Wudang.... Home Sweet Home

Pretty frustrating that I made a commitment to blog weekly and then just actually couldn't get access for 2 weeks. ARG!

It's great to be back to the old and the familiar. I don't want to spend this whole entry complaining about how terrible our trip to Beijing was, so I'm just going to make it brief. We ended up staying for 2 weeks instead of 4 days so we were more than a little unprepared. We spent the majority of our time there waiting for something. Waiting for the bus, waiting to rehearse, waiting for dinner, etc. I'm not a particularly patient person, so I'd have to admit, this drove me a little insane. Other than that, and the fact that our government liaison had to be one of the most annoying Chinese women I've been forced to spend time with, I actually kind of enjoyed myself. I'm a people person, and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people.

There was one in particular (I'll omit names), that had to be the epitome of jerkiness. I really can't remember ever meeting someone that left me so offended at the end of any interaction between us. But I was particularly proud of myself. Despite one outburst after an especially lewd comment, I didn't really let him get under my skin. I just mostly pretended as if he wasn't there. Our Shifu always says that it's a special skill being able to ignore people and let people like this one leave you unaffected. I also met some really great people. Some, I was disappointed to not have the chance to get to know better. We exchanged emails so I hope that in the future our paths cross again. It was really interesting as well to meet people from a different style and see their different levels of skill. Some had just arrived in China, and others had been here for a year or so. Also had the opportunity to meet a Shifu from the Shaolin temple. 6 to 7 thousand students and he's been there for 12 years or something. Definitely some interesting experiences. This for me, was the best part of the trip.

I'm so happy to be back in Wudang. Getting back to our regular schedule, drilling forms, going to bed completely physically exhausted instead of mentally depleted of energy. I don't think I've gotten to the point yet where I can look at Shifu without a huge grin on my face. If anything, this trip really helped put my training back in perspective for the coming months before the break.