I'll be home for Christmas!

The time finally arrived! Brandi and I have been home for a couple days now, and I have to say that nothing has made me appreciate my parents acreage, and Alberta more than spending a year in China. The count down to our holiday seems to get more and more difficult every year.

I sprained my ankle about a week before leaving (actually a couple days after I wrote my last post) and I was a little heartbroken. Not only did it prevent me from training at all during my last week and a half, but it will be really difficult to work on anything while I'm home. I know a lot of my fellow students love the fact that they don't have to practice while they're home, but I find it frustrating. It's a time that I can work on any of the things I think I need to, and I'm not exhausted from all the other training. It's frustrating.

I do love Christmas though, and I don't think anything could really bring me down at this point, so I'm just going to try to not worry about it, keep stretching every day, and hopefully by the time we head back I should be more recovered.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Motivation

As we come closer and closer to our Christmas holiday, it's becoming progressively more difficult to stay focused on my training. I tend to spend large portions of my day (and my meditation) thinking about all the things I want to do, people I want to see, and the food I want to EAT!

Our class as a whole is actually depressing to spend time with. We bicker with one another almost constantly. It's getting to the point that I find it hard to look at some people without 'blowing a gasket'. I really try and make an effort to push myself in training, and I get so tired of my own classmates bringing me down. I am generalizing here, but really, I'm struggling to enjoy their company sometimes.

To add to the lack of focus, our Shifu is in Beijing at the moment applying for all the visas he needs to travel this Christmas break. In his place he has appointed one of the coaches to drill us in forms and work to improve our movements. I really respect this coach, and I understand how hard it must be for him to take over our class for the last couple weeks before our break, so I'm really trying to show him my respect by training hard and focusing on the advice he's given us, but again, there are some members of my class who seem determined to bring down the atmosphere of our training.

This is the hardest time of the year for me to train. I want to push myself to the limits, because soon we will have a lot of time to rest, and I feel as though I'm being held back in some respects by the people who should be helping me to keep my focus.

Well that was a bit of a rant....

Monk Spade

Well we've started the Monk spade. I have to say it's the most physically demanding form yet... Generally our forms require a lot of physical endurance but this form feels like I have a bar bell I'm attempting to do kung fu with. A weird combo of 'pumping iron' and fluid motion. It's a pretty tricky combination for me.

A lot of the guys in our class are not struggling as much with the physicality of it as my sister and I, but I have faith. We've kept up with them thus far, this will just be a bit more of a slow run from the beginning and a fast sprint later on. Once we've built up some more of the upper body strength we'll be set. The trick with this weapon seems to be that you have to use your whole body together to get the coordination and flow. And being as I'm not so strong, I just have to use my whole body. So in this sense I'm a bit ahead of the game. I don't have enough arm strength to be using just my arms to swing it around my head.

This is me being positive about the whole situation. About half way through every class I'm hoping for rain, just so we can have a class off from practicing the monk spade. Our shifu has an interesting approach to training. We don't start off slow and work our way into building up the strength. He approaches with the attitude that the more you practice it the stronger you get. All I can say is that I hope tomorrow my arms have recovered a little. My poor triceps.

Halloween

This past 'weekend' was something pretty special at our school. Some of the foreign students decided to have a Halloween party for us and the Chinese students. I didn't have very high expectations, because usually our parties consist of some eating and some beer and tonnes of karaoke, which is fun, but gets a little old after a while.

Our kung fu brothers and sisters set up games for everyone, pumpkin carving, and trick or treating for the kids. My favourite part was the pumpkin carving. I was up to my elbows in pumpkin and winter melon(a giant, rock hard, green, squash-like vegetable that I carved) and it made me realize how rarely I use my creative genius. I'm not generally very artistic but I do love hands on projects. My friend Jake also wanted to dress as 'the crow' for his costume and he asked me to paint his face. I've never painted someone's face before but it was awesome. I, of course, dressed as a panda and had a great time playing games and dancing with my clothes stuffed with pillows.

I was very impressed with the organisation of this Halloween event. Generally, when we try to take on some kind of group project, it takes forever and it's an exercise in frustration trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time. And when we do, we're like a dysfunctional family, all talking over each other, while half of us are sitting around making jokes and not paying any attention to what's going on. It's amazing to me to see the difference in how we work together while training, and how we don't work together outside of class. But thanks to a few special individuals, this whole party really came together. It was a great opportunity for us foreigners to bond a little with the Chinese students also. It will be a tough party to top, but it was definitely an occasion to remember!

My Parents

I've been looking forward to my parents coming to China for a couple years now, but when it came down to a few weeks prior, I was more than a little apprehensive. My dad has never been outside North America, (I'm including Mexico in North America although that's not exactly correct) and my mom hasn't left the continent in oh... let's go with 30 years. China's not a place that I would necessarily recommend for the unseasoned traveler either. There's a lot of social differences that even after living here for 2 years, I still don't understand. Add into the equation travelling in China without at least a minor understanding of the Chinese language. I know how difficult it is because I've done it.

I haven't been on a real holiday with my parents since I was a teenager. It was great being able to just wander around and go shopping, or taking buses all over the place, going to look at this temple, and that village. They were the best travelling companions I've had. Their easy going outlook and their willingness to jump with both feet into something completely new was really inspiring to me. If something didn't work out according to plan they easily adapted. They weren't put off by a ducks head, or some weird fish, or a baby pooping in the street. Except for a few questionable bathrooms I'd say they left with a pretty good impression.

Sometimes I'm afraid that I'll end up one day, stuck in a rut, being afraid to really live my life to the fullest. But looking at my parents here in China made my fears soften. They aren't faint of heart. They're brave, inquisitive and curious about different cultures and the world. Hopefully when I'm older I can keep the same open mindedness as they have.

Arg....

Well this blog is about to become a list of my kung fu related injuries. Last Tuesday I pulled my groin which has actually been healing pretty well. Then first class on Friday we fought and I dislocated my shoulder.
I'd have to say that this is the most frustrating part of being here. Compared to a person at home, injuries are always a setback but here being as kung fu is all I do in a day, having an incapacitating injury such as this is really depressing. I know that i'm not going to be out of the game for too long but at this point it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
On a totally different note, our Shifu has been giving us numerous lectures on natural living that have been incredibly interesting. I'd write more but I'm typing one handed so I'm going to give up on this effort for now. Good thing I have a lot of free time ;).

After the storm comes the calm

I haven't blogged in a while and honestly, I'm in a terrible frame of mind for it. I was actually hoping that the idiom "after the storm comes the calm" went the other way around because for me at the moment, it seems to be more accurate. Coming back from break was great. I love training. I haven't found anything that makes me feel invigorated like kung fu does, but at the moment, I feel on the verge of death. UGH!

I've already gotten an injury (we've been training for about 3 weeks), and now our Shifu has decided that we should do power training at every class to make ourselves stronger. Which I'm totally all for, except going from doing nothing, to doing in every day. It seems I'm just adding injuries on top of one another already, and we've only begun. The Chinese students return form their holiday tomorrow and I'm dreading the thought of adding them back into the mix.

It's lunch time now, so I'm gonna go stuff my face hopefully.