Laid back day

Blog 12

Chinese word of the day: Shengbing-means-sick

Chinese word of the day(for yesterday): Leng-means-cold (temperature)

British word of the day: Jumper-means-Hooded sweater

Had a sore throat this morning so I drank a lot of tea. Helped for a while. Then I tried that medicine stuff and it helped my throat till I got back from the mountain.

Today’s plan:  Go to mountain to take pics.

Had lunch around the corner. Then headed to the mountain. Took us about a half hour of walking up a steep road to get to the base of the mountain.  At the base of the mountain was a Daoist Temple. Sam and I took pics along the way. The temple has one security Monk guard that says, “No Pickcha.” We know because he told us after we shot our first picture. But that didn’t stop us. We just hid the camera and took pics behind his back. I will post pictures tomorrow when my internet connection is strong enough.   

After the temple, we walked up the Mountain where we go on Fridays for the ‘mountain run’. It’s still tiring even just walking up. Took us a while to get to the top.  Then when we got to the top we saw  a smaller temple. I lit one of the incense sticks and placed it on the altar. Then Sam showed me this path that goes all the way up the mountain to the top. I thought we were already at the top but there was more. So I told him ‘ok lets go’. In politeness Sam let me go first through the bushes, rocks, and…..spider webs. I don’t know if he was being polite or just letting me break all the webs with my face first. 

Well after running into a couple spider webs head first I got a stick and held it out so the webs would hit the stick and not me. We took a lot of pics while we hiked up. We saw this huge deep well and I told Sam too look in it. When he walked towards it, he walked slowly so I figured it would be the best opportunity to scare him. When he looked over I grabbed his arm and yelled. He jumped so high I almost fell laughing. We continued up the hill. We hit a dead end and after an hour and a half of walking through rocks, bushes, and spider webs we decided to walk back. We slipped, fell, and bumped into a lot of things on the way down because it was steep. We made it back in one piece but I felt sick. On the way back we started talking about Sam’s hoddie from Hollister. He called it a ‘Jumper’. I said no it’s a ‘hoodie’. Then he would say no it’s a jumper. And we had about 20 minute convo of just discussing is it a ‘jumper’ or a ‘hoodie’. Pretty funny. Came back with a headache and sore throat.

I lay in bed till dinner. Felt little better after we ate. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow before training.

Goodnight

-Scott

Blog 11

Chinese word of the day:

British word of the day:Buff-means-Cute

                Slept in for the first time since I have been at this school.  Instead of getting up at 6:30am, I slept all the way to 6:55am.

Today is Saturday.  On weekends we have free time.  No training on weekends.  So this Saturday morning I went with Sam.  Our plan for today was for us to go to the Tailor, Massage Parlor, supermarket, McDonalds, and to the ‘Fake Market’.

Went to the tailor first. Got one top n two pants. 400 yuan. It was really hard trying to communicate with the tailor. Told him I wanted a top with no sleeves and what kind of fabric. Then for the pants I told him I want two different colors one red to match my top and one black. Then he sized me up and I paid. I will check back there in a week and hopefully he made the right stuff.

Went to the market. Got snacks, honey, oatmeal, shower stuff, and a pillow. The market was huge! Everyone was starring at us. In the market we saw a couple students from the academy. They stood out so it wasn’t hard to spot them.

Then we went to the massage parlor to work out some of the soreness from all the training. I’ve had plenty of massages back in the states, but I had the weirdest experience at this one.  I laid down on my stomach and I had a guy massage me.   When I turned over on my back an old lady started massaging my legs. She spoke English well because after she massaged my legs for a little bit she just told me four fingers down from my knee is a good point to heal my stomach. I thought ‘ok?’ Why is she telling me this? Then she moved onto my arms and she told me that if I massaged a line from my bicep to my hand is good for my heart. I thought ‘ok?’ This is a little weird. Then she showed me three more spots that’s good for me. Then she started massaging my stomach and then she looked at me and said, “There’s something wrong with your stomach.” I said, “What?” She massaged it again and in different places and then she took my pulse. I was starting to get a little worried. She asked me, “Do you feel sick in your stomach sometimes after you eat?” I actually do but I always thought I eat too much. Then she said some things in mandarin to her assistant and her assistant left. Then she turned to me and said, “You drink and eat a lot of cold food?” I guess I do. Then she told me she is a doctor and on her days off she runs this medical massage parlor. She told me she sent her assistant out to get me some medicine for my stomach. The assistant came back with a couple boxes of this kind of herb tea and the doctor told me to mix it with warm water and drink it twice a day. I said ok and then she kept massaging my stomach. Then she took this cup and in the other hand she lit a stick on fire and I’m just thinking….oh crap I’m going to lose a kidney!  But she put the flame in the cup then on my abs and it made a suction feeling. Many of the guys at the academy get this done on their back its called hot cups. But I didn’t know you can put it on your abs. I asked her how serious my stomach problems where. She told me it’s not bad. I asked her if it got worse would I die. She looked at me and laughed and said, “Oh no not that serious!” She turned to the other masseuses and they all looked at me and laughed. I actually began to relax at that point. I told her I will come back next week so she can check how I’m doing and I won’t drink anything cold anymore. I don’t know if I should drink the tea she gave me. I will ask one of the translators to read the box for me first.

                After that we went to McDonalds. I got a burger and a cup of tea instead of the cold soda I was so looking forward to drink this morning.

                Then we walked around the mall McDonalds was in nothing special there except a Nike store. I told Sam, “Look there’s a Nike store.” And Sam said, “Its Nike.” No E sound after Nike. Now I’ve always called Nike Nike-EE but Sam says in England they just say Nike like Mike. Any thoughts on that guys? Who’s right?

                We left and went to the “Fake Market”. There were a lot of fake watches and fake shoes. I didn’t see anything worth buying. Neither did Sam. So we left and we went back to the Academy. On the way we past a fruit market at the bottom of the mountain and I bought about 10 Apples. They also sold scorpions, mushrooms, and these weird alien looking type drinks in jars. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a real Alien.

                When we got back in the Academy there was a blackout. All the lights were out, internet was out, and even the showers were out of hot water. So I just cleaned up my room a bit, put away my shopping items, and relaxed. The power went on about three hours later.

                Tomorrow is laundry day and then Sam is willing to go with me up the Mountain to where we did the run so I can take pics for all of you to see.

I had diner at the French table at the dining hall today. Two French speaking students are from Canada and two are from France.

One guy been to Caye Caulker, the same island in Belize I had been relaxing in oh so few weeks ago.  We talked about the island for a while then we talked about the Philippines and how I’m Pilipino and they asked if I knew escrema the Pilipino stick fighting. Then we talked about the sparring and how it’s an all out fight--not sparring and how one of the French guys from France fought the French guy from Canada and they were all laughing and I got it on video and I will see if I can get that video posted.

                It’s a quiet Saturday for me. Going to bed early and rest.

Goodnight

-Scott

Some pictures

Thank God it's Friday

BLOG 10

Chinese word of the day:Nengyuan-means-energy.

British word of the day: trousers-means-pants.

Friday

                Today we started with a regular morning, breakfast, run, and class. I learned the whole form in my Wing Chun class. I wasn’t too confident with it enough to perform in front of the whole school and masters. But I plan to perform both of my forms at the next grading.

                Then after the first class was grading. After the students graded, it was time for the masters to perform. I made sure I was sitting in the front. I found out there’s a higher master than my Master Gou. He doesn’t teach classes but he over sees the whole school. Each master did their strength technique. My master didn’t go because he usually performs ChiGong where he would break a piece of marble with his hand, but the head master performed that part today.

I even videotaped their performance. I will try to upload it on here. When the head master went the table he was using was old and wobbly. When he put a block of marble on it, it was not sturdy and when he hit it, it didn’t break. He did it twice and it didn’t break. I looked at his hand and it was purple and bleeding. Then in rage he picked it up over his head and slammed it on his skull….it snapped in two. Then he had another master hit him with a huge bamboo stick on his ribs and it snapped then again on his arm. Then with two fingers he got a smaller piece of marble and hit it and it broke. I was quite amazed. Then the other masters went. Two did a fist form and the power behind each blow was incredible. Another master did a sword form and all I heard was whipping sounds from the blade moving so fast. That was my favorite. Then the other master did a stick form. It sucked that my master didn’t go. At the end I asked my master why he didn’t go. He said he let the Head Master perform ChiGong which at last grading Master Gou performed and broke the marble with the first try. Master Gou did say the table really made it difficult for the head master to break it.

                Then at lunch I met a British guy, who had a lot of different tattoos. So we started talking about tattoos. He showed me his tattoo he got from Muping. Then I told him I wanted to get a tattoo to represent my adventure here. He said I should ask my master for a Chinese name because then I can get that tattooed and then if someone asked what it means and I tell them it’s a Chinese name my master gave me in China. Isn’t that awesome?!

Then I rested for “Mountain Climb”. 600 steps high with twists and turns. Very steep.  I walked to the mountain with Issac, the Jewish guy who served in the Israeli army. It took 20 min to get to the starting point. I was worn out before I even got to the beginning.  The sights were amazing. Looked like a picture! I will take pics in the future. I ran up and down 12 times. That’s about 7,200 steps. Luckily it’s not just straight stairs there are a few stairs then a bit of room to walk then more stairs and more.  Will take pics so you can understand better.  I was having a lot of fun besides the pain. I was laughing and smiling even though I’m drenched with sweat. 

On my 5^th way up I took a break on the bench to stretch my calves. Issac saw me and said, “What’s this resting crap. Come on now. Run up the stairs and walk the platforms. That’s how I play.” I kept up with him for a few more rounds. During the 9^th way up he passed me and I was going a bit slower and he yells back at me, “ Come on Scott you have big calves.” I yelled, “If this is a video game, where’s the pause button!?” The goal is 6 times up and 6 times down, total of 12. For others who are fit, they would bear crawl down. One bear crawl equals a whole extra set. So they would only have to go 3 times up and three down with bear crawls. A Bear crawl is where you go head first down the stairs using your arms and legs.

Friday night, a group of us went to eat at the nearby restaurant for dinner. I had a huge meal. Chicken wings, bread, fried rice, dumplings, and an omelet. The guys were making fun of me like I couldn’t finish it. I sure proved them wrong!

Tomorrow Sam and I are going into town called Muping. I will take pics so you all can see!

-Scott

In the Land of Jedi

Blog 9

Chinese word of the day: Qiangda-means-Powerful

British word of the day: Chum-means-Friend

                Imagine being sore in every single muscle plus places you never thought you could make sore and times that by a million. That’s how I feel. I went to breakfast with a starving stomach. I was never a big eater during breakfast but now I am. Last night, while I was at dinner I noticed a guy wearing a shirt with Hebrew writing. I asked him if he is Jewish and he said “ya”.  I didn’t catch his name but he is from Orange County and served in the Israeli army for two years. 


After breakfast I went for the morning run. Again I told myself, “Just walk a little, and don’t wear yourself out.” For some reason I didn’t listen to that voice in my head. I started jogging and next thing I noticed I was almost back to the academy.

                When I went to class we did morning stretches and my legs were so tight. Luckily my friend Rodney was there to help me stretch. Before every class we pair up and one guy will help lift the other’s leg to stretch. It hurts but it helps tremendously. However, good ol’ Rodney doesn’t know what ‘stop’ means because when I say ‘ok stop’ he pushes my leg HIGHER! But it’s ok... I stretch him next and when I am stretching him,  I pretend I’m deaf.

I noticed I haven’t really created a picture of the guys I talk about so I’ll start with Rodney. Rodney is 36, 6 foot tall, and Australian. Long legs but not lot of muscle. He is probably one of the guys here I can say is my friend. We run together, practice together, and sometimes eat our meals at the same table. Unfortunately, he leaves in a couple weeks. He came to China to teach at a school in Yantai but his boss left the school for a couple months.  Since Rodney didn’t know what to do for those two months, he found out about this school and signed up. 

This morning, when we were finished with the class basic drills and warm ups, we went to the punching bags. We had to do each move on the bags. I had good power behind each blow but when Shifu Gou helped me with my fourth move I hit that bag with a lot more force. I was amazed. I felt Qiangda…POWERFUL.  
After the bags, we moved to these wooden posts stuck in the sand box and we each hit the posts to condition our hands, feet, and even our…..shins.  Andrew helped me by showing me what to do to the posts. Most of the people in the class don’t hit the posts  correctly because it hurts, but I don’t mind. This time I don’t think I fractured anything.

Andrew is 23, about a couple inches taller than me, and from Jackson, Ca. He is not built but not skinny. When he punches he has so much force it's crazy! My goal is to be that good. He has been here for about 11 months but leaves next month. A lot of the people are leaving as soon as winter hits. Andrew came here before he goes off to college and get stuck in books. I told him that’s the same thing I am here for. He is really nice and tends to make a lot of jokes, but when he does his moves he looks fierce!

After that  I went to my room to rest before lunch. We didn’t have a second class because we kind of joined the morning class with the second class on the bags and posts. At lunch I sat at a table with a guy named Chris. Our table started talking about building muscles and about protein.  Chris knew a lot because he is a rugby coach back home. When one of the guys said they were finished eating he looked at his bowl and said, “Not finished, eat!” And the guy did. Now, I was also full but I too had food left in my bowl. I continued to eat my food slowly till Chris left then I stopped eating. I was so full I felt like I was going to puke. But I didn’t want Chris to see my bowl.
 Chris is 26, 6 foot 4, and from Denmark. People call him ‘Chris the Viking’. After lunch, I discovered why he is called that. Chris carries around a long staff because that’s his weapon of choice. His other weapons of choice are the big hammer staffs with spikes on the end. Matches him perfectly. He is a real nice guy though. But pretty scary. I told him I will call him “Lil John” because he carries the long staff and reminds me of Robin Hood's Lil john. But Chris said he’s from Denmark not England. He had a point there.

I took a little nap after lunch. When I woke up it was time for the afternoon run. I was so stiff from the bags and post I walked half way then ran the rest of the way. While I was walking, two of the other Shifus from the Shaolin class went for the run. While they ran they were talking, laughing, hoping side to side, jumping in the air doing 360s, and didn’t stop!  Once I saw what they could do so easily, I knew these Shifus are Jedis ( you know from Star Wars). They are like super heroes! Tomorrow is grading and the Shifus are performing as well. I can’t wait!

After the run our class didn’t do Baji like usual but we did San Da the Shaolin kick boxing. It consisted of a lot of kicking and punching. It was ok but I didn’t feel the power like I do in Wing Chun or Baji.

When class was over I went to shower up and head to dinner. Tonight was dumpling night. It was amazing. Best dumplings ever! 
On the way back to my room a few people were huddled next door. I asked Rodney ‘what’s going on’. He pointed to the floor and I saw a dead scorpion! I am on the 3^rd floor and I have no idea how a scorpion got in the room next to mine! Sam saw it and ran into the room. When I went into my room , Sam told me if he saw any scorpions I would have to be the person to kill it. I laughed. It wasn’t the big scorpions just the small ones that had a loooooot of poison (I think). When I finish this blog I will check my bed just in case.

Tomorrow is the end of week one! WOOHOOOO!

Goodnight!

-Scott

My first Power Day

Blog 8

Chinese word of the day:  Chuang-means-Sore

British word of the day: Rubbish-means-terrible

Woke up this morning pretty tired, stiff, and chuang….SORE!   Ran like usual. Today I was so sore, so told myself I am NOT going to run the whole thing. But, from the beginning of the run, I started running with a classmate and for some reason when I thought I wanted to start walking, I just couldn’t say, “Hey I’m going to take a break and walk.” Seemed a bit “weak” to say that so I ended up running the whole way.

Went to Wing Chun class after the run. I got taught another 1/8^th of the form. Hopefully by Friday I can get the rest down.

                Afterward I went to my room to rest and eat the two eggs I snaged from breakfast. I ate the whole thing this time.   Aunty Oli said to eat the yoke part too, so today I did.

Then after a nice break I had Baji Class. I got taught the rest of the first level Baji form. This Friday is grading and if I feel confident I can grade and level up!  None of my friends here that I asked were able to ‘grade up’ their first week.  I hope I feel confident by tomorrow and if so I will try to grade upin Baji but I’m not sure about Wing Chun. When I was practicing my form Shifu Gou came over and walked me step by step with each move so I can understand each movement.  This style, Baji, looks a lot more internal energy than the hard kick boxing moves in the San Da classes which is the style my roommate does.

Lunch tasted amazing as usual. Nothing new on the menu though.

The 2 hour break after lunch is amazing. I sat down at my computer to email a few family members and talk to a few friends. When I stood up to get ready for class my legs felt like they were dead and after lunch was POWER TRAINING.  I asked my roommate what power training was and he said “it’s hell”. So I didn’t know what to expect but all I knew is I was going to pace myself.

When I went down for the afternoon run my class had to run a mile longer due to the fact its power training time. I ran the whole thing but when I past the tree which is the end of the regular run there was a hill. I walked up that hill. I had time, since  everyone was still behind me except for  four people ahead of me. Once I got over the hill, I took off running again. On the way back…walked up the hill again.

When I made it back to the academy we all headed inside for POWER STRETCHING. One tip my roommate did give me was when it was power stretching time “…DON’T SCREAM. The Shifus push harder if you scream. “ So we got into class. Warmed up as usual. Then we had to do 200 ‘high knees’ non-stop. If we slowed down Shifu Gou would yell at us and say, “Faster!” After that we did 50 leg sweeps each leg. Then we had to hop on one leg three times and kick with the opposite leg, hop again with the same leg and kick without letting the other leg hit the ground. That was dreadful!

When we got to the end of the room, which is about the size of two basketball courts going long ways, we switched legs. When we got back to the beginning we had to do ‘duck hops’across the room. Then we had to do ‘wheel barrows’ front and when we go to the end we switch with our partners. Well, my partner was too tired to go back so I can to go twice!

After that we each grabbed a mat. Had to stretch. First we did the splits with a leg forward. Shifu Gou would come around and pull our front leg further. I can’t even describe the pain. My classmate Rodney told me before we started “when Shifu comes along don’t stretch as far so it won’t hurt as much.” Good idea? Wrong!  I saw Shifu coming and I brought my leg back a little bit. I don’t know if he noticed or just wants me my leg to be snapped off my hip, but he pulled my leg further than everyone else!  After that, we did “butterfly stretches”. We would have a partner push our backs down far and then when we were low they would stand on our knees to push down more. I got really low on this one and my partner pushed my knees all the way down to the mat. Once we finished we had to do “plank holds” for six minutes on our knuckles. We usually do two minutes in class on our knuckles but six minutes on this ‘power day’ was unbearable. Once we finished that, we had to do 30 pushups but alternate from fist pushups to finger pushups. Then we did a lot of ‘abs’ and a final ‘split stretch’ where our partner pulls us forward while they kept our feet spread apart. After class I sweated so much I felt like I just got out of the shower.

I could not wait till dinner time. I was starving. I even ate a couple protein bars of mine. I was so hungry for dinner even though at breakfast I had filled my bowl so high with food my friends were teasing me that I can’t fit all that in my stomach. I sure proved them wrong.

After dinner I was so tired I couldn’t make it to my mandarin class because I’m so sore I couldn’t… really.

When I first arrived at the school, my classmates asked me if I was on the first, second, or third floor. I said third floor and they all said “good”.  Good because in the winter the third floor is the warmest. That maybe so, but after training I can’t even make it to my room! Even walking down hurts!

So now I’m finishing my blog then getting an early sleep.

Goodnight everyone.

-Scott 

Weekday Schedule

I also noticed I haven’t posted my training schedule. I’ll share it with you now.

                6:00am-Wake up and get ready for breakfast

                7:00am-Breakfsat

                8:30am-Run and Wing Chun class

                10:00-Break

                10:15-Second class. Usually conditioning or acrobatics.

                11:45-Break

                12:00-Lunch

                14:30-Second run and Baiji Class

                16:00-Break

                18:00-Dinner

                19:30-Mandarin

                20:00-In bed sleeping

- Scott