Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

View fotos now!
I just finished posting all my Shaolin Fotos worthy of internet posting. It took me a couple days to sort them out, stitch up some of them, enhance a few, and then upload them. I hope you enjoy them. They were great to take.
After I finished getting them ready and hit the button to upload, I went searching for information on my MEMORY CARD ERROR problems with my Canon Powershot Digital Elph S400 camera. I searched for this while in Shaolin while looking for a quick fix, but came up with just complaints. I learned harder this time and found many things.
Apparently, a guy running a site... Zone: Bargain Blog has information on an ongoing investigation and pending litigation against CANON and their problems with this camera model. Its based on the E18 error which is the zoom lens not working properly and Canon not giving any assistance whatsoever and the charge to have it fixed is about 2/3 the price of the actual camera. It alwasy seems to happen 1-6 months after the 1 year warranty has expired.
I have only encountered this problem once, while at the send off party for Yi Shin at the French Fry place. The website mentions the Memory Card Error issue, but there is no legal things goin on with that. There are just lots of complaints.
Thankfully I got the 2 year warranty at Best Buy, so i plan to use that when I get back to the US. Hopefully I can get it fixed before I go to Japan.
Anyway, after that ,I headed to the computer shops to see if I could get the CF card that I am having issues with reformated and fixed. Nope, it just kept crashing their computer or not reformating properly. So, after about 1 hour of them trying the same damn thing over and over again, they decided to send it back to Guangzhou and have it looked at then get me a new one. Since John wasn't there I had to use a mixture of Chinese and English. They spoke as much English as I spoke of Chinese so we were able to understand each other, but it took awhile.
I think the camera with its stupid error damaged the CF card. Great.
After that I hit up 1+1 for some drinks and stuff.
Then came back here. I headed to the gym around 430/500pm.

Posted by Phil at 04:27 PM | Permalink

Today was a wonderful day.
After Yumi left her apartment at 9AM, i kicked my ass in gear and went shopping for everything. I got everything I wanted to find except for a Picachu Towel, like the one I had but forgot at Shaolin. Well, Josh has a new towel. What did I end up getting her? A bunch of roses, some picture frames to go with the pictures of us together that I had printed up, and a really pretty necklace. I also wrapped up my old vacuum cleaner as a joke. She enjoyed that.
Then we got dressed up, me in a suit and her in a dress, basically, what we wore to Ben's wedding. I took her out for dinner at the Ritz resturant. It was good. Except we kept getting stares from a couple of people sitting next to us.
That was pretty much our day.

Posted by Phil at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was my first full day back. I used it to spend most of the time just preparing Shoalin fotos. Yumi got back from work early so we hung out for the rest of the day.

Posted by Phil at 05:14 PM | Permalink

I got up at about 630AM today and grabbed my remaining things. Josh took me down to the taxi guy and I said goodbye to him and Hahn. I got in the taxi and spent 2 hours travelling to the airport. There were a few strange things that happened. The first was while we were coming up on a check point, he stopped to pick up some random lady that wanted a ride thru the checkpoint and was gonna pay him 5 or 10 RMB. We got stopped at the checkpoint and the lady jabbered at the security guard for a bit and then we were let thru. The driver dropped her off about 200 meters away. After she left, he turned at looked at me like he didn't know what the hell was going on, so we both laughed a bit. The other odd thing was when the driver asked me for the money before he got to the airport. I had no idea why. I called Mountain and he told Mountain that it was because the police may cause him trouble if I pay hi at the airport. This is all shady. I made sure he was near the airport and that I could see it in case he tried jipping me. This is the guy that made Paige pay him more money before he got to the airport.
i got to the airport and had to spend about 2 hours sitting around. I finally got onto the airplane. I had to wait another 2 hours on the airplane. Once I got to Guangzhou at 115pm i got my bags and caught a bus to the next bus station around 150pm. i got to the other bus station then got another bus at 3pm. I finally got to Xiaolan around 5pm. Yumi was already there. She was in Shenzhen but got back at 430pm.
What a long day.
I am tired. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 05:23 PM | Permalink

Today was fantastic and a very gorgeous day. I had lots of fun. Josh joined me for morning 5 AM practice. Then we had a girl from Philadelphia spend the first half of the day with us, her name was Cheryl. We practiced hard this morning and it was fun. I reviewed everything I learned 5 times.
In the afternoon i went to Dengfeng to get some last things. Then practice in the afternoon was really good. I practiced and then had Happy Sifu videotape my form work.
After practice was done, we hung around doing things and then headed out to the French Fry place where we had a send off party. It was really great. Yummy food.
Afterwards i hung out with Happy and Andy sifu. I didn't want to leave. I really liked hanging out with them. I didn't wantt o leave practice.
Afterwards I hung out with Josh and Nick the Aussie while I packed things up.
Goodnite!

Posted by Phil at 05:49 PM | Permalink

This mornign I slept thru morning practice do help my cold that I feel coming on. I couldn't sleep so I took some medicine to see if I could go for 8am practice. Yeah, i felt a little odd while practicing. Like cold sweats at first while I was running. Then I noticed that when I was just doing basic things, I was sweating more than usual. I took it really easy on the forms today. I just did some review and learned the rest of QiXingQuan. Its short and its got the chicken step in it.
I was getting really tired really quickly. Sifu let me off a early which helped and I caught the last 2 minutes of warm water from the shower head as it dripped out. I then took my clothes to the laundry lady. Need to start packing up soon.
This afternoon I rested but still feeling off. I decided to rest for the rest of the day. I don't like the idea of not working out today, but i dont want to make myself worse. And I want to work out tomorrow. I really want to do the last day. I needed rest though for today, I hope it helps. Hopefully sifu will understand.
Since I dont have any tea, Christie made some for me. Aaaaawwww. So sweet. She is very nice. She is only 15, but she acts like our mother sometimes picking up our junk. Its kinda strange. She likes Josh, I can tell that - its very funny.
Spent afternoon practice resting. Didn't go to practice. I tried to sleep, but just laid there drifting in and out. hopefully I am better tomorrow.
I got a haircut tonite. It is very terrible. i don't like it. But it grows back. Oh well. :D
Since most of my clothes are in the wash, i needed to get some new socks for tomorrow since mine are still wet. I need to pack up sometimme tomorrow. Its gonna be a busy day. Practice, need to take one last trip to Dengfeng, and bring my camera to the morning practices n stuff. And the last night in Shaolin dinner party at the french fry place.
Goodnite. i need rest.
lata.

Posted by Phil at 02:30 PM | Permalink

I woke up this morning and I felt like there was some itch in my throat. I may be coming down with a cold. I took some tylenol and some decongestant stuff. That was good. During practice, I was sweating more than usual, but I kept pushing it. I learned more of Xing Yi Gun. After practice was over, I was talking to Josh. I figured it out. Happy Sifu is only really frustrated with me when I work on staff forms with him. I don't know why. He was also like this when he was teaching me Cheng Meng Cheng Taiji this morning. He acts like a dick when I make a mistake, even after seeing something for the first time. "Why are you doing that? Who told you to jump? No, like this, do it right." Sometimes all I got were audible frustrated sighs. He really gets on my nerves when he acts like this. The only downside to his teachings i think. However, whenever I make mistakes in Zui Quan, it doesn't bother him. He seems to enjoy working on that with me.
It may be the chinese way of teaching, or not. Luckily he aint beating me like the chinese do to chinese students. I guess i shouldn't complain, it could be worse, but I really get annoyed with these little pissy comments.
Anywho, felt a little more off at lunch when I was on the computer, my head started hurting and so did my eyes, like when you get a slight fever. So, I took some medicine to see if that cured me up. it sorta did.
I went to afternoon practice and worked my ass off on Xing Yi Gun. I learned the rest of it and Sifu was again acting like a jerk during the teaching. I dont think it helps his attitude when i talk back to him, but I am not accustomed to be treated like this when learning gong fu. The Shaolin Monk in Las Vegas, Gabriel, and the Shorinji Kempo senseis, none of them have acted like this. I am really frustrated with Sifu taking his frustrations with his boss out on me.
This morning as I was coming to 8AM class, I grabbed some water downstairs and there was their boss scolding and yelling at Happy Sifu, Bean Sifu, and one of the office girls. I don't know what about. So at the beginnning of the morning class, I asked Sifu if everything was alrigth and he said that he was just angry with his boss and has finally made the decision to leave Tagou. I asked him when and he said, "After". After, huh. After today? After next week? "After."
Ok.
This school seems to be shooting itself in the foot alot. Its a great location, but they overcharge on everything and the great teachers they have are being treated like dogs and don't want to stay, so moral really sucks. Oh well. I want to find this boss and tell him that he is an idiot.
I worked so hard in afternoon practice that I almost passed out. I am gonna have a huge bruise on my left bicep from this staff form. there is a lot of power in it. Its a fun form too but also very tiring. I don't know how many tiems i did it, but I tired myself out. Also, I did some Zui Quan in the morning. I finally got the kip, when you are on the ground and you jump up to your feet. I can't do it all the time, i did it about 5 times. A couple times I had to put my hands out to keep my balance from falling over. It was a good sign though. I need to work on it so I can throw it into the form.
Last night i felt eh and went to bed really early. That realy didnt help because I all night I didnt sleep well. I had gong fu forms going thru my head constantly, like when you study for an exam all day for a couple days and then you cant fall asleep because the formulas are running thru your head.
Also, when I laid on either side of me, my arms hurt from the bruises.
Sifu said that everyone who does this form gets bruises in these spots.
Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 02:09 PM | Permalink

I got up at 515 and met up with Sifu and we went running outside. It was a gorgeous morning. I ran and he jogged. His foot still causes him trouble and he never runs. This was the first time he really tried to run in awhile. He was doing ok. He had me jump a bunch of times up the stairs and then re-do it. Then we went to the tourist area and i did Badua Jin and Taiji.
Came back to the room and crashed before mid-morning practice. Morning practice was good. Started learning a new staff form. Xing Yi Gun. Sweet. Lots of power in this form.
After practice was over, Josh, Christine, and I went to the rope bridge on Shaoshi Shan. It was gorgeous. Words really cant describe the view. It was wonderful. THey had built a walkway attached to the side of the mountain cliffs. It was fantastic. I got lots of pictures and good video. The weather was perfect: blue skies, warm sun, no humidity, cool breeze.
The view man, the view. Undescribable...for an online journal.
After that, we just barely made it back in time for afternoon practice. And boy, were we tired. Afternoon practice was hard too. I mean, we were tired an that made it tuff but the practice itself was also tuff. I learned more of Xing Yi Gun. I also did Zui Quan a bit. I was so tired and Sifu kept pushing me and made me do it to some chinese gong fu music. It was wierd because i had to do it in a time frame, so I had to go really quick, and the fact that I was tired made em a bit looser so I was able to get that drunk look pretty well. I impressed myself, but I bet it still looked poopy. and ridiculous.
After practice. I grabbed some dinner. Then I called Yumi because she just came back to Xiaolan today. I called her up and she was eating at the cafe with John and they were catching up. So, I only got to chat with her for a short time before she let me go. Then, afterwards, I took a nice hot hot hot shower. Then Josh came back and continued playing his PS2 game. I plugged my shaver in to charge it up and it blew out the circuit and all the rooms on our side of the hall lost electricity. Shit. i have used these wall sockets before and I have never had a problem with them. So, is it my fault or the wall sockets? I don't understand. I just put the plug into the wall and it just fried it. Wierd. Luckily I didnt get an electrical burn, because there was a big flash right next to my hand. Phew. Josh was about to beat the level too. It was a tough level. Sorry fellas. And as of now, 30 minutes later, they still haven't gotten the power back up on that side yet. Poop. What a great nite, huh.
Well, i am gonna go to bed, I am really tired and want to do morning practice tomorrow. Later.

Posted by Phil at 08:57 PM | Permalink

It rained all day today. And it was really cold. Those pants and jacket I bought are good. However, today saw the departure of all the russians for three days. They are off to spend time at WuDang Shan for more meditation at the Taoist mountain and its temples. I want to go see that place, but I dont have time. The upside of that is that we went back into the old training hall. The benefits of that are that its warmer, closer, and with music. The downsides is that its a smaller area and there are no pads underneath the carpet. Every time I tried to do Zui Quan, it was a hard landing. Getting used to it though.
Today I spent just practicing what I have been learning. Sifu told me at the end of practice to come tomorrow morning at 520 and we will have early practice. Cool.
Practice today made me really tired. I had my dinner and then Christine and Josh wanted to go to the french fry place. I went along. All I had was a few french fries and some beer. Thats it. It was fun. I was really tired though. I told the owner that we would come again on Saturday night.
We came back and I fell asleep at 9pm. So tired.

Posted by Phil at 08:49 PM | Permalink

Today was raining most of the day again. In the morning, there wasn't any rain, but it was quite overcast. Somewhere in the middle of morning practice, it started raining. I was really tight this morning. Its been really cold the past couple days and all I have are shorts and a t-shirts. I need to buy pants and a sweatshirt today. This is getting ridiculous. Josh wasn't doing well either, he wasn't feeling very good. The morning practice was mostly just conditioning today.
Near the end of practice though, some chinese guys came in with video cameras and wanted to watch the gweilos practice gong fu. So Josh was doing some saber stuff and I fumbled my Meteor Hammer routines. I mean, I didn't feel as though they were watching me, nor was i trying to perform, i just couldn't do anything right. I didn't know what was wrong. And then Andy Sifu was like, "Ah, terrible." I was like, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, pal."
After the camera folks left, I practiced Meteor Hammer on my own and i was doing better. Go figure.
Lunch was lunch. Was quite tired.
Right before afternoon practice I went to the shop that sells the Tagou uniform. I picked up some pants and the "jumper" as the british call it. The zip up sweatshirt. Its itchy. Maybe it just needs to be washed. It did keep me warm though. It took me awhile to get it because the little room was packed and the people behind the counter were lazy and not doing their jobs. And there was this little nasty man in front of me with overgrown fingernails, all dirty of course, and he was the only one smoking a cigarette and annoying a couple kids with it as well, I wanted to punch him in the face. Try to clean yourself up a little, it would be nicer on all of us.
Afternoon practice was frustrating. I spent most of the time on Zui Quan, but it was tuff because Happy Sifu kept wanting me to do things that I can't possible do because I can't bend backwards like that yet. So I was very frustrated with myself. He was joking as he stated the obvious, "Phil, you are so stiff!"
Thank you, Capt. Obvious.
So I ended practice reviewing the staff forms that I know.
After practice, had some dinner while chilling until the showers gave us hot water.
Nice hot shower.
Then computer work.
Goodnite. Time to sleep. Later

Posted by Phil at 10:18 PM | Permalink

Its Sunday today. The day off. Aaaah. I got out of bed around 10AM, aaaah, so nice. I needed that rest. The morning and thru lunch was spent just chilling out. The weather wasn't raining, but it wasn't the nicest either. It was very overcast and threatening to rain. Dude...hold up, I am listening to the SUPERMAN theme song right now. Man, is that infectious. Da da da da da da... I want to rub and polish John William's bald head.
Anyways, back to the weather. It blew. I was afraid it would rain. I was like, please don't rain till after I get back! Michael, the remaining German guy, and I had made plans to go visit the cave that Bohdidharma/Damo meditated in for 7 or 9 years with his brain upright. The legend goes that this monk from India came to the Shaolin Temple and was denied entrance into the temple, prolly because he looked different from all the chinese, and he went to a very small cave near the top of the mountain right behind the Shaolin Temple. He meditated there for 7-9 years and left his shadow on the wall. (this shadow stone is apparently in the Shaolin Temple now). When he was done, he came back to the temple and was allowed in and he then taught all the monks exercises to keep healthy and this is where Shaolin Gong Fu comes from. So, he is credited with brining Gong Fu in Shaolin.
At about 2pm, I met up with Michael and we started off on our trek. The path to the cave started on the other side of the Shaolin temple, between the temple and the Pagoda Forest. The sign said, "Damo Cave 3000M ->".
It was all up-mountain. It was a long climb. Took us about 1.25 hours. The walk up there was tiring and quite steep. They had rock stairs and stuff and the construction quality was total Chinese. It must be about 2 years because all the stuff looked to have just started to fall apart. ;-) Just kidding. The stairs and railings have just fallen into disrepair over the years. The views from the steps and from the platforms that were built were very beautiful. You could see the whole valley. I got some great, if not repetitive, pictures.
We got to the platform where the cave was, just about 50m from the very top of the mountain. The cave itself was basically a hole in the wall, like most Chinese dwellings. ZING! I am on fire today! Henan is actually well known for having cave dwellers. There are still people in this province that live in caves. Apparently, some of them are quite luxurious (sp?). Anywho, its a small hole in the wall of a cliff face and there was a little sitting, meditating statue of Bodhidharma.

OH OH OH! BREAKING NEWS! I just got word that Josh had his balls cut off in a freak saber accident while he was practicing a form. More details as they...arise...

Back to Damo. I took some pictures. I walked into the cave and there sat a tiny chinese man staring at me. I was afraid to take any pictures because I thought he may blow my head off with his Qi Gong.
After that, Michael and I walked up to the top of the mountain. Wow. I mean, Wow. It was absolutely beautiful. Even with the overcast sky. It was getting a bit brighter though, the sun seemed to want to come out but we still under a blanket. But on the other side of the mountain there were a bunch more mountians covered in mist and it was amazing. I took lots of pictures. I hope they turn out well.
We just sat in the little pagoda for a while just enjoying the scenery.
We then walked over to the Damo statue that was built 10 years ago about 30M from the Pagoda. Took some pictures. It was nice.
We hung out there a bit longer. We then started to head down about 4pm. To get to the bottom of the mountain and on our way back, it took us about 20 minutes to go down. Much easier. As we were heading back to Tagou, all, well, about 95% of all the Tagou students had their weekly Sunday assembly meeting on the big sand practice area. It was pretty amazing to see about 7000 students march/walk down the road from the school and line up. Wow. They were packed in like sardins too. I got some pictures, don't worry.
Then I headed back to the room. Michael and I said our goodbyes, he is off tomorrow morning. I got his email, so thats good.
I had some dinner and later, Josh and I watched some Gong Fu VCDs - some WuDang Wushu and some Ermei Wushu. Then we watched Madagascar, that animation movie. It was ok. The best parts of that movie were the Penguins, the Lemurs, and the Monkeys. Unfortunately, the Monkeys werent used enuff. The Penguins ruled though.
Then we headed to bed later. Well, good night all.

Posted by Phil at 09:45 PM | Permalink

Woke up again to rain. However, today, the rain lasted most of the day. It stopped around lunch time but picked up again during afternoon practice.
Morning practice was good. I worked all on Zui Quan. Happy Sifu was being really pedantic about the stances and had me doing a few moves over and over again. Which is good. Helping me to get the movements right. There are lots of little things in each movement that you need to look at. Its fun to do but when you keep doing the same things over again, u start to get tired, especially when it some of the most physically intense movements.
Also during practice I practice some butterfly kicks. I got those good, but there is also another way to do the kick. When you go to the butterfly kick, you don’t spread your body out, you just spin as you jump and you spin sideways and either land on your feet or you do a break fall. I got the break fall one down sorta because its easier. And I can barely land on my feet. Its really tuff. I need to jump higher apparently.
Morning practice was good and during lunch time, I was planning to go to Dengfeng to get some of those shoes and get my pictures, but during lunch I popped in “Hitler: The Rise of Evil”, the biopic where Hitler was played by that psycho from Trainspotting, Robert Carlysle. It was good, but a little quick with his childhood and junk. Just creepy to see how he achieved everything and how many people just allowed it to happen. Its freaky.
Then optional afternoon practice was at 3pm. We had just finished stretching and warming up when the Sifus boss, Mr. Lu showed up. It was really sad to see how the teachers acted when he came in. He strutted in, smoking a cigarette, and issueing orders and our teachers lost their personalities and became obedient dogs to an asshole. Just the stories I hear of this guy, I don’t like him, and seeing him just put a face on it. We had to fix up the carpet because it needed to be pulled away from the wall when it started raining because the Chinese don’t seem to have overhangs on their buildings and rain comes in thru the windows. So we needed to place the crash pads underneath the carpet and then pull the carpet back over it. That kicked up lots of dust and dirt.
Then once that was complete, the women’s Xanda team took over the training hall and our practice was cancelled. Well, I thought they were women at first, but then I took another look and thought they were men, then I looked again and they were women. I shuddered. These were some of the butchest Chinese women I have ever seen. Almost all of them were bigger than me. And hell, I have bigger boobs than them. It was freaky. It was all I could do from staring. If you want something relative back home, think of the women’s rugby teams. Yikes. I swear, about 80% looked like men, the only ones that didn’t had girl haircuts. Wow.
After that, since I had time on my hands, I headed down to Dengfeng. I picked up my pictures and I bought the fancy meteor hammer, 3 pairs of shoes, and those wrist gauntlets. Searching for the equipment was tuff because I forgot which store was which. I ended up buying the hammer and the shoes from that expensive place. They wanted 55RMB for the hammer and I laffed. I got them down to half and they forgot that I bought the other one for 15RMB. So I asked. They tried to sell me the steel one for 40RMB. I was like, “Dude, yesterday I got this thing for 15RMB and you are trying to sell me the brass one for 55RMB? Don’t insult me.” I had found other shops with the shoes, but not the right size. These shoes are a bit tighter than the others so I had to get size 44, the biggest they carry. They wanted 50RMB for each pair, and after they had brought 3 pairs, I was like, wtf, they are 35. They were like, no, 50, so I started to leave and they were like, OK OK OK!
Dicks.
After that I caught the last bus back to Shaolin. In the evening, it was Dola’s birthday so he wanted to watch Ace Ventura 2. Not again. So we watched that. I went back to my place then crashed and slept really well. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 01:01 PM | Permalink

I woke up this morning and it was raining. Crap. That means its gonna be cold. I am still surprised that its not more hot in this area. All I have are shorts and t-shirts. I have nothing long to keep me warm. Oh well. My body this morning at practice wasn't working well. Not doing what I told it to do.
I worked alot on conditioning this morning and practicing Meteor Hammer, not rope dart. Its more like a steel ball at the end of a rope. Since the weather wasn't that great, I didn't run the mountain, Josh and I decided to go to Dengfeng to look for equipment and gear. Plus, I wanted to take my memory card in to get the pictures put on a CD.
We got to Dengfeng and did our little errands then went to the VCD/DVD shop that sells wushu VCDs. They got lots of stuff. And I mean lots. I picked up 2 Zui Quan VCDs, 2 Meteor Hammer VCDs, a Monkey Fist VCD, and 3 Wong Fei Hong VCDs - basically, forms that are claimed to have been used/created by Wong Fei Hong. Upon viewing them, the old guy doing them didn't look very good.
Josh got Nan Quan - which means Southern Fist and is the northern interpretation of Hong Ga/Hong Quan.
After that, we went looking at shops for equipment. No one carried Xing Bian (Meteor Hammer), at least not put together. Most places carried rope dart, but thats not what I wanted. Rope dart is much smaller rope. Some places sold the Meteor Hammer but just by itself. Aiya, can't anyone have it put together. Josh said he had seen them all put together somewhere, but he couldn't remember. Oh well. Other things I was looking for were the nice shoes that Andy Sifu had, we found them, but places wanted like 40RMB+ and I was like, hellz no. I wanted to get a positive ID on price from Andy Sifu first. Josh was also looking for practice weapons.
Other things that I saw that made me want were some wrist armor/gauntlets for Hong Quan/HongGa forms. Basically, black leather that wraps around your wrists and has studs on it. Its cool. Nan Quan uses it as well. I was haggling the price with the guy but he wasn't going as low as I wanted and didn't seem to care. So, I left, I figured I could alwasy get it later. Its a shame though, they have these great gauntlets, but they don't have a matching belt. They have belts with studs, but they don't have the leather belt with studs. Its usually like a thin band/belt thats made of fabrice with about 10 big metal circles on it. It doesn't match. I have seen pictures of the old teachers doing the forms while they are wearing the black studded gauntlets with a matching studded belt. Its really big. It kinda looks like a weightlifting belt. Where you buckle the belt, its thin, but at your hips it starts to get bigger and then at your back its the bigges and its covered in studs. I want to find one. I may just have to make one when I get back to the states cause I can't find them in Guangdong anywhere either.
At the last shop we came to, which happened to be the most expensive one, I got them down on the price of a steel meteor hammer ball for 15rmb. They wanted 35RMB for it. I laughed my ass off. They wanted 55RMB for the real fancy looking meteor hammer, which is made of brass and in an egg shape. It looks of better quality, relatively. But, i passed on it. We also asked prices for the nice Chinese Wushu shoes, and they were like 50 and we got vocal, down the street, they are like 35, and the shop people were all NO!!!. Haggling them down to 15 on the meteor hammer took a while as well. Sticklers.
After that, we snagged a box taxi back to Tagou. The driver agreed on 10RMB, but when we got back, he tried to get 10RMB from both of us. We gave a wry smile and said, "No" and walked away. Punkass.
Afternoon practice was good. The weather had cleared up and it was beautiful. Andy Sifu and I built the Meteor Hammer weapon from scratch. Got some thin rope and put it together. It was very different from the rock bag practice weapon. This one's meteor hammer was much heavier with more of light rope so it gave more snap and was much more dangerous. I was scared to use it. I clunked myself a couple good times on the knee and foot and back of the head. Nothing to bad, but I can see how this could do some serious damage if you actually could use it. It would friggin hurt.
The Shaolin VCDs say that this weapon was one of the hardest to use...yeah, they say that about every weapon. Anyway, they call it a softweapon and its one thats hidden because it can be rolled up and hid in a pocket. Its a cool weapon. It looks really neat when done well. I got all the moves down that were on the VCD, from being taught by Andy Sifu, but i just don't have the speed yet. And using speed with this is a little dangerous for me right now. Once I get more used to it, I will increase speed.
I spent all afternoon with it. I realized that when I get back to the states, I will need to use a better rope. I will need to replace it because the rope we used was beginning to unravel a bit in a certain area from all the twisting of the rope. Aiya. Why can't we have some quality here!?
Since the weather got really nice, Andy wanted me to run the mountain with Josh after practice. I had brought along my video camera this time. I ran the mountain with it and got some great footage. I was being careful and I told Andy Sifu that I would take a bit longer than normal because of the camera. He said OK. I was as careful as I could be while running with that thing. I think I got some good shots.
In the evening, we celebrated Trevor with his leaving on Saturday morning. So we went to the french fry place and I ate too much again. The food is sooooooo good there. Wondeful. Paige tried BaiJiu for the first time. He was like, That stuff is vile!
After dinner, we headed back and crashed. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 01:01 PM | Permalink

No morning practice. Too tired. Mid morning practice started out tuff, my body isn't responding to my brain like it should. Its really frustrating. After I got properly warmed up and doing some things, Happy Sifu and I put a huge dent into the Zui Quan form. I worked on it more and started having different moves strung into the form. To get up from the ground, I can't do the kip, or the jumping off your back to standing up. My abs aren't strong enuff or something. I just can't seem to do it, so I have to get up other ways. Sifu said its looking better, but still needs work. Its fun, but hard. Thankfully we are on a slightly padded floor.
Wong Sifu torn some muscles in his foot. He had this huge knob grow on the top of his foot. I thought he broke the foot, but he said no, its just the muscle. Wow. It made me cringe.
After practice was over, I climbed the mountain. The weather today is absolutely fabulous. There is very low humidity so you can see everything. I was on the mountain and I cursed myself for not bringing a camera. BLASTED!
After i came down I grabbed lunch. After lunch I chilled, tried to pay Xiaohui but she was gone and I went to the top of Tagou to get better pictures.
Afternoon practice was good. Hard, but good. I finished learning the Zui Quan form that Happy Sifu put together. It seemed more so today that he was making it up. Then I thought about it and this may be one of those things where there are just series of movements and you can put them together in different ways at your own leisure. Interesting.
Then, Andy made me run the mountain again. So, i did the mountain 2x today. I did the best I could. I made it in 30 minutes. I tried to run when I could, but I struggled a bit climbing and a couple times running. I ran thru all the spiderwebs that I didn't destroy last time. Since I was ten minutes late, Andy Sifu only made me do 40 push ups. I had to do them on the asphalt road with my hands in fist. DAMN that hurts!
After that, Josh and I were really really really hungery. So we ate.
I tried to pay XIaohui again this evening but she was gone again.
We also took our clothes to have some laundry done. We could barely make it up to the sixth floor while carrying our junk. THe rest of the night was me being really tired and just chilling out. As I walked down the halls to and fro areas, I felt like i was gonna collapse. I literally looked like i was drunk. My muscles were doing things that I wasn't telling them to do. I was stumbling whenever ever I walked.
Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 02:07 PM | Permalink

I woke up early for morning practice but it was pouring rain, so I went back to bed.
Mid-morning practice was weird. My body felt quite odd. My legs were a bit sore, I think its because I didnt do anything yesterday. But my body just didnt feel good while doing everything, like it was clumsy and slow. It could have been the weather. It was quite chilly. But during warm ups, we warmed up pretty good.
I practiced rope dart this morning and learned another move. Andy Sifu said thats all he really knows and that he will create a form for it. He said that there are lots of forms for the rope dart, but its really just up to the individual on what to do. No biggie, i got lots of basics. Thats whats important.
After practice, had some lunch and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Surprisingly good. Very fun to watch. Man, Rom is really annoying when you are trying to watch a movie. Just constantly talking at all the good parts.
Anywho. I went to pay Xiaohui, but she was sleeping. I shoulda gone in there and woke her up. Did some computer junk. Talked to someone really important and cleared up some things. And I got my plane ticket to Japan set up. Sweet!
Chilled until practice. Afternoon practice was ok. Nothing special. Body still isn't working like it should. I did some Hong Quan and Josh was intent on watching it because he is trying to learn Nan Quan which is the norther interpretation of Hong Quan/Hong Ga.
After class was over, we took showers and went to the French Fry place for dinner...for some reason. The food was soooooooo good. Had lots of beer. It was nice.
Well, that was mostly it today. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 02:50 PM | Permalink

Woke up this morning and really had no desire for practice. I wouldn't be able to do anything. All the activity would cause me more trouble. And it was this morning that Josh tried to fix the toilet. And then from the bathroom I heard, "Hey Phil...toilet isn't flushing anymore...and I mean it this time."
He said he would tell the people when he headed to practice. He did, but nothing came of it. I got out of be a bit later and headed to the little doctors office to get some pills that work well, from what I have heard. As I was leaving my room, I snagged the snaggle-toothed hall monitor with the lazy eye to let her know of the broken toilet and show her the problem. She is a very nice girl. I like her. She is also kind of funny too. Very nice person. Her co-hall monitor, however, isn't the most pleasant person. When I came back from the doctor, i told her about it, and she snapped at me, "Wo zhi dao". I was like, "ok, you know about it. Why is it still broken?"
That must have done something because she walked away and came back a minute later with a guy to that seemed to fix it for the immediate future. Thank you, sir!
Back to my doctor trip. I walked down to the doctors office and found a free doctor. I walked up to him and we just stood there for a moment locking eyes and not really saying anything - it was a kodak moment. He said, "Ni hao." I responded, "Ni hao. Wo la xi" (i have loose bowels)
He was like, "Aaaaah...guo lai. Zuo le" (come in, sit). He asked me a bunch of stuff and i couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but I think he mentioned, how many times, so I told him how many times. He was like, aaaah. And then asked me if i felt hurt/sick elsewhere. I was like, pointing to my stomach, then to my forehead, "Bu tong, bu tong." He then asked if I was itching my arms or body, he had to explain it to me by showing him itching his arm because I didnt understand. I was like, nope. I just kept pointing to my butt and saying, "La xi." As he wrote out a medicine perscription, he had a slight smile on his face over my explanation I think. He was a young guy.
I went in to get the medication and man, this place was crowded with about 10 kids all trying to buy something at one time. I was like, wait in line suckas. I got my meds and it only cost 4.2RMB. Josh said the only thing that works are the tablets, the other meds are for like hurt tummy and fever. I think the doctor prescribed it just to be sure.
I then grabbed something to drink and a small thing to eat to get some food in me. I brougth my video cam with me to video tape some kids practicing, but one of the teachers told me not to use. So, i was like, poo. Not a big deal, the weather is overcast and not too good, I should wait until it gets sunny again.
I chatted with the Germans, the old guy and his girl. The young daughter was at practice. Stuppe, the guy, had hurt his knee, and his woman had gastrol intestinal fast track problems too. They were gnna leave sometime tomorrow. They would go to Longmen Shiku and I told them how to get there.
After that, I came to my room and laid down and watched Taste the Blood of Dracula. It was ok. I think it was like a sequel of one of his other flicks. Like #3 or #4 in a series. Lunch time came and my issues were not really acting up, but now my tummy was hurting a bit. Maybe it was the medicine. Who knows. I want to go to practice this afternoon, but I doubt I will.
Practice was over and josh came back and I told him the toilet was fixed. "Its making that gurggeling sound." I had a sandwich for lunch and some water. During so, we watched Alien VS Predator. Josh had wanted to see it and he was like, throughout it, "This movie sucks!" At the end, he was like, "that movie was total crap! Give me 1 hour, a blunt pencil, and some paper and I will write a better story and screenplay for this film. Bloody Hell, I would even do the story boards. Bollocks!" (he is british by the way)
After that, I hit up the computer room where I told Mr. Bean Sifu about my issues and told him I may not make afternoon practice. While on computer, XIaohui asked me to pay money. Sure thing. after this.
I didn't pay afterwards. I just left. Cause I needed to use the toilet.
In the afternoon, I pretty much spent the time playing video games and relaxing and trying to get thru the soreness of a tummy. It passed over. Then around 6pm we went out to a dumpling place in Dengfeng to do a send off for the german folks. They are leaving tomorrow.
The food was really good. I took some pills before we left and I realized that the stomach pain was caused by the pills. I thought this stuff was supposed to help ya.
We came back and we pretty much chilled in the rooms. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 03:16 PM | Permalink

Every one seemed tired today. I was a little. Wong Sifu didnt show up for morning practice. What a punk. :D
THere is a new 17year old guy who lives in Hong Kong but goes to boarding school in Rhode Island. His name is Trevor.
This mid-morning, practice was good. I did some staff and other junk, but spent most of the time with Andy Sifu doing Rope Dart. Learned some new things. The rope got so wet from my sweat that my hands started to prune up.
Also, the young german girl put in some German Death Metal on the stereo. IT RULED! I was cracking up. She also had some And One. Nice.
During lunch time, Josh and I went to Dengfeng. I needed to pick up some contact lense solution and also get a rope dart for myself. We drove into Dengfeng and walked down the street. We found some contact stuff right quick then ventured around until we got to this "burger" place. Its like a fastfood place, but not really. They made a chicken leg burger that was really tasty. Just the meat from the leg, not the bone or cartilidge. Quite tasty. After that, we hit up a gong fu shop looking for a rope dart and we didnt find any. We then went to the DVD shop he usually checks out. I picked up John Water's "A Dirty Shame" - OMG this movie was sooooooooo funny!
I also got "Taste the Blood of Dracula", an old Christopher Lee Dracula movie. Neato.
We tried to pick up BATMAN BEGINS, but it was that same damn Russian copy that Josh already had and they had in Xiaolan. The transfer/the unlicensed copy of this DVD was really good. Very impressive.
After that, we went to the super market and got some ice cream. We decided to head back after that. We didnt feel like walking around anymore and wanted to rest a bit before practice.
The buses back to Shaolin Si were empty and looked as though they would take a while before they would leave, so we spotted a Taxi guy that Josh knows who was on his way back to Tagou, because he lives there, and he took us back for only 10RMB, which is half of the normal price. Awesome.
So, we chilled out for about 1 hour while we watched the first hour of A Dirty Shame. Wow, this movie was funny. Very funny, but also disgusting. But funny. Johnny Knoxville plays a messiah of sorts in the film. It ruled.
Class started and the training hall was quite crowded because they were having a Xanda practice/scrimage. Groups of students watched other students compete. That gave us a shorter place to study our gong fu and we had a much smaller space to practice. I did more with the rope dart. It was good. During practice, i started getting gas pretty heavily.
Near the end of practice, Andy Sifu took me, Josh, and the 16 year old German girl to go run the mountain. It seems like both times i climbed the mountain I have had really bad gas. I am worried I may cause an avalanche.
If we were slow the first time I climbed it, we were even slower this time. It started raining as we were halfway up the mountain and we also had a person that had never been up it before. So we were being careful. I actually found I had the energy to scale up the mountain much quicker and after I was done, I want to do it again tomorrow. As we were halfway up the mountain it started raining and then as we were closer to the top it started raining harder. We started jogging for a bit across the top, but soon stopped as the rain increased in power causing all the rocks and stones to become as slippery as ice. The only place we could get a footing on was the dirt and sand that had gotten very muddy. Well, not bad, but wet dirt basically.
Going down the mountain, which usually is quicker, was very slow because we had to walk and climb down. The stones were very slippery and we were slipping everywhere. I was in the lead this time and I kept walking thru the spider webs. As we got close to the bottom, Andy had scaled a little bit up and met us about 50 feet from the bottom. I was like, "Sorry for the time...the rain has caused the stones to be like ice." He was like, "Yeah, no worries, its raining."
Apparently, the record for doing the mountain was about 13 minutes. And that is from the base of the school, not from the road where the gweilos start. Wow.
After that, we had some dinner and finished up A Dirty Shame. And immediately after dinner I started having gastrol intenstinal fast track problems. In other words... la xi. Chinese for that thing you take the pink stuff for.
DIARHEA
So, I had to deal with that. I don't believe it was the dinner/school food because I have had it for the past 2 weeks, it must be that lunch food. Or maybe the dinner sped it up, i dont know.
So the rest of the evening I pretty much chilled out and stuff.
And wouldn't you know it, when I get gastrol intestinal fast track problems, the toilet breaks and wont flush properly. AIYA!
Josh finally paid for his training of the last month. We watched Johnny English, that Rowan Atkinson film...it wsan't very good.
We then went to bed. And I had a few trips to el bano as well.
sore night everyone.

Posted by Phil at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Woke up at 6AM today to get ready and catch the earliest bus I could to Luoyang. I got out to wait about 645am and I caught a bus around 650. I swear, this has got to be one of the dirtiest buses I have been on in China. Just bad. The trip to Luoyang, the ancient capital of China for the early dynasties, was pretty hard. Bumpy roads dirt everywhere, constant stops where the driver disappeared for 5 minutes at a time. But that's China. Also, outside of the Songshan Mountains, Henan really stinks. I mean, the smell. Its like rotten food, trash, and horsepies all wrapped into one. At times it smells like Greenfield Village...by the horseshit areas. Its also the same smell by the Tagou cafeterias. Yuck.
YOu would think that the ancient capital of China would be a huge metropolis of culture, but it really isnt. Apparently, back in the day, it was sacked big time and never recovered. In the 60s, the communists put back in some new red life with industry and now 6 million workers/comrades live there.
There are a few things that they have though. They have:
1. Longmen Shiku (Dragon Gate Grottoes)
these were cave and rock carvings of Buddhas and religious sculptures that dealt with the stories and disciples of Buddha. I can't remember the exact number, but there are like over 7000 carved scenes or individuals. THere is some amazing stuff there. I got lots of pictures. Its a shame that the weather wasn't a bit nicer, it was overcast. Some of the most memorable stuff was the 10,000 Buddha cave. It was carved out room with 10,000 buddhas carved into the walls. Really amazing. There was another one that was quite amazing that I forgot the name. There was also a couple huge statues of Buddha and protectors and stuff. Giant. I mean, huge.
There was also a temple that was quite nice. It was on a hill. THere was also the White Gardens, which was nothing really. Just a place in a bunch of trees. It was nice, but nothing special.
2.Guanlin Si
This is the location of the tomb of Guan Yu, the chinese Lord of War. There were also other Taoist Temple buildings here too. Guan Yu was a general during the 3 Kindoms period and many stories have been fabricated of him and in the Qing Dynasty, the emporer labeled him as the Taoist Lord of War. You may recognize him at the chinese resturants. He is the fat guy with the long fu-manchu mustache that always carries a big Gwan-Dao. He usually has incense sticks burning in front of him. The chinese pray to him alot for eveything. He was considered a wise and powerful general, he isn't seen as a bad man, eventhough he is the Lord of War.
The temple area was, eh. I was let down by his tomb. It was just a big mound of earth that was enclosed in octogonal wall built during the Qing Dynasty. I was expecting something more symbolic, like trumpets and fanfare and statues of him surrounding his gravestone which would have a giant Gwan-Dao stuck in the headstone with the chinese name as a translation of Exaliber, and there would be a prophecy written that said when a person was able to remove said Gwan-Dao from the headstone, that person would be the reincarnation of Guan Yu and would bring about the glorified future of the Chinese and march it across the world. Thats what I was hoping for. I just got a load of grass and trees. So lame.
3. Baima Si (White Horse Temple)
I didn't see it, didnt' have enuff time, but it was the first ever Buddhist Temple on Chinese soil. The story goes that the monks went west and in Afghanistan about 100AD, met two monks and they brought back a bunch of stuff on white horses and built the temple there. Hence the name. The original temple is gone, but it was rebuilt or had more things built on the area since then in different dynasties.

I got to Luoyang around 9AM and inquired on some people about the location of the hidden rebel base...whoops, i mean, bus #81 that will take me to the Longmen Shiku. I found the bus and it took us almost 45 minutes to get to the temple. It would have been quicker, but it had to stop all the time and I picked the bus up at the start point, and Longmen was the end point. It was only 1RMB though. Can't complain. But it was hot. Outside of the Songshan mountains, its hot and humid. Yucky.
Longmen was great.
Guanlin Si was eh.
I tried to shop a little at Longmen, but all the stores were selling the same junk that I knew no one I knew wanted.
I grabbed the bus back to the bus station and hopped a bus back to Shaolin at 415pm. I was walking alot and I was tired.
I didnt eat much today. I did have some awesome tomatoes and eggs though. The guy ripped me on the price though. Cheats. Oh well. It was just a couple rmb more.
The bus ride back was better, but hotter and more crowded. I got back to Tagou and pretty much chilled the rest of the night. I am spent. I am "nekid". Ask a british person what that means.
Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 09:35 PM | Permalink

WOke up this morning for morning practice, but WOng Sifu never showed up so I went back to bed at 540. Mid Morning practice was ok. I practiced mostly on Rope Dart. Learned some new stuff. Now that the italians left last nite, we don't have to worry about our teachers getting furstrated and people hogging other stuff.
Not much happened this morning.
Lunch time was pretty uneventful as well.
I had some food and watched a movie while relaxing. I tried to pay for my next 2 weeks until the 28th of August, but Xiaohui was like, oh, come back later. I was like, Don't you want my money. Its funny, they constantly remind you about it, but then when you come to pay, they don't want it. Josh hasn't paid yet for the month of August. They ask him everyday. He went to pay yesterday afternoon, and they were like, Come back later. Aiya!
Saturday afternoon practices are optional, but I went because I felt I didnt practice enuff this week, so I went. I did some more on rope dart and then I tried to do some practice on Zui Quan. I got some new stuff down. Also, I learned how to do the back handspring...where you jump backwards onto your hands and then to your feet. Happy Sifu and Dola were helping me with it. But, apparently I am having a slight problem with waist and I am not getting over quick enuff causing my legs not to come around quick enuff which causes me to land in a crouched position. I need to work on that, along with keeping my arms straight and not bending them.
Doin this move is tuff. First, you have to get over the fear of not seeing where you are jumping. Its kinda freaky. Dola just kept on saying, what i figured he was saying, "You're still not doing it right. Do it right." Happy Sifu was the same way. I was like, "Chill Fools, I have never done this before, it will take some more practice." In addition with this and some other acrobatics, i pulled a small muscle in my left bicep. Shouldn't be too bad. Happy Sifu pulled one in is shoulder doing some acrobatcis.
Rom was out most of the afternoon because he was coming down with a sore throat, I think maybe he accidently took in some of the Black Dragon Water. That might have done it. I may have done so myself, but since I have been in this country so long, I am used to its germs and I am invincible. Rock.
After class was over around 530, I went back to the room and Josh was there. I hoped in to take a cold shower, but to my surprise it was warm! THANK YOU GOD! (said like Carl in ATHF)
After I got out, I needed to change, so I told Josh and Christine (a 15year old Russian that likes Josh, and they were playing Tekken 5) to shield their eyes from Heaven.
After I changed, I hoped a bus to Dengfeng around 615pm. It started pouring rain halfway there. When I got to the city and off the bus, it was still raining and I forgot my umbrella. Great. So I got went. Then I went into the Kodak shop to go get my picture CD. I walked into the shop expecting them to have the Disc. Nope. They didnt'. Lazy bastards.
So, i basically waited for about 30 minutes for a guy to transfer them at a different, but affiliated shop and run them over, while a little girl in a sundress with big ears eating chips was staring at me and frolicking around. I was pissed. It only takes 5 minutes to burn pictures from a Memory Card to a CD. How did they not have it done within 23 hours?
Because of their laziness, i missed the last bus back to Shaolin, so I had to pay for a friggin taxi. Assholes.
I got back to Tagou and as I walked up the stairs, the gang, Paige, Ethan, Grandpa, Josh, and Grandpa were heading out to get some dumplings in Dengfeng. They had a taxi paid for so I joined them. I was still a bit hungry after all I had for dinner was a sandwich. Food was ok.
We came back and I pretty much spent the rest of the night getting ready for my trip to Luoyang tomorrow to see the Longmen Shiku (Dragon Gate Grottoes).
Well, sleep well.

Posted by Phil at 02:50 PM | Permalink

Woke up this morning and went to run and do stuff at 520AM. We had three new students today. 3 Germans from Los Angeles, 1 guy and 2 girls. The oldest one, 42, said he just got his US Citizenship before he left for China. Awesome. I had to help instruct the new germans because there werent many of us. Just Bean Sifu, Ethan(little ABC), me, and Andy. And of course,they were screwing around. YiShin was walking around with Wong Sifu and with Andy's mom and friend.
During practice, Wong Sifu and I did his version of BaDua Jin. Much shorter than the one I learned.
After that, I grabbed some breakfast.
Morning practice was...sad. I started out ok. It was good, but already hot. Very hot today but with a great breeze, but not in the training hall. And after warmups my stomach started to hurt and I was getting really tired. About half way thru class, i had to cut out because it felt too bad. I think it must be all the fried food from last nite.
I went back to my room and use el bano and rested a bit, i felt much better. I got some laundry done as well.
Lunch i spent doing nothing special. just fooling around on the computer and resting up.
I bought some Xanda shorts because I had no clean shorts to wear for practice.
Afternoon practice was very different from what I expected. We did warmups and Josh, Dola, Rom and I convinced Happy and Andy Sifu to let us go to the Black Dragon Pools to practice gong fu in the mountains on the rocks. I so wanted to work out there.
After a tough jog down the street past Shaolin and the Pagoda forest because I was carrying my bag with cameras and stuff in it. We finally arrived to the rocky path which was a long walk thru the mountains to this ravine area. This Black Dragon pool is not a trouist attraction, so the paths are very dangerous and slippery. But the scenery was A+. When we got to some of the pools, I realized this is the place where monks take fotos of themselves in stances over pools of water and the ravine is quite sharp at areas so they prop themselves between the two walls sometimes. It was really kool and I got tons of pictures.
I found out that it would be impossible to train around here. There are no wide places where you could practice forms. The paths were smooth and steep and dangerous and wet sometimes.
So, the training was pretty much walking up the mountian to get there and then the swimming. Oh my God, it felt so good. It was great. We would scale up the walls and try and jump from the highest and safest point.
Swimming with Chinese people is interesting. They strip down to their birthday suit and just swim around with each other. I swear, they are completely comfortable with swimming around and wrestling with other guys when they are completely naked. I got some pictures. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. It was just wierd seeing Happy Sifu standing on the top of the rock with his junk on display while he was thinking about where to jump and while he was thinking he was flicking his junk. Its just sooooo funny. Josh, Rom, and I kept our shorts on, but I was contemplating it. Dola had disappeared. He was off walking somewhere.
The water was cold, but it was quite refreshing. And it was so much fun. The view was glorious. As we were swimming, Happy Sifu was splashing and shouting and playing in the water. Quite funny. He was right next to me and I turned to look at him right as he turned upside down in the water and had his ass sticking in the air 5 inches from my face and I shrieked out, "Dirty Starfish, Dirty Starfish!!!!!"
Josh almost fell off the rock laughing.
We then took off and walked back to Tagou. It was a nice walk and I got lots of pictures too on the way.
I got back to the room about 650pm and hauled ass to grab the last bus to Dengfeng for 2RMB because I needed to take my fotos for processing so I can use my camera cards in Luoyang on sunday.
I got into Dengfeng and met the same camera lady and she knew what to do. I grabbed a taxi back to Shaolin. It was nice.
Then I came to the computer room where I typed this thingy up and afterwards, I went back to my room where I took a nice hot needed shower after swimming in the mountain water. I chilled and went to bed. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 09:13 PM | Permalink

Woke up at 515 and had morning practice. However, it was just me, Andy, YiShin, and Wong Sifu, and those two boys are lazy and Wong Sifu wasnt pushing them at all. So I didnt do much other than run and stretch. But Wong Sifu showed a bit of BaDua Jin. And I was like, I know that and showed him. He was all grufflike, "Where did you learn that?!" I was like, "Peace Holmes, I learned that from my Taiji Sifu, along with Chad, and gong fu magazines."
He was like, "Killer".
We walked back and chatted. Today is the last training day of Andy and YiShin. We will go out to dinner tonite at about 7 or 730 at a resturant down the street that they have discovered. Apparently, they have the best french fries...ever. I need to see this. We have to call ahead to make sure the food is fresh when we get there. And they know the owner because of their relations with Gweilos that sometimes the owner comes and picks them up. Crazy.
I grabbed a bit of breakfast and laid down for about 45 minutes before practice started.
Morning practice was ok. It was hard again. I like it hard like that. It pushes you. At first I thought all those smelly Italians were gonna join the warm ups and conditionings, but halfway thru it they all just buggered out and started doing there own things. YiShin was like, "those Italians are gonna get it one of these days." I was all, "Yea, the punks, totally disrespecting our teachers."
YiShin was like, "Yeah, ShinDi (Happy Sifu) is really angry. Very mad at all the trouble they caused."
I was all, "Yeah, I am mad because he vented his frustration by yelling at me yesterday when I was doing my best."
After warmups were done, Happy Sifu started teaching me, Rom, and Dola "Chang Hu Xing Yi Men" which is a very old and very famous Gong Fu from.
After doing that for awhile, Happy Sifu took me and Rom to wash our faces off with some cold water. It was at this point that he told me more of the problems with Italians. Apparently, that Oafish fella, thru his interpreter, told Happy Sifu's boss that his Zui Quan was very bad. Happy Sifu got in trouble and his boss yelled at him for teaching it to the Oaf. I was frustrated with that because Happy sifu's Zui Quan is the best as I have ever seen - other than Jackie Chan, who pretty much invented the stuff he put in the movie.
We practiced the form more afterwards. and its tough. ITs really long. The longest form I have seen and we just got down the first 6 moves. It looks kool though.
After that, I had some lunch with Josh and we just chatted about places to visit in China. He won a consolation prize at the competition. Basically its a Gweilo Award. A cheesy looking trophy that they presented to the couple of foreigners that were there.
After that I hit up the computer room.
Practice started at 3pm and boy was it tough. It was a warm day today. Outside, its not so bad, because there is a wonderful breeze cooling everything down, but inside the big training hall, its completely still. I tried hard to practice and to do everything to my best, but it was tough and we were tiring out quickly, Josh and I. Huffing and puffing. It was Andy and YiShin's last day pretty much so they weren't really doing much as usual, plus it was hot. But we had plans to go out tonite for the send off dinner at the french fry place...sorry, the Freedom Fry place. Rom and Dola went with Happy Sifu to Black Dragon Pool to either rest or relax or train or something. What did Andy Sifu have us do? At about 520 he told us to go run up and down the mountain. !!!! Yikes. If I wasn't out of energy now.
Actually, once we got outside, the Earth's yellow Sun's energy powered us, just like Superman. The breeze made all the difference. We felt great. This was the deal. We had to run up and then run down the mountain behind Tagou Xue Xiao, Mua Biang Ling (i think), in 20 minutes. There are a bunch of peaks in the Songshan mountain area and this is one of the smaller ones, but still, very beautiful, and very tough. For every minute that we were over, we have to do 10 push-ups. Groups of chinese people do this trek everyday and last week, Josh had to do it everyday for training before his Xanda fight.
I was like, "You should be able to get up this no problem." He just laughed.
Basically, what Josh said to do, was to walk up the front side, because its really steep. And I mean really steep. You gots to watch out for these giant black, red, and yellow spiders that make 3-D webs between the trees. He also said be careful of overturning rocks because there are scorpions under them sometimes and they are quick. Other things to watch out for are the red and yellow ants that are really big. They just look nasty.
Once you get to the top, you run across the top for a ways and then you jog down the other side cuase its a nice easy jog....yeah right.
We were wearing our wushu shoes which are basically heavily padded socks so we needed to becareful of the rocks that we stepped on. Ouch.
I damn near twisted my ankle many times. Afterwards my feet were sore from runing on the rocks and tripping a couple times.
The climb up was rocky and steep. The top was pretty flat, one other hill that we had to run up, but it was good. Thats where we ran alot and once the downhill started it was ok, because it wasn't as steep as the ascent. However, not by much. Some of it was just as steep and just as rocky and it was hard to fathom joggin down it without killing yourself.
The view from the mountain though was beautiful. Gorgeous. I need to video tape up here. We saw a Preying Mantis, long dead, stuck in one of the spiderwebs. Wow. Nasty little buggers. I saw one run by me as i was running up at the peak. Josh kept running and shrieking like a little girl when we were joggin downwards and he ran thru webs that he didn't see. So, it was good for me that he was in the lead. Plus, I had no clue as to where we were going.
As we got down to the base, the clean fresh gorgeous air gave way to the wretched stink of shit and garbage decomposing in the hot sun while Chickens and a Pig picked out pieces of food to eat. I swear to God, I hope those aren't the chickens they use for the meals. (shudder)
We got back to Andy Sifu and he was just shaking his head. OUr time, 36 minutes. Yikes, thats 160 pushups...there was no possible way i could do that, let alone 20 in the shape I was. Really tired. Sifu didnt force us to do it and I think he gave us way this one time because it was my first time. Sweet.
After that, we headed to the room to get ready for the dinner. As we were going up the stairs, Josh was in pain. The adrenaline helped him in the mountain, but walking up the stairs was super painful.
Outside, after being super sweaty and having water dripping from my shorts, I figured a cold shower would be welcomed, but once that cold water hit me, I shrieked like a schoolgirl after a boy drops a penny and goes to pick it up when his true intention is to look up her skirt.
While Josh was taking his shower, Andy and YiShin brought back his PS2. I was soooo geeeked. I haven't played videogames since I left the US. So, I plugged it in and started playing Tekken 5. Awesome!
After that, we headed out to dinner.
We got to dinner and oh my goodness. I never have eaten so many french fries in my life. They brought out about 20 heaping plates of french fries. They are THE BEST I have ever had. And fresh. There were about 16 people at the table. We got some beer and we were all hanging out. It was alot of fun. Lots of fun. All the teachers except for Andy Sifu and all the "real" students, none of the italians, were there, including the new German guy. Along with Andy's mom and her friend. Rom wasn't there because his Grandma wouldn't let him leave. What a nut. Another reason that I dont like her. Dola wasn't there either.
Then the rest of the food came out. Fried Pork cuts, fried dumplings, Sugar bananas and sugar apples. OMG! I filled up on the fries and just had a bit of the other things, but man, afterwards, I was feeling not so good in my stomach.
It was great to hang out with everyone like that. The teachers were awseome. However, Happy Sifu got a call from his boss around 8pm telling him that the Italians wanted him to come and teach them more stuff and Andy's mom wouldn't let him leave. It was great.
I chatted alot with Andy's mom and friend. Very nice people.
Afterwards, we came back and I vegged out a bit on PS2 before going to bed. WOw. Awesome.

Posted by Phil at 01:49 PM | Permalink

It took me forever to fall asleep. I think I fell asleep around 1230AM because of mosquitos and i needed water, but didnt have any. So i went and found a bottle fountain. Aaaah. I laid back down and fell asleep about 30 minutes later.
I changed my alarm and set it for 715AM, I decided to sleep thru morning practice. I would be too tired.
I woke up at 715 and I felt pretty good. Hardly any soreness that I could notice. I grabbed some quick breakfast and some water. Morning practice was really good and intense. Most of my muscles weren't sore so I was going hard again and I was able to do things that I wasn't before. Really nice. I finished learning the Yin Yang Staff form. Pretty cool. Not the flashy one I was thinking it was gonna turn out to be. But there is a part that I keep forgeting and whenever I get to it, teacher says, "Do the chicken!" Basically there is a stepping style in it for a short part that looks like a chicken.
That Italian kid was still hogging the rope dart and one of the monks was teaching another italian guy Zui Quan. I was like...argh!
I continued to work on my staff and other things. The teachers brought in the CD Player and the reciever and speakers from the other training hall and they were playing CDs. When Happy Sifu asked me to get two sticks, I grabbed my iPod as well. As I went into the other training hall to get the staffs, a wall of heat just smacked right into me. It was like walking into a brick wall. As I was getting the staffs, I started to smell something really bad, and I thought it was me because I was all sweaty and raising my arms to get the staffs, but as I left, I checked myself again and it wasn't me...DAMN! Its like clam backing stench in there.
I brought my iPod and started playing. Right away the chinese people were like, "We don't like this, we don't understand it." and they shut it off. I was like, so you are gonna play really bad Chinese Pop music that we don't understand... "Yes." Aiya! They didn't even bother to give the music a chance. They would rather take crap over quality. What a shame.
After practice was over, Happy Sifu took a quick shower and then I did as well. I was hanging my sweaty clothes up to dry and I dropped my work out shirt onto the floor. So I had to go grab it. I removed my white Yongning Lion Dance shirt from outside, and one of the russians that keep me awake at night had positioned my shirt, albiet not on purpose, underneath the AC water unit part outside the window, so all the rust water that dripped from it got on my shirt and now there is a big rust stain on it. I am pissed.
After that, I grabbed some lunch. After I did some computer stuff I talked to one of the office people about getting a key for Josh's room. I will be moving into that room once Rom comes back with his grandma. This was tuff. First, I had to explain everything to the hall monitor and this other office lady because Xiaohui wasn't in and it was just like pulling teeth. The office girl was like, "you can't go into that room, its been requested." At this point I had to raise my voice to tell her that it was prolly requested for me and that I told Xiaohui about this...raising my voice seemed to work because they let me in right away. After I checked out the room they said I could bring my stuff in. Great.
I went to go grab my stuff and as I entered the door, Dola, Rom, and Grandma Rom arrived. I told Rom about the situation and he said, "Oh my God!" in his heavily accented Russian. Its always funny and sometimes irritating to hear. But anyways. I wanted to be nice to his Grandma, I wanted to write something good, but I can't. As she walked in, so did an enormous B.O. stench. I swear, I thought I was gonna vomit. Thats not why I wont be nice to her, its because of this... As she walked in, and as I was packing up stuff, I smiled to her and said Hello, practically holding my hand out in friendship. She put her bag down and with her body language looked at me and my stuff and motioned for me to get out. My smile turned from an easy created grin to a forced smile. As I turned awaym my lips became a tight seal around my mouth holding in anything sort of curse or thing I wanted to say. That stench was unGodly. Rom and Dola smelled a bit too, but I think that was just association smell.
I packed up all my junk and fled the room. Thank the Maker! I had the hall monitor unlock Josh's room. I took my stuff in and then grabbed my cameras to go to the top of the roof and take some pictures. As I was heading out, I spotted Jean Luc's former roomkey on the TV, so I snagged it. Now I don't have to get a copy made. The office lady tried to charge me for getting a copy made. She was all, "If you want a copy, you need to pay for it." I was all loud n stuff, "NO I DON'T! I don't have to pay for anything more than I already am. You guys need to put me in this room." So, i got Jean Luc's key and didn't need to keep bugging the hall monitor to let me in until Josh showed up.
I went to the roof of Tagou to get some pictures and video of the area. So pretty. It is a gorgeous day today. Not humid, well, maybe a little, and very nice and warm, sunny with blue skies. Very bright. There was a little bit of mist/fog/humidity laying over some of the mountains and a bit of Shaolin Si. You can make it out though. Aah. So pretty.
I went back to the room and put my things in a neat order so I could get to them easily and not need to rumage thru my backpack much. I need to tell you, the chinese can not make a working backpack zipper to save their life. This bag is relatively a high quality bag and the zippers are already getting misaligned and being stupid. I spent about 10 minutes just trying to get my bag zipped up correctly.
Afternoon practice was hot. By the end, I couldn't do much because I felt that i was overheating. It was hard. Warm ups and conditioning were hot and hard, but I was able to do most of them properly since I wasn't really sore. I practiced mostly on the Yin Yang Staff this afternoon. At one point, I think Happy Sifu vented his frustration out on me when he yelled at me for not getting a movement correctly. His scolding really got to me so I argued with him and he got mad and thru his staff down and walked away to another group of students.
I was really angry. Later on he tried to help me out with a part of the form and again got to me by saying, "if you want to learn the movement properly, then do it properly, if not, I don't care." I was totally confused cause I am like doing the best I can possibly do on this form. Its long, complex, and I just learned it yesterday and I was taught by another teacher too so I was going thru it slow and analyzing everything. Its not my fault the other teacher taught me the form with a few slightly different moves than what Happy Sifu does. So, that just got to me more.
I let him kool off and I kooled off as well. About 30 minutes he was back to his old self. I don't know why the hell he snapped at me. Out of all the people there, I am like one of the only 4 people actually trying to do anything. The others are just laying around and playing with themselves. "Why don't you go yell at them! And stop yelling at people putting their all into what they're doing!" Needless to say, I was angry.
As the time started to get closer to the end, I started to lose it, I just couldn't go much harder. I was losing my balance and tiring out quicker than usual. I had to take rests between each practice of the form. As I was resting, one of the fake monks was teaching the big Italian Oaf some Zui Quan. Happy Sifu went to help out. And showed them it a bit differently, this caused the Oaf's gf or whatever to come over and be an English interpreter. Basically, he was confused why the fake monk was teaching him something slightly different than what Happy Sifu was showing him. Happy Sifu said that what the monk was showing him were the very basics of Zui Quan and what Happy Sifu was doing was adding in the acrobatics n stuff. The Oaf wanted the full form, but Happy Sifu was like, you need to learn the basics first... (and he totally needed to...) but he refused and wanted to learn everything and the interpreter was like, "Yeah, just show him and teach him the full form. Yeah that would be the best." And it was done with this fake pleasantry and I drew my face into one of disgust at the complete rudeness of it all. This guy couldn't even do a proper somersault let alone learn the acrobatics of Zui Quan in a couple days. I hope he is pain tomorrow.
I went over to Happy Sifu and mentioned it, he was like, Yeah, the jerks.
I then did another round of the staff form and at this point I had to stop for good, because I couldnt do anymore. I laid down under the fan to calm and cool down. I also thru cold water on my face, that helped. Happy Sifu said, "I wont stop with him until he is dead."
Before practice ended we had to do some ab crunches. Then class was done. I went back to my new room took a really quick cold shower. Josh's mom called and was inquiring about how his competition went so i told her what Sifu told me...Sifu just shook his head when I asked how Josh did. I told her that he would be back later on in the evening. Then I got some dinner. I had to put some more money on my meal card. The view from where I sat and ate was fantastic.
After dinner I came to the computer room and typed this thingy up. After the computer room I headed back to the room and pretty much crashed at 830pm. I didnt take an afternoon nap, so I am really friggin tired - i sound old/chinese. Good night all. I am still waiting to surprise Josh. Hi, Im your new roomate.

Posted by Phil at 01:58 PM | Permalink

Throughout the night, I didn't sleep well because there were a couple mosquitoes doing dive bomb raids on my head. I would hear a buzz and would start swatting. These suckers are persistent when they are after my sweet sweet blood....hmmmm.....bloooood.
Needless to say, when I woke up at 5AM i was really tired and didnt want to run but went anyway. As we were walking to the starting area, it started to rain. Aaaah thank you Mother Nature. The chinese don't like the rain, they are like witches when it rains, they melt. Plus, it was really cold out.
Thats what I find odd about this. I come to Shaolin in the hottest summer month expecting to get unbearable heat and i get chilly mornings and almost perfect days (the humidity kinda takes away, but its no problem) The only reason I say that is because the humidity makes it harder to see the mountains and landscapes. Its not very clear.
SO, i slept for another 2 hours and slept thru breakfast. I got to class at 8AM and trained hard. Not as sore as I have been but my hamstrings are still tired and tight and painful. Teacher had me instruct the Belgian on the Shaolin Staff Form that I have learned. It went well.
He then said he expects to see us at chinese lessons. And I am like...i don't want too. :(
After that, I had lunch time. Yummy. I was hungry. The food is so greasy here. The only thing not greasy and oily here is the few fruits they have and beverages. I am trying to eat healthy, but its kinda hard. Oh well.
I received an email from Fisher, one of the chiense guys I travelled with when I came to Shaolin. He just got back to Zhengzhou from Xi'an. He loved it. He climbed to the top of the mountain. TOok him like 9 hours. He can't move his legs today.
Awesome.
Thats one place I will miss out when I leave. That, Wudangshan, Tibet, and a few other interesting places. Oh well. I will come back then.
I fell asleep at lunch again. Almost slept thru practice. Afternoon practice got me a little more frustrated. The large group of Italians that have showed up have really messed up the equilibrium of class. They are hogging all the teachers. I am fine with there being alot of students, i think its great. But the Italians have come in and are like GIMME GIMME GIMME! Totally being rude to the other students that are interested in learning new things and more so to the teachers. My teacher is frustrated because they wont allow him to take any rests or eat time. They want him to teach them more forms and more and more and more! Their desire to learn is great, but when it starts to trouble others it needs to relax. I worked hard and got tired. One of the other teachers started teaching me Yin Yang Gun (yin yang stick). We got just over half done. I didn't get to practice at all on the rope dart because one of the italian kids was hogging it all day. And what made it more frustrating was that there was a performance monk there working with him on Rope Dart. I was like...I NEED THAT TOO! ;-)
After practice, my teacher, who's former English name used to be "Happy" but isn't now since he broke his foot, came to my room to hang out for a bit, smoke a cigarette and take a shower. He told me more of his problems with the new Italians. And just his frustration with having to be the leader of all the foreign teachers. He must decide everything. He said this time last year, he enjoyed it more because all the students worked more together as a unit. This year everyone is off doing their own thing.
That led me to ask why Andy (hybrid foreigner), Paige (310lb white dude), Heysian (ABC), and the little boy (ABC discovering his chinese roots with his grandfater) are really lazy and aren't scolded into working like the chinese are. When I said it, he got a pained look on his face and he let off some steam off. He was like, "they wanted to come here and practice and Heyasian's parents wanted me to be his teacher, but I had a broken foot that was in more pain before so I couldn't teach him much and so he worked with Wong Sifu. I have tried to get them to work, but they don't and I finally said fine, if you want to practice, practice, if you don't then don't. You know, my teacher who used to run this used to be really intense on conditioning but not so much on forms but the foreingers all wanted to learn forms and so when he left and i started, i started teaching more forms with the conditioning and when he came back to visit he yelled at me. I was like, they are paying for it..."
A little thing on Paige. When he got to Shaolin on July 4th, he weighed 360lbs. When I first met him on August 3rd, he was happy because he was now at 310lbs. !!!!!! WHOLLY CRAP! He lost 50lbs in 31 days! That is insane. Alot of people always say, thats the water weight. Whatever. I don't believe it was all water weight. He barely can do any of the exercises and he sits down alot of the time and does nothing. Heyasian and Andy both have learned forms and practice from time to time but they are both really lazy too. And their stances and form work leaves a lot to be desired. And I mean alot. They just dont seem to care. And then they try to tell me how to do things. I am like, just because you have been here longer than me doesnt mean you know more than me, Nitz.
Yeah, today, I was practice the new Yin Yang Staff form and I scolded Andy because he was laying splayed out in the middle of the practice area that I was using. I was like, "Dude, if you are gonna be lazy and not do anything do it where it doesn't get in my way." He was like, "But..but..i want to lay..." by that time I had pulled the mats that he was laying out from under him and put them by the wall. Then the teacher showing me the staff form (not Happy Sifu) yelled at him in Chinese and he moved off and laid with the other lazy folks. Seeing these guys not take advantage of the teaching and teachers here is really really really irritating.
Well, after Happy Sifu took a shower, I went and had some dinner. Afterwards I did some computer work and then went to bed. I couldn't sleep at all. I wasn't tired and i was frustrated with some things that had gone on during the day. And those friggin mosquitoes. I HATE THEM! goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Woke up at 515am this morning for the mornign work out. The russians kept me awake last nite argueing about something. Thankfully they are going to Beijing today to pick up Rom's grandma and won't be back until Wednesday. By that time I should be moved to a different room.
Morning practice we ran to the Shaolin Temple and stretched out in front of it. Then as we walked back we did the warm up and wushu exercises. And some stance work. It was tough. My arms are pretty much dead from doing some zui quan on saturday. Also, i think a part of my groin or something is pulled. When I stretch the butterfly stretch, I feel a sharp pain in my left hip, not the dull soreness of sore muscles.
Had breakfast and chilled before mid-morning practice. Mid morning practice was good. The warm ups were hard with my muslces. I couldn't do cartwheels, the wheelbarrow race, or pushups. And I couldnt do the splits either today.
One of the teachers brought a rope dart so I started playing with it. Then they showed me about 5 little techniques. Its really cool. I like it. It doesn't seem to hard either.
After class was over had lunch and got some chinese news when I went to the computer room. I told Xiaohui, again for like the 5th time, about how Rom is going to get his Grandma and they would be back on wednesday. I told her that I need to be out of the room on tuesday. And she went, "Oh, but we don't have any rooms left."
Not Again.
I was like, "I told you last week about this. I have told you a bunch of times."
-I know but we had new...
"No, thats not what you should be saying. I told you about this early so you could make the arrangements. Paige has an extra space, cause the other Phil just left"
-A new student is with Paige and...
"Figure it out! This is unacceptable. I told you about it long ago and I am not sleeping with Rom's grandma."
ARGH!!
Then I typed up some stuff on the computer and chatted with some friends on AIM. It was nice. Then I went back to the room and vegged out by laying down and watching SPEED in Chinese. After that I had practice.
Warm up was hard due to the soreness and junk. I practiced alot of Rope Dart, finished off the staff form, and practice some form parts of Zui Quan. Zui Quan is tough. Very tough. The rope dart is actually pretty easy, but trying to kick it out from under you is kinda tough. Its fun though. Its nice to work on because there isn't alot of low stances or tough physical things. Its good to rest with.
Xiaohui showed up to visit with another person and i asked about the room situation and she "says" that she found one on the 6th floor. And I was like, does it have a working AC and a working shower? And she was all, "Don't worry, you will have hot water at 7pm."
Um.....no..... We got it squared away, maybe. Hopefully it will be ok. Who knows with China.
Practice went by quick this afternoon. I was tired though at the end.
Well, we got some new students today. Two older Italian guys with long hair and tatoos with their familys. They will be here until the 14th. My teacher asked if he could use my shower after practice. He said, "In 10 minutes." 20 minutes go by. Still not there. So I go to his door and knock on it.. "Sifu! Sssssiiiiiifffffuuuuuu!" No answer. So i went and got some dinner. I came back and he was still gone. By this time it was 7pm and I just got done with a nice warm shower and my teacher and his girlfriend came to get me for the talent show. I was like, "Dude! Where were you." He was like, "Sorry sorry sorry, I was very busy. Those Italian guys wouldn't shut up and kept asking me to teach them more forms after practice. He was like, 2003, then 2004, then the new 2005. (all forms created for each year) Aiya, so busy." He looked really annoyed. I know its good that they are asking for extra stuff, but you got to think of your teacher and his own time.
Other student..a guy from Belgium. He is here for 3 days to see if he likes it. If he does, he will stay 3 years. !!!!!!! WOW! He is 18 and just finished highschool. And for some reason he wants to study for 3 years. His parents seem fine with it. I think its kool but strange. Making a living with gong fu is hard, but whatever, I am sure his skills will be really good at the end of his trip. Too bad he is an evil Belgian like Dr. Evil. Though Dr. Evil wasn't really Belgian. He was adopted by evil Belgians.
I already told you about the two new englishmen. They are nice. They are here for 4 days and they were having major trouble with the stances so we were helping them out. See, thats how we do it. We share the love. Its like a ferris wheel, you pay your money, and you get to ride around. Its circular. Complete.
So, this evening I had my second Pretty Woman performance. It was good, but it wasn't as magical as the first. The first show had many more little kids who love that kind of thing. The older crowd still enjoyed it but didn't seem to go as wild. I just didnt' feel it. :D Maybe because I was used to them.
I got down in the crowd again and the guy that videotaped the show, who spoke english well, didn't really know how to hold a camera very steady or what to shoot. Oh well. It was fun. I got up there and played with the audience a bit. Got them cheering in sections and did the Hulkamania thing where you throw your hand up to your ear so you can hear them cheer. It was fun. I rocked the place hard despite the technical difficulties that existed. The crew didn't really know what they were doing and the microphone bugged out at the end. Aiya.
Well good nite.

Posted by Phil at 01:05 PM | Permalink

Well, lets see. I woke up for real around 815. I was sore and laying in bed. I stayed in bed for another 1 hour so, just laying there and trying to sleep but not really sleeping. I got out of bed and grabbed myself a shower. It was warm for a little bit, but the hot water gave way to cold water. damn. Too bad. After wards I washed my towel and a shirt by hand. Then I went to retrieve the clothes I took to get washed last nite. I just took the shorts because I needed them for the day. The rest of the stuff was still wet. I will leave it there until I get back from Dengfeng.
I grabbed some lunch. After I ate lunch, Rom and Jola took off to go do something and I got my junk together and headed out to Dengfeng. The ride into town was much better. I was on a nicer, cleaner bus and the views were much better. It was quite sunny today. I put on some suncreen I hope it helps.
I got into Dengfeng around 1230pm. I grabbed my fotos and went to delete those on my memory cards. When viewing the 1GB card, it seemed fine, the Error message disappeared. Sweet! Its fixed. I erased the other card as well. But I didn't erase the 1GB. As I walked all the way along ZhongYue DaJie (Zhong Yue Street), i was searching for the CITS information center that the Lonely Planet Guide mentioned to get some english speaking info. I couldn't find it. The address didn't exist. Well, it probably did but the book didn't tell you which part of Zhong yue to go on. The east or west. I walked a long way to find nothing. I got to what I think is near the center of town. It was a huge pavillion on the top of a hill that I don't know the name of. It was up a large flight of stairs. It was a very pretty view. The climb was very tiring. My body is still sore. I hope this doesn't make it worse!
Once I was at the top and got some great fotos of all of Dengfeng city I spotted the scenic location I was searching for... ZhongYue Miao. So, I walked down the steps and grabbed a box taxi this time. No more friggin walking. I was getting tired.
This is a Taoist temple area that during the Ming and Qing dynasties was remodled to look like the Forbidden City. Of course, not to the same granduer or throngs of people. The place was pretty vacant. Not many visitors. And there hasn't been much upkeep either which added to its charm. Grass was growing thru the cemet on some place and the place had the wear of X hundred years on it. Its like they have just been keeping it like it was but not allowing it to deteriorate anymore. It was very pretty. The people taking care of the place are the actual Taoist preists and monks that live there. I didn't see any Bagua or Taiji there though :D.
After I left that place, I grabbed the #2 Bus like Lonely Planet guide said back into the center of town. Now was the time to find Shi DeCheng's school along with visiting the other schools in town. On the bus, which only costed 0.5RMB, I met a frenchman who was studying at Fa Wong Si, a temple at the base of the Taishan mountain. He said it was about $400 US for a month, which seemed pretty good. However, he couldn't give me too much info because we didn't have any way to relate the rooms. He said the monks live there and train and the foreigners live seperately but sometimes practice with the monks. He really likes it. There are about 18 foreigners there. He said a taxi would cost about 20-50RMB, depending on who you get. I was like, oh, so its out a ways. I will check it out some other time, I wanted to go find Shi DeCheng first, the teacher of the monk that I met in Las Vegas.
We parted our ways and I started my trek. The only information I had was that it was somewhere on the north part of Songyang Road. Since none of the taxi people knew what I was talking about, I had to walk until I could spot it. Ha ha ha ha, that didn't work. I stopped by a couple places to ask for directions. The first was a sword shop that had a buttload of chinese swords and weapons that I hadn't seen before. It was nice. I talked with the shop people, mostly with the older shop owner guy, i think. They understood some of what I said and I understood some of what they said too. However, when I inquired the whereabouts of Shi DeCheng Gong Fu he Wushu Xue Xiao, he all of a sudden couldn't understand what I was saying. Hmmm... Most other people I dropped that name too knew what I was talking about but not necessarily knew the man. Could it be that there was some jealousy here and he tried to play it off. After chatting a bit more, I left and walked up the street more. I stopped off at a shop for some needed water. I inquired about the school and he knew what I was talking about right away. He was really nice. He was like, Yeah, its up the road about 500m on the right. I was like, sweet thanks.
I started on my way. I came across a Zoo of some sort or some big park. I kept on my way. I came upon a few buildings with a couple of kids in uniforms fooling around, but I thought nothing of it because I figured with the skill and clout that Shi DeCheng has, he would have a big school, and I saw no training areas. So, I continued on. I was searching all over the place. Passed a couple of regular schools and reached the end of the street. I asked a taxi guy and he said back that way. So when I reached the only school, a highschool, I could find, I inquired about the school and they told me to keep going north and turn left. Ok. So I headed out again. As I was walking the guy that had come out of the school said, "No Shi DeCheng here, go up the street and turn left" he was heading to his car, then he gave me a ride to a school.
I got out and asked a student of the school, and I even called Mountain for help with translation and they brought me into the school. All the chinese students and staff stared at me and stopped their practicing. I realized that this wasn't his school. The guy I talked to told me to keep going down the road. Then an italian guy spoke with me and told me to go back to the next road and turn right and go 300meters, its on the left.I didn't realize he meant to go back the way I came about 300meters, so I took the first right I came too which was totally the wrong way. I walked back and finally tried calling the fone number I had which was changed, but that led me to a wild goose chase to get the right number. I called them up and finally got the right place. I asked them where they were located and i found my way there and discovered that it was that first place that I passed but didn't look like a school.
I met Shi DeCheng and with the help of a Canadian from Montreal, who has come here about 4 years in a row for a month, I was able to speak with him about different things. He was real nice and alot different than i expected. I told them that if I could come it would be after the 13th. I looked at the prices, and damn, were they steep. If I stay at the school, it was $30US a day. I am paying about $20 here at Tagou. And in china, thats a big differece. I mean, I can see why, the entire group of people at his school is quite small. mean like 30 chinese and about 15 French and Canadians. And Shi DeCheng is well known for being very traditional and really good. It was interesting. I talked with Mark, the interpreter dude, and he said two years ago, Shi Xingwei, the Las Vegas monk, was a teacher at his school.
They were gonna practice at 5pm so I would stay to watch, but Shi DeCheng gave out little certificates out to the foreigners and chinese for about 30 minutes. So after that, I was like, I need to get back, I am busy tonite. (I was under the impression that I was still singing tonite).
It was getting late, and I decided not to check out the other schools. I might as well just stay at Tagou. Shi DeCheng is too expensive right now, but maybe in the future if I ever come back I will visit with him. He was very nice and it was great to meet him. I told him that I will prolly visit Shi Xingwei when I go to Las Vegas to see my friend Fred in November or something.
After that I grabbed a box taxi to the bus station where I grabbed a bus back to Shaolin. On the bus there were 3 kids who started talking to me and we had conversations in Chinese. I didn't understand everything, but when I didn't they talked slower and I kinda got the gist and I was able to answer most of the time, but when the older people on the bus talked to me, I didn't quite check it.
Also,on the bus, I met two other foreigners: Alfonso and Kirstell. Alfonso is from Mexico and has been travelling for the past couple years. Kristell is from New Brunswich, Canada and she is studying Marketing at a University in Thailand. Yeah, i know, go figure. When I think of Marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is Thailand... ;-) They met in Thailand about 8 months ago and have been dating since. She is on break so they have been travelling China and they are amazed with all the crap that goes with Chinese culture. They live in Thailand and they think the chinese are messed up. :D (Im not saying the Thais are bad people, by any means. I mean, some of my best friends are Thai) That being said they just couldn't believe the crap that goes on here in this country. We chatted a bit on the bus and then we got off the bus and they headed off with the kids. I stuck around the bus stop and took some panorama shots of Shaolin and Tagou.
On my way back to school, I ran into them and we chatted awhile before we went to dinner at the Tagou resturant. Man, talk about some of the worst service i have received in China. These people paid no attention, scolded us, refused to provide us with glasses (they gave us flimsy plastic cups) and tried to cheat us on the bill. Alfonso started to bust their balls because they were doing the same to us so he started ragging on them. Basically, the way I do when I want something to get done. Its the only way, I am telling you.
After dinner, they headed off to find a bus to Luoyang and I went to find sifu to ask about singing tonite. He was like, uh, not tonite, prolly tomorrow, Sorry. No problem.
I went upstairs to get my laundry and had a small chinese lesson with the laundry guy. The view from the roof of Tagou is absolutely gorgeous. I need to take some fotos from up here. Fantastic.
After that, I came to do this computer stuff and I chatted with a new student that will be here for 4 days. ANother englishman named Josh.
What is it with English people and the name of Josh...
After the computer room, i took a nice shower and headed to bed. Got early practice tomoorw. I hope I aint to sun burned. I put on 50SPF, but I don't know if it worked. Maybe its just the irritation from shaving this morning. Goodnite all. Oh the pictures on the CD turned out good and all thos on the 1GB worked.

Posted by Phil at 09:33 PM | Permalink

Got up at 510AM and headed down for morning practice. I was the only one today. So Wrong Sifu and I went out running then practice that form he showed me yesterday and he showed me more of it. Its very tough, there are lots of minor things.
After that, I grabbed some breakfast. Yesterday 130 Russians showed up for a 1 month Meditation class. Those guys got use of our training room so we had to go to the bigger, and I think much better training hall. Taller ceilings, more space, and a practice ring for people doing Xanda. As we were practicing, there were groups of students, maybe from the Tajou team sparring/competing/scrimaging with each other. Josh was studying it for his bout tomorrow. We did our normal kicking exercises and wushu steps and what not, then on to practice on our own what we have been studying.
After I did some things on my own, my teacher and I got some mats off the stack and laid 4 down. He wanted to teach me some basics of Zui Quan, Drunken Fist. Killer. Man, this stuff is super hard. He makes it look so easy. He is just flopping on the ground and stumbling over everywhere but its so complicated. The first move that he showed me was to do a somersault on the mat then use that momentum to jump up in the air horizontally and kick your legs out like a horse and do a punch then you must land by doing a variation of the worm and you have to make it look like you just fell indiscriminately on the ground. Then you try to get up a couple times. Its funky. And trying to do that landing is hard, I dont know how many times i did belly smackers. But I got it in the end of it, but I need to try it out some more in the later practice.
After doing those moves and trying other things I was really tired and we still had more time. I couldnt do the mat work anymore so I went off to do other things I had learned.
Something I have learned about this school in the past couple days, at least for the foreigners...
The teaching here is really good. Thats not a problem, but unlike how they treat the chinese, the teachers here don't make the foreigners practice. So its mostly up to you. You get out what you put in. I have seen it for a couple daze, but most of the foreigners goof around and sit around and chat. I find it a little disgusting. But the chinese teachers can't make them do anything. THe thought its, they already paid their exorbanant amount of money just so they could say they studied here so don't bother making them do anything. The teachers will teach you though whatever you want. Its nice. The relaxed atmosphere makes it a really kool place but also breeds laziness. The Zhengzhou Prison I was in early, it was schedual and it was set up for certain times, the only thing was, not as much practice and lack of regard for the skill level of students. I found out today that Taguo is having another talent show, its the same thing as the other night just for a different group of students, compeletly different audience. So I said I would do it and my teacher got excited.
I had some lunch and then hit up the computer again. Then I laid in bed listening to music and resting while watching The Fellowship of the Ring in Chinese. I wasn't listening to the movie, just watching it and filling in the words. Then we headed to practice.
And what a hard practice it was. My arms were like jello from doing zui quan in the morning that I couldnt even do 3 pushups. I was hella tired. My body wasn't as sore as it has been but it was tired and I could barely finish some of the things that we were training in. Hopefully I will be better on Monday. I ended the afternoon practice with 25 repititions of Shaolin Staff Form #1. We were let out about 5pm. Turns out that Saturday afternoon is an optional class. Go figure.
Then I took a nice long hot shower. I was happy to discover that now we have hot water all day long. Not because I asked for it, but because a group of 130 Russians have descended upon this school and its rooms to have a meditation retreat. They are using the training room we have been using. You know how much they paid just for the retreat here at Tagou? $2200 US. Thats right. Airfare not included. They paid that much money to sit on their ass and close their eyes and breathe. What a rip. Speaking of which, I would love to sneak into one of those sessions and just let rip an enormously loud gaseous full o' stench f-bomb. That would totally rule.
Now, I think thats why we had hot water all day today. Hopefully it will be on for the next month. I wont mention it to the office so they shut it off.
I then had some dinner and as I was coming back from being inside, I ran into a bunch of the group and they were going to a resturant to send off Jean Luc. Kicking. At first I said no since I already ate, but then Jean Luc came to get Jola and Rom and I was like, yeah, I will go. I grabbed some stuff to go meet them outside, and they were gone. Disappeared, vanished. I couldn't find them.
Oh well. I had wanted to go into Dengfeng anyway to get some pictures developed. So I went to hail a bus. The first bus guy told me to go over to a different area. Then, some chinese guy stole a foreign woman's silver plastic hair clip as she dropped it off the bus thru the open door. She was like, wait, i need my hair clip, and the chinese guy just jumped down and picked it up and she was like "oh thank you, sir" and then he started running away and she was like, "WTF are you doing! No come back! Whats he doing!" Simply amazing. Did this guy think this thing was worth anything? I mean, come on!
I grabbed a bus into Dengfeng. It was a kool ride. I saw alot of the scenery but I had to crank my head to do it. As we were going by schools I asked the guy next to me what the names were. There was a couple that I plan to visit tomorrow. Just to get a sense of what else is out there.
I got dropped off by the bus station and walked down the street a couple blocks until I came across a Kodak Express next to the Bank of China. Kool. I asked about transfering the pictures to CD via Mountain as an interpretter and it was a measley 10RMB. Cheapest I have found it for. She said I could get them tomorrow. I was like. What about now, she was like ok, at 8pm...it was 710 and I wanted to catch the last bus back before 8pm. SO Iwas like, I will come back tomorrow anyway so I left the cards there.
I went to go get the bus well before 8pm like the Lonely Planet Guide of China says, but there were no buses and the station was closing. Great. So I snagged a box taxi and got back to Tagou for 15rmb. Usually it costs 20RMB apparently. The scenery on the way back was far superior. I was able to have more of a view thru the openness of the box taxi. The mountains and river were beautiful.
I got back and bought some things and sent my laundry to get clean. No I am typing this up and I will go to bed. They just turned the lights out in the office. Oh, check this out...i may have a new opportunity when I get home....

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1542984,00.html
US military sends scientists to film school

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Friday August 5, 2005
The Guardian

He will have the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the brain of Stephen Hawking. Step forward the Pentagon's perfect Hollywood hero, possibly coming soon to a screen near you.
According to the New York Times, the US military is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send scientists on a screenwriting course in Los Angeles, with the aim of producing movies and television shows that portray scientists in a flattering light.

Posted by Phil at 01:11 PM | Permalink

I tried to get a full 8 hours of sleep, but that didnt work. I woke around 3:33 (the same title as Green Jelly's second album) and I spent the next 1.5 hours in and out of sleep. I think like 2 misquitos kept attacking me. The only thing exposed was my head and I kept hearing them buzz by and I would start wacking away at my head, so I was lying in bed smacking my head for most of that time. I got up and ut of bed around 510AM for the early morning practice. I got out of bed and i could actually walk relatively well, not like yesterday where I was struggling. Today I could actually do it. I was also able to run.
The people at this morning practice was me, Wrong Sifu, and the young kid - an ABC who is visiting his culture with his grandfather. He is about 12 or 13. We didnt work as hard as the first morning practice i did, but I learned part of a new form. Neato.
Then i ate some breakfast and got ready for mid-morning practice. I had some time to kill so I laid down and watched Woody Wood Pecker in Chinese. That Rom kid, my 14 year old Russian roomate, is getting to be really friggin' annoying.
Practice was pretty good. I stretched out alot and that got rid of some soreness but I couldnt go full out yet. Still sore. Learned some staff form acrobatics. During practice I had to come back to my room. As I walked in I found that the AC's cover had been removed and work was being done on it. YES! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I think thats a new record...3 days maybe. I kept coming to make sure the thing was still being fixed and nothing was missing from the room. The problem was the tube feeding the water or moisture to cool the air was ripped and water was spilling out. How hard was that to fix?
Then I had some lunch. I think the lady gave me too much. I couldn't waste it either. Then I did that internet thingy. Then I feel asleep for a couple hours.
I woke up and went to afternoon practice. I tried my best to do useful things in this class but it was tough. The tops of my thighs are still sore. But they were a different sore this afternoon. Before, it was sore and tight, now they are sore and loose...like jello. Its wierd...loose but still really friggin sore. I was slow most of the afternoon.
Josh, the english man who is really good, is training for a Xanda competition on Sunday. Two rounds of 2 minutes with a chinese guy from a different school that has been training for years while he has only trained in Xanda for about a couple months. He doesn't really want to do it because he doesnt really like Xanda, but his teacher thinks it will be good for him. He had a brief spar with one of the Tagou team members and got whooped. Understandable, I would have my ass handed to me. And I did this afternoon...
Anywho, he was training with Jola, the 34 year old Russian that I told you about. He isn't tall, but he is big and strong, not fat though. When he was 14 he was, mostly likely, in the Red Russian ROTC and jumped from a plane in a simulation of war. Thats what we celebrated the first nite I was hear. He is a really nice guy. Him and Josh were sparring and they were wailing away on each other but in a friendly way. Josh got really tired after awhile and started to lose it a bit. He was practicing hard all day and Jola just kept coming.
Then afterward they finished, Jean Luc and Rom sparred off a bit. Then, my teacher was like, just play around with Jola for a bit. He will protect and not punch too much. I was hesitant. But I tried it out and I got my ass whooped. I was really pissed off cause there was an accidental elbow to my temple and I stormed out of the room after throwing off my gloves. I wasn't mad at Jola at all, I was mostly pissed off at myself because I have pretty much wasted the past 4.5 years. I couldn't even protect myself from someone throwing wild punches. Whats the point now? (well, wasn't really wild punches, it was calculated fast punches and kicks...and...he was holding back)
After watching Charlie Brown in chinese and secluding myself, I had some dinner and chatted with a student from Guanxi province in English. His english is quite good. Then I came back in to send out some emails and type up this journal. Nothing more is really gonna happen tonite. I am gonna go back to the room, take a warm shower, throw some icy hot on my thighs and calves and try and fall asleep, that is if the russians aren't chatting overly loud. Goodnite.
Well, i did go do that, but I also did a couple other things...like laid down on my glasses and broke them into pieces.

Posted by Phil at 12:57 PM | Permalink

I tried to wake up for the 5AM class, but I couldn't get out of the bed. ARGH! So sore. So, i slept in till about 745 until i needed to get ready for morning class. I feel so sore, but I also feel good about it. I finally got that full body soreness on the 4th day when most people complain about it on the first or second day. The one problem is that I ran out of pain medicine. uh oh.
Morning class was tuff because I was sore and i couldnt do everything. So, i took it easy and tried to do everything everyone did, just easy. It took teacher a while to realize that I was too sore to go full out.
He then told us that a japanese tv station would be by to video and meet people and do some story. That will be interesting. They never showed up either. They were supposed to be in at 930AM, but never showed.
Practice ended and I grabbed some lunch. I spent msot of the time chatting with these 2 chinese boys about 8 or 9. In chinese. Good practice. Did some internet stuff and talked with Francesco and Enrico a bit before they headed out. We found out that the chinese kids here pay about 2000RMB just for training and accomodation/year. But the thing is, they sleep in rooms of 6-8 kids and dont have showers or pretty much anything we get. Went back to my room, took a quick morning shower, too bad it was a cold one. This place is so tight fisted with their funds, they only allow hot water between 7 and 10pm. I am sorry, but that is so retarded. I mean, cold water on sore muscles is not a good idea. Aftewards, I laid down.
After sleeping for about an hour, i headed to afternoon classes. Still sore. I tried to work thru it, there were times that I had to sit out and rest the legs though. Most of the classes this afternoon were good, I just wish I wasn't sore so I could get more out of them. I know my flexibility is gonna be better by the time i leave Shaolin. The last thing i had to do was 20 repititions of a staff form, but I did i think 22 for good measure because i lost count a couple times. Then I had to do some ab exercises at the end of class and I could barely lift my legs.
After class, I ate dinner while sitting on a ledge watching the little kids hopping around and doing some Chang Quan. It was adorable and they were all waving to me. I hope I dont' get into trouble for causing disruptions.
After dinner, I checked my email and ragged on Xiaohui about the AC. I pretty much waited for the time I could take a hot shower. Then I went to bed. Talk to you tomorrow.

Posted by Phil at 02:05 PM | Permalink

I woke up at about 445AM to get ready for the early morning practice at 5am. I dont think I fell asleep until about 1230AM because of my roomate and his paranoia of dying because he had a little wine.
Morning practice was tough. Running around some of the sight seeing area and practicing some things outside...with such a wonderful view. It was hard, but it was awesome all at the same time. As other groups of chinese were running by, i would catch some stares.
After that, I grabbed some breakfast and a shower. Then I had mid-morning practice at 8am where we worked on stretching out and kicks and junk and weapons practice. It was really kool seeing everyone working on their own things. You got a couple guys working on chain whip, another on saber, another on taiji sword, a couple on staff, etc. Really neat.
These teachers are terrific. They have bridged the gap with the students and everyone is treated like a friend. Its a really nice thing to see. The teacher that I worked with in the morning was not who i worked with in the afternoon. The teacher taht I worked with in the morning, his name is Sifu Wong. But, he always says, "WRONG!" when a student doesn't get something right for the 30th time. So some of the people call him Sifu/Master Wrong. Just little playful stuff like that that makes this place seem so much better. That and the view and the practice.
My teacher showed me WuBu Quan which is 5-stance fist. Its pretty much like Chang Quan 1 that Guo Sifu taught me. Except there are slight variations and sometimes I would throw the wrong thing in there. Also, during some acrobatic stuff, I popped a vein in my right hand, right in the crease between your thumb and fore-finger.
There is another student named Phil here too. He's from New York City.
All the other students seem nice as well.
As mid-morning class was ending and we were showing our teacher our progress, our teacher's girlfriend showed up and was asking us foreigners if anyone could sing. I was like, yeah, and she wanted me to come sing for them. Basically it was an audition for a bigger talent performance later that night. It took me about 20 minutes just to figure out what was going on. The other Phil came just to watch, but left before i sang my tune. On our way to the singing room at the top of the stairs, teacher's girlfriend kept buggin him as he was talking to us about what was going on and he just reeled on her, his eyes squinted, it looked like his face changed color, and his ears grew, he said something very sharp, and she had this look of fear come across her face and she backed away and stood against the wall in a sullen mood. It was freaky. Both Phil and I were like...what the heck just happened?
We got to the small room. Only about 30 kids in there and they were waiting for me to sing a song. They were like, here's a guitar. It was a classical guitar whose strings were completely destroyed. I was like, you said you had Karaoke for me. So they searched for music that had english songs on it. I knew it was gonna be 1 of 3 they would definitely find..Auld Lang Syn, My Heart Will Go On, Right Here Waiting for You. Sure enuff, it was. I chose Right Here becuase I only really know the words of the chorus to that.
It was some chinese musician sing it live and trying to be all into it. I dont know why the chinese love this song so much. Its so lame. But it is a ballad and chinese people don't like listening to pop music that isn't lame. Getting them to set up the microphone or find the song was funny too because they kept turning it off right when it was about to start for me singing.
I totally tore the place up like a high school kegger, yo. I worked the crowd really well. I started singing straight to this one woman who got all embarassed. It was awesome. All the little kids wanted to slap my hands and touch me. It was funny. Very enjoyable. The kids alos loved it too when I started singing to one of the older boy students. He was trying to get away from me but I cornered him. Good times. My teacher couldn't hide his joy. They all thanked me and I headed to lunch.
Food was good. I sat down and just looked out onto the mountain and the throngs of tourists walking down the street. Then I did some journal writing and went into that little tourist center for Shaolin Si and looked to see if I could find anyplace that puts fotos onto a CD from a memory card. Nope. Looks as though I may need to do it in Dengfeng. Bummer yo. I saw Xiaohui again and pestered her for the 2nd time about fixing the AC. Apparently, this school doesn't really fix things when they are told about it. Frustrating, but I found, thru time with BOND, if you get on their ass everyday, thats the only way to get anything done. Another thing I found out was that hot shower water is only given from 7pm - 11pm or something like that. Thats more than what the common chinese folk that attend the school who live in rooms filled with about 8kids. I see them washing themselves outside their rooms with the water bins. But, I am also paying much more than they are paying as well. So, those issues should be taken care of.
I got ready for practice at 3pm. I found out when I got to pracitce that the school was putting on a big talent performance around 8pm tonite and they chose me to sing a song. I was like, I will only do it if you get the office to fix the AC. THat didn't work. So I chose a song from a couple disks they had their room. I decided on Pretty Woman. It was the one I knew the most by heart, but I wanted to write out the words just to be safe. So I did that then I started practice. Practice was really good. I learned some new staff work and practiced some of the forms and worked more on kicks and stretching as well. Fun stuff. They are really pushing me to the limits here. Which is good and what I wanted. I learned some flashy rockstar stuff.
After practice was done, I got some dinner. A dog came by and looked super hungry so I gave him my chicken bone and tried to give hime some bread, but he wouldnt have the bread. After that, I showered and got ready for my singing performance.
There were about 25 acts and I was number 15. THe thing started at 730pm. Mostly it was singing acts and every once in a while a dancing group or a little skit. There was one skit right after i got done that made me laugh my butt off. Not because the skit was funny, but because a little 8 year old boy was dressed up like a hip 20-something triad member holding a burning cigarette. It ruled. By the time I turned on my camera he had gotten rid of it. Phooey.
So I was walking around and practicing my words before I got on stage.
Then the time came and the announcer, the girlfriend of my teacher, was like...."chinese chinese chinese PHIL chinese chines chinese Pretty Woman" then as I walked on stage, the entire crowd...well over 1000 kids started cheering. Really loud. It was awesome. I was like, I didnt even do anything. So I spoke to the crowd breifly and then sang the songs. THe kids loved it. They were cheering and shrieking like it was Beatle-mania. During the first major change in the song, when Roy sings, "PW Stop a while..PW Talk a while..PW Give your smile to me" i hopped down and started to work the crowd. I sang to individual adults which embarrassed the crap out of them but also drew the best laughs and cheers. I also walked thru the kids as I sang and they were going nuts. They were touching me and holding out their hands and I was shaking them. It was like being a rockstar at your own concert and going out and touching hands. I can understand why musicians love it...it soo much fun. It was really goofy too. I started to get lost from the music so I ran back on stage nad sang the finally notes, but I was off by 1 measure. So it looked pretty funny when I did it twice. The crowd was cheering. Totally sweet. Afterwords, I got offstage and teacher was bouncing around like..He's my student! A couple italian guys that are just staying the night, I met this afternoon, they came over and chatted with me. Francesco and Enrico and another guy from Portugal that they had met just today as well. They are some pretty cool fellas.
I was like, ok...now, time for a hot shower and sleep. Then teacher said his girlfriend will sing soon so i must video tape it. I was like kool. As she was about to start, teacher gave me, Josh (another laowei), and a French born chinese guy Jean Luc (thats right!) some flowers to give her all at once. So we triangulated, equilaterally, on her singing, basically i came from stage right, Josh from stage left and Jean Luc from back stage. It was quite humorous. Master Wrong was doing the video work with my camera...he is also the guy that did the camera work when I sang.
Her performance was pretty good.
After her's was done, I was like..time for bed. I went back, took a hot shower and fell asleep.
Man, today was awesome. It was such a great day. I am so happy i dropped that other school and came here. The location, the teachers, the activites, oh, its great. I just hope it stays this good while I am here.
Ok, im outtie.

Posted by Phil at 01:12 PM | Permalink

We woke up about 530 and when I got out of bed, my feet were sore, but that was pretty much it. Awesome. Neither of us slept well.
Morning practice was just stretching and then off to breakfast. So counter productive. During breakfast, I had some noodles and found a dead maggot/worm in there. Great. Its China, that thing happens everywhere, but it made me lose my appetite. At least it was dead.
After breakfast we had to meet sifu because he was giving us uniforms. Crap, I need to tell him now, they hadnt taken the passports to town yet either. So, after I got my uniform and he took us to get some thermos for hot water, I was nervous cause I didn't want to be a jerk, but I also didn't want many people around. I never pulled that off. We were in the shop when I told him that I just didnt feel comfortable. He seemed angry. He was like, Ok, give the stuff back. You will lose some money, basically, the bs 200 for the pick up at the airport. YOu gots to cut your losses somewhere. He walked away with the other sifus. I headed back with Chris and then Xanda sifu came to our room right after we arrived and he told me to get my stuff and go. He was like..."Hurry up, can you do this any quicker." I was like..."Listen Dick, I am going as quick as I can." He gave me back my money and he walked me to the road and I got a taxi. I said goodbye to Shi Yan Lin. I got into a taxi around 8AM and headed for the bus station. As I left, I started to think back and I really think that Shi Yan Lin never received my emails. The Xanda Sifu prolly looked it over and thats why Shi Yan Lin seemed obvious to my plan.
Great communication skills there, mailbox head (xanda sifu).
I got to the train station and looked around for the Iveco Mini-Bus Bus station. I found it and went to one bus sitting in between the bus station and the train station. I asked how much, and all they could keep saying was, "Hi, hello, do you want to study Chinese gong fu. Gong Fu is very good. Chinese gong fu. Hao!" I was like, yeah, I want to study, how much for a ride to the SHaolin Si...they were like, 260RMB, I just turned and walked away. Didnt say anything.
Got a ticket for a bus that takes a slight tour of the scenic spots around Dengfeng. Only cost 22RMB. I got on the bus that was schedualed to leave for 9am and it didn't leave until 930AM. And what was on the VCD player..and playing over and over again? Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple". Ugh, two times in a row is long enuff. This bus station was quite crowded with bus. There was always one coming and leaving.
We finally left at about 930. The bus was packed. Some of the views of Henan rural area along the highway was nice, but pretty much nothing but farm land. Along the way there were a few places where there was a gong fu character as a statue in the middle of nowhere. It was kinda goofy.
We arrived in Dengfeng and I was suprised we were there so early. It was only 2 hours and the people and books I read said about 2.5 hours. Interesting. The first stop we made was at the Songyuan Academy. A very old Taoist study place. In it there is a 4500 year old cypress tree. Its friggin huge!
It was here that I met two guys from my bus group. They both spoke very good english. We chatted and took fotos. My camera gave me that friggin' Memory card error again. Crap..on the 1GB card. SOmething is wrong with this camera. I am worried that the fotos I took on this may be lost. But I don't know because I was able to view them. I just couldn't take pictures.
I popped in my older card and it worked fine. Go figure. I was hoping that it wouldn't cut out either. I was carrying my big back pack and all my stuff at this time. I was soooo tired from it. It gets real heavy after awhile while going in and out of your little side bag for camera stuff.
After this place we went to Taiyong Nunnery temple. I didn't go in, you see one Buddhist temple,you pretty much see them all. Its cool though still. I just took pictures outside of the place and chatted with the english speakers. I had told them I was interested in gong fu and one of them, Fisher (because his last name Yu is pronounced the same way as fish in Chinese is). He was a big fan of the NBA, he was wearing Denis Rodman's jersey. Eric was the other one. They didnt believe that foreigners could learn gong fu in the schools unless they stay for a very long time. I told them they can. No one seems to listen to me when I say that i have studied gong fu for 4years and 8 months. I don't know why. I found a couple of the schools I was interested in on the map that I had bought at Songyuan. We finally arrived at the Shaolin era.
We left our big bags in a shop that allows visitors to keep their heavy things safe. I made sure I took my money with me though. Just in case.
We walked towards the temple. On the way we saw Tagou Institute. No one was practicing, it must be lunch time. We then stopped off at the Wushu Center where there were performances. I actually thought the performance was kinda lame. There were only a couple cools thigns that I hadnt seen there. Like the throwing of a pin thru a piece of glass to break a balloon and a guy be raised up on the end of spear tips. They should sharpen those blades and see if they can still do it.
After that, we walked to the Shaolin Temple. It was kool to see. It was alot of fun, but to be truthful, it was just like every other temple i have seen in China. Nothing really spectaculer. However, there were a few things in the Temple that had been given to them buy famous kings in the past and stuff. Some really great historical things.
Took lots of pictures. I saw the floor that had indentations in it because allegedly, thats where the monks used to practice a certain form for a long time.
And of course, I had to do Taiji somewhere in the Shaolin temple, so I did. Eric and Fisher were cracking up. So was I. A monk came to watch as well. Funny stuff.
We left and headed over to the Pagoda forest. This place was really cool. This is where famous or special monks received burial. I saw the newest one for the most recently deceased abbot I think and on it he had things inscribed that showed what was happening in his time. On it were the words, "Never get left behind" or something like that...referring to modernization and changing times. Pictures of a plane, computer, car, cellfone, and a couple other things that I forget were carved in it.
After the Pagoda forest, we headed to Tagou Institute.They were offering to help me talk with the people there. These guys were wonderful. Had lots of fun with them.
Man, the Tagou school, its cool. Its got 7000 students enrolled. As we were walking up to it, we saw the students all wearing red uniforms practicing out in the field. It was awesome. We went up the steps and found the right office. I met with Wang Xiaohui who I talked to via email and they showed me the rooms for foreigners. The rooms are friggin 3-4 star hotel rooms. I was totally suprised. But, however, since its CHina, there is a catch. I also went to where the foreigners practice.
I walked back with Xiaohui and the boys to get my bag and I said goodbye to them and told htem I would email them soon.
I then walked back with Xiaohui and she took me to pay. I just paid for 10 days, just to be cautious, wanted to see what its like. I really dont mind paying the extra money, because the location...is amazing, like1000m from Shaolin, and the teachers for foreigners seemed really nice and wanted to see what I knew. I showed them some stuff and they seemed slightly impressed but the only thing that got to me is when they said my stances are bad. I was like...dude, I agree, they need some fine tuning, but they arent bad, there better than most of the other people in this room practicing right now. Whatever. But they were wondeful and i am excited to start practice with them.
The room I was put in was shared with a 14 year old russian kid. And, it was not quite to the same par as the one they showed me. This one had all the same stuff but was a little run down. So chinese. That one they showed me must be the viewing room.
It turns out that the AC in our room, when it is turned on, leaks a lot of water onto the floor. AWESOME! So chinese!
I had dinner. Have to pay for that too. As well as this internet connection, cost 4rmb/hour. This place is really only interested in Money, but I will give the training a chance. And, its almost worth it for the location. Gorgeous views. The mountain is across the way wonderful.
After dinner, I typed up some journal entries and some emails. I then celebrated with the two russian fellas, since they both hang out in the room alot. APparently today is a national russian day of celebrating some sort of war...or re-enactment of war. So, the older one, Jola, went to Dengfeng and got a roast chicken like the ones from Boston Market in Michigan, and some wine. We ate chicken and wine. Jola was giving wine to my roomate, so I figured it was a russian thing. I mean...they drink vodka instead of water. Its their essence. "Listen, Capt. Bat Gwano, if that really is your name..."
I chatted with them and the red wine was great and so was the chicken. I haven't had chicken this good since i left the US. great.
Well, then we went to bed, and my roomate started freaking out because he got a little sick from the wine and was worried he was gonna die because his heart was pumping fast. Aiya. I was up to about 1200 trying to keep him calm and stuff. Tomorrow moring , I am gonna be friggin tired.

Posted by Phil at 01:40 PM | Permalink

I woke up at 530AM for 600AM practice. We got to the training hall next door and I told Sifu Yin Lan that I will pay for the month and just try it out. He seemed happy to hear that. All we did was stretching and a bit of running. Then, they were like...ok...go eat breakfast and rest for 2 hours. WTF!? Stretching out and resting for 2 hours is totally stupid. I was also in the beginners class as well. I just started getting a negative feeling like that this wasnt what I wanted and that I havent had a chance to do what I wanted which was travel around and train. Plus, i hated the idea of not leaving the school. The place looked like a prison almost. Sure, I want to train hard, and maybe if I wanted to stay a long time, that place may be the best bet, but I also want to travel around when I have free time, I mean, this was also my prolly only time studying with Shaolin Monks in Shaolin or this area. The training is pretty much the same...but the rest isnt.
After breakfast, I got online and talked with the Tagou school about some things.
Then mid mornign class started and it was Taiji. Oh great. SOmething I don't want to learn. And it really gets me irritated when people say that Chen is better than Yang because thats the whole point of taiji..to not use lots of power. They still refused to realize that I could prolly join the advance group, but they still stuck me with the beginners and I was super bored with what he was giving because after about a couple tries, I would have it and it just dragged on. I found myself watching the other students in the higher class and I started doing the form on my own in the corner. BAM! In your face.
Lunch was pretty much the same. Alot of nothing. I found out that I would be getting a roomate later in the day. Neato. After lunch I payed my money and I just made sure I would get it back if I left after 3 days and then Xanda Sifu was like, well, tomorrow you would have to leave..cause it would be 3...and I was like...technically its only 2 days. I would have to leave after 3 nights for the to be true. What a turd.
After noon practice was more of the same b.s. that i dealt with in the morning. It was still a good work out but it really didnt do anything for me.
I asked the Shi Yan Lin if I could do more and he just nodded and said yes but made no effort. During afternoon practice the new student Christopher from Denmark showed up. He watched. After that afternoon class was done, Sifu took our passports to get copies made. I was still thinking about leaving, but still needed to check things out. I showed Chris around and told him some advice just to be safer. I told him that I was thinkin of leaving. And I tried to explain it the best I could. I just didn't feel right and I felt I needed to see something else before I made a decision.
That evening, before bed, I told Dominic about my feelings for leaving and he said it would be alright. There are no problems with it. So, I figured I would leave tomorrow after morning practice. Then while doing some computer stuff on the computer that crashes randomly or just shuts off, we watched "I, Robot". What a load of crap that was. I could see the hollywood cookie cutter formula for the movie all the way thru.
We went to bed and I chatted with Chris about lots of stuff. He's a cool guy. Well, goodnite all.

Posted by Phil at 01:10 PM | Permalink