KC Blog "We are back"

We’re back in the Shandong Province now. There really is a difference between the bathrooms in Yantai and the bathrooms in Shanghai. In shanghai the mall bathrooms had toilet paper and soap. In Yantai the bathrooms sometimes have toilet paper and sometimes have soap. You know you’re in a nice place when they have toilet paper in the bathroom. You know you’re in a fancy place when they have toilet paper AND soap.

The bathrooms smell so horrible I try to hold my breath, but the longer I hold my breath, the deeper my next breath has to be. So sometimes I try to breathe into my shirt so I don’t have to smell the bathroom; it doesn’t always work and I usually end up gagging and have to run out of the bathroom to get clean air.

I got my first battle injury in San Da yesterday. We were practicing our punches and kicks on the punching bags and I scrapped my knuckle against the bag and tore skin off of my knuckle. It hurts but I’m kind of excited I have my first kung fu injury J . Chris was my partner during San Da and we’d hold the bag for each other so it wouldn’t move too much. We had to do 40 punches, and 80 kicks. When it was my turn to punch the bag he was a little shocked how hard I could punch. And when it was my turn to kick the bag he was surprised how hard I could kick. He’d tell me “Kick him in the kidneys, break one or two ribs” or he’d say “punch him in the ear then punch him in the throat” it would make me kick or punch harder. It was so much fun, I really love San Da.

My roommate is leaving in two days and I’m kind of sad. I have a new roommate but I think she might move upstairs because she is staying for one year and the rooms upstairs are soooooooo much nicer.

I had my first day of acrobatics training today. Shaolin kung fu focuses a lot on acrobatics. We had to jump and spin in the air jump kicks, tornado kicks…. I was struggling a lot this morning. We had to get in the sparring ring and do flips and tumbles. I could barely do a front roll and a back roll, I need more practice.

I have power stretching soon. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Xoxo,

Kc