Monday, First Training day

Blog 6

Word of the day- TengTong. Means pain.

Took my first shower last night. Before I took it, my roommate told me to be careful. PEE sometimes comes out  the shower head. Luckily I didn’t experience taking a PEE shower. I got in the shower and out as fast as I could.

I woke up two hours before breakfast. I guess I was excited for training, because I couldn’t go back to sleep. Watched a couple of tosh.0 episodes on my laptop and then got ready for breakfast. Breakfast was horrible! All they had were some kind of soup, bread, and hard boil eggs. I tried mixing bread with the soup to make it taste better….didn’t work. All I ate were boiled eggs. Only ate about 4 eggs till I started feeling nauseous.  My roommate came down with oatmeal he bought from the “Everything” store. I started realizing most of the students brought their own food for breakfast! I can’t blame them. Later today I will go down to the store and buy some.

After breakfast I went back up to my room to get ready for the morning run. My Sam told me every Monday Morning there’s a room inspection. So we cleaned up our room and finished just in time when Master Gou knocked on our door. He gave a quick inspection and left. After he left Sam and I went downstairs to wait for the morning bell to ring. The bell goes off every time it’s meal time, class time, and when it’s time for everyone to go to bed. When the bell rang we all lined up. There are about 50 other foreign students from all different places. The masters don’t speak English so they have a translator who speaks English follow them around. One of the translators called all the new people forward to introduce ourselves. I introduced myself to whole school along with four other new comers. Two other new comers are from California too. The other two are from England. Once we finished we were assigned to our groups and met the master of our group. I got Master Gou. He is the head master of the academy.  He looks about 40, shorter than me, and looks like a humble teacher. The other teachers are a bit scary looking. Just by the looks they give out are scary. My master teaches the Wing Chun class. So when I got assigned to him I knew I got in the class. Everyone told me I wouldn’t get in his class, because there are about 20 students in it already and it’s full but I got in. After we were all introduced we went for the morning run.

The run was about 2 miles. Not too far, but we had to run to bottom of mountain. Coming back was the hard part. Ran the whole thing, but I was pretty tired. I am really out of shape! When we made it back we split into groups. The beginning of class we just stretched. After we stretched for about 15 min on our own, we all lined up in the training room.  When we got in line, we stretching again! This time Master Gou would walk around and pull our legs further apart or even push us down harder. Well it seemed like he pulled my legs really far apart and pushed me down way harder because it HURT! After stretching we got in two lines and did kicks, punches, and other moves across the floor. Since I’m new the master pared me up with the two leaders of the class one is from Jackson, Cali, the other is from Canada. I basically followed everything they did across the room. Master called Andrew, the guy from Jackson, and I over. He told his translator to tell Andrew to teach me the first part of the beginning form. So we went outside and he taught me step by step. The stances in Wing Chun are a lot different from the Kung Fu I did back home so I felt a little awkward. But I did learn the first half of form. After teach saw me do it he went inside got a 6 foot long bamboo stick told me to hold my stance and hold the end of the stick horizontally for 50 seconds then switch hands three times while I held a boxing glove in between my knees. I thought I was being punished! After I that, class was over. I then went to Andrew and asked him why Master made me do that. Andrew has been here for 11 months, he should know. “Was Master punishing me?  Did he see me mess up a step or something? Andrew laughed and said, “We all had to do that on our first day. It’s his way to strengthen us new kids.”

Had fifteen min break till our second class. I went to my room and devoured two protein bars. I was starving. Then I went to my second class. It was conditioning day. We stood in meditating position, legs bent and hands out  for like 20 min. we had our eyes closed, and focused on our Qi (Qi will be tomorrows word of the day. Stay tuned). After that we had to hit a tree with the edge of each hand 300 times. Once we finished that we had to hit our palms 3oo times then elbows only a 100 times. 

When we finished  with the tree, we pared up with a partner hit each forearms downward, step to the side, hit forearms up and down,  spun around, hit the other forearm up and down, then hit forearms in front downward again. Repeated that about 100 times. Then in groups of three one would get on their knees and put hands up in front of their face while one partner kicks the front of the forearms  and the other hits the back of the arms.  We each did that about 50 times. I was still pared with the two leaders of the class….lucky me! We cycled through each one of us then stood legs spread in horse stance. The other two kicked the inside of the thigh on the third guy. Cycled through and then each person hit the back of thigh.

Went back in room waited for lunch after conditioning, so I kicked off my shoes and my feet were burning….along with every other inch of my body.

I have a couple bumps on my arms. My roommate said I might have fractured my bones a bit. Well they will be harder soon.

While we waited I ate two hardboiled eggs my roommate snagged from breakfast. Eggs never tasted so good to me before in my life!

Went to Lunch then had a two hour break till the last martial art class. I went to lay down for a bit, chatted with friends, and just enjoyed rest time.

Two hours went by fast. It was time again for training. I went downstairs to wait for the bell and one of my friends asked me if I was ready for the run. I said. “What run?” He told me we run twice a day….great! I ran it the whole way again but I went a little slower. Everyone went a little slower. While we ran it began to rain.

When we got back from the run, we all went into the big training hall together instead of splitting into smaller classes.  My master teaches us Wing Chun in the mornings and Bahji in the evenings. We did the same stretching routine as the morning class, but when we got in lines to do kicks, punches, and other moves, they were different. Master told Andrew to pull me aside and teach me one on one the moves. He taught me 7 moves. And I had to practice them for an hour and a half. Each time I practiced it got easier and easier to move and it began to flow. While we practiced the other masters would make the students yell and run around and do a lot more intense workouts.  I figured that  since my master is the head master I am going to be worked twice as hard in the afternoon classes.

When class was over Master talked to us about the meaning of practice. He told us that the way you get good is not by remembering the moves, but by understanding each move you make, will make you better.  At the end of each class master talks to us and from doing what he says like practicing it will make us stronger than yelling and running around. Well that’s my prediction at least, time will tell.

Went to dinner and the food was amazing! It was vegetables, chicken, and rice again. I was too hungry to care! I went back in my room to wait for class to start. I have Mandarin class at 18:00. Some guys said it’s not that good of a class. They told me it was pretty basic. I don’t mind. I have 6 months to learn so might as well try it out. I went downstairs to buy a notepad and pen. I also bought oatmeal for the morning, a pair of slippers for the shower and when I go to the restroom at night, big bottled water, and some chips.

Class was fun. One of the translators taught the class. The translator who works for my master teaches the class. He is really tall and skinny. Funny guy though. Learned how to count, say the months, and learned how to converse when wanting to buy an item or to negotiate if it’s too expensive.

I’m exhausted and its only 19:00 over here. I’m going to bed now.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

-Scott