Week 43 (25 October - 31 October)

Monday morning was cold about -2 and most students didn't go for the morning run, it was pretty light at 5:30 because of the full moon. Dan had some cold symptoms so he took the morning off. I trained together with Liu Shui the Chinese student that has been training with us the past 3 months. We did some sparring and in the afternoon we practiced our kicks, after wards we went for a short walk and the sky was clear but it was still very windy and cold.

moon still up at 5:45am

 

Corn and rice

Tuesday was a relaxing day we didn't actually do any intensive training and just took it easy, doing some stretches. Most of the shaolin group was not training, from 8 students only 3 were in the training hall. By the evening Dan was feeling better again and his cold symptoms had subsided.

Wednesday morning we decided to go for a run through the local villages, it was pretty which was evident by the frozen rice patty reservoirs. My knee started hurting after a few hundred meters of the 9km run and I decided not to stop, hoping it would get better once warmed up. The pain didn't go away but we still had a good run and had to do 2x 1:30 min handstands against the wall to drain the blood from our legs. After wards we did some power stretching which was extremely uncomfortable because of the cold, my muscles felt like strands of metal.

frozen reservoir

farmers working despite the cold                                           handstand after run

some power stretching

Thursday was more of a rest day for me, my knees hurt so I just spent 2 hours hitting the bag during the morning session, in the afternoon and evening I just did some stretching.

 

sunset before 5:00 pm now

Friday morning our shifu told us we need to go for a run but faster than usual, he told me to go slow if my knee hurts. We had to run to the "red sign" and back, the red sign is a big red sign that is about 3.5km from the academy on the outskirts of Yehe. The road that leads there has a long steep uphill and two downhills which are pretty tiring (below is a map of the route) we had to run this quite fast (+-35mins). After the run we did some power stretching, the weather was a lot better so the stretching was a lot easier than on Wednesday. In the afternoon we went for a walk and then did some weights.


View Red sign run in a larger map

some rice patties and a farmer moving some harvested corn

The weekend was relaxing, Saturday morning we went to Yehe to buy some water and other basics, the weather was pleasant the entire weekend, blue skies and temperatures above 10 degrees.

This was the last week of October which also means I have less than 10 weeks to go I am still not counting down the time. I am actually still genuinely enjoying myself despite the daily hardships and lack of luxuries.

Week 5 (1 February - 7 February)

Monday we got pushed really hard, we did a lot of extreme endurance in the morning and extreme stamina in the afternoon with some powerstretching in the evening. My body just feels sore every bone and muscle feels like it has been pushed to it's limit. I've noticed a slight sniffle, I think I might be getting a flu, due to this intensive exercise my immune system is really weak plus the amount of bacteria around here is not a good combination.

Tuesday 2nd, I really pushed myself and felt a cold coming along, my shifu is happy with my progress however I can still improve a lot and by the 11th (test day). We also got a new student today, Ryan, an American from Colorado he is staying for 2 months. In the evening my friend Wasseem (from UK) gave me some medicine, I didn't shower, just went straight to bed.

3 February, I spent the entire day in bed today which was extremely boring and uncomfortable because my bed has no mattress.

By thursday I was training again and by friday I was able to push myself again.

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.