Week 3 (18 January - 24 January)

This Monday (18th) I was the only student practising Qi Gong, Mondays is optional and I guess most just want the additional sleep. Also the qi gong movements are easier and just flow more easily now. For morning training there was another lecture. Two students had alcohol in their rooms and they were asked if they will change their habits or else they must leave. Some students come here to stop smoking or drinking but when they see the prices of alcohol (3RMB for a 660ml beer bottle) and cigarettes (5RMB for a pack of 20) they just can't be bothered to stop.


I do these Qi gong exercises every morning for 30 minutes, each set of movements should be done for 5 minutes.

I've never smoked before so that has never been a problem but I did do a lot of partying in my past and I did enjoy some weekend drinking (often to excess). By coming here I have made the decision not to drink any alcohol for a year whether it is allowed/possible or not.

Tuesday (19th), just as I thought the weather was getting better today is a terrible day, overcast and windy, the weather sucks and I'm in a grumpy mood. My muscles are stiff and my bones hurt, I've told the translator to tell the shifu that I would like to take the afternoon off, which was no problem. Later in the afternoon the snow started melting outside, I'm hoping the weather improves.

Wednesday, overnight the temperature had dropped again, it was -17 Celsius and all the patches of melted snow had become ice and new snow had fallen on top of that. The change on weather also had an effect on some of the people here, people were grumpy or didn't come to training and others came late to training, the shifu did not approve and gooned the late comers. We also got a new translator called Lin Na, her english isn't great but sufficient I guess.

Friday (22nd), I woke up feeling really good today however that was short lived, for morning training we had to go running outside and it was -15 Celsius, every step sounded like breaking glass as the ice below the snow was cracking. After many push ups and an intensive warmup up our shifu told us to do some power stretching. There were about 5 different stretches including the splits, one student held me tight while another pulled my leg beyond its comfort zone, after holding it there for about 20 seconds the shifu came and forced it a little further. The sounds generated in the training hall were probably similar to those generated in torture chambers.

My chinese isn't great however I know a few phrases and the most commonly used ones, I generally point at a muscle or body parting uttering one of the two words "bu hao" (not good) and/or "tong" (pain). Training was finished at 15:00 today and I finished reading eleven minutes (elf minuten) by Paulo Coehlo and I must say my German has deteriorated a little. Luckily there is a small library here with many German books, so if I overcome the laziness I should be able to read a few books.

On the weekend I just did some washing and went for a walk with Axel to the nearby villages. I also had a conversation with Prashant a guy from India who has been here for 16 months and will be staying for 24 months (2 years) total. We spoke about the laziness of the students and also about the training. He told me when he first came there were a lot more students and also students used to train much harder because there was much more pressure from their masters.

Week 2 (11 January - 17 January)

On the 11th (monday) it was a special day to honour the kids and all of their parents came to watch them perform. We also watched the kids perform and it is amazing to see kids as young as 7 doing backflips and other crazy moves. The kids also have a 1 month holiday now so they can go home and spend some time with their family, it is the only holiday they get.

Every 11th of the month there is a test day on which all foreigners must present the forms they have learnt, because the kids performed on this day we had test day on the 12th. Luckily I didn't need to perform anything because my form isn't finished yet. Also my upper hip muscle really hurts, it is the same pain I experienced from a previous injury plus my knee is also still extremely painful, probably from all the running out in the cold.

On Wednesday (13th) the shaolin group had to go for their weekly run, we had to run to the nearby village called Yehe which is 10km from the academy, so the total run is about 20km at -25 celcius. I ran together with my friend Chima from Trinidad, at about 6km from the academy there is a sign at which point we decided to turn back. The bottle of water I was carrying at frozen solid, my eyelids and nose were covered in ice crystals.

Before

After

Later that day training continued like usual and in the evening we had a line up and a huge lecture. Somebody had decided to defecate next to the toilet and the headmaster wanted to know who had done it. Personally I don't believe any of the western students would have done such a thing, it became a huge joke. In the evening I spoke to Steffen, a student from Norway which was leaving soon. I told him I would move into his room and buy most of his basic necessities, his room is also upstairs and faces the sun, so it is warmer and has a much better view.




Thursday 14th, I started learning a new form and had to buy a shaolin dao (training sword), the training is going well and I can notice that my stretching has improved already. However I am still concerned about my knee and hip which are still rather painful.

Friday 15th, today we only trained half the day which is normal for friday, in the evening there was a very rare sun eclipse which we observed. The weekend was really boring, I played some pool in the pool room which they ocasionally open but other than that I was too tired to do anything else and just wanted to rest and let my body recover. The weather is still nothing close to optimal, daytime temperatures range from -20 to -25 celcius but the sky is always blue which is a great.