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.

The rest of the first week

Thursday and friday were really though days, I have been having real difficulty sleeping, firstly my room must be about 10 degrees celcius at night. Despite being physically and mentally exhausted I just can't fall asleep. In the mornings lifting the bed sheets is a mission, I've discovered so many muscles I never knew I had.


During fridays morning session there was an argument between Rahul and Michael. Michael being in his 30's and experienced in martial arts got upset with Rahul who is 18 and on a mission to make it big in Bollywood back in India. I have been warned about him by all students and now I can see what they mean, he has no respect for the masters and everything is just a joke to him. I can't believe he has been here for 4 months already.

On friday a new student arrived, Axel from Malta who is in his 30's.

Most of the training sessions have a pretty standardised warm up but it does vary. We usually need to run 5 laps of the basketball court outside and with strong winds and temperatures ranging from -25 to -30 Celcius this is extremely unpleasant. This is followed by

Stretching
4 sets Sprints (about 30m with no rest intervals)
2 sets one legged jumps (30m no rest then swap the leg)
Stretching and holding mabu, gumbu, pubu for 1 minute (if you can)
4 sets of kicks (2 sets of straight up, inside, outside, side kick)
8 sets of different kicking and punching variations
2 sets of duck walk
2 sets of frog jumps
5 sets of 10 pushups with holding on the down movement for 2 seconds
3 sets of 20 squats with holding on the down position for 2 seconds

After this warm up we practice our forms.

We also had a room inspection, luckily my room was tidy, other students got gooned. A goon is the chinese word for stick, being gooned means you need to assume the push up position and accept a scolding from the stick. We were also told that "this is china no your home country, you must be tidy".

The snow outside just keeps coming and we have spent quite a few training sessions shoveling snow, something I've never done in my life before. The shovels are basically two pieces of wood nailed toegether, a long stick and a square plank, very innovative.

My knee has been hurting really bad from all the running in the cold and all the jumping and movements we keep doing, hopefully it passes.

The weekend was extremely boring, there is nothing to do and too cold to go outside, I did a bit of reading and just sat around letting time go by. I also did some washing, first time I've had to do in my life and I must say its actually quite relaxing.