Second Training Day

Blog 7

Chinese word of the Day: Qi  Means Energy (or the number 7 if you accent it different)

Having a British roommate is fun. I’ve always wanted a British accent. I noticed the words they say make them sound more British than the accent, so I decided to do the British word of the day.

British word of the day: Dodgy Means Crappy

I woke up to my roommate yelling, “Put it down! Put it Bloody Down!” It startled me for a moment. Everything was dark so I couldn’t tell if he was on the phone, talking to someone, or just dreaming. Once he stopped talking I realized he was dreaming. He did that twice last night. In the morning I asked him if he was ok. I told him I heard him yelling last night. He told me he had the weirdest dream and when he started to yell it woke himself up.

I was sooooooooooo SORE! My legs felt so tight. My back hurt. My arms were dead….Day 1. So I got out of bed and did my stretches for class. Helped a lot. When it was time for breakfast I brought my oatmeal down. I wasn’t too sure how it would taste, but anything can beat yesterday’s breakfast. I went down to the dining hall and they had out the regular. Soup, eggs, and bread. I got myself about 6 eggs, two pieces of bread, and soymilk powder. I got a bowl of my oatmeal, added water, and put the soymilk powder in. I loved my oatmeal. It tasted amazing. I had a crazy idea. What if I put my egg inside my oatmeal? The other day my roommate told me not to eat the yoke of the egg, because its high in cholesterol.  I don’t like the yoke much anyway. So I peeled open an egg, put the egg white in, and mixed it around in the oatmeal. It tasted even better! Breakfast was really good today. I also met a guy from Texas who absolutely hates the breakfast here. He complains how the academy doesn’t have any bacon, sausage, pancakes, or other Texas breakfast food. The guys told me down the road is a guy who has a bee farm and sells honey and they use honey to make breakfast a lot better. Maybe this weekend ill stop by and buy myself a jar. I began to notice a couple guys here have pocket knives to cut bread and other things. I asked them where they got it and they looked so proud and told me they got it at the “Everything” store. If only they saw the pocket knives I have at home.

After breakfast I had an hour till the morning run. I saw my roommate in the room and I told my roommate, “If you put egg in your oatmeal it tastes really good.” He just laughed and told me, “You’re learning fast.”

                This morning my roommate asked me, “What are you doing?” I told him, “I am blogging each day for family, friends, and even temple members to read.” “What temple?” I laughed and I said, “I’m Jewish and I go to a Jewish temple.” He said, “No way. I’m Jewish too!”

The run in the morning was dreadful. I was so sore and tired. Kung fu class was fun except the stretching part. My friend Rodney from Australia said the first week he was very flexible and now he is on his second week and he lost a lot of flexibility from his legs being so sore and tight. He told me by the third week progress on flexibility will show. I learned 1/8th of the first form yesterday. Today I got taught 1/8^th more. I practiced that for about half of the class. Shifu (Master) saw me and told me I am learning extremely fast and taught me a move where I block and kick out the remaining leg. I felt really proud to be taught a private move by the Shifu. I spent the rest of the class practicing 2/8^th of the form and the blocking form.  

When class was over I went back to my room. I got to rest for about 10 min and I just laid down.

Before I knew it, it was time to go to second class. It was acrobatics and take downs. Did lot of flips, rolls, and jump rolls. Then learned a few take downs.

Afterward I went to lunch. I met a French guy who left France to come here, because he had to get away from home. When he gets back he will be charged. I asked him charged for what. He said it has to do with drugs and cars and “BS” and he came here to start a new page in his life. He is here for a year.

After lunch I have a two and a half hour break. I went online and chatted with family and friends. And took the normal resting time to my advantage. 

When rest time was up I headed downstairs for “stance training”. We had to do five minutes each stance. My legs were burning, shaking, and on top of that still sore! Then we broke into private groups to practice our Baiji forms. I didn’t get a form yet, because I was only taught the warm ups. There are about 20 different warm up moves. When I was practicing the warm ups the Shifu went to me and taught me one on one each step. Then taught me 3 more moves. Really helpful. Also showed how the moves are used and he practically threw me across the floor.  Getting one on one time with the Shifu is very rare and since I’m the new kid I’m lucky to get that time with Shifu. I guess I’m pretty lucky today.

Had another break till dinner. Wrote half of my blog during break then went down to eat. Dinner was great. I was starving. Nothing new on the menu. Still the same chicken, veggies, and rice. But it tasted great.

After dinner I went up to my room to shower and get ready for Mandarin class.

Mandarin class was fun. Learned how to say good morning and goodnight. Even how to say I love you. Will use them for  “word of the day” in the future.

I’m really sore and tomorrow is Power training day…my classmates warned me. Time to get some sleep. Goodnight!

Thank you all for your comments on my blogs. I will answer each comment but it is hard to. I can’t log into my blog website from China. It is restricted, along with Facebook, YouTube, and many other website. Thanks to my dad, he uploads them and sends me the comments via email. Jess also helps me answer them online as well. If any of you have any questions you might want to e-mail me at MrSlickSRC@aol.com . I can reply faster. Thank you!
- Scott