catch up with Chinese New Year

Written Feb 9th



Wednesday
Today is Tuesday but i will update you from last week on Wednesday. As i write this my arms feel like they are going to fall off because i am so sore. i'll tell you why.


Wednesday was Chinese New years eve. First day of break. Stayed in bed for most of the morning. Went downstairs for lunch. After lunch Sam asked if i wanted to play some ping pong since it was a nice warm day. I said of course so we played one game, he destroyed me. Won 3 games so he won 1 match. while we were playing a new student named Gab was watching us. When i lost i let him play Sam. When that game was finished i played Sam again. This time i won the Match. After that match it was getting dark so we went upstairs. The tie breaker will be soon and ill be sure to let you know when sam loses...i mean ill let you know who's the winner!


Before dinner i worked out with Jake and did some shin conditioning.


Dinner was a New Years feast. Not like Christmas where we had a Feast and had performers, this time we only had a feast. But at Midnight they will be launching off Fireworks. After dinner everyone went to chill with each other. Jake and i downloaded Worms for the computer and tried to set up an online match against each other...didnt work out to well. So we just played on one computer. By the time 10 o'clock came around everyone was exhuasted! Sam and i were too tired to go downstairs and i we ended up just going to sleep. I woke up from a loud bang at midnight! The fireworks started. The cool thing was we could see the fireworks from our room so i saw a little bit...sam didnt even get out of his bed. After 30 minutes of watching it i went to lay down. Could not sleep. Fireworks where going off everywhere. Not only was our academy launching fireworks but the whole mountain seemed to be ecoing with explosians. I would eventually fall asleep but wake up after a huge firework went off. Eventually it stopped, not sure what time, then i had a sold sleep.



Thursday

NEW YEARS! The whole day random fireworks where going off. Felt like i was in a War zone. Did some training with jake in the afternoon. BUt mostly just got some rest time in. That is very rare during the week because of the constant training.

The Masters and the translators went home to their families. Except for one master and one translator who was on duty. I felt bad for them. Tomorrow is my appointment for my tattoo. I am adding red to my dragon.


Friday

Woke up at 5 am to catch the bus to Yantai with Ash and Sam. It was about 300 yuan to take a taxi so we decided to take the bus which was only 13 yuan. Got to town and had McDonald breakfast. Went and got my tattoo done. I origanlly paid 2400 yuan for my tattoo with two colors, red and black. When i got there he offered me to add yellow and blue, yellow to fit the red and blue for the scales. I agreed, hoping he would not charge me for the colors but i was prepared to pay. After 2 hours we were finished and he didnt charge me anything. I thought that was pretty awesome. After that Sam went home and Ash and i went to meet some friends. Took it pretty easy that night since my arm was a bit sore.


Saturday

Met up with eric and Ash and i went and had lunch in yantai and saw a movie in the theaters. No english movies where playing so we watched a chinese movie called Shaolin. We watched the whole thing in chinese...they had subtitles but it was also in chinese. IT wasnt too bad because i could understand a few words and the fighting was fantastic. At the end there where an Army of white men and they destroyed the shaolin temple. I told Ash and Eric, everyone will be pretty pissed off at the white people right now and when they see us white guys leaving the theater they will be pissed off and kill us. We left the theater and a lot of the chinese people where pointing at us saying "Lao ei," meaning forgiener. (If translated correctly Lao Ei means White Devil. By the way i am not sure if it i spelled Lao Ei correctly. It just sounds like that.)


AFter the movie and dinner with some friends we stayed the night at the bath house. Everyone in there stares at my tattoo. When i am walking some of the chinese guys stare at my dragon and move away. I wonder if they think i am a Triad.

Sunday we took the bus back to the academy. Did some last minute cleaning for inspection tomorrow and did my laundry.



Monday began the hard work. Did regular training during the day. I even finished my fist Baji form! Grading is on the 15th. If i practice enough i will be able to grade! After dinner Jake and i did our workout. We are not using weights only body weight workouts so we build dense muscle and still being able to be flexiable so we can fight better rather than bulking up and only having muscle to look good. We do a lot of push ups, hand stand push ups on the wall (working on my hand stand so i can hold myself in the air and do a push up with out the wall as well) a lot of conditioning so when we fight we can be solid and wont phase us as much either. Jake is here for two years but i am leaving soon so i want to get as much out of this place as i can. So no more 2 hour lunch breaks. Now after lunch Jake and i do some workouts and practice sparring everyday after lunch. After dinner depending on the day the workout will change but also we will practice sparring as well. Not only do i spend about 8 hours of training with the master but now i am adding 5 extra hours in, 2 hours at lunch, and roughly 3 hours to 4 hours after dinner. i do not get to my room until 9 some nights even later. But hey i will have plenty of time to sleep when i go home.


Tuesday

Woke up so sore. Had to do stance training after the after noon class as well. I thought my legs where going to fall off. Master Guo pushed us real hard today making us hold our stances lower and longer! Did conditioning and some sparring today with jake. I was talking to Jake and he said he wants to be so conditioned that when he fights someone back home he wants to be able to punch through the guys arm or kick the guys leg til it breaks because he trained so hard here. i thought the same thing so we are training hard.


Wednsday

Today i could not get out of bed. Jake and i had a light sparr last night and i felt super sore and tired. I eventually got out of bed before class started and got ready for class. All day i was exhuasted and sore and today was POWER TRAINING! I knew i will die later. Again Jake and i trained during lunch...didnt help my soreness but i want to be strong. made it throught power training...doing all the workouts and extra training actually made power training a bit easier. I was shocked. After training i was extremely dead tired though. After dinner Jake and I practiced more sparring after our workout. Couple other guys saw us practicing and wanted to practice with us. We helped them out a bit as well. Headed back to my room. Finishing up my blogs and going to get a good nights rest. Only half way through the week.





Goodnight






-Scott