This blog outlines my experiences whilst living in Northern China at Siping City Shaolin Martial arts academy.
View the blog from the beginning (January 2010) and click on most images to enlarge.
A new week and a new day however Rahul looked really unhappy at line up this morning and he was wearing a pear of padded jeans for training ?! I don't think so, I think he was prepared for the inevitable gooning he was going to receive for the death threats. Rahul was lucky he had prepared for the gooning because the shifu lashed out 20 hard blows, unfortuantely I was too far away from the action to get any candid video footage.
Tuesday morning I saw my first snake since I'm here which was quite exciting. Because it was the 11th of the month it was test day and I had to present the shoalin group had to present the group form, JT Quan and I had to perform Qi Xing Quan (seven animal fist). The performance was pretty average but I was satisfied.
On wednesday we trained on the stairs, we had to do the usual, sprints, hops, jumps and bear crawls. I twisted my ankle in the process but continued training anyway. Chinese class was rather annoying as the new girl Jackie is really annoying. She says things out loud like "my handwriting has improved", tells the teacher "that letter Q you wrote is really big", "there is a spelling mistake there... just kidding" I asked her to please be quiet. She isn't even supposed to be in that class because she is a beginner so she should be in the beginners class bothering other students. Later that afternoon we started learning a new group form, JT goon and I started learning a new fist form, shaolin quan.
By friday my ankle was swollen and my knee was cramping again so I took the morning off and watched the others get tortured on the stairs.
On the 11th (monday) it was a special day to honour the kids and all of their parents came to watch them perform. We also watched the kids perform and it is amazing to see kids as young as 7 doing backflips and other crazy moves. The kids also have a 1 month holiday now so they can go home and spend some time with their family, it is the only holiday they get.
Every 11th of the month there is a test day on which all foreigners must present the forms they have learnt, because the kids performed on this day we had test day on the 12th. Luckily I didn't need to perform anything because my form isn't finished yet. Also my upper hip muscle really hurts, it is the same pain I experienced from a previous injury plus my knee is also still extremely painful, probably from all the running out in the cold.
On Wednesday (13th) the shaolin group had to go for their weekly run, we had to run to the nearby village called Yehe which is 10km from the academy, so the total run is about 20km at -25 celcius. I ran together with my friend Chima from Trinidad, at about 6km from the academy there is a sign at which point we decided to turn back. The bottle of water I was carrying at frozen solid, my eyelids and nose were covered in ice crystals.
Before
After
Later that day training continued like usual and in the evening we had a line up and a huge lecture. Somebody had decided to defecate next to the toilet and the headmaster wanted to know who had done it. Personally I don't believe any of the western students would have done such a thing, it became a huge joke. In the evening I spoke to Steffen, a student from Norway which was leaving soon. I told him I would move into his room and buy most of his basic necessities, his room is also upstairs and faces the sun, so it is warmer and has a much better view.
Thursday 14th, I started learning a new form and had to buy a shaolin dao (training sword), the training is going well and I can notice that my stretching has improved already. However I am still concerned about my knee and hip which are still rather painful.
Friday 15th, today we only trained half the day which is normal for friday, in the evening there was a very rare sun eclipse which we observed. The weekend was really boring, I played some pool in the pool room which they ocasionally open but other than that I was too tired to do anything else and just wanted to rest and let my body recover. The weather is still nothing close to optimal, daytime temperatures range from -20 to -25 celcius but the sky is always blue which is a great.
