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....