Are you happy?
Well, now that you ask, Yes. I am happy right now. Finding this Gung Fu / Lion & Dragon Dancing has really raised up my spirits. Its great to just work hard and practice form work and sweat for 2 hours. I had an email conversation with Hartmut, my Deutsch Instructor from UM. He's hardcore. I also had an email conversation with Sensei Gary Dolce, my Shorinji Kempo teacher, who is equally hardcore. In both of our conversations, they mentioned that by putting myself on as much as an equal level with a group of chinese will help. For example, not being their teacher, or a tourist, but as a participant in a group learning things together. And I knew it would work, i just needed to find something, and now that I have this Lion/Dragon Dancing thing going on, I am fit as a fiddle. I also start Mandarin Lessons this friday. Lynn will be my instructor. BOND finally got off their asses and set up these lessons. Thats another good thing. Also...great news:
***Taiji Sifu Gabriel Chin's article "Can We Tell the Truth" has been published unchanged and complete. This long time goal was made a reality by Jess O'Brien in his book "Nie Jia Quan". Also included in the book is a lengthy interview with him. (and a bunch of fotos that I scanned and sent to him...Chad and I by the CUBE with Gabe may show up in some of the fotos....go check it out) So what are you waiting for? Go out and buy this book! There are many interviews with other masters from all over including Tim Cartmel. No gong fu library is complete without it!***
As some of you may know, Gabriel Chin is the ancient Chinese man that taught me Taiji & Qi Gong for the past....almost 4 years. He is amazing man who has lived thru amazing and dreadful times...and he has great stories. My favourite is how he got thrown into Taiwanese prison. Anywho...go out to Border's and buy it. It should be really good.
On with my day....
Well, it started out great because today is my day where I dont start classes till 10AM. It was great. I got to sleep in till 9AM. I was so tired from the nite before. That practice tired me out. My thighs are still sore from all the horse stances that I have been doing. You lose alot when not doing much stuff for 2 months. I have also been still going to the gym which has been aiding in my fatigue...as well as the kids. :D But its a good kind of fatigue.
The past two daze have been really hot and humid...man, it was cooling down, then it got all hot again. Sounds like Michigan. I got to class and sat under the ceiling fan for about 10 minutes to kool down and stop sweating.
I walk into my 3rd grade class and there is a ruckus. I go over to the otherside of the room really quickly and there are about 4-5 kids in a rumble. It turned out that one of the fat kids and the kid with cauliflowered ears were in fight and 2-3 kids were trying to hold back the fat kid from attacking the cauliflowered ears kid. While I was seperating them and trying to figure out what was going on. Kids were trying to tell me what was going on, but I can't understand these godless little meat-sacks.
So, while I was trying to take everything in, the two kids proceeded to try and throw each others books and bags and their contents everywhere and then the fat kid got an evil eye for the cauliflowered ear kid again and went on the offensive, this is where I stepped in. I grabbed the fat kid and threw him into the chair, he tried to get up and kick the other kid, but I stopped that by using the pressure points just above his collarbones. That kept him in his chair. Lucy, the teacher/enforcer of the class was pretty much clueless as to what was going on. She walked in after me and was just walking around mindless. After I had the fat kid pinned in the chair, thats when she started giving out authority. She took the fat kid downstairs and I proceeded to look at all the kids. I thought they would be stunned, but they were ready to get on with the lesson...so, I guess this sort of thing happens alot? The cauliflowered ear kid was still in the class and he seemed a little shaken up, but he was ok. Lucy came back and took him to the office as well. I guess they wanted to find out what happened. I don't know excatly what happened cause Lucy never told me.. I will find out tomorrow and let you know. But, what I think happened is this....
During the 10 minute break between classes, the cauliflowered ear kid may have said something to the fat kid which made him snap. I have watched the fat kid in class before...I think he may have some "issues". I don't want to make any rash judgements. But that's how I see it in my head. I will let you know tomorrow and see if I am right.
Getting on with it...the lesson, things went fine. The kids were kind of louder than usual. Then it was lunch time, so I headed to the gym. I made a quick stop at the sports shop where I bought the Taiji Sword and bought a couple of new gym shirts. I have been running thru all of mine quickly with this martial arts stuff at nite. So, I got a couple. The I need now is a new pair of work out pants. I got into the gym and I was still tired a bit from the nite before. My thighs, still sore. So i didnt do any bike or martial arts. And since it was humid today, my t-shirt that I put back on still had sweat marks on it from when I arrived. You know, there is nothing like stepping out of a shower and into a locker room with ceiling fans on full speed and then putting on a sweaty t-shirt. ITS AWESOME!! I headed out and grabbed some awesome potstickers from the place next door that I love. Also some pearl milk tea. MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm.......yummy.
I got back to school and I had 10 minutes before class. My day classes went fine excpet my 3rd lesson was canceled because they are having some sports day thing today and tomorrow. It ended up that half of my class was missing. Ivy decided to take over. While she was talking to the class about something, I was motioning to a boy by the window to throw a water balloon onto the students below. But he was too much of a panzy to do it. He hid it in his desk and I pestered him by Ivy's back to throw it. "Throw it!"...jerking my head in the direction of the window and wall. I kept doing it and staring him down, this was making a couple other kids who knew what was going on laugh out loud and clap. When this happened, Ivy turned to look at me. I was sitting there statuesque. Perfect example of gentleman-hood. When she turned back to the class, I returned to trying to convince the boy to throw the waterballoon. "Throw it!!! You little punk! Don't be a sissy!" Ivy would turn her head at me, and I was perfect as usual. I then said my goodbyes and tried to get the kid to throw it, but he wouldn't. What a punk.
Since my class was canceled I ran over to the drugstore to get some medicine/cream for these damn mosquito bites. These little pests have a hide-out in my room. I kill one, and another shows up 5 minutes later. Its bizarre. Its like "The Conservation of Mosquitos" in my room. So, I have a bunch of bites all over my legs and arms. And of course, since I haven't dealt with many mosquitos in many years, I have been itching alot as well. Which is bad. This oil stuff seems to work. It stops the itchy feeling.
After the drugstore I hopped a taxi to my kindergarten class. I had 30+ kids today and they were pretty good. Loud...but good. Its hard to keep the attention of 30+ kids when you are trying to teach something to them thru competition. Owen also brought gifts.
1. A care-package from my boy, Tony, in AA. He sent me a book and a DVD. So nice of him.
2. An invitation to some government cultural thing on Nov 21st. I am gonna go...who knows, maybe the Lion/Dragon troop is going to perform...who knows, maybe I will be in the show.
Came back here for a bit to do some stuff before shuffling off to practice. I got to practice, stretched, and started working out in my little corner. Just doing the forms the coach showed me and working on some other stuff from home. The coach showed up and showed me some more stuff. I was practicing that mostly until the girl that does some of the English interpretting for me came and grabbed me and took me to the group that was doing the dragon dancing. They wanted me to try out the head. Now, Looking at this, you don't think it was be heavy...this head was, and you have to whip it around..its tuff. i don't know the amount of weight the head is, but its at the end of the stick, so, moment of inertia plays the enemy here. After I watched them do it once, I tried. They then tried to show me the proper areas and how to old it. I got it down after a couple tries and I was whipping htat thing around, but it was really tuff. Fun but tuff.
I then went back to practice my form work some more. I then started working with a couple other guys. They were showing me some kicks and then we started screwing around. He showed me something which caused me to bust out the Capoiera which made them laugh but then I went into some break dance moves and their jaws dropped. I proceeded to teach about 5 chinese guys the basic 6-step do break dancing. It was highlarious. Time was up and I headed home.
Now I sit here at the computer typing in this journal entry after throwing my workout clothes in the wash and taking a well-needed shower....that warehouse is dirty.
Well, I gots to go. Its late.
Good nite.