10th Training Day.... Just a bit sore with smelly Russians.
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.