Getting Ready to Leave -- On vacation anyway

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

My Chinese Tattoo

This is my first blog since December 15. The reason why I have not written is because the snow storms have made the internet cut in and out making posting difficult. Also since it was the end of the semester a lot of my friends were returning home and I spent many evenings in the last week or so going to lots of 'goodbye' dinners.


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!

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

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

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. 

Sunday

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






 

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

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