Week 4 (25 January - 31 January)

25 January, this morning the shaolin group had to clean the training hall and it was quite annoying that only of 7 students were present, luckily the other lazy ones got gooned by the shifu. During morning training I Could notice significant changes in fitness and flexibility, it's only been 3 weeks but I'm happy with my progress. We also did a lot of jumping today and I can really feel the pain in my ankle and knee joints. Our shifu also explained what he calls the five elements of shaolin martial arts. Speed, power, posture, balance, sight these should be felt on a deeper level and not just exerted with muscular power. At the end of the day I was really tired and I must say I am glad I am going to the (Siping) city tomorrow to have my VISA converted into a residence permit.

Tuesday 26 January, this morning I went to Siping with the translator, the process took forever after about 3 hours we were done. Afterwards I went to the ZhongXing which is a 6 storey building that is what most people would define as "china town". Each level focuses on different products, level 1 pirated dvd's, software, games. Computers, kitchen appliances etc. level 2 bags, custom clothing, fake sports clothing and apparel. I spent a lot of time looking at DVD's, they had many new releases and each shop has a TV and DVD player to test the discs. I was expecting some grainy in cinema recording, instead the discs were all true DVD quality. The price was even more ridiculous 5RMB (R6) for a pressed DVD with cover, the disc is like the original, I ended up buying 20 DVD's. Afterwards I went for lunch at a place called Jeelong Harbour Cousine which is an all you can eat buffet for 48RMB (R50) and I must say it is probably one of the best buffets I've seen for the price. Quality food including a western section that even had pizza with real cheese, amazing.

After lunch I went to the Hengkelong which is a supermarket like Pick 'n Pay or Woolworths. Most products were extremely cheap a 600ml bottle of Coke or Pepsi is 2,50 RMB. There was also a selection of "western" products which were more expensive such as Oreos for 5 RMB which is still cheaper in Rand terms but if you consider you can buy a huge box of chinese biscuits for 10 RMB or a Snickers bar for 4 RMB Compared to a chinese "chocolate" bar for 1 RMB. Fruit is very expensive, I bought some peaches which were 40RMB per/jin (500g). On the street I bought some almonds and goji berries for 25RMB per/jin.

I got back to the academy later that evening and practised my dao (sword) form.

Wednesday 27, we had to go running outside and the wind was blowing at 30km/h halfway through my run, my knee was really hurting and I had to walk the rest of the way back which was rather freezing. For the rest of the day all I did was some stretching.

On Thursday 28 my knee was still bothering me and we had to shovel snow from 7:40 to 9:30, I was exhausted and freezing. For lunch we got dumplings, I think it was some kind of reward for all the snow we had shoveled. The rest of the day I just practised my new shaoling dao form.

The training on friday wasn't too intensive. After training two friends (Deepak - UK and Chima - Trinidad) and I decided to shave our heads but leave a mowhawk.

In the evening 15 of us went to Yehe which is a nearby village about 10km from the academy. We went to have dinner, the restaurant we went to had seperate rooms so we got one room and also got two electric frying pans. We ended up cooking our own beef and lamb mixtures which was really delicious.

The rest of the weekend I did some meditating and reading but also watched two of my new DVD's, I'm glad I decided to bring my laptop because there is only so much to do here and it is all really depressing with this weather.