This morning the lights came on at 5:15am followed by a bell at 5:45am sounding like something you would find at a firestation, the bell rang again at 6am. I was extremely tired/jetlagged and didn't get up because I had been told to rest. At 6:30 am I got up for breakfast and I was surprised at how well I had slept considering my bed had no mattress just a wooden plank covered by a bed sheet.
At breakfast I met some students, the 16 students were from many different countries. The breakfast was pretty average (compared to my very low expectations), we got some oranges, a terrible looking porridge that reminded me of the matrix, boiled eggs and some chinese steamed bread. I just ate it without much thought, the others were surprised that I ate it without any hesitation. Others struggle to eat the porridge even with a heavy coating of sugar and milk powder.
At 8:00am there was line up before morning training and I had to introduce myself to the others. There is a line up before every training session and a register is read to ensure all students are present. I also received and orange shaolin monk uniform from the headmaster, which is purely ceremonial and only to be worn for test days and presentations. The translators were a bit concerned about me because my clothing was far from adequate, they suggested I should go buy some proper winter gear which I had planned to do anyway. So I went with a translator called Kaka to the nearby city called Siping which was just over and hour away. On the way to Siping I realised I had forgotten to take more money and had only brought 500RMB which is about R550, I was convinced that it wouldn't be sufficient to buy a decent winter jacket.
When I got to Siping I received many weird glances and stares from passers by, many people were pointing fingers and shouting out "lao wei" (basically meaning foreigner but often interpreted as an insult), the only foreigners this city sees are students from the academy. Siping is considered small by chinese standards but with 4 million inhabitants I wouldn't really call it small. After much browsing and trying on many different sizes (my usual M is at least an XL in China) I bought a jacket stuffed with duck feathers (down), thermals, sweaters, toiletries and some items for my room. Needles to say the 500RMB I had on me was more than enough money, China is really cheap. When I got back to the academy I also bought a pair of Feiyue shoes, these are the air jordans of the chinese martial arts world, everybody wears them and they cost me 30RMB.
I got back to the academy later that day and had my first training session. I had to chose one of four groups, the options were Bajiquan, Taiji, Sanda or Shaolin. These are four different types of martial arts. I chose shaolin because it focuses a lot on flexibility and physical exercise. I originally came to China to focus on internal martial arts and focusing on my Qi (internal energy) but I need to do some basics first. After some stretching my master (shifu) (Master Li Chan Fa) started teaching me my first shaolin fist form called Wu Bu Quan (5 Stance Fist), it is the basic foundation of shaolin martial arts as it encompasses all the important stances. The form is really basic but I can already feel the pain, my body just isn't use to these movements.
My master just keeps telling me that pain is normal and that pain is good. He also placed special emphasis on the eyes and told me that I must always look forwards and look dangerous (I realise that the translators lose a lot of important information in translation), never look at the floor. After training at 19:30 I went for my first shower which was quite a shock. Everyone showers together in a small room with six shower heads, the water is not adjustable, the only option is on or off, not even the shower head is adjustable, luckily the water wasn't cold. These showers will definitely take some time getting use to these.
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| Next to my name it says 德国 (German) and 少林 （Shaolin group) |
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