Saturday 31 January 2009

Sunday 18th


I had Tui Na (massage class). It was rather odd, I was massaging and being massaged by other students, but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. Not much else happened

Monday 19th

First day of training. I was doing 5 kicks that I learned, up and down the patio outside the school, then next class (qigong) consisted of a solid hour of (i think it's called) hanging stance, a sort of normal feet shoulder width apart stance, with knees bent so you're about five inches lower,arms out holding the ball, draw chi in through fingers from heaven, through feet from earth. Evening class was more up and down kicks. I went to Muping in the evening, someone was getting a suit made up at the tailors, and I wanted to check it out myself. After the tailors, we walked around town, and got dumplings and flat chilli bread for dinner at a steet stall, for the equivelant of around 40c!
It was super tasty, and even better, I wasn't dead or dying the next morning! Spring festival is nearing, more and more fireworks every day.
















Tuesday 20th
















Sifu Qu had food poisoning until today, but I went into him this morning, and we had a good discussion, and he agreed that I can learn Bagua. He was telling me how it is sometimes confusing, and that it takes longer to learn than mantis fist, but when I maintained that I wanted to learn it, he said that I have a good attitude for it, and that he thinks I will do well.Today, Warm up with those kicks and stretches, then I learned the basic bagua 'walking in mud' step, which is quite hard to do, moreso than it looks. for qigong, everyone was doing sitting meditation, but I was told that that was more advanced, so he put me into a low cat stance-esque stance, with twisted waist and dragon bagua palms, and I alternated sides with that for the hour. evening training is at half past 2, and that is application, though as I had nothing to apply yet, I was walking in mud and kicking for that class too.








I had a nasty cold at the time, but Medbh left some little sachets of herbal medicine outside my door, which was nice!
















Wednesday 21st














Wednesday, around 1:30pm, I heard a lot of shouting and moving of heavy machinery outside. There is usually some work going on in the area, so I thought nothing of it. When afternoon training came, we walked over to the training hall to find that the main gate had been blocked by a huge mound of rubbish and building debris! The police were called, and we later found out that it was a local gang that had put it there, looking for money. It is considered very bad luck to have a dirty front gate, and the bad luck in tripled if it is nearing Chinese new year. To do this at this time of the year was a huge insult. The class proceeded, and in true Chinese style, the whole mound had been cleared by that evening by the workers in the school. Looking back on the event, I find it funny, the gang couldn't have found a WORSE place to try and threaten for money: A kung fu school full of foreign students (huge publicity if anything happened) located on an active military base (it is only leased to Qu shifu)!





I learned the first little form thing now, although I've only learned its movements. There are 8 different 'powers' in that form alone. There are two external powers you can use, one to strike your opponent so he is moved backwards, and the other so he is not moved, but he is hurt inside. Qu shifu demonstrated the two on me, with a fraction of his power, and it was really wierd. The second one, he pushed me (only moving a few mm) in the chest, and I felt it in my throat! All the movements look really simple, but there is so much to think about.When he talked to me about the style at first, he said that some students that came here before got bored within a few days and moved to mantis fist, but he said I was the right person to study it, because I had heard this and was still willing to learn. Yesterday, when I was doing the footwork up and down the hall, he came up to me and asked If I was bored yet. I said that I wasn't, and that I was willing to do this for as long as it took to give me a good foundation. He smiled and nodded, and decided to teach me the little form. I think it was a test. Anyway, all going well, apart from the cold.












Thursday 22nd







This was the first (bit of a) day's holiday for the new year. We had morning class, qigung was spent being informed about the various customs surrounding new year, and evening class was off. In the evening, I went to Yantai with most of the other students. We ate at a very good hotpot restaurant, having hotpot (obviously), glass noodles, layered bread that you put into the broth for a few minutes, a mushroom dish, a chilli daufau (tofu) dish, Fish, and something that none of us could quite place a name on, but which was very nice all the same. Afterwards we went and bought lots of little fireworks for next to nothing, aswell as stopping into a DVD shop, full of new releases and box sets for only a few yuan each (a box set would be about 30yuan). I got the two kill bills (EVENTUALLY got to see them) and a Bruce Lee box set, which also has some of his child actor films from the 40s and 50s.







Friday 23rd







I was very tired after yesterday, so I mainly read in my room, although I did go for a nice long walk around a nearby lake (the weather was great!)

The lake was thawing, but the ice was still thick enough to easily support my weight










Saturday 24th




I can't actually remember much of what happened on saturday ^_^, but I went for a similar walk, aswell as playing some basketball with the school staff.







Sunday 25th







This was the big wind up for the New year. Lanterns were hung, Fireworks were to be seen and hear constantly (without fail) all day from the school, the local village and me :)



We had jiaozi (dumplings) for lunch, some of which contained either a Jiao (small coin, 1/10th of a yuan), and others containing chinese dates.



That evening, we were brought into a different room to the one we usually eat in, long tables were set up, and there were stools crammed into every place at the table they could be. Everybody eventually arrived, along with masses of food, and so the feast began! I wasn't being served any alcohol, but the hosts were umming and arring about giving it to me. They asked the translater how old I was, and I made the mistake of saying that I was too young BUT I was only a few days off being 18. After that, the cup was never dry! I had local beer (all I heard from people that night was "Yantai beer Yantai beer Yantai beer"), a clear spirit stuff which could probably propel a car if you put it in the fuel tank, and this funny port stuff, which was actually quite nice. I've never eaten so many odd things in my life! In that one night I had beef, chicken and button (all fairly normal), I also had lots of vegetable dishes, BUT I also tried Donkey mead, dog meat and chicken feet! Donkey meat was nothing to shout about, like rather chewy beef with a bit more flavour. Dog meat was very nice, full of flavour, very tender, and not at all gristly. I can't say I enjoyed the chicken feet much.



After the meal, all the students (including me) went to the leisure room, played some cards and had a good chat. We occasionally went outside to ;ight our little fireworks that we bought.



At midnight, our little firecrackers were put to shame by Mr Wu, who lugged out these huge crates of fireworks of all shapes and sizes, and started setting them off. He stopped lighting them after about an hour solid, because he was TIRED!


The feast



Sunday 26th, aka Sunday 1st





The next day, Mr.Wu saw me and another student walking around setting off the little fireworks we bought, he told us to wait there, and scurried off to an outbuilding. He came back a few minutes later, arms laden with big fireworks, with another man beside him, also with the same amount. They loaded them into our arms smiled and waved and off they went again, us xie xie-ing them until they were out of sight. We had so much fun with them!







This is the remenants of a fraction of the fireworks set off at the school. The sets of larger tubes you can see come up to over my waist. The red stuff under the trees are millions of tiny scraps of paper from long strings of grasshopper fireworks

Thursday 22 January 2009

Blog proper. Catching up.

Friday 15th, Arrive into the school, feeling as sick as a dog after two days of travelling with less than 1 hour's sleep in total.
I got sat down in the room beside the kitchen, huge platters of food everywhere. I resolved to grin and bear it, eat what I could and fall into bed. The cook came out of the kitchen with a bottle of stong spirit, and jokingly (though I didn't detect the joke) offered me some. I agreed, thinking it would be a good idea to wake myself up a bit and seem like a good guest. I was met with astonished faces all 'round (there were kitchen staff and sifus's families in the room too).
The translater took me aside and explained that people of my age don't usually drink in China. I (slightly confusedly) said that I read there was no legal drinking age in China, to which she replied that this was true, but it is not customary for them to drink. She asked if people my age drank in Ireland (the country's reputation obviously not preceding itself), and after a short conversation, I was again seated, this time with a brimming glass of volatile red spirit.
Everywhere I looked, there were more and more nausiating images, from the plate of fatty something-or-others, to the mounds of Chicken feet, complete with skin etc., to my barely touched flagon of ethanol, finally settling on all the expectant faces, eager for my appraisal of their cuisine.
After a series of excrutiatingly awkward events, I was slumped in my bed, not caring to take off clothes or turn off the light.
The next morning (Sat 16th) fared much better. I walked around outside for a bit, meeting some students on the way. Robin, one of the students (who had also left a bottle of water outside my door for me) offered to give me a tour of the 'campus', which I accepted gratefully. There I met the rest of the students. The rest of the day was spent strolling around, emailing home, and taking a walk to the local village, Yu lin dian, with Robin and Hillary ( refer to email for names etc.)
Sunday 17th contained no spectacular occurrences, although Tui Na (massage) class was rather odd. It had me massaging the then complete strangers, and them returning the favour.
(more soon)

Test and introduction

Testing, testing, one two one two, t, two, TWO *taptaptap*

Hello!


I'd like to start by saying that if you don't know me, don't bother reading this.

It is much harder for you to write a stupid comment than it is for me to delete it.
Aaaanyway.


I'm in china (see arrow)
I'm studying Baguazhang in kunlun mountain international kung fu school (yantaikungfu.com)
For photos, click on the 'forum' header on that website.
Actual blog to start soon...