Welcome Back

The next day I got a shuttle and went to Shanghai airport. Checked in pretty easily and boarded my plane back to the “escape from reality world”. But I was feeling pretty nervous. Maybe it was a mix of being nervous from thinking of being in pain from the hard training again or nervous about disappointing Shifu since I haven’t actually trained as intense back home.   At the same time, I was also feeling excitement.  Liu Bin emailed me about picking me up at the airport so I was pretty excited about that plus seeing all my old friends. I couldn’t shake the sad feeling I got when I thought about saying goodbye to family and friends, but had to keep going. 

Got to airport and a translator was there to get me and to pick up a new student so there was no room for Liu Bin. It was break time when I arrived at the Academy and I immediately ran around saying hi to Sam and everyone. It was almost time for everyone to go back to class when I saw shifu and Liu Bin. They had a line up to welcome me back and then started class. I asked shifu if I could skip class and unpack and he allowed it. 

After class a translator found me and told me that shifu invited me to dinner to meet his 'kung fu brother' and as a welcome back dinner for me. Only “family” went to this dinner which included, Shifu, Liu Bin, Masters Kung Fu brother, Me, Master Xiang, Jack (head masters brother), and a translator. At dinner Shifu told me how impressed he is with my Wingchun and I told him how I was teaching Wing Chun back home. It was then that Shifu told me he had volunteered me to perform with the other Masters, Liu Bin, and other students at the temple in 10 days. I was shocked but hey I’m back and shifu is putting me to work. 

Then Shifu told me there is a Chinese tradition to cheers each guest so Liu Bin and I did it together by starting with Shibu (master’s older kungfu brother) we cheered glasses and drank, and then Jack, then XiangShifu, and then we sat back down. After that Sarah the translator went home and we continued dinner. I didn’t quite understand what they were saying but shifu would talk to me in English saying random things to let me feel like I haven’t been forgotten. After dinner we walked back to the academy and I felt very safe walking with 4 Kung fu masters and my elder kungfu brother. Had a long day and knocked out before 9.