9th Training Day...attack of the pain in the ass mosquitoes.
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.