Week 47 (22 November - 28 November)

The start of the week was slow, my legs still hurt from the previous week. Unfortunately there was no mercy from the shifu, we still had to go for our run at -5 Celsius which was followed by an intensive warm up and stretching session. We spent the rest of the day practicing kicking and punching combinations with hand pads to improve speed and accuracy. During the evening session we practiced our moves on the bags.

Tuesday morning was more relaxed, after our run and stretching we went for a walk. We ended up on the frozen lake behind the academy. Andreas (new guy from Denmark) and I questioned the thickness of the ice but the Chinese guys just walked off into the distance. We also spotted some donkeys and mules which had been abandoned because of the weather.

Walking on the ice and feeding corn plants to the mules

Telephone cables in the frozen lake and some strange cracks

After spending some time on the ice we headed back to the academy and did some power stretching.

The San Da group

The afternoon session was really brutal and we had to do many sprints and other intensive cardio exercises. In the evening we did some light sparring.

On Wednesday it was the day Daniel was leaving, so I didn't train and spent the morning helping him pack. At about 11:00 we headed off to Siping, Thomas had also gotten back from Belgium so a few of us ended up having lunch at Mr.Lee. After doing some shopping we headed to the train station. At about 15:30 I bade Dan farewell, in about four weeks I will see him back home but it will definitely take some getting used to not having him around. After having a shower at the Jinlihao I headed back to the academy.

 

Shifu handing Dan his certificate, last time standing infront of the academy

 

 

San Da group

Dan and Thomas at Mr Lee (left), Dan and Thomas with pirated DVD's at the Zhongxing (right)

Pirated xbox 360, PS2 and PS3, PSP game downloads, other junk (right)

Communist looking part of Siping (left), Dan entering the waiting room (right)

I took Thursday and Friday off just for some extra relaxing, on Friday there was no power from 5am to 5pm because the power company were upgrading the power grid. Strange thing is that out here I really didn't miss the power much, unlike back home where it can get rather annoying.

Saturday was the first real taste of the winter that I know here. My thermometer was reading -9.9 Celsius, outside just looked like a blizzard. Markus, David, Tristan and I all jumped into the academy SUV which is only 2 wheel drive but luckily the academy driver is the safest driver in China. The kids were shoveling snow on their day off, most without any gloves or face protection, this is a hard life.

The drive to Siping took almost 2 hours but unlike taking a somewhat faster taxi we avoided the usual near death experiences. Siping was even colder than the academy, everybody was in full force shoveling snow and chiseling ice off the roads.

Snow shoveling in Siping, and Fireworks being blown up for whatever reason

I also spotted a crane which had lifted 20 meter long strips of firecrackers into the air and "army" jeeps that were firing extremely loud firecrackers that sounded like flak shells being fired (see the video below).



We split up and did our own shopping and at 11:00 we met up at the buffet for lunch. All of us went overboard once again but at least this time we paced ourselves quite well and ended up staying for just over 2 hours. After the buffet we headed to the Jinlihao, this time I managed to get some photos of the place.

Tristan, I, David, Thomas and Markus after our Buffet lunch

The Jinlihao from the outside

 

Reception

Lockers and changing room, Jinlihao bathrob (everybody at the academy owns one)

Part of the actual bathhouse (picture thanks to Zdenjak), Recliner room on level 3 (right)

After a hot bath and shower I decided to get a body scrub, something all Chinese mobsters and business men enjoy whilst frequenting the Lihao. I must say that before coming to China I would have never let a random overweight guy scrub me down with a glove that has the same texture as a 3M scotchbrite cleaning pad, together with body salts and coconut oil whilst lying naked in a bathhouse amongst a bunch of naked men. In China bathhouses are such a common thing and nudity is so normal. After the scrub I could see a whole bunch of dirt rolls and skin even though I had taken a shower before, the scrub really made a difference. After another shower we went to level 3 to relax a bit in the recliners.

At about 15:30 we headed to the train-station where I bade farewell to Thomas, Tristan, David and Markus. Thomas is going to another academy down South, Markus and David are going back to the UK for X-mas and Tristan is traveling for a few days with Markus and David. So many farewells in such a short period of time. I don't know when next I will be seeing these people that I have spent much of my time with in the past year.

Sunday wasn't very eventful but the academy is very "empty" Umit and Sam left to go on trips so now there are only 5 foreigners here at the moment. In about 4 weeks I will be home so the next few weeks will be spent making the best of the remaining time which means hard training despite the depressing cold weather.