My 19th birthday

May 18



Today the Power Training was not too bad. Regular power training even seemed a bit easy. (If you remember, one day a week training gets harder so they call it Power Training. But a couple other guys and I do even more training after regular class hours) So in regular Power training, 1. We did not have to 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! I do have to say that 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 that’s over, now I’m going to rest till dinner." I do not have that luxury. This is when we to the extra power training. At this extra class we were Lucky. 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 in 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 can’t 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 won’t be so overwhelming when having to face multiple opponents.



Anders got his xbox 360 sent to him a few weeks ago. I never played any game on his xbox 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 haven’t 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 government building for my Visa.









May 19

BIRTHDAY



Celebrated my 19th birthday in China. This celebration lasted 3 whole days. It began on a Thursday. That was when my official bday actually was. Had to go to town to do my Visa with a few other friends so i got the morning training off. When i went down to wait for the taxi, on the board there was a message, "Scott's Birthday. Hella Happy 19th! I immediately knew Sam wrote that. He always makes fun of me because i say the word "Hella". Had lunch at McDonalds in town which was awesome! Made the waiting in a Chinese government building in hard metal chairs for hours worth it since we got McD's! When we got back to the academy i had to do afternoon training. When i got to class i saw Master and he smiled and said Happy Birthday in English. That made my day. After training i hung out with Ash, listening to some comedians on his computer. Then had to rest because tomorrow was mountain run.



After training on Friday i went to yantai with 15 other friends for my birthday dinner. Went to the restaurant ‘Jackies’. They have the best burgers i ever had here in China. After dinner we went back to the academy. I went next door with ash to meet up with some more friends who did not have enough money to go all the way to yantai and have dinner but wanted to celebrate. Hung out with them till about 2 in the morning. The Master on duty was asleep so we all had to jump the fence since it was locked. My first time to do that. It was pretty fun! the wall was about 7 feet so not that high anyway. Crashed on my bed when i got inside. Next day some of my friends didn’t know we celebrated next door so they said ‘lets go tonight’. I agreed and went and hung out with them. I even danced swing and cha cha with one of the ladies from England. Its been 7 months since i even danced. It was awesome. Once again we stayed till about 1 or 2 in the morning and had to jump the fence again. They all have jumped it many times before but since i usually stay in town on the weekends i never been out late next door. Got back and crashed in my friends room with a few other people while we watched the movie ‘Paranormal Activity’. Birthday Celebration Day 3 was over.



Sunday was rest day. Did my chores, cleaned my room. Relaxed. Before bed i went downstairs with Zi Lu to go buy some snacks in the shop. We ran into Master Guo. He was looking happy since he was with his family all weekend. I asked Shifu if he can teach Zi Lu and me a sparring sword form in baji. There is sparring staff but not sparring sword. he thought about it and said, "ok once we finish the form we are working on we can learn it. We were stoked!



The end of my birthday weekend has come to an end. This was my best birthday i ever had.

You can leave me a birthday greeting at the comments section of this blog.

--Scott