Week 10 (8 March - 11 March)

On Monday the sun was rising much earlier than usual, so I went to the training hall earlier than usual and Master Liu showed me some other Qi gong stances, I could really feel something, whether is was qi or just elevated blood flow it felt really good. That evening crazy Rahul (India) asked me to help repair the xBox he bought from Josh it wasn't reading any discs so I tried the latest Microsoft firmware update which didn't help so I ended up opening it up and saw that the actual laser on the DVD drive was faulty, I told him I could order one or he could have it repaired in Siping.

The rest of the week wasn't too strenuous, we just kept practising our forms for the test day on Thursday. In the meantime I had also spoken to the headmaster and told him that Nirup and I wanted to take at least two weeks off. Originally I didn't want to take any time off from training but I just felt that I needed to get out and see something new before I go insane. The headmaster said that because we never miss training we can go as long as we come back.

Warming up for the performance

Thursday (11th) was test day and I performed my forms, they were pretty average thanks to the cold I was very stiff and tense which made me look like robo cop and the loose uniform made things worse. It might have just been the fact that I was excited about going away and seeing some more of china and also see if the rest of Chinese people were all this grumpy and if they also farted, burped and spat as much.

Week 9 (1 March - 7 March)

Monday 1st, today most of the kids had come back to start school and training again. I noticed a massive difference in my flexibility which was very encouraging. My shifu started teahing me a new form, the shaolin dun dao (shaolin short broad sword and shield). Tonight the sky stayed bright for a very long time.

Tuesday and wednesday there was barely anybody taking the training seriously. Which was pretty good because I did some qi gong with my master and also got personal training which meant I could learn a lot more. I also got a new chinese teacher called Belle, she is actually Korean and has really great teaching skills.

On friday I was angry because my master kicked me for making mistakes in my form, he was a bit upset about the lack of attendance. By the evening I had calmed down again, accepting that everybody can have an outburst of pent up frustration.

The weekend was pretty boring, Josh (UK) and Lucas (Canada) were play fighting and Lucas smashed Josh Laptop screen. They went to Siping to have it replaced but nobody could help them. I told them I would repair it, so I ordered a new LCD panel on Alibaba, I hope it arrives (still a bit weiry regarding chinese online shopping) althought the EMS shipping should be reliable.

Week 8 (22 February - 28 February)

Monday morning we had to clear all the snow that had fallen the previous day, luckily everyone was helping today so it only took about an hour, we had the rest of the morning free to warm up, luckily the heater in my room works pretty well. In the evening we practised the Nan Quan some more and I also started learning a new form called Xiao Hong Quan (little red fist), I was getting rather frustrated and could barely keep my eyes open. After training I shaved my head, showered and was asleep by 21:30.

Tuesday 23 February, we had to do a whole bunch of exercised outside, including jumping in and out of holes in the ground whilst wearing a 10kg weight jacket. Then we had to do 3 sets of 50 upside down pull ups.

The rest of the week was very hard, probably the hardest week yet. It included some very hard training and a lot of snow shoveling, the weather was constantly changing.

The 25th marked a celebration of the end of new years and in the past two weeks there have been constant fireworks, this was the last of them and they all went full out.

During the weekend I did a lot of reflecting, I noticed that during that week I had barely spoken much to to anybody just focusing on myself. Speaking to others is draining, so much negativity and constant complaints. People came here with good intentions, many came to stop smoking and drinking but with a shop within the academy grounds selling cigarettes and beer this is extremely difficult. Of course students caught drinking or smoking are beaten but there is only so much the masters can do. The only action that truly works is self initiated action, by taking the decision not to walk to that shop and buying things to help feed addictions and habits. But I know it is easier said than done especially being in a foreign country, seeing and doing the same things day in and day out, these repetitive actions can drive even the most sane person up the wall.

I have learnt a lot in the past 2 months that I have been here both on a mental, physical and spiritual level however I was expecting a lot more. The problem is that most of my energy is consumed by trying to be "normal" and sane. The biggest problem is the cabin fever and the winter, this leads to low energy levels which is then non localised to everybody within the academy. There is a strong inverse correlation between the consumption of cigarettes and alcohol and the level of morale. Despite this I just hope that others will find what they have come here to find.