Thank God it's Friday

BLOG 10

Chinese word of the day:Nengyuan-means-energy.

British word of the day: trousers-means-pants.

Friday

                Today we started with a regular morning, breakfast, run, and class. I learned the whole form in my Wing Chun class. I wasn’t too confident with it enough to perform in front of the whole school and masters. But I plan to perform both of my forms at the next grading.

                Then after the first class was grading. After the students graded, it was time for the masters to perform. I made sure I was sitting in the front. I found out there’s a higher master than my Master Gou. He doesn’t teach classes but he over sees the whole school. Each master did their strength technique. My master didn’t go because he usually performs ChiGong where he would break a piece of marble with his hand, but the head master performed that part today.

I even videotaped their performance. I will try to upload it on here. When the head master went the table he was using was old and wobbly. When he put a block of marble on it, it was not sturdy and when he hit it, it didn’t break. He did it twice and it didn’t break. I looked at his hand and it was purple and bleeding. Then in rage he picked it up over his head and slammed it on his skull….it snapped in two. Then he had another master hit him with a huge bamboo stick on his ribs and it snapped then again on his arm. Then with two fingers he got a smaller piece of marble and hit it and it broke. I was quite amazed. Then the other masters went. Two did a fist form and the power behind each blow was incredible. Another master did a sword form and all I heard was whipping sounds from the blade moving so fast. That was my favorite. Then the other master did a stick form. It sucked that my master didn’t go. At the end I asked my master why he didn’t go. He said he let the Head Master perform ChiGong which at last grading Master Gou performed and broke the marble with the first try. Master Gou did say the table really made it difficult for the head master to break it.

                Then at lunch I met a British guy, who had a lot of different tattoos. So we started talking about tattoos. He showed me his tattoo he got from Muping. Then I told him I wanted to get a tattoo to represent my adventure here. He said I should ask my master for a Chinese name because then I can get that tattooed and then if someone asked what it means and I tell them it’s a Chinese name my master gave me in China. Isn’t that awesome?!

Then I rested for “Mountain Climb”. 600 steps high with twists and turns. Very steep.  I walked to the mountain with Issac, the Jewish guy who served in the Israeli army. It took 20 min to get to the starting point. I was worn out before I even got to the beginning.  The sights were amazing. Looked like a picture! I will take pics in the future. I ran up and down 12 times. That’s about 7,200 steps. Luckily it’s not just straight stairs there are a few stairs then a bit of room to walk then more stairs and more.  Will take pics so you can understand better.  I was having a lot of fun besides the pain. I was laughing and smiling even though I’m drenched with sweat. 

On my 5^th way up I took a break on the bench to stretch my calves. Issac saw me and said, “What’s this resting crap. Come on now. Run up the stairs and walk the platforms. That’s how I play.” I kept up with him for a few more rounds. During the 9^th way up he passed me and I was going a bit slower and he yells back at me, “ Come on Scott you have big calves.” I yelled, “If this is a video game, where’s the pause button!?” The goal is 6 times up and 6 times down, total of 12. For others who are fit, they would bear crawl down. One bear crawl equals a whole extra set. So they would only have to go 3 times up and three down with bear crawls. A Bear crawl is where you go head first down the stairs using your arms and legs.

Friday night, a group of us went to eat at the nearby restaurant for dinner. I had a huge meal. Chicken wings, bread, fried rice, dumplings, and an omelet. The guys were making fun of me like I couldn’t finish it. I sure proved them wrong!

Tomorrow Sam and I are going into town called Muping. I will take pics so you all can see!

-Scott