now going to read my book and go to bed. 

Good Night.

-Scott

Week 3 Power Training Wednesday

(Editor's Note:  Because power was out in Scott's dorm and I was away from my computer for last couple days, I am uploading three blogs today. Week Three,  Monday, Tuesday and this one from Wednesday.  Steve)

Chinese word of the days: 3-San

4-Si

5-Wu

6-Liu

7-Qi

8-Ba

9-Giu

10-Shi

British word of the day: Wicked-means-cool/awesome.

This morning I was soooooo sore. I think it's from yesterday's stance training. I waddled down to breakfast and had my warm oatmeal...without chococlate. Tomorrow I get to add hot chococlate mix! (I ration it to make it last) After breakfast I went to my room to get ready for my first class. Today was POWER TRAINING. 

When i went to class it was freezing. I had my thermal shirt on, hoodie, North Face jacket, sweats with kung fu pants on top,scarf, and benie all on. the usual. Once we started doing drills I would get hot but I wouldn't want to sweat because I'd freeze. I would take layers of clothing off as I warmed up. thank you boy scout snow training which taught me about layers. After class was over we had a small break. Morning classes are usually easiest part of the day. Training gets more instense after lunch. Why? I have no idea thats just how things work. Second class was Baji class. Practiced two person warm ups where we would bang forearms, shins, backs, and shoulders against each other. Another form of conditioning. I liked Baji more than Wing Chun so far. Baji is more rough and more hands on than Wing Chun but then again I'm only in week 3. So after warm ups Master taught me a few more steps in the second form. to be precise, he showed me three more moves, which is about 1/8th more of the total form. Getting taught one small section at a time drives me insane.

Lunch was great. Had lunch at the Tea Game table. The tea game is where everyone is eating then someone calls out tea randomly and everyone has to put their hand on the salt and pepper shaker in the middle of the table and the last person who touches the salt and peper has to go get the tea for the whole table. At other tables people do it differently. At some tables people will volunteer to get the tea and at others you just get tea for yourself. But it was fun learning this new game. If you remember the guy I wrote about who I had the dicussion about tattoos with at the time I didnt know his name. Well he was at my table for lunch and he was the one who explained the game to me. His name is Rorey. One of the coolest guys here I think. Well luckily i wasn't the last person to touch the salt and I had a good lunch.

Afterward i went upstairs and I decided since I have 2 hours before next class I will do my laundry. So Sam was nice enough to show me how it all worked. He showed me were the laundry room was and which machine to use. I bought some Tide laundry detergent at the school store but when I was loading my washer, Sam showed me someone left a bag of detergent and he managed to pour some in the washer for me. We both headed back to the room and I waited. After 30 min of reading my new book I went to check my laundry. It was done and Sam said there are no dryers so you had to line dry your clothes. I have always.....always used a dryer. I have only used a clothes line to dry my clothes once. It was when I was in Israel with Rabbi, Lindy, and Jory and we were staying at their friends house for a couple days. They taught me how to fold the cothes over the line then clamp it down with a clamp. I remembered that little technquie when I hung my clothes up to dry. I bought a few extra clamps at the store which I ended up using because I couldn't find anymore on the line. 

After laundry I read more of my Lost Hero book and relaxed till class. Then time flew by and it was class time. We started off stretching in the big training hall with the other classes. I talked to Rodney while we stretched each other.  I said to him "Great since the other classes are here we won't have to do drills across the whole floor just half way." Well I was wrong. After stretches the other classes all moved outside. It was like they knew we were about to start drills and let us have the whoooole floor. I couldnt help but laugh...a hurtful laugh. First we had to do duck walks. Not too bad. Then when we reached the end of the hall we had to do duck walks back...another hurtful laugh. Then we paired up and did wheel barrels to the end and back. I paired up with Rodney. He makes fun of me for running slow when we do the morning and afternoon runs. He is taller than me so one stride for him equals 3 strides for me. But I have a bit more upper body muscle than him so when it was his turn to wheel barrel across the floor he kept collasping. I would tease him and say, "Come on Rodney the kangaroos are running faster than you now." Or i would say, "stop fooling around and get to the end already." I didnt mind teasing him since I went first so he couldn't tourment me while I wheeled barreled across the floor. After that we had to do hops across the floor. For some reason, I don't even know why but these were really fun! They really hurt! But when I hopped along I was laughing and smiling. I have a habit of smiling when I am in pain but this time even I thought i was 'losing it' for a moment. But when Rodney told me I am laughing so much that I must be crazy, I just punched him. 

After the hops we had to jump on one foot and kick with the other while we stayed on the jumping foot. the other couldn't touch the ground. That was hard. After that we did more jumping drills, spinning drills, and running drills. Once we finished we started the Power Stretching part. We all grabbed a pad and did stretches. Splits, butterfly presses, and other stretches but this time we would have someone pushing our face down or pull out our legs more. This made 'regular stretching' to 'power stretching'. Then Master said we had to do push ups on fingers then knuckles. Then he said "only" 30. 30 push ups aren't bad but try going from knuckle push up to fingers then pushing off the ground with your fingers and landing on your knuckles then landing on your fingers 30 times. It starts to hurt. Then we had to do 'planks' on our knuckles. Master said "only" 8 minutes. We do 2 minutes of planks everyday so when he said 8 minutes I thought he was kidding. I was wrong. He really ment 8 minutes. After 5 minutes I had to hold myself up with my palms because my knuckles hurt too much but when we had 2 min left i toughed it out and went back on my knuckles. After the 8 minutes everyone collasped. I was laughing in pain. then we did a lot of V ups for abs, ab holds for 5 minutes, and then 10 ONE ARM PUSH UPS. Rodney doesnt even try those.  The first week i tried and I had trouble doing them,  but today....I did 10 each hand non-stop. I was shocked! I didn't even know that I am gaining upper body muscle. I can tell I am gaining lower body muscle through stance training and running but we barely do upper body stuff.

After class I showered up and just crashed on my bed and read my book till dinner. When it's meal time everyone lines up outside the dining hall and waits to be served. The thing is people would just cut and run in front so its pointless to wait at the door early. Since it's been cold I have been waiting a bit longer in my room so when I go to get my food the line is short and I don't have to wait outside in the cold. Today I went to dinner and I waited an extra ten min and there were about 8 guys in front of me but no one was behind me. When I got my food I just walked back to the front of the line to get seconds. They ration out the food so sometimes you don't get a lot but with my new little trick I can get seconds real quick! i thought that was ingenious and worth waiting a few extra minutes. At dinner I sat at Luigi and Mario's table. Luigi and Mario are two Spanish guys in my Wing Chun group. I don't know their real names but they remind me of Luigi and Mario from the video game "Mario Brothers. One is tall and the other is short with a MUSTASH! They are both from Barcelona and are here till Christmas. They are best friends for 10 years now and they both trained in Kung FU back in Spain and they both wanted to come to China to train. They are pretty funny. They missed Monday class so I asked where they were. They left last weekend to go to a different province to go sight seeing and see different temples. While I discussed with Luigi where they went and how the trip went Mario would say something to Luigi and they would litterally bicker at each other and say some things in Spanish then Luigi would continue the story with me. It was the funniest thing I have seen here. Mario would make fun of Luigi every now and then but they made dinner very fun. 

Afterward I finished up dinner and now I am back in the room. After this I will read my book and go to bed.

-Scott

Got a Care Package of goodies

Morning brought oatmeal, honey, and a pack of nestle hot chocolate mix I got from the package my parents sent me. In this care package they sent me a few thermals (like long underwear but in two pieces) , a few packs of hot chocolate mix, protein bars, a water filter, water bottle, camel pack, oreos, beef jerky and other treats. They shipped this before I got sick but the timing for this stuff getting here was perfect.

I love chocolate oatmeal, so today I was crazy and brought down a pack. I had a couple cups of hot chocolate last night and it tasted amazing even just mixing with water. So i mixed it with my oatmeal and it was amazing!!! I will do it every other day so i dont run out.

It was freezing this morning. Even though I had a thermal shirt on, North Face jacket on top, then a scarf, another North Face jacket on top, and topped off with a benie.For pants i had sweats on and i put my martial art pants over them so my legs stay warm. I felt like i was going to a snow trip in lake Tahoe. The air felt like ice and there was mist in the air so it felt like my face was frozen. I wrapped my scarf around my face as well. Some guys still run around shirtless and one guy from France runs around bare foot. Everyone calls him Peter Pan. He trains with no shirt ever and never wears shoes. Even when he goes to town he doesnt wear shoes.

Then after first class I went to my room for a protien bar and the electricity was out...crap. Went to class and the second class was "application class/ take down class". This is the "headache" class. We do a lot of rolls and take downs in this section. Master Gou will hold up a stick and we have to jump and roll over it. I think its fun even though others complain they get head aches. Today I was behind Clement. He is from France and has been around for a couple months. Behind me was Rodney who complains every time he is up to roll. We did basic rolls on the ground and then rolls backwards and others. Then Master Gou holds the stick out and we have to jump over it and roll out. He would lower it for the new people and when Clement turn was up Master held it high. I was next.I am new but master still held the stick high. I smiled and said to Rodney, "Alright guess i gotta go." I ran and jumped, clearned the pole and rolled out perfectly. Clement clapped and said 'well done'. I WAS SO SHOCKED THAT I DID IT! We went around again. This time Master held the stick even higher for Clement. I knew this time he would lower it for me at least to the same level as last time. NOPE. Master kept it high. I laughed and said 'Alright here we go'. Ran. Jumped. Rolled. And cleared it! I love this class. After that we did a lot of take downs and the cool 'on your back' flip up. Like you see in Kung Fu movies. I cant flip up all the way yet but i almost get it.

After class was lunch. I was starving. They served chicken, veggies, squid, and rice. I got all of it, even the squid... I'm not a fan of squid but I was hungry and squid must have some protein or something. It tasted pretty bad but I think its just the thought of it being 'squid' that made it bad. I finished my bowl anyways. After lunch the power was STILL out! Oh, also in my care package from home was the New Rick Riodon book, Lost Hero. So I started to read it. I was automaticlly hooked. I love his books.

Then went to the last class of the day. Stance training. in this class we stand in positions for about 5 min each making out legs burn like crazy. Master said if were cold we should bend our legs more to warm us up. It was true I was sweating in the wind. Not good I know. So I peeled off a couple layers of clothing so my jacket wasnt soaked with sweat. When we finished i put the extra layers back on immedietly. Then at the end of class Master said a few words about Shawn since he is leaving tomorrow and we took a few pictures. Now i am back in my room waiting for dinner and the power is back!

Going to go to bed soon after dinner. Will write more tomorrow.

-Scott

Couple pictures

Monday week three

First day of training since the hospital adventure. Woke up, went to breakfast. Breakfast was great. The oatmeal never tasted so good. Went to morning practice and saw all my friends. they asked where i was and whart happened. i filled them in. Even people I didn't know came up to me. There was a rumor that i had food poisoning or a broken tooth. Today, training was fun. I was glad to be moving around again. i took it easy because im still on antibiotics but i still had fun. learned the first part of the second form in wing chun.


then at the second class we did conditining. hitting trees over a 1000 times, kicking each other, and banging forearms... It's great to be back!

lunch tasted amazing too! it was tofu, chicken, veggies, and rice! i've gone 4 days with no rice and I realized I was craving rice.

afternoon lesson was fun. we did baji and I was taught the first part of the second form. when i get to the 4th form I get to use the staff. cant wait.

Dinner was great as well. Saw Shawn who is leaving on Wednsday. He told me that he is selling a few books. I went by after dinner and saw he had a few mandarin phrase books. I bought one called the Berlitz Mandarin phrase book. Then I saw he had a water cooler. I asked if he was selling that because I buy lots of small water bottles at the store. I don't like drinking the tap water. He said it was and he buys the water tanks down at the school store for only 6 yuan. I have been buying small water bottles for 3 yuan. I would save so much money if i got his cooler. So i went and I got 100 yuan and made a deal with shawn for his cooler and brought it upstairs. sam was shocked with what I brought back. it is a big water cooler but it had HOT water too. You know what that means??? NO MORE WALKING DOWN 48 stairs to refill my water thermos every hour! WOOHOO! Plus the water is purified rather than heated tap water.


Then i showered up and when I went back to the room the radiators were turning on. i never would of guessed water flowing through pipes can make so much noise....creepy noise. After a while of listening to noises the room was warm. it felt great. I guess if they are turning on the radiators the weather will be getting real cold now. Master Gou told us it will be 2 degrees tomorrow so dress warm.

The weather was getting reallly cold. All day winds were blowing very strong and cold. it was suppose to snow today but I guess it wasnt cold enough. i hope the sun keeps the snow away for a few more weeks. I dont want to get cold and go back to the hospital.

Can't wait till tomorrows training.

-scott

I am going home!

Last day in hospital. spent three days and nights in the hospital and that was enough.

But today, day three, I woke up feeling a lot better. Went and saw the doc after breakfast and took the regular dose of meds. Doc saw me asked how I felt and if there were any problems. I said “NOPE!”. Then he said ‘ok you can leave after you get one more IV’. I didn’t mind since I was going to go back to the academy and see everyone! We went back to the room and Danny asked the nurse if I can get the IV now. We wanted to do some shopping before we had to go back to school. The nurse came back in hooked me up with the IV. This time it was a new nurse. I didn’t recognize her but I paid no attention to it. She hooked me up and left. One of my roommates, the guy with the sunglasses, pointed at my IV. It wasn’t dripping. I called the nurse back and my usual nurse came in. She moved the needle in my hand around a bit and the IV started to drip.

Once that was finished we went to see where I pay my bill. I was told that I couldn’t pay till around 11am so Danny and I left to go buy some things. I needed to get a blanket for my room since it will be getting colder. I wanted a few more sweat pants, an mp3 player, a camera, and a scarf. We went to the mall and bought the camera, mp3, blanket, and got some McDonalds for lunch. It seemed a little less greasy than the McDonalds in the United States. Not the best lunch but we had to eat quickly so we got fast food and ate in the Taxi. This taxi stayed with us as we hoped from shop to shop. That was pretty good. But man is it hard to eat in a taxi that is driving so crazy thru traffic.

We went to a smaller mall and found a small store that sold track pants, jackets, and shoes. I got three pairs of pants plus one matching jacket and a pair of North Face shoes for when it snows. Then when we were looking for a wallet for Danny (as a thank you from me for his help), I found a scarf shop and I bought myself a nice scarf. Even though my experience in the hospital was sorta fun, I don’t want to go back too soon and I hope the scarf will help me stay out.

Then we left to head back to the hospital to pay and pick up my meds. We went to the hospital talked to the doc, doc said go to the nurse three floors up, went there got the meds, went back to the doc, who told me to take one tablet 3 times a day. The other three tablets three times a day. Easy enough. So we went downstairs paid for my stay and left.

Before we went back to the academy i asked Danny if we could pick up my kung fu outfit I had made at the tailor. We went and picked it up and it looks great! I’ll try posting pics of it.

Then we started driving to the academy. I was excited. I don’t know if my excitement was because I really wanted to get back to training or because I’d be back with friends. But I was excited! I remember thinking were almost ‘home’. I never called the academy home before but I really did miss it.

When I got back to the academy, Danny helped me bring my bags upstairs and unloaded everything. When I swung open the door to my room I saw Sam was inside and when he saw me he had a huge smile on his face. Danny dropped my stuff off I thanked him and he left. I told Sam about my ordeal. Then after I finished unpacking i took the longest shower i ever took here. It felt amazing so i didn’t mind spending a few extra min in the shower. Even went over a couple of my forms while i was in there as well.

Then when I got back to the room Sam told me he wanted to go next door to the little restaurant to eat and I said I would join him. I wanted their tomato soup. Before we left I brought my old sheets down so they could be washed and changed. (The school does the laundry service for sheets) When I went downstairs they gave me new pillow case, sheets, and blanket. I put the new ones in my room and went back downstairs. Sam left to get something so while I waited for Sam to come back, I ran into the Head Master. He asked how I was and I told him ‘I’m ready to train’ and he laughed, smiled, and nodded.

Sam and I went to go eat and we realized every Sunday we have eaten here. It’s turning out to be our new ritual. It’s nice, quiet, the food is great and cheap and it’s just the two of us on an average Sunday evening.


After dinner i went to my room. Chatted with some friends. Got ready for tomorrow’s training. And just felt happy to be home. The adventure continues.

I’d still like to know who is reading this blog. If you can, register to ‘follow’ this blog. If you can’t do that, drop me an email once in awhile. I will respond to questions and comments when I can.

-Scott

Hakuna Matata

Chinese word of yesterday: number 1-yin

Chinese word of the day: number 2-Ar. 

End of the first full day in the hospital. 

Yesterday evening, I watched some movies on my laptop and went to sleep after getting another IV. Every time I get an IV I get hella dizzy. Today I got an IV twice. 

First time I got two in one day. After the IV juice was done. I had to go see the doc. I was so dizzy walking to the doctor’s office I felt like I just got off a wild spinning roller coaster. I saw the doctor and she looked at my throat said it looks a lot better. I asked what made me get sick? Was it food or cold weather or what? She said I caught a cold and over time it got worse. Then when Danny and I were about to leave the doctor’s, I said ‘SheeShee’ and she laughed really hard and smiled. Probably shocked her that I spoke mandarin! 

One thing that is funny, is that every time I go with Danny to the doctor downstairs Danny always sings the Disney song “Hakuna Matata” (no worries) haha his singing makes me laugh and keeps me positive while I’m here. 

Danny the Translator

Another pic of Danny

I forgot to write about the blood test yesterday.   At 4am. A nurse came in to take my blood because I’ve been fasting. I thought I would have to go to a lab but she came to me. Cool. But then she pulled out a HUGE needle. Like literally the biggest I’ve never seen. I am never scared of needles but this one made me look away. It was about as round as the circle you make when you touch your thumb to your first finger to make the ‘ok’ sign. (that’s how big the needle looked like at 4am anyway) I don't know if that makes any sense. But anyways the needle was about 5 inches long and big. But I survived that blood test. 

Later in the morning I had the regular pills to take, had the IV again and had to do the breathing machine twice as well. My dad texted me they make me do that machine so I don't get pneumonia. (Since I have been to this hospital, I have been able to text to keep in contact with everyone)  I was on the breathing machine forrrreeeeveer. Finally, after like a half hour the nurse ran in and unhooked it for me. Danny stayed all night but left in the morning to pick up a new student at the airport.  Danny told me that the school said another translator is on her way. Soon Lily showed up to take Danny’s place. She's 25, really short and she can translate ok just really slow. But she speaks way better mandarin than I ever could so I don't mind and am glad she is helping. 

So the nurse came in and told us we have to go see the doc. Went to see the doc and the doc says I looking a lot better but there is one problem...crap! The doc said when I did the heart machine my results were bad. (you saw yesterday’s pic of all the wires stuck to my chest?) To double check the heart machine results, the doc then used her stethoscope to hear my heart. She asked if my heart hurt after running, training, or working out. I said ‘no’ and she said ‘ok you sound healthy so you can leave Sunday’. Woohoo! My dad said that all the meds, or just being sick might have made my heart tests look funny yesterday.  

Danny and I will ask the doc if there are any meds I need to take with me back to the academy.  After the doc, I had to go to the blood room where they prick my finger and suck two vials of blood. 

At least they didn't use the big NEEDLE! After that we headed back to the room.  Later, one of the nurses approached me and said that her 16 year old daughters wanted to meet me because they never spoke to a Foreigner. I told the nurse that I would talk with the girls.  The daughters came in to my room and both looked identical. Both were wearing glasses and had black hair bangs cut straight. They spoke ok English and they taught me how to count in Chinese and say a few other words. My translator, Lily, helped with the conversation because the girls didn’t understand everything I said. I felt pretty famous! (Even though I only had two ‘fans’) The fact that people would come to a hospital just to talk to me as a foreigner is pretty awesome!!! They asked me lots of questions and after awhile they left. After the girls left, Lily had to go back to the academy which was ok since Danny was on his way. 

While I was waiting for Danny I was watching more ‘family guy’ on my laptop when a Chinese man and woman walked in to the room. My back was facing them because I was on my side and when I turned to look I didn't recognize the woman so I was like ‘ok they are probably visitors for one of my other roommates’. Then they walked towards my bed and I looked again and when I saw the man’s face and realized it was the HEAD MASTER of the Academy. This was my master’s master! I shot up in bed because I was so surprised. Luckily, the lady was Kathy. Kathy was the lady I had emailed from America to apply for the school. I found out that she is Head Masters wife. With Kathy as translator, the Head Master asked how I was and how am I feeling. I told him a lot better and that I can't wait to go back to training. Kathy was going to translate what I had said but he shushed Kathy and laughed at what I said. He can understand English very well. He had Kathy tell me he bought me some bananas for me to eat to help me get better. 

I saw that he brought 12 bananas! I was shocked! Then he said I looked good and soon they had to go. They asked where my translator was and I said oh Lily went back and told him Danny is on his way.

The head master smiled and nodded, so did I, and we said goodbye and they left. About 20 min later Danny showed up with dinner and I was like ‘dude u missed the head master. He Said ‘WHAT?’ I said ‘ya he visited me!’ He was like ‘crap.’ Danny then told me that the Head Master had just called him 10 min ago yelling at him to get to the hospital. I said ‘wow he seemed happy when he was here.’ Hopefully Danny won't get in trouble tomorrow when we go home. 

Danny also bought me a few movies to watch, some are in English and some in Chinese. I'm going to watch a couple movies then rest! Danny and I are gong winter clothes shopping, as well as picking up my outfit from the tailors. We will be going to the supermarket tomorrow since we will be in town. That will be fun. 

Goodnight

-Scott

Sent from my iPhone