It has been a really busy few weeks with Sparring, Grading, Roommate leaving,
chinese dialects and american dialects
Learning to speak mandarin is a bit difficult. I am picking it up quick talking to local people in town, which i tend to do a lot when i go out with friends from the academy and we need to buy something or pay for the movies, since I have been learning Mandarin i have to be the one who talks. Since i am in this situation a lot i learn words very quick, i guess its a form of "Language Immersion". Plus the lessons from Jenny helps quite a lot as well.
Hopefully in the next 5 months i can get a bit better so when i go home i can talk to a few friends in Chinese.
Not only am i trying to learn Mandarin but i can start to understand the local dialect. The Beijing Dialect is Mandarin and everyone must learn Mandirn in China. But in Cities, towns, and provinces, there are local dialects. I was speaking to Jenny and she told me she knows her home town dialect, Yantai Dialect, and Beijing Dialect. Things just got more confusing. The only difference between the Dialect that i can notice is the accent is on the different parts of the words and they say them faster and now I can recognize what dialect it is.
On the other hand i am still learning the British slang, Cocknee Ryming slang. Sam and Ash are teaching me. Some reason when i try to talk in an English accent, they say i sound Australian.
I'm not the only one picking up other phrases, Ash has been saying "Dude" and "awesome" more since i say it a lot. One thing i also say a lot is "Hella". every time i say "thats hella awesome" or "thats hella funny" or even "she is hella cute" he will look up in the sky because he thinks i am going to say "Helicopter". I think its pretty funny. Never thought how different cultures are until i came here.
Sam leaving
So i came back to the room on Thursday of last week to find out that my longest friend here was leaving the Academy to go home.
I asked Sam if he was sad that he is leaving the academy after 6 months, he said, " I am but he is happy to be going home." Sam is leaving because he misses family and friends and he has things to do back in England like school and family stuff. I
Its time for him to go back to reality. Life here at the Academy is 10 times different compared to back home. They way you live, sleep, eat, is so different. I am as sad as Sam is because i feel like my brother is leaving! I was mad at him when he told me he is leaving. I told him no he can't leave. But that wasn't enough to convince him to stay. He says he will try to come back in the future but he doesn't know when. I hope he does. He was very good at Wing Chun. Master Guo was also a bit upset when he told him he was leaving. Master Guo told him to go out of the Academy a bit and go to Yantai with me and Ash to the bath house, hoping that would spark some energy back into him. We took him last weekend but sadly it also did not convince him to stay, He is set on leaving. I told him when i visit him, he needs to put two bed in his room so we can be roommates again and i can keep him up when he is trying to sleep. During the week Sam would sleep early. When he is sleeping i would talk to him or play music just a little to annoy him. In the morning he would get revenge by waking me up early and jumping on my bed. Then at night i would get him back and so on. It was a good run but now he is leaving so i have no one to Banter with. He leaves tomorrow at 4am. I will help him bring his stuff down to the taxi and wish him goodbye. I absolutely hate it when people leave and i never thought that Sam would leave so early.
Last week there was also sparing. There is sparring every 2 weeks now instead of once a month. Sam sparred one round and ended up colliding knees. He was pretty hurt. Another friend and i helped him to the room. The Shifus gave him meds but i got medicine from the USA which are 10 times better and it helped him a lot. That night Ash and i took him to Yantai for one last weekend outting.
Also on the weekend i went to the Zoo with some friends and it was a lot of fun. They had lions, tigers, and bears...OH My. But they even had Poodles, huskies, and chihuahuas in cages like they where some exotic animals! Some of the cages where really dirty and i felt bad for the animals. I wanted to hold another Eagle Scout project and get some scouts here to clean up the place.
grading.
This week there was grading. I graded my fist form and sparring form in Baji. A lot of people graded this week. I hope by next month i will grade my Wing Chun Dummy form and my Stance form in Baji. I finally started my Staff form in Baji and in WingChunGuo. Its the first time in 5 months where i actually did applications with the master and attacked him. Usually he will demonstrate applications on me but i actually did a move on him and it felt totally awkward! I did the move right but i was nervous to hit him. Its a lot of fun.
The weather here is getting a lot more sunny and less cold. Only problem lately is its been windy. On the weekend it was hot and beautiful. You can tell its spring now due to the trees and the atmosphere. I cant wait till it gets warm enough to swim at the lake and just relax outside. Not only does the warm weather help with moral but also with training. when its cold its really hard to train because we get lazy and it hurts and we lose flexibility. I hope it stops being windy by next week.
A few students here are following Master Wong to the Shaolin temple for training. I was talking to kyle who went last year and he told me many chinese train at the temple as well. Most of them who leave the Temple tend to join the Triads, or gangs, because they get bored. His master told him that. I thought that was pretty intense.
I'll try to keep my blogs more recent for you. Sorry for the delays.
Just talked to my parents and i am going home for a little vacation. So i spent the last week here at the academy training hard and preparing to leave. Finished moving into my new room with Ben who is from France. Since Sam left i had to move rooms. Ben is a good guy who is in Shaolin. Hes not a 'Sam' but he is a nice guy who i know we will get a long well.
My flight was at 11 am from Yantai to Beijing, then a 5 hour delay till i go from Beijing to Canada, then from Canada to San Fransico. When i was leaving i had the same feeling when i was saying goodbye to my family when i began this adventure. I felt like i was leaving my family back in China. I know i will be back but i still felt sad. I wrote down all my warm ups, stretches, and workouts down before i left so when i go home i can keep in shape and flexibility.
My experience at the airport was a lot easier than my first experience. I felt more comfortable knowing if i had an emergency i can talk to someone in chinese. I was already pretty comfortable with the Beijing Airport because of my trip to Beijing with Danny so i knew what to do to kill the 5 hour wait. Went and ate a little and even got free internet for my laptop. I was flying Air Canada for the first time. Last time i took Air China and it was ok, a little crowded and no good movies. But Air Canada was AMAZING! There were two seats by the window three in the middle and two on the other side. I got a isle seat by the window so i had plenty of room. I had my own tv in front of me and i was able to watch free movies! I tried to stay awake because i left China Sunday at 5:55pm. And i arrive in Canada on Sunday 5:55pm. I traveled back in time! Not literally though. The only problem with the flight was the guy next to me had horrible breath. I found out because when he slept he slept with his mouth open and head pointed my direction.
The transfer fights went smooth. No problems. When I landed in Canada i was so surprised to see so many WHITE people! What really blew my mind was no one was speaking Mandarin! I kind of began to miss hearing random chinese people SCREAMING at each other 1 foot away from each other. I was walking to my gate and i saw a older chinese lady walking with a younger one. I took my head phones out so i can see if they were speaking Mandarin. Unfortunetly they were speaking english. I was hoping they would be talking in mandarin. I got a little sad so i put on a Mandarin learning app on my ipod so i could hear someone speak mandarin. Call me crazy but after 6 months of being in china i get so used to it i missed it after 12 hours.
It was nice to see my family. They picked me up from the Airport. It felt a little surreal being home. As i am writing this back in Stockton it feels like a dream. The ironic thing is the Training felt surreal but now when i am back, this feels like the dream. Maybe the mountain air is made me crazy. But its time to stock up on supplies and head back after vacation. Lot of the guys want me to bring back some goodies like, Twinkies, Oreos, Nutella, and Poptarts.
Now i am working a little back home. I am on the night shift since i am used to being up during chinese hours it works perfect. At 1:54 am Californina time it is 4:54 pm back home...i mean back in China. So this way i can help out my parents even more.
Now its time to get back to work.
-Scott
grading.
This week there was grading. I graded my fist form and sparring form in Baji. A lot of people graded this week. I hope by next month i will grade my Wing Chun Dummy form and my Stance form in Baji. I finally started my Staff form in Baji and in WingChunGuo. Its the first time in 5 months where i actually did applications with the master and attacked him. Usually he will demonstrate applications on me but i actually did a move on him and it felt totally awkward! I did the move right but i was nervous to hit him. Its a lot of fun.
The weather here is getting a lot more sunny and less cold. Only problem lately is its been windy. On the weekend it was hot and beautiful. You can tell its spring now due to the trees and the atmosphere. I cant wait till it gets warm enough to swim at the lake and just relax outside. Not only does the warm weather help with moral but also with training. when its cold its really hard to train because we get lazy and it hurts and we lose flexibility. I hope it stops being windy by next week.
A few students here are following Master Wong to the Shaolin temple for training. I was talking to kyle who went last year and he told me many chinese train at the temple as well. Most of them who leave the Temple tend to join the Triads, or gangs, because they get bored. His master told him that. I thought that was pretty intense.
I'll try to keep my blogs more recent for you. Sorry for the delays.
Just talked to my parents and i am going home for a little vacation. So i spent the last week here at the academy training hard and preparing to leave. Finished moving into my new room with Ben who is from France. Since Sam left i had to move rooms. Ben is a good guy who is in Shaolin. Hes not a 'Sam' but he is a nice guy who i know we will get a long well.
My flight was at 11 am from Yantai to Beijing, then a 5 hour delay till i go from Beijing to Canada, then from Canada to San Fransico. When i was leaving i had the same feeling when i was saying goodbye to my family when i began this adventure. I felt like i was leaving my family back in China. I know i will be back but i still felt sad. I wrote down all my warm ups, stretches, and workouts down before i left so when i go home i can keep in shape and flexibility.
My experience at the airport was a lot easier than my first experience. I felt more comfortable knowing if i had an emergency i can talk to someone in chinese. I was already pretty comfortable with the Beijing Airport because of my trip to Beijing with Danny so i knew what to do to kill the 5 hour wait. Went and ate a little and even got free internet for my laptop. I was flying Air Canada for the first time. Last time i took Air China and it was ok, a little crowded and no good movies. But Air Canada was AMAZING! There were two seats by the window three in the middle and two on the other side. I got a isle seat by the window so i had plenty of room. I had my own tv in front of me and i was able to watch free movies! I tried to stay awake because i left China Sunday at 5:55pm. And i arrive in Canada on Sunday 5:55pm. I traveled back in time! Not literally though. The only problem with the flight was the guy next to me had horrible breath. I found out because when he slept he slept with his mouth open and head pointed my direction.
The transfer fights went smooth. No problems. When I landed in Canada i was so surprised to see so many WHITE people! What really blew my mind was no one was speaking Mandarin! I kind of began to miss hearing random chinese people SCREAMING at each other 1 foot away from each other. I was walking to my gate and i saw a older chinese lady walking with a younger one. I took my head phones out so i can see if they were speaking Mandarin. Unfortunetly they were speaking english. I was hoping they would be talking in mandarin. I got a little sad so i put on a Mandarin learning app on my ipod so i could hear someone speak mandarin. Call me crazy but after 6 months of being in china i get so used to it i missed it after 12 hours.
It was nice to see my family. They picked me up from the Airport. It felt a little surreal being home. As i am writing this back in Stockton it feels like a dream. The ironic thing is the Training felt surreal but now when i am back, this feels like the dream. Maybe the mountain air is made me crazy. But its time to stock up on supplies and head back after vacation. Lot of the guys want me to bring back some goodies like, Twinkies, Oreos, Nutella, and Poptarts.
Now i am working a little back home. I am on the night shift since i am used to being up during chinese hours it works perfect. At 1:54 am Californina time it is 4:54 pm back home...i mean back in China. So this way i can help out my parents even more.
Now its time to get back to work.
-Scott
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