Dinner with Master Guo

June 23, 2011

Dinner with Master Guo

These past few weeks the “power training group”, Sam, Mathieu, Raven, and I have been wanting to take master Guo out to dinner. Unfortunately, this past week Raven screwed up again and is being sent home this weekend. A quick recap on that:

Last weekend Raven went to Yantai and stayed out late. Master found out and Raven who was already on probation from bringing his Girlfriend to the academy so Shifu had no choice but to tell him to leave. That same weekend Anders who started the power training with us back in May came back from his holiday. Right when the group was back to the original 5, it’s back to only 4 again. Well, , Sam, and Mathieu and I still wanted to take Master out and Anders did not mind so we asked him on Tuesday if he wanted to go to dinner with us on Thursday. He agreed.

We went to a restaurant in Muping. On the car ride there Master sat in front and we sat in the back with James, who would be our translator for the evening. Master's English improved a lot since last fall but still a translator would help. I asked James about the nearby farms and some Chinese culture questions. He told me the farmers have been a little worried lately because it has not rained. Last year it rained a lot and this year there was barely any rain. Luckily the past two days have been raining and the farmers are happier. I also asked him why there are so many Russians in Yantai. He told me that Russia and China have a strong diplomatic relationship, so they tend to visit each other’s country a lot...especially the northern China parts. Then he said, "Russian women are very beautiful." We all laughed and i replied, "Ah yes hen piaoliang!"(they beautiful) Shifu started laughing.

When we got to the restaurant we got to choose what we wanted to eat before we sat down. In the corner of the restaurant there is a table with the different meats. Next to the table were tanks of fish and other seafood/alien type things. Then by that was a rack full of different bugs. We all decided on different items. Shifu chose what he wanted as well. I told Shifu that we should get some bugs! He made a disgusted face and laughed and shook his head ‘noooo’. After we ordered we went upstairs to our table. We had a private room which was nice. It was a little awkward at first, because no one was talking. So i said that this place looked like a scene in a kung fu movie where ninjas bust in and we have to fight our way out. Everyone laughed and it seemed to lighten the mood.

Master started talking about the Chinese designs and how they plan on making the academy bigger and more traditional Chinese style designs. There is a picture on the wall of a Chinese opera mask and Mathieu asked what it was. Master explained to him about it and how Jackie Chan and his friends where opera actors before they did movies. We spoke about different movies and the training the kung fu stars did for a bit. Then Anders asked Master what we should work on. We had a meeting with Master about power training a couple weeks ago but it was good to hear what we needed to improve on again. He told us we all are doing well but then he picked out the points we all need to work on. For Mathieu it was his flexibility, Sam needs more power, Anders needs more flexibility and power, and I need more speed. I asked how I can improve my speed. He told me the weights are good and will improve and i should get some weights for my wrists as well.

Then Mathieu asked Master about his training when he was young. It was incredible. He used to do hours of just running, then non stop sprints, and non stop bunny hops up 5 flights of stairs. That wasn't all. He had to do hundreds of sit ups, push ups, climbing ropes, and conditioning, it made us all feel so weak and pathetic to complain about our power training. It was nothing compared to his. This night boosted all of our morals very high. I asked master if he enjoyed training foreigners more than Chinese. He told us he trained 70 Chinese people at once. It was possible. But it was impossible to train more than 30 foreigners. He explained why. He said that Chinese is more simple, more disciplined, which made it easier to teach them, I added in, "And they speak CHINESE!" Master laughed a lot on that joke. Then he told us that are more of a challenge to teach and not as disciplined. He told us a story about a foreigner could not get the kick punch movement down right. After weeks he still could not do it. Master tried hitting him with a stick so he would remember how to do it, did not work. It got to a point where he was so scared of master that when he did the movement wrong he started to cry. This guy was in his 30's. Shifu could not figure a way to teach him. Finally he got a fellow student to help teach him the move. After a few days he learned it. I asked if he liked the challenge teaching foreigners or the disciplined Chinese better. He said he enjoyed teaching foreigners better. We all laughed. We ate and talked about different stories of when Master was young. It was a fun dinner. Mathieu asked Shifu if he ever broke a rule when he was young and training. Master and laughed and said yes but never got caught. One time he stayed out and they locked the school doors so he had to climb a pipe with his other friends one night to the fifth story of the building. The neighbors saw them and thought they where thieves and called the police. They got caught by their master and had to run around the school 100 times and do 400 pushups nonstop or else get beaten. After dinner we played four ways between Anders, Sam, Mathieu and I for the 6 of us. We all felt more closer to Master and made us want to train even harder. We all decided we are going to do extra power training on Thursdays before dinner. And every day before lunch we are going to do stance training while we wait in line. I feel a lot more motivated and i will push myself harder for these last 4 months I am here. We all hope we can take Master out again next month. It would be a nice monthly meal.

-Scott