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).

Week 13 (30 March - 4 April)

Tuesday 30 March we left Siping in the morning and were surprised to see that all the snow had melted. When we got back to the academy we were welcomed and I met some new students, I was told there were 4 new students, two guy and and two girls. I was kind of excited because it would be nice to have some female company around. The two male students Chris (24) from Scotland and Samir (26) from Syria had been at the academy for less than a week and had joined the shaolin group. The two girls could both speak Chinese really well as they both had a Chinese parent and had previously gone to the british school in Taiwan. Anoushka (24) was from England/Taiwan and Gillian (23) was from Australia both girls had also joined the shaolin group. Other news was that my shaolin shifu had left and that we now had a new shifu, I was kind of disappointed because I liked the old shifu for the reasons the others disliked him, however I was willing to accept the new shifu.

31 March at 5:30 we had to run down to the T and back (the road that leads to the academy comes to a T-junction and we call this the T, the distance is about 1,8km there and back but very steep on the way back), we then did Qi gong afterwards. I was really amazed, everybody was out and about in the morning, this huge and dramatic change in behaviour was obviously due to the female presence.





The almost 3 weeks away actually did me some good and my flexibility had improved despite the fact that I had only occasionally stretched on the trip. The morning training was less intensive than before but I assumed it was due to all the new students. In the afternoon we trained with the kids which was quite pleasant and motivating. I started learning a new form called Tong Bei Quan and I had 11 days until test day to get it right.

I also noticed a huge difference in Chinese class, whilst on the trip I had to speak Chinese wherever possible and had learnt a lot which made the classes a lot more pleasant.

348 stairs up to the castle

1 April, this morning I ran to the T and decided to run along the lake and up the 348 stairs to the castle, I had never been able to do this before because of the snow. So I decided to give it a try, I must say it was a killer and I got about half way before deciding to walk the remainder, I then did some Qi gong with master Liu. The rest of the day we did some meditating and just practised our forms. In the evening a new student arrived, Alex (36) from England.

2nd April, I ran to the T and then took the extended run along the lake to try running up the stairs again, this time I had made it a little further than the previous day. For the rest of the day we did some basic training with the kids.

On Saturday I went to Siping with Alex (the new student) to show him around and help him buy some basics. He was really impressed at how cheap everything was. Before returning to the academy we went to the Jin Li Hao for a sauna, afterwards we went to the reflexologist for a message.

The rest of the weekend I just relaxed and did some reading.