Week 15 (12 April - 18 April)

This morning we could not go outside because of the wind, it was blowing at 70km/h and there was more snow again. Our shifu hadn't come back so out test day was moved to the following day. We just spent the day revising our forms. In the evening the winds were blowing at 90km/h and we were told not to go outside.

On Tuesday (13th) I presented my Tong Bei Quan form which wasn't as good as I had practiced but somehow it didn't really phase me.



The screen for Eagles camera had arrived and I repaired it, he was really happy.

By Wednesday the weather was amazing, all the snow had melted and the sky was blue. So we all went for a walk to yehe which took about 2 hours.

Some Chinese camouflage, spot the ducks ?

We ended up talking a cab back but not just any cab we decided to go back with Mister Long who drives a 3 wheeler with a 650cc motorbike engine. All I can say is that the Americans can learn from the Chinese, Americans firmly believe in "no replacement for displacement" and put a V8 into everything that has wheels. The 650cc 3 wheeler carried 7 of us up the hill to the academy, nothing broke, however there was some clutch smoke filling the cabin but we got to our destination safe and sound.

The rest of the day we just practiced acrobatics, doing rolls, flips, cartwheels, slap kicks etc.

The shifu asked me again why I was unhappy and I told him I want some more intensive training, he told me he is concerned that we will be too tired. I told him that it isn't a problem, if 10 year old kids can do it, so can we. We came here to be pushed and not relax, he said he would change the training.

My wish was granted on Thursday and we got pushed from morning to evening. In the morning we went to a section of the castle stairs about 60 steps and had to do 3 consecutive sprints. This was followed by 2 sets of one legged hops. Next we had to do 2 sets of frog jumps up and to get back down we had to bear crawl down the stairs, using hands and feet to crawl down the stairs. In the afternoon we did a lot of side kicks and had to hold our legs up in the side kick position for 2 minutes on each leg. Then we had to hope across the training hall twice in the push up position. By the evening I felt tired which was good, despite the complaints during the training the other students also liked the fact that they were being pushed beyond their capabilities.

Friday was more relaxing which was good because we all had some muscle pain. In the evening Deepak, Thomas (Belgium), Nirup, Chima and I went to Yehe for dinner, once again we cooked our own food lamp with onions and other vegetables.

On the weekend I didn't do much, I just watched the Die Hard Trilogy (1 -3).