Kendra's Going away party

Since Monday the 22nd the Wing Chun class has gone from 23 people in the class to 12. A lot of people left during the past couple weeks. There was a time a few weeks ago that there were too many people in the small wing chun hall that we had to line up outside the hall. Training has gone very well this week. Master Guo has been watching us closer now since he has a smaller group. There are Pros and Cons to this situation. PROS: Master Guo is in a happier mood. I guess there is less stress dealing with fewer students. Now Master Guo can help correct us more. Master Guo even has time to explain the origins of a few techniques we learned. Oh and the time we have to hold the splits is less since he has fewer people to walk around pulling legs out. AWESOME!

CONS: We have to do extra drills since we are not waiting for the extra 11 others to finish. Master Guo comes around more often during conditioning to check if we are doing it correct, if not he "helps". If we slack during class we get kicked more. For example. On Tuesday the 23rd we had to do Stance Training. Since there are less people, he was able to keep an eye on ALL of us. If we were not low enough, legs weren’t straight enough, or hands weren’t high enough he would whip us with a branch he broke off from a nearby tree. He had to keep getting new branches because he kept breaking them on Raven.

A side note about Raven. Raven is 15 years old and is serving a five year sentence here. Well his parents sent him here for five years. They had sent him to Military School because he was too bad to be in regular school, but even the military school kicked him out. He has been here one year, and hopes to open his own Kung Fu school when he graduates, (gets paroled?) As you might tell from my blogs, Raven gets beat often. For example, he will sleep in and miss the morning run so Master makes him do 20 frog jumps or just whips him four times. Believe it or not, I think Raven is one of Master’s favorite students.

Back to this Monday. My roommate Ben left to go back to France. He was a great roommate. But as soon as he left, Sam moved in the same day. Time to start making new adventure stories with the ol’ roommates back together right?

Well Monday night was Kendra, a classmate who is from the States, was leaving the Academy. (Even though I have friends here from all around the world, I feel a little closer to other students who are from the USA. Anyway, a few friends and i convinced her to have a going away dinner so she told everyone she agreed to go to the restaurant down the road tonight. Turns out 17 people wanted to join us. The rooms down at the restaurant could fit 7 people... but i told her we will see what we can do. 

We all walked down to the restaurant. The lobby was small so i told everyone wait outside while I talked to the owner. I went inside and the guy knows me since I, come here a lot with jake, and ash on weekends. i told him in Chinese that we have 17 people and if that was ok. He told me we would have to split into separate rooms. i went back outside and told the crew what the plan was. They agreed to go into two rooms. Before we went in the waiter told me to look at this room in the back. It was a big room and looked like it could fit another table. We ended up getting another table and fitting all 17 people in one room. 

The hard part wasn’t over yet. Everyone wanted to see the menu but there was only 1 in English. So after a lot of yelling and a few people snatching the menu from one another (Kung Fu students fighting over one menu…. They could destroy the restaurant) I got the menu and stood up and got everyone's attention. i told everyone what was on the menu then i asked who wanted rice. 12 people, i told the waiter in Chinese 12 people, then i said who wanted noodles, then i told the waiter. I got a few dishes per table and i said we will start off with that. If anyone wanted something else wen all the food got here then they can but for now we had about 6 main dishes per table already. Kendra shot me a ‘Thank you’ look and the evening went smooth from there. Everyone was satisfied and was too full to order anything else. My job was not over yet...had to pay. I hunted down our waiter and told him we wanted the check. Everyone except Kendra chipped in equal for the food. Finally when we paid, my job was done! 

Everyone got back to the academy and a few of us ended up watching a movie before bed. It was a nice last night for Kendra. I thought to myself, it will be extremely horrible when i have to try to coordinate my ‘last night party’ here. But that’s about 4 and a half months from now. Till that day, more adventures to go.

-Scott

Who is Reading this Blog

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Sam Came Back!

May 18

Let’s start this blog with Great news

Sam came back to the academy on Tuesday!!
He is not my roommate yet. My old roommate leaves on the 23rd of this month, so i told Sam not to unpack yet so he can move in with me on the 23rd. He has been gone for 6 weeks so this past week of training killed him. I know how he feels because i was dead when i came back from my month long break.

I told Sam i needed to do some shopping this weekend and since he had to buy a few things so we decided to go to Muping on Saturday. Saturday morning we tried to book a taxi. The academy had no more taxi's because everyone already booked all 3. They usually have 5 or more taxi's so when the translator told us they only had three we were confused. well that didnt stop us. I told Sam we can take the bus.

Since we had to take a bus into Muping, we decided to get a taxi from Muping to take us to Yantai. When we got into Muping i got a taxi and told him to take us to Walmart in Yantai. I spoke to him in Chinese and he understood and asked me something. I recognized the word Nali, which means where, and Ren which means people. So i thought he was asking where we are from. So i responded back in Chinese that i am American and Sam is from England. He nodded his head like i answered his question correctly. I guess i haven’t lost my communication skills. Then he asked if we did Kung Fu. I said yes and he asked if we trained in Kunyushan. I said yes. Apparently, or what i could manage to figure out is, he drove a few students back to the school once. I guess I am picking up the language a little.

We got into Yantai and he taxi took us to Walmart. In chinese it is pronounced War Mar. Sounds just like Wal Mar to me but slurred. WwarrrllllMarrr. same goes for Mcdonalds, pronounced-Mc Donaaallll.

We shopped around for awhile and then i got a text from a friend i met in town once. She goes to school at the University and her text stated that their school needed some English teachers. I texted her back and she asked if I wanted to be a teacher and i said “Sure but i can only work on weekends because of training”. She called me back and said they wanted to meet me around 12:30 and they can tell me about the job. So i asked Sam if he didn’t mind meeting some people with me. He didn’t mind so we waited to meet them.

Before I continue, this story I have to tell everyone yes, I thought it might be a scam of some kind. So I told them that we would meet in a place where I am familiar. The KFC restaurant next to Walmart. I was not going to ‘go anywhere’ with anyone for this ‘job’ or give any money for this ‘job opportunity’ if anything looked suspicious.

A lady named Lisa called and said she will be there in a little to meet us. Lisa was a short Chinese lady, who spoke English very well and came with her driver. Her driver was a tall Chinese guy who was about 6'5 and named What, I am not sure how to spell it but sounds just like WHAT. They met us and asked if we wanted to go to their office, since we were inside KFC. I said sure. We got in a Lexus SUV, the nicest car i ever been in since i been in china. Went to some tall building. Lisa said it is government owned building so it is closed on the weekends so we had to go in the back door. Sam and I exchanged glances like, ‘What are we getting into’. All i know is i am a faster runner than Sam, so i was not worried...JUST KIDDING!

We took an elevator up to the 7th floor and it was pitch dark. We were getting a little nervous now. Then we went to a door with a metal gate that opened sideways. Sam said," Oh this is a good way to keep people out...or IN." And looked right at me.

Luckily it was just a regular office. Lisa offered us something to drink but i said no, Sam did the same. Of course it would not be drugged….. but I just was not feeling thirsty right then. She explained that she needs more English teachers because some are leaving for the summer. I told her i would be willing to work on weekends since i train during the week. We discussed pay, curriculum, and requirements, then she asked if i could send her a resume to her email. i said sure...if i get out of here alive.

I looked up part time teaching jobs here in China before, but they all required a college degree to teach. so this time i didn’t get my hopes up because 1.I haven’t even started college and 2. I am kinda young. I turn 19 next week. She never asked for my age, nor did i tell her.

After we finished the meeting we said goodbye and Mr. What lead us out back the back door. We caught a taxi to Parkson Mall. During the whole taxi ride back, I told Sam ‘I could not believe what we just did. Got in a car with total strangers, went to some building, went in the back door, and some weird office. HOLY CRAP!”

We didn’t get kidnapped. When I told my dad that I was going to meet someone for this ‘job opportunity’ he did warn me ‘not to give my passport to anyone’ because it could be a scam to get US passports. It was not. They really do want english teachers because China does so much business with the USA. How come America does not need Chinese teachers?

Well we finished shopping and headed back to the academy. Had dinner next door with Ash, Sam, Raven, and a few other guys from the academy. Raven said he needed help to sneak ‘a friend’ into his dorm room. Since I was still feeling like 007 from the morning interview in the dark building… I agreed to help. I told Raven and ash to go first and see if there where any shifus around. When it was clear, Ash came and gave me the signal, i then signaled to Mathieu to bring the ‘package’ in. Worked perfectly. Good job ninja turtles! But, I told Raven it won’t be “mission accomplished” until after Monday’s training. because that would be the time when master Guo would beat him for bringing a friend in. Last time he did it he got caught and Raven was beat in front of the whole school. But this Monday it was a mission complete. No beating!

Well, we have to end this blog with bad news.
I heard back from Lisa today. I did not get the job. They wanted someone who is here longer than a year and since i am here only for 5 months more that makes it a problem. Well, i have another friend who said if I want to teach i can work for them so i might check that out.

-Scott

Living the Life of a Gladiator.. but did Roman Gladiators have to PAY tuition?

Friday May 13


I messed up my knee a couple days ago so i been training a bit light. Today Shifu told us there was sparring. I didnt want to spar but last time i told Shifu i would spar next time so i couldnt say no this time. I told him i will spar light because of my knee and he was glad.


Next class sparring began. I ran upstairs got my gear, ate a snack, put on sparticus the tv show for a bit while i got on my wrist wraps. That seemed to pump me up a little. Then headed down to fight. I didnt have a partner so shifu paired me up with Montreal, a Shaolin guy. He is a little taller than me, from New Jersey, and a bit more muscular than me. when it was our turn to fight he kept doing jump kicks like taikwando style. I would block them or move and attack. He kept falling down and got tired real fast. I was fine. I was shocked how well my stamina has improved. He has good take downs but i dazzed him a few times. The shifu/Refferee of the match would stop us after one of us falls or get dazzed so we cant hurt each other too bad. I think this has been my best fight here, my master even told me i did a lot better but of course i have a few things to improve. Found out later that Montreal did taikwando for about 10 years. After the fight i skipped the mountain run to let my knee rest. The weekend was good. And now back to training.


Today we did extra power training. It was pretty rough. Master added more weight to the squats and push outs. about 80kg for the squats and 20 kg for the push outs. We were destoryed after the workout.


My friend Clement moved into the hotel down the road with Oran because there are to many students in the academy and they are running out of room. Hope no more join wing Chun. We have about 20 people now in our class. He doesnt have internet in his hotel room so he checked some things on my computer. I gave him some oreos, chewy bars, a jar of nuts, and other food to help boost his moral because he seemed a little upset about moving. He is our class leader. So if he has low moral, we have low moral! Plus he said he will give me free skiing lessons when he resumes his job as a ski instructor, which is never a bad thing.


Going to get a good sleep tonight. I stayed up late watching Wall-E. I forgot how great a movie that was and i forgot about the time. Ended up going to sleep around 11.


Goodnight.


-Scott

My Disciplinary Whipping -- I didn't do anything wrong... really

Adventure 2.0





May 9th was the first time I got a disciplinary whipping from my master. What happened was, the 9th of May was a monday. shifu found out a few guys went out and slept outside of the academy the previous weekend. As you readers will know, I tend to go get massages and relax on the weekends. But the school's rule is, if you sleep off campus you must sign out and tell the Master. Ash and i went to town with adam and Sharradon on saturday night and slept in the bath house. When we left we went to Master Guo's office to sign out. Master had left already so we told James, a new translator to call master Guo. He told us he would so we left. Let me say that one more time. James the new translator told us he was calling Master. Since we had to catch the bus we left. Well, on monday Master Guo asked the class who went out this weekend. Ash and i rose our hands along with Raven and Anders. Shifu told us he did not know about it. So we had to get caned. Ash said we signed out. He said that was not enough no one told him. Raven and Anders were worse because they snuck out of the academy without even letting anyone know. So Master Guo was really mad at them. Master had us line up in front of class. The order was Raven, Ash, Me, then Anders. We saw Master holding a long PVC pipe. Kinda like the pipe used to attach sprinklers in your lawn.


We knew we were going to be beat but we did not know how many we were going to get. We lined up in front of the class in a line. Raven first, Ash, Me , then Anders. We stood feet apart and hands on our head. I felt like we were getting an execution. The look on Master guo's face when he hit raven four times made me so scared. He yelled before he hit raven, THIS IS YOUR SECOND TIME! And hit him four times. he bent the cane from hitting Raven so hard. He fixed it before he hit Ash. When he hit Ash twice i felt so scared because i was hoping i would get hit twice but was not 100% sure! The scary part is not the beating itself, but the time in between the beating, the hesitation and waiting for the next one to come is so terrible. Master would hit us, take a few seconds, then hit us again. The wait drove us crazy! Might sound weird but try it. The hesitation is the worse. It hurt extremely bad. Later on i was talking to ash and told him that James didn't tell master Guo. We already got beat and if the translators make a mistake they get money taken off from their paycheck as penalty. We decided to be noble and not tell on James. I just won't tell him to call master for me ever again. I had a bruise from the beating all the way till Friday.


Master Guo has turned evil. He is more strict now in class. If someone is lazy he will kick them or yell and say faster or more power. No more Peaceful Master Guo. We think it might be stress from him running the school with so many new students or possibly he is strict during summer. But now i tell master guo in person two days in advance before i go out. Even if its just for the day i ask for permission. I do not want to get beat again!


Today is Monday, a start of another week. Had extra power training this week and it is starting to get a little easier to do all the exercises. i guess i am getting stronger. This weekend is my birthday party. Might go out with a few guys to dinner and karaoke or something. We will see. Ill be sure to fill you all in.e




-Scott

A good day

May 18 2011

Today the power training was not to bad. Regular power training was a bit easy. 1. We did not do wheel barrels and frog jumps across the whole gym, only about 2/3rds of the way. Hey trust me the extra 1/3 is a killer. Stretching was pretty horrible though. Had mathieu pulling my front leg, sam pulling my back leg, and Ash pushing my hips down. Master had us do this last week as well. Hurts really really really bad but i can get pretty low now. After training was over Ash said, "Thank god thats over, now im going to rest till dinner." I do not have that luxuary. We had extra training afterward too. Luckily master said instead of sprints and jumps. we can do Pad work and weights. We did a bit of slap sparring to start off then some 1 on 1 pad work. After a while Anders said we should do a drill where one guy is in the middle and the other four are around him with pads and the one imn the middle constantly hits the pads but in random order. I thought it was a great idea. I added that the guys on the outside can push the guy in the middle but cant punch him in the face until he is hitting your pad. Did that for 5 minutes each. I think after a few weeks of training like that, it wont be so overwhelming when having to face multiple apponiants. 

Anders got his xbox 360 sent to him a few weeks ago. i never played it till today. He had the game Gears of War 2. He only had 2 controllers so two guys would face each other on teams and the loser gave up the controller. I have not played this game for a looooong time. I remember playing this with my boy scout friends last year. Well i got a chance to play and it seems i havent lost my touch. I won 12 games in a row, beating anders, raven, and even a few other guys who have been playing this game constantly for the past few weeks. I guess i have another skill i obtained through Scouts, Gaming skill.

Had a long day. Going to shower and go to sleep. Tomorrow is my birthday and i get to spend the morning waiting in a goverement building for my Visa.

-Scott

Second day of Master Guo's extra power training

Adventure 2.0

Tuesday May 3rd

Today is the second day of Master Guo's extra power training. Yesterday was the first time. Last night i was too tired from his training to write the blog for the day. all day yesterday starting from when i woke up, i told myself, "Pace yourself Scott, today you start your extra training." So before lunch Master Guo called in Mathieu, Raven, Anders, and I into his office to discuss our extra training. He told us we train after last class starting at 5pm Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Our workout is a circut. We do 10 squats with 2 25 pound weights on each side of a bench press bar. We drop that and sprit about 150 meters uphill to the gate of the school, San Da step backward to the beginning, do 10 sit ups on a decline bench, do 10 curl ups with two dumbles that are about 25 pounds and then repeat starting with squats again. We do that circut 10 times total. After we finish that ten times we take off 1 25 pound weight each side of the bench bar and do 10 push outs while switching fighting stances. Drop the bar and frog jump only a 100 meters and San Da step back with punches back. We do that 10 times. Then once we finish that we do 100 side kicks each leg and 100 combo punches on the punching bags. And then we finish the day. 

When we heard that we were not too scared. Sounded not too bad. Not too band.... until we started... We were dying after the 6th sprint circut. Master Guo didnt watch because he was leading the Ti Qi class inside the training hall but he will occasionally send out a translator to tell us to run faster. Once we finished the 10th round we did the Frog jumps and push outs. Only did about 3 sets when Master Guo said do kicks and then go to dinner because it took us an hour and 20 minutes to do the circuits. We kicked as fast as we could to get to a 100. The bell rang for dinner and we were barely finished. We didnt leave the bags till master came out and said ok finished. He checked our shirts and said, "Not enough sweat. Not work hard enough." Then he mimed ringing out a shirt and said, " A lot of sweat. Very good." We waddled to the dining hall. I headed up to my room and took a shower and didnt leave my bed until the next morning. 

I was so sore this morning. I couldnt stop thinking about the extra training. Today was stance training as well so our legs would be dead after that! Master Guo didnt seem to care because after stance training he told us to run faster today! We started off with the sprints as usual. Did that circut but faster because not only did master guo tell us to, he taught his class outside so he can watch us. When i was doing my squats i saw master guo pick up my staff and walk over behind us. Raven and Mathieu were taking a break and talking and didnt see Master walk over. When master was behind raven he yelled his name and raven immediately started doing curls...too late. Master guo swung the staff and hit him on his back and then hit mathieu before on the back of his legs mathieu could run away. Raven lifted his shirt to see if he had a mark and he had a huge welt across his lower back. After that i pushed myself even more. When we started the frog jumps master guo kept an eye on us. On my 8th one Master Guo says, "Zi long, how many?" I told him i did 8. The other guys only did 7 because i went first. He told us to do side kicks a 100 meters on one leg then switch legs and then side kick back the 100 meters. Once we finished that he told us ok finished. Go do kicks. So today we had to do 100 push kicks each leg, then a 100 side push kicks. I was on my last 100 side push kicks and my back foot slipped a little bit so when i kicked i was off balance and leg hit the bag wrong and buckled my knee. It hurt extremely bad. i couldnt stand on my right leg because it put too much pressure on my knee. But Master guo still kept an eye on us so i had to kick the bag still. I used less power but each time my leg hit the bag, i would feel a sharp pain. after a while i could kick harder and harder. I guess kicking with my leg either took my mind off the pain or something. When we all finished we went to dinner, late like usual. When i started walking i had a limp because the pain came back. Now i showered and got in bed. Going to rest because tomorrow is power training. I am not scared about that now, because afterward we have our extra training still! i dont want a welt across my back so i will push myself. 

i tried thinking of a name for our group. i said we should be the Ninja turtles. Matheiu agreed with me. Raven and Anders said we should be power rangers. But i think ninja turtles are better. What do you think?

Wish me luck.

-Scott

Power Training 2.0

Wednesday April 30


Today was Power Training. i woke up scared. I knew how much pain i would be in today! This whole week i felt like a new student so i knew today would be incredibly hard just like my first time doing power training. 

Morning classes went well, learned a couple moves in both WingChun and Baji classes. Then Lunch came. The nervousness grew because i knew after my lunch break...PAIN!! When class started i ran to the Gate like usual which is past our usual running tree, about ten minutes longer, and began warm ups. By then i was eager to start power training. Maybe i just wanted to get it over with or my adreniline pumped into my blood stream but i was ready. 

We started doing drills in the big training hall. The past Power training days we would do drills from one end of the hall to the middle, turn around and come back. Today we went from one end to the other! My legs were on fire! But i pushed myself to finish because i couldnt let the new students beat me. I pushed it out and finished the rest of the drills. Once we finished we started power stretching. I was more scared of master guo walking around and stretching me than the drills so the nervousness came back! 

He went on my end of the row to start the stretches. It is the worst to start first because you have to wait the longest. Meaning, Master Guo walks around the class stretching each of us. If were first we have to hold the low position the longest rather than the last person who only has to wait a little then switch. well i started first. I thought my legs were going to rip off. Ash was next to me and i can hear him laugh at me. Then master Guo walked over to him and i heard him say, "Uh Oh." That made me laugh. Once we finished stretching we had to do planks on our knuckles. We usually do 7 or 8 minutes on our knuckles but today we only did 5 minutes on our knuckles... but we had to do them ON A DECLINE! It was worse! I was struggling! I can do 7 minutes no problem but 5 minutes on a decline felt like i was going to fall on my face! At the end of class it was hard to walk, i was sore and exhuasted.


I got an early night sleep after dinner. Luckily we have a break tomorrow before lunch.


Thursday


Tomorrow there might be sparring so this morning i talked with jake and decided to do some drills like we did tuesday night to prepare for sparring.




Morning class was circut training, a version of power training but with upper body drills rather than lower body drills. I was glad to see i could still manage all the drills deciently well.


Afternoon class was San Da. I saw some of the new students trying to do the combos and it reminded me of my puppy. When my 4 month old puppy jumps after a ball or a toy he looks so uncoordinated. It looks sloppy and clumsy rather than the way an older dog can pounce on the target with the correct speed and force. Well the new guys looked like puppies. But as a puppy grows, so will the fighters here. I am not the best and i am still learning. I am just a 7 month old puppy here.


After dinner i did late night sparring with jake. we did some blocking drills and light sparring. I am going to wake up early to get ready for the day and spar with jake again before breakfast so we feel ready. I do not want to spar tomorrow because i am in so much pain from this week. But i have a feeling i wont have a choice.


On my way to the room it was only 7:30pm and everyone is in their room sleeping. its the night before "war breaks out. Peace and quite.


Goodnight




Friday


Turns out not enough people wanted to spar due to injuries from last week and too many people are away on holiday, so we spar next week for sure. Training went well as usual. Didnt learn any new moves to my forms. Master Guo just went around to cretique our forms. Grading is coming up next month so i might grade a couple forms.


After lunch it was the Mountain run. I was still sore from Power training and Circut training! I ended up doing bear crawls down the stairs and jumping up on the way back. On my 5th bear crawl a tour bus came to visit the temple. I was doing bear crawls with another classmate at the time. I paid no attention and kept on with my workout but since i had an audience watching i would not take any breaks and do a bear crawl after the other. The tour was full of chinese people and they even tried to hop up the steps with me and cheered us on when we would slow down on our bear crawls. By the 15th bear crawl i was done. Only had to do 10 but i enjoyed having an audience. Ash and I headed back to the academy and we got ready to go out to dinner with some of the guys in Yantai.


Had a relaxing night out. Went and did some singing at KTV as well. Now i am back at the academy resting. Tomorrow is sunday so i have another day of rest. Will probably do some cleaning and just prepare for next week. It will be May tomorrow and MAster Guo said starting in May he will train Matheiu, Raven, and I extra after classes. I can't wait.


-Scott