The accordion and martial art competitions... and a waterfall

Kung Fu is not the only thing i am learning in this adventure of mine. For the past month i have been getting guitar lessons from Jake. i never played the guitar until i came to china. My old roommate left me his guitar when he left. I had no use for it. One day Jake came over and saw it and asked if i can play. I told him i never learned. He picked up the guitar tuned it a little. Played a few random notes. Then out of nowhere he started playing a beautiful song. I was shocked. I told him that was awesome. He laughed then offered to teach me a couple songs. Now i practice Kung Fu and guitar. The guitar playing annoys Sam sometimes during break but it is part of our banter with one another.

The other day i was training in the training hall at night, doing my extra workout routine. Peter walks in, he is a circus trainer from France, with a backpack. I thought he was going to practice his forms so i waved and went back to my pushups. A few minutes later i heard an accordion! I never seen one in real life till then. I ran over and watched him play a bit. I asked him if he can teach me a song. He showed me the basics for the accordion. It reminded me of a piano, organ, and a pump fan ( ya know those fans people use for their fire pits) smushed into one big instrument. It was fun. He was shocked how fast i could learn the song. After awhile my friend Mark wanted to try it so he went after me. Didn’t get it down to tell. Tonight i asked Peter to teach me more of the song.

I am even learning how to speak a couple languages besides Chinese. One of my friends here is teaching me a few phrases in Hebrew. Another friend of mine is teaching me a few romantic phrases in French. Hope that comes in handy one day.

This place is what you make of it. It can be a place where you train for a couple hours a day and sit in your room eating junk food. Sadly, there are people like that here. Or you can get out there and learn a bunch of random skills. I choose to learn a bunch of random skills. Who knows when an opportunity falls in your lap next. My dad always told me, "Good luck is when Opportunity meets Preparedness."

-Scott




Today is July 10th, my 9 month anniversary of being in Kunyushan Martial Art Academy. When i first arrived, i felt like i was in a dream. I could not grasp the idea of being so far away from home, alone, to train here. Now, i cannot grasp the idea of leaving the academy...leaving my new home. A few people asked me if time here went by fast. There were times when it seemed extremely slow. For example, when master beat Ash, Mathieu, Anders, and me, the time it took for Shifu to beat the guys in front of me and get to me seemed to take forever! But weeks go by so fast here. Monday feels like yesterday when its already Friday. Another friend asked if i am happy i chose to stay the whole year rather than 6 months like i intended to do in the first place. I didn’t even think twice to say yes. I wish i could stay longer.

Last week Master Guo told us there are two martial art competitions that we all can participate in. One is on the 24th of July. The other is the 8th of August. The competition is a Form competition. There will be around a thousand other Chinese martial artists who will compete along with us. Later i asked Shifu if i can compete and he said my Xiao Baji fist form is good. I asked if i can do my staff form and a wingchun form. He told me i can but i need to practice my staff form a bit. Then he told me the forms the judges are used to seeing are the flip, jumps, splits in the air type of forms done by the Chinese. So our forms that we are taught here are traditional and applicable, which means it has less pretty moves and more moves we can use on the street. Also Wingchun is popular in southern china. We are in the northern area so he thinks the judges wont recognize what i would be doing and thing its boring. But he said my form is good and if i want to try i can. So for both competitions i will do 3 forms. Xiao Baji, staff form, and a fist form in Wingchun. A few students got medals for their forms last year. I hope i can medal in at least one form. I will be happy if i get a bronze because i have only been training for 9 months and my friend who got a gold last year had been training in china for about 2 years. I learned a theory from my dad once, i call it the Win or Win scenario. Instead of thinking that a situation has a "Win or Lose" i always think "win - win". For example If i get a medal at the competition, i win. If i don’t, i lose. That is the Win Lose theory. But my theory is this...I win a medal... i win. If i do not medal, i tell mom and dad, "Hey so i need to spend a bit more time here so i can medal like my friend who stayed here for 2 years,"....WIN!

Four other students from my class are competing. Oran, Anders, Mathieu, and Clement. Shifu told me to practice our forms after class now for power training rather than the exercises he usually makes us do until the competition is over. I did not complain about that rule.


-Scott

I am learning to handle this

This is not a 'set' this is a real place.

Relaxing at a waterfall near school