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Peru

korric — Sun, 9 Jun 2024 21:35:00 GMT

A week in Egypt

korric — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 18:14:00 GMT

An acquaintance and I decided to book a guided tour to Egypt. I've never used a tour agency before, as I generally prefer to go it on my own or with friends. That way we can explore off the beaten path and see things that a tour doesn't include. Of course I want to see the touristy things, but I also want to find street food vendors that serve questionable dishes. For Egypt, however, the things that I would want to see are so spread apart from each other (Cairo and Aswan would require either an additional flight between them or a 14 hour drive) and what I had read about Egypt gave me the impression that it would be difficult to navigate on my own for a few reasons. Also, the tour package we used was clearly much more cost-effective than anything that I would have been able to arrange on my own.

The great part was that it was inexpensive for what we were getting. The not-so-great part was that I was visiting Egypt in the middle of the summer. I am from the Nordic Wastes of Massachusetts, USA, and was going to enter the Scorched Lands of Egyptian Summer.

I teach high school maths, including geometry, for a living. This involves teaching 10th graders how to determine volumes and surface areas of things like prisms, cylinders, cones, and pyramids. Apparently Egypt is pretty well known for some geometric structures, and in Giza I got to see three structures that looked very much like some of the models that I use in the classroom. These ones, however, were a little bit bigger than my models, and struck me as impractical for use in a geometry class. We also got to see a big statue of a lion with a human head, or maybe it was a human with a lion's body.

They pyramids and sphinx at Giza were, of course, awesome.

Our tour group consisted of me, my travel partner, and a British family consisting of a couple and their 4 children (all in their late teens). Of the 8 of us, I was the only one who wanted to enter the Pyramid of Khufu. Turns out that the British couple had both been to Egypt several times before, so they had been there done that. I had been warned that it would be hot and stuffy inside, but how could I visit Egypt and not enter a pyramid? So yes, it was hot and stuffy inside, and there was quite a line of people going in and out of a cramped tunnel that led to the King's Chamber. The entrance into the chamber was a square opening that seemed to be a little over 1 meter square. After a quick look around the King's Chamber, I then turned back to exit the pyramid. The temperature outside was about 98F/37C, and it felt wonderfully cool after being inside the pyramid. After the pyramids and sphinx, we were shuttled to Cairo to visit the Egyptian Museum, where we spent most of that day. Tons of sarcophogi, mummified remains, and various other artifacts that had not been taken to the British Museum. This included some of the artifacts from Tutenkhamen's tomb, and the sarcophagus of Akhenaten. Akhenaten's face was defaced and his cartouche was destroyed - the ultimate post-mortem "screw you."

After returning to the hotel, I decided to go for a walk to explore on my own. Seeing me preparing to cross a busy road, a kind Egyptian man approached and explained to me the correct method of crossing the streets; he held my hand and instructed me to move when he does. Crossing the streets in Cairo and Giza is taking your life in your own hands. Traffic lanes and signs have no meaning. We crossed the street the same way you would in Frogger, running in spurts and occasionally standing between two cars as they pass to either side of you until you reach the other side of the road. I expected him to request baksheesh, but after crossing he promptly turned around and went back. On the return trip, I got to apply my newly learned skills on my own, and I survived.

That was the first two days of a week in Egypt.

The rest of the trip involved visiting sites including The Valley of Kings, the ancient city of Thebes, the Colossi of Memnon, Horus’s temple of Edfu, and several other temples. There were also a few days of cruising along the Nile, stopping daily to disembark and explore temples and other sites. We traveled to the temple of Isis at the Isle of Philae by felucca boat. The temple of Rameses at Abu Simbel was amazing; seeing the statues in pictures is one thing, but looking up at them in person is just awesome. If hieroglyphs were to be believed, Ramses II was responsible for everything Egypt. You see, if something was accredited to a prior pharaoh, Ramses had that pharoah's name defaced and his own name superimposed over it. He took credit for everything, even things that occurred before he was born. The British man with us, Steve, referred to Ramses II as the ancient Egyptian version of Trump.

After returning to Cairo near the end of the trip, we visited the citadel of Saladin and the Blue Mosque.

On the second to last day, I went exploring to try to find something like street food. I did find a roadside hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It was yummy, and as the man working there spoke some English, we hung out talking for about an hour.

At the temple of Hatshepsut, I asked Steve to film me bear crawling backwards up the ramp ascending the temple so that I could show it off to my kung fu brothers back home. This attracted a lot of attention from onlookers; fortunately, I am an attention whore. Everyone else returned to the bus before I did as I wanted to explore more. When I did return to the bus, my travel partner informed me that the family was very impressed with the bear crawl and had dubbed me "Kung fu Korric." It was one of those moments in which I looked way more badass than I really am.

For most of trip the temperatures were around 102F/38C, which wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. One excursion mid-trip that was less grand, but really enjoyable to me, was when we were driven a couple of hours through a barren desert that was reminiscent of Tatooine. Along the way, we stopped by a coffee shop that was in the middle of nowhere, and it was just really cool being at this rest area in the middle of the desert.

A notable thing in Egypt is baksheesh. Tipping is extremely common in Egypt. Whenever anything is done for you, a tip is expected. This is baksheesh. If an Egyptian offers to take a picture for you and you accept, baksheesh is expected and requested. Haggling is a big part of shopping in Egypt. After I purchased some things from one merchant, that merchant asked if he could take a picture of him with me. He took the picture, and I then jokingly said, "Baksheesh?" He laughed and gave me a one Egyptian pound coin (this was the equivalent of about 4 cents USD).

The flight back to North America was over 10 hours. I had never watched The Last of Us. I played both of the games, which were amazing, so I spent the 10 hour flight watching the entire season of the show.

Photos: Egypt

korric — Wed, 2 Aug 2023 22:11:00 GMT

Photos: Japan

korric — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:28:00 GMT

Kung Fu in China: Nearing the End

korric — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 20:34:00 GMT

When I first arrived at the temple, I was feeling like I lacked direction. For eight months, I had studied Mantis kung fu at Kunyu Shan. When Qu Sifu left, I went over to Xu Shifu, where I was introduced to some Shaolin basics. After I learned these basics, Xu Shifu began teaching me rope dart at my request. Although Juan from Mexico did teach me some basics with rope dart last year, I neglected practicing it throughout the winter, so I was pretty much starting over, and I was only able to practice rope dart for two weeks before leaving for Henan. Here, I initially spent most of my time reviewing Mantis forms and Shaolin basics, with Shifu coaching me to improve my Mantis techniques. Shifu Yan Jun is familiar with Mei Hua Fist and Shaolin Mantis - he is a 17th generation Mei Hua Master in addition to a 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk - but he is not familiar with Mei Hua Mantis, although his input was valuable in improving my Mantis forms. He is also unfamiliar with the rope dart. I'm much less interested in Shaolin Mantis than I was in Mei Hua Mantis, but I felt that I needed to pick a style to focus on to feel like I had a direction in my training. After some rumination, I concluded that Mantis and Snake would be very complementary, so I told Shifu that I was interested in learning Snake. I enjoyed learning the form at first, but then lost all interest in the form when we came to a part in which one basically does the breakdancing worm movement. I chose to study kung fu more for fitness and art than for fighting, but I have to feel that there is some realistic application in order to take the form at all seriously. Abandoning Snake, I then joined a couple of advanced students in learning a Dragon form, which seemed pretty intense at first, but then it came to a move in which we spread our arms out and take a few steps in a semi-circle, looking much like a child's attempt to emulate an airplane. I've been impressed with the Tiger form he teaches, but at this point, with only two more weeks remaining, it is not realistic for me to begin learning another Shaolin animal form, so I will just continue to practice the forms that I already know, having no interest in continuing with the Snake or Dragon forms. An advanced Wing Chun student here has also been teaching me a Wing chun dummy form, having already taught me Wing chun basics, and I do like the Shaolin Hua Gun form. The latter is short, however, and I finished it weeks ago, so the final two weeks feel more like I'm just waiting to leave.

The training here is good, but less intense than at Kunyu Shan. On the upside, my agility has improved quite a bit over the past few weeks due to the more systematic approach Shifu has to the weekly acrobatics class. Also, Shifu is really good about allowing students to focus on their primary interests of Forms, Sanda, or Tai Chi. I do all three, but as my primary focus is on forms, I do less Sanda here than I did at Kunyu Shan.

Every Friday, we ascend the stairs up the mountain to Damo cave and beyond to a 12 meter high Buddha statue atop the mountain's peak, this being over 1200 stairs. We go up and down these stairs three times, so we're climbing well over 3000 stairs.

The group has doubled in size since I arrived; we are now up to 20 students, so Shifu brought his brother in to help train.

One rainy morning in June, Shifu asked us if we would like to watch a kung fu movie in lieu of that morning's training. Of course, everyone said yes, so we gathered what movies we had available on our computers and the majority chose The Man With The Iron Fists. Shifu started watching it with us, and during the first fight scene he pointed to the screen and exclaimed, "Tai Chi!" After about a half hour into the movie, however, he left to go do something else while the rest of us continued watching the movie. I suspect that his departure was because he didn't know what was going on in the movie as he speaks little English.

We also formed up a half an hour earlier one morning so that we could observe the Shaolin temple monks performing their morning prayers and chants. It was about an hour long.

On a whim, I asked Shifu yesterday if I could run to Deng Feng in lieu of the normal afternoon training. Deng Feng is where many students go on Saturday to shop and eat, and we normally take a bus there as it is 16km away. My plan was to run there and then take the bus back. When I reached Deng Feng, I ran to the Bank of China near the bus stop as it is a familiar landmark for me and I wanted to make sure I was well into Deng Feng, but I then had a Forrest Gump moment and just continued to run back to the temple. I kept a steady pace and ran non-stop from the temple entrance gate to Deng Feng and back, totaling 32km/20miles, so I almost accidentally ran a marathon. It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes. I have never run that kind of distance before, and Feiyues are very poor running shoes, so I'm feeling it my legs and feet today. Still, I'm glad that I did it. I need the occasional overachievement to feel like I'm compensating for the times that I feel lazy.

I have two more weeks left in China, after which I will be flying to Japan for a week, and I will then return to the U.S.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Forty-One to Forty-Three

korric — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:29:00 GMT

I've now been in Henan for three weeks. It's very touristy here at the temple, and normally one must pay a fee to enter the temple area, but we are given student cards which allow us free ingress, and we were shown a side entrance to the temple itself to bypass the tourist lines. The environment here is, naturally, very different from that of Kunyu Shan. There are about 10 laowai students at this school, as opposed to about 70 at Kunyu Shan. At Kunyu most everyone wore workout clothes, but here we wear Shaolin robes. The Shifu here is Shi Yan Jun, a 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk. We also have Sun Shifu, who is the Tai Chi instructor, and he looks like Pai Mei. Early morning we have an hour and a half of meditation, chigong, and tai chi. Later in the morning we have two and half to three hours of training, and in the late afternoon we have two hours of training.

While visiting the temple, several tourists asked to take their pictures with me. I decided, on a lark, to also take a pic of the tourists with me on my camera whenever this happens. After about an hour at the temple, I had a collection of 33 pics of Chinese tourists who had requested to take pictures with me. Westerners really are a novelty around here.

On the way out to go to Deng Feng with Joe from England, a couple of tourists stopped us and asked if we spoke English. They were relieved when we said yes, and they then asked if we were on our way into Shaolin Temple. We responded that we live there and are on our way out. It was amazing to them that we were living there.

My first Friday here, Shifu wanted us all to test in forms of our choosing. I chose Cha Quan, which was the first Mantis form that I learned after the Mantis basics form, but it is also one of my least practiced. I also tested 24 step Tai Chi, which is the only Tai Chi form I that ever learned in full. Shifu said my Mantis was very good and that my Tai Chi was not good. He also said I was the best American student he has ever had, to which the other American student in the class expressed mock indignation.

During one power training session, Shifu challenged us to try two-finger pushups. Most of the students either couldn't do even one or didn't try, but Jeremy from France did 10, Mike from Ireland did 15, and Juan from Mexico did 20. Juan was feeling pretty good until I demonstrated Jeremy's pushups, which were very well done, lowering himself to the ground, then Mike's, which were about half-way down, and then Juan's, in which he only slightly lowered his body. I then did 15 the way Jeremy did, at which Shifu exclaimed, "Number One!" Of course I only speak of this one challenge, as I came in last in a couple of other challenges that day.

During power training last week, Mike from Ireland ran three of us through one of his workouts. Mike is a former MMA fighter with over 30 years martial arts experience and over 150 professional fights of which he won over 110. He no longer fights; he now trains MMA fighters. His workout was absolutely brutal.

Unlike the Shifus at Kunyu Shan, Shifu enjoys sparring with students sometimes. He is really good and doesn't have anything to prove, so he likes to have fun. Last week I did some light sparring with him. His punches and kicks are lightning fast and strong, but his grappling isn't as good as his strikes, so I grappled with him and got him in a full guard. On the way down, however, Shifu's knee landed where I didn't want it to, so I had to excuse myself from further sparring and work gently on forms, but not before I got Shifu to submit with a guillotine choke. Afterwards, Mike gave me some tips on how to better apply the choke to get my opponent to submit faster.

We also hiked up the mountain to Sanhuangzhai Monastery. It's a secluded Buddhist temple on Song Mountain. After hiking for about an hour, we could see the temple. It appeared inaccessible as it was built into the side of the mountain, but after about two more hours of hiking along mountain cliffs, we reached it.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Thirty-Nine and Forty

korric — Mon, 26 May 2014 09:50:00 GMT

In my last post I mentioned that I carried someone on my back up the temple run, but did not do so during the heavily staired portions so I felt like I hadn't pushed myself as much as I could have. The following Friday, I carried Kegan from Canada in a piggyback during the temple run, but this time I carried him the entire way, including up all of the stairs, so I felt more challenged and fulfilled when I was done. Master Xu was at Yanxia Cave and gave me a thumbs up when I reached the top.

During my last Sunday at Kunyu Shan I went to Nine Dragons Pools, which is about an hour and a half walk from Kunyu Shan. On the way back, a street vendor offered me a small sip of scorpion liquor. The bottle was about 60% full of dead scorpions, and entirely full of extremely potent alcohol. He was also selling live scorpions and explained that eating them is good for the joints. Of course I just had to eat a live scorpion to preemptively ensure that I don't develop any joint problems, so now I am infused with scorpion superpowers.

In the courtyard at Kunyu Shan there is a slab of stone that weighs about 150kg. A couple of people laid this slab on top of me while I was laying on my back, and Andre from Germany, who weighs about 80kg, then stood on the slab. 150kg stone + 80kg man = 230kg = 507lbs. A couple of days later, I figured I'd see just how much weight I could take. The first 150kg slab was placed on me, followed by two 55kg stones. At this point breathing was becoming a bit constricted and I decided to err on the side of caution and call it quits at 260kg, which is just over 570lbs.

I left Kunyu Shan Saturday afternoon and arrived in Henan Sunday morning. Today I begin my first day training Shaolin at the temple.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Eight

korric — Wed, 14 May 2014 19:35:00 GMT

Right before one of the afternoon training sessions, I saw Master Xu playing with a pair of sticks. Back home I am a fighter for a medieval recreation group called the Society for Creative Anachronism, in which I primarily fight with two swords. We don't use live steel; we use swords of rattan wood, so it's kind of like being hit with a baseball bat, but fortunately medieval armor is quite good at preventing injury. Now, Master Xu is often referred to as The Fridge by the students here, as he is built like a small refridgerator. He is very short, very squat, physically dense, extremely strong while equally agile, and we all recognize him as a total badass. In a moment of childish enthusiasm I grabbed two sticks from a shelf and brandished them as if challenging Master Xu, mostly expecting him to give me an amused grin and then ignore me, or possibly just ignore me altogether. To my surprise, he entertained me and came at me with his two sticks. Here I was about to fight two stick on two stick against The Fridge. I was very careful to hit him very lightly as my next of kin would have had to be notified if I were to hit him too hard, but I did surprisingly well. I was able to block or dodge all of his strikes to my body, and although he hit me a few times on the knees and shins, I was hitting him on the torso and neck. I call that a win. He was not holding back as much as I was, although he was clearly holding back, so I was still in more pain than he was.

A few of us took a walk to a nearby waterfall. On the way, we saw some piles of bricks, so we grabbed a few as none of the other three had ever tried breaking a brick before. When we reached the waterfall each of the other three tried breaking a brick. Two succeeded, one did not. Having already broken one recently, I tried stacking two bricks and breaking them together. I succeeded in doing so, so next time I'll have to try three. I heard of one student who is no longer here breaking four at once. Maybe one day...but for now I'll be happy if that I could break three without breaking my hand.

One Friday, Master Xu let us know that he would be away that weekend and would not be back in time for the morning training sessions that Monday. He announced to the class that he wanted me to run the morning training sessions while he was gone. This was surprising, as I am so new to the group. There is one student in the group that is newer than me, but everyone else in the group has been doing Shaolin for longer than I have. The first morning session was Shaolin basics, so it wasn't terribly complex, and the second was forms, in which each student could work independently on whatever forms they were working on, so I couldn't fail too terribly, but I really think he has more faith in me than I deserve as I don't know Shaolin basics as well as the other students in our group. I did, however, take it as a great compliment from Master Xu.

To challenge myself last week during the temple run I was planning on carrying Jamie from Australia on my back while she carried a log. I asked someone to arrange to have the log brought to the temple as I didn't want Jamie or me to have to carry it up to the temple, given the challenge we were about to undertake. Firstly, nobody brought the log. Secondly, Jamie was delayed in getting there because of circumstances beyond her control. So, I asked Nicholas from South Africa if I could carry him on my back to the top of the run. He obliged and I carried him up to Yanxia cave. I was quickly thankful that nobody brought the log as it was a long walk to be carrying someone uphill the entire way. I did not carry him up the heavily staired portions, so I only actually carried him about two-thirds of the way. It was challenging and my legs felt like jelly by the end of it, but afterwards I didn't feel like I had challenged myself as much as I could have.

On May 3rd there was a kung fu competition at Yangma Island in which thirteen of us from Kunyu Shan competed and I performed the Mantis form, Ba Yuan To Tau. We were the only non-Chinese competitors there. After our school performed, we all went into town to shop and eat. We didn't stick around for the rest of the competition as we had already been there all morning while other schools performed and there were still a lot of schools yet to perform so it was going to be an all day affair. Watching the Chinese perform the same form I was going to perform was a little intimidating. Five days later the placings were announced. They handed out third place medals and then second and then first. As they were announcing the first place medals I hadn't been called up for third or second, so I realized that I hadn't placed, until they called my name for a first place medal. It felt pretty darned good, coming in first place at my first ever kung fu competition.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six

korric — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 22:44:00 GMT

When I first arrived at Kunyu Shan, there were a few students that really impressed me with some of the feats they did. They seemed to push themselves and do things that were physically very challenging just for the intrinsic challenge of doing so. I admired those students and used them as role models to push myself harder. I knew that I would never be one of those students as I can be lazy and don't care to push myself too hard, but if I kept those models in mind I would improve and not be a slacker. An example was that, in my first month here, I saw these students carrying a tire or the log from the Wing Chun hall up during the temple run, so I tried it also. I haven't seen anybody do this since a couple of months after I arrived, so I decided to do so last Friday.

I grabbed the log and carried it to the temple, where I proceeded to carry it up to Yanxia Cave while also wearing a 15kg/33lb weight vest. During this, one of the other students saw me and exclaimed, "You're a badass!" Other comments I heard during this were that I was "impressive,"crazy," and "hardcore." When I reached the top, Master Xu took the log from me and set it in the crooks of his elbows, then straightened his arms with sufficient force to project the log through the air to his hands, then projected it back to the crooks of his elbows from which he then repeated the process several times. He then gave the log back to me and I duplicated this excercise, expecting to fail, but it was easier than it looked so I also repeated it several times. Next, he took the log in the crooks of his elbows again, stood facing me, and straightened his arms with sufficient force to project the log over his hands and into the crooks of my elbows. I then duplicated his actions to project the log back to him, and we repeated this excercise, tossing the log back and forth to each other several times. During this excercise, several students who had reached the cave were gathering in a group watching Master Xu and me. Between this demonstration and the student calling me a badass, I realized that I have indeed become one of those students that I looked up to when I first arrived. It was an interesting realization.

I've now been in Master Xu's group for two weeks. I went from being a senior Mantis student to a Shaolin noob. Master Xu seems much more haphazard in his teaching methods, whereas Master Qu was very systematic. Some highlights of my first two weeks of training in the new group were me remaining standing upright while Master Xu used a three foot long log as a battering ram against my stomach to condition it, and my doing a butterfly stretch with Master Xu standing on my knees and bouncing up and down until my knees touched the ground although they never had before. One student said that I am the only student that cries out for more during power stretching, which isn't actually true as Welsh Ian also cries out to be pushed as much as possible during power stretching, but in any case Master Xu appears to have latched on to this and seems to get amusement out of inflicting pain on his students. During some punching drills, he used a wooden stick to smack my arms to indicate that it wasn't quite right. During some applications, he had a few students yell out in pain when he demonstrated a technique. He isn't malicious; it's his teaching method although there is certainly an element of schadenfreude in his teaching.

On April 15 I graded for the second time, this time performing the form Ba Yuan To Tau, which translates to White Ape Steals Peach. I got an 8.61, which is better than the 8.49 I got when I performed Luen Jia four months ago, but not good enough to put me in the top three (which ranged from 8.67-8.77). I need to practice the form more as I intend to perform it for a competition in Mouping on May 3rd.

For a while I had intended to try breaking a brick with my hands and finally got around to it last week. There are two ways we try to break them here: with the palm or with the outer ridge of the hand. The ridge is considered the more difficult way to do it, so I had been focusing my conditioning on the outer ridges of my hands for some time now. On April 20 I grabbed a pair of bricks and walked up to the temple alone so that there wouldn't be any witnesses should I fail to break a brick, and set up a camera to film my attempts. There were a couple of Chinese girls at the pagoda I was doing it at so there were still witnesses afterall, but I did succeed and had one of the girls film me breaking the second brick. The three goals I had originally set for myself last September were

1. Drop from 82kg/180lbs to 72kg/160lbs. I reached 71kg this past March.
2. Break a brick with my hands. Done last week.
3. Run all the way to the temple without stopping. I did this the month after I arrived at Kunyu Shan.

I gave myself the year to accomplish these three goals, and have done so in eight months. I had also spontaneously added bearcrawling the temple run and succeeded in accomplishing that as well. I know that I have accomplished a great deal in furthering my physical abilities as well as my ability to push myself harder, but my skills are another matter entirely and I still have a lot of work to do before I'm even a mediocre martial artist.

Kung Fu in China Week Thirty-Four: Beijing Vacation

korric — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 13:26:00 GMT

I took a fifteen-hour train ride to meet up with the lovely Nicole for a week-long vacation together in Beijing. While exploring Beijing we ate snakes, scorpions, and starfish. The scorpions were surprisingly delicious, but the starfish was certainly not. We also met an artist, Shiaochen, who was visiting Beijing for a few days for an art showing. We purchased a painting from him along with a scroll of Chinese calligraphy that he threw in for us.

That Tuesday we took a bus to the Juyong Guan section of the Great Wall and hiked the Wall from there. The most touristy section of the Wall is Badaling, but there were still a lot of tourists at Juyong Guan. I really felt like all of my training was paying off, seeing the difficulty many people were having hiking the wall. The stairs on the Wall are steep at some parts; many of the people only went up about halfway to the apex, and several stopped and sat on the stairs to rest. I suspect that, had I visited the Wall eight months ago, I also would have wanted to stop to rest at times, but at this time I found the walk easy and Nicole and I continued nonstop to the apex. It was amazing to hike such a culturally iconic and ancient part of history.

Before I left for Beijing, my roommate, Rasmus from Denmark, suggested that I make it a point to vist the Summer Palace, so Wednesday we took the subway to Beigongmen station and walked to the Summer Palace from there. I am glad that I took his suggestion, as The Summer Palace was amazing. It was architecturally and naturally beautiful, and the views from some of the taller buildings were exquisite. It's a huge site; we spent about six hours walking the complex and could have spent more time exploring but that much of it was closing at 5:30pm. On the way back, we caught the subway in Beijing during rush hour, which was as fun as it sounds.

Thursday we walked to the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. Normally I prefer to do things on my own and not with a tour guide, but The Forbidden City was extremely crowded with tourists, so we hired a guide who knew where to go to circumvent the crowds while still exploring the city. It was definitely worth bringing him along as he was also very knowledgeable of the history and layout of the city. While not as visually impressive as the Summer Palace, it was very impressive nonetheless, and historically more significant.

I have found that the Chinese are as fascinated by martial arts as Westerners are. Like in America, most Chinese care little about martial arts and know little about them outside of entertainment media, and only a small minority practice Kung Fu, but the Chinese find it interesting when they meet a martial artist. In China it's particularly interesting to encounter an American studying Kung Fu in China. While I was visiting a jade shop, one of the employees asked how long I was in China for. When I explained that I have been studying Kung Fu in Shandong province for the last eight months, he dropped any professionalism and asked to take pictures of me doing Kung Fu poses. Being the attention whore that I am, I obliged him.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Thirty-Two and Thirty-Three

korric — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 22:04:00 GMT

"If you don't love bubblewrap, you're dead inside." - Kirsten from Denmark

I am 5'11"/180cm, and was 180lbs/82kg when I arrived at Kunyu Shan. My goal was to hit 160lbs/72kg. I weighed myself on 3/26. I was 71kg/157lbs, so I celebrated by eating a Snickers bar.

I'm planning on transferring to the Shaolin temple in May. I will be switching from Mantis to Shaolin because the temple doesn't teach Mantis. It will be a very different experience as the temple only has about 12-14 students at a time, whereas the sister school here at Kunyu Shan normally has about 70. I'm told that the facilities at the temple are inferior to those at Kunyu Shan and the lifestyle there is more simple, but it's a more intimate setting and even harder training with the small group. There will be some trade offs. Kunyu Shan is like a Kung Fu university; there are several styles of Kung Fu available here: Mantis, Shaolin, Wing Chun, Bagua, Xingyi, Baji, et al. At Kunyu Shan I've been able to learn a little BJJ and Krav Maga from other students here who hold classes on their own, and I don't think there will be such opportunities at the temple. Kunyu Shan is an excellent training facility with all the training equipment one could want including heavy bags, stretching bars, weights, and a sparring ring. The temple is for Shaolin only and it doesn't have the modern workout equipment that we have at Kunyu Shan. As the temple has far fewer foreign students, however, it is culturally much more Chinese and I look forward to that. I will train at the temple for at least one month. If I like it there I will remain for a total of three months; if not I will return to Kunyu Shan for my last two months.

Mantis group has been fragmenting since the new Sifu took over. There are several contributing factors to this, but many Mantis group students are moving to other groups or transferring to our previous Sifu Qu Hai's new school. Aussie Alex and I have requested to be accepted into Master Xu's Shaolin group. Xu Sifu turned down the last student from our group that asked to train under him, so we were a little nervous. As we approached Xu Sifu, Alex, who is ex-Australian Army Special Forces and not generally intimidated by much, expressed that he was intimidated by the idea of asking Xu Sifu to joing his group, because Xu Sifu is just that scary. Fortunately, Xu Sifu accepted both of us. There was another Sifu I had as a backup who I am confident would have welcomed me into his group if Xu Sifu had not accepted me, but I'm relieved that I got my first choice. He's a lot of power in a small package and has a great sense of humor while still remaining intimidating to most of us. I intend to train under him for only about six weeks before transferring to the Shaolin temple, but I look forward to learning what I can from him in the short time that we have.

Week Thirty-Two we did the Big Mountain Run for the first time in several months, although it is more a hike than a run. It was really windy but a pleasant hike nevertheless and, as usual, several of us took advantage of the opportunity to take some pictures at the top of the mountain. My pubu is too high in this one, but the backround is awesome.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Twenty-Nine to Thirty-One

korric — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 14:15:00 GMT

Power Training on week 29:
Me: It could be worse, guys. I can think of at least one thing worse than doing this.
Other students: What's that?
Me: ...
Me: ...
Me: ...
Me: Sorry, I was wrong. There isn't anything.

Qu Sifu has left Kunyu Shan to open another school. I believe he was one of the original Sifus when the academy opened up eleven years ago. The new Mantis master is Yu Sifu. I like him, and he has over 30 years of experience teaching Kung Fu, but it is a little different style of Mantis and in some ways feels like starting over. He laughs like Pai Mei, however, so he's obviously well qualified.

Friday on week 29 I sparred Jonathan from Canada. He's a strong puncher, so I figured I'd rely on my takedowns. Try as I might, I could not get him to the ground. I tried to sweep him a few times, and each time he was able to time it to shift his weight to his other leg before I could complete the sweep. We discussed it afterwards and he said that he knew to watch for that from me and was prepared for it. He threw a few kicks, most of which I was able to block, dodge, or trap. A trapped kick is also a great opportunity for a takedown, one which I don't get the chance to try often enough because I'm terrible at trapping kicks. This time I got the opportunity but I failed to pull it off. I watched a video afterwards and saw why. Without getting into boring detail I'll just say that I have to work on my follow up after catching a kick. He also tried to take me down a few times, but he was not able to do so either. It ended up being mostly a punching game, and we were really evenly matched, both landing some really good shots. Overall, I feel disappointed by my performance, although I probably shouldn't because it was such an even match. I'm not great at Sanda, but I still feel that I should have been able to do better. My punching was better than I expected, but my takedowns were ineffective.

On week 31, during the Friday mountain run, I decided to bear crawl up to the cave backwards, feet-first, like I did up the temple stairs in the past. It is probably the most difficult thing that I have done since I arrived here, and I believe that I am the second person to do this in the history of the academy. The first was Ismael, who is about 132 lbs of lean muscle. He did it a few months ago and completed the journey in about 45 minutes, whereas it took me over an hour. I asked him for any tips, and he told me that I will very soon regret doing it, but to just keep going. One thing that struck me during it was the support of the other students. Of course there were several exclamations along the lines of "That's crazy!" and "Dude, I could never do that!" but there were also a lot of "All right Korric!" and "Jaio!" (go/come on/do it!). A couple of students offered me water; one ran down to the bottom to get a drink for me and bring it back up. By the time that I was finished with about two thirds of it, everyone else was pretty much done with the temple run, but a couple of them came to stay with me to the end for moral support.

Once each week during training we do conditioning, in which we train our bodies to be able to withstand impact. We do this by punching, slapping, and kicking various parts of each other's bodies. A thing going on around here is "surprise conditioning," which is simply unexpectedly punching someone. Good times.

It is common for students of Kunyu Shan to have a tailor in Mouping make custom kung fu suits for us. Alex from Canada, the quintessential class clown although he does take the training very seriously, had done so. He is leaving Kunyu Shan next week, so we had a photo shoot for him in his fabulous new outfit.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Twenty-Six to Twenty-Eight

korric — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 09:41:00 GMT

The weather's getting warmer, so training is increasing in intensity. It's still a little chilly out at times, but much warmer than a month ago. Normally, during power training on Wednesdays, among other things we do one-legged hops, frog jumps, and duck walks up the small hill in front of the school, and we bear crawl down the hill each time. It's not fun. Now that it's warmer, last week we all had to run up the mountain to the temple. Once we reached the temple, we then descended back down the hill partway, and then had to continue from there up and down the hill four more times, which is worse than it sounds. Then we had to do the hops, duck walks, frog jumps, and bear crawls up and down this hill several times. This hill is much longer and much steeper than the hill in front of the school. Everyone was in quite a bit of pain by the end of the training.

Normally on Friday afternoons we go up and down the stairs to Yanxia Cave several times. For the past month or so, I have instead been running to the base of Kunyu Mountain and back. For one, the stairs had become monotonous after several months. For another, I liked going off on a run by myself, just getting lost in my own head. I generally like being around people, and everyone's great here, but it's also nice to be able to occasionally get away from everyone and be in my own world without anyone else around. So, I asked Qu Sifu if I could run to Kunyu Shan instead of the usual stairs. He was fine with that as it's about a 10km/6 mile round trip. Last week, however, a lot of other students chose also to run to the mountain instead of taking the stairs, which in part undermines my pleasure in the solitude of the run. Furthermore, the run was starting to lose it's novelty to me after doing it several weeks in a row, so this time I took the stairs to Yanxia Cave. Like I used to do when going up the stairs, I first ascended in Qi Lin stance the entire way up. I had forgotten how difficult it was. A returning student who was not here when I used to do this saw me and exclaimed, "That's hardcore, dude!" That made me feel good. The reason that I began doing this in the past was to train in preparation for the third Mantis form, which is predominantly performed in Qi Lin stance, and Qi Lin is a difficult stance to get used to. I have since completed that form, and I still find Qi Lin difficult. However, after I had finished my first ascent this past Friday, I realized that it was actually easier this time, and my legs felt less exhausted than when I had ascended in Qi Lin before. Yay, progress! My Qi Lin stace, however, still needs a lot of work.

A couple here from Canada often hosts a tea party for their friends on Friday nights and we sample various Chinese teas. This past Friday I brought along a strategy game called Hive and taught everyone how to play, and it was well-received. Another student brought a game of Chinese chess. He taught me to play and promptly thrashed me at it. It's not entirely unlike western chess, but there are some major differences which make it a novel change of pace if you enjoy chess. The pieces in Chinese chess are more limited in their movement so that it is a less strategically complex game, so I imagine it would get old faster, but again it is a fun change of pace from western chess. Sunday at lunch a student asked if I wanted to play a game of Hive, so we got together outside at 1230 to play, several other people joined us, and we continued to play until dinner time five hours later. It is a fantastic travel game. If you like chess, you'll probably like Hive. Hive, however, is much more portable and weatherproof so you can play it anywhere, and doesn't require the time investment that Chess does as the games are shorter.

One of the Shaolin masters here, Xu Sifu, is not allowed to leave China as he is a fundamental part of China's nuclear power program, having the ability to split the atom with his fists.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Twenty-Three to Twenty-Five

korric — Sun, 9 Feb 2014 22:57:00 GMT

Last week at Kunyu Shan:
Wing Chun student: I want to show you what I learned. Punch me in the face.
Shaolin student punches Wing Chun in the face.
Wing Chun: I meant do it when I'm ready.
Shaolin: You ready?
Wing Chun: Yes.
Shaolin punches Wing Chun in the face.
Wing Chun: Do it slowly.
Good times.

Wednesday night of week twenty-three, Kenny and Laura (the couple mentioned in the previous post) were leaving to continue their travels, so a group of fourteen of us got two taxi vans to go to Pizza Hut in Yantai for dinner. We normally live on Chinese food, so it's a treat to indulge in Western food on occasion. Now, Pizza Hut in the U.S. is generally really inferior pizza, but Pizza Hut in Yantai is really nice. The restaurant setting was decent and the food was good. After dinner we all went to Starbucks for coffee. While we were getting ready to board the taxis back, I went to quickly grab another coffee. It took longer than expected, and by the time I was done, everyone had left. Those in the first taxi assumed that I was with the group in the second taxi, and those in the second taxi assumed that I was with the group in the first taxi. So, I was stuck in Yantai. Go, me. Kenny and Laura were still in the Starbucks as they were to board a train later that night. I had already said goodbye to them, so they were a bit surprised to see that I had not left. Fortunately, Kenny had the address to Kunyu Shan in Chinese on his iPad to show a taxi driver and I took a taxi back to Kunyu Shan. The thing is, there was no way that I was going to return by 9:30pm at this point, and the gates close at 9:30. This would mean that I would have to climb over the gate to get in. One student did this earlier in my stay here, and when the motion detector came on while he was climbing over the gate the video camera caught it and he was staffed for it the next morning. Furthermore, when I advised my Sifu that I was going to Yantai that night, he said that I had to return by 9:00 pm. I knew that this was unlikely, but I figured at the time that I would return by 9:30. I got back to Kunyu Shan at 9:45, and the gate had not yet been closed, so I was able to get in without any issue. Sorry to disappoint, but there was no staffing. The following morning at breakfast, nobody even knew that I didn't get back in one of the taxis until I told them since each group assumed that I was with the other. Most were very apologetic; a couple of them gave me a little money to reimburse me for the greater cab fare as I had to take it myself, another bought me some sweets by way of apology. Nobody was to blame except perhaps my own impetuousness, but the gestures were appreciated.

Power stretching on Thursdays always involves a lot of cussing and Qu Sifu does have a fairly sadistic sense of humor about it; the more we yell the more he grins. Normal power stretching is a violation of the Geneva Convention, but this time it seemed that Qu Sifu really wanted to push us. The box split is a stretch in which I stand with my legs spread out, one student stands in front of me while I hold his arms for support, one student pulls outward on my left leg while one pulls outward on the right, and Sifu stands behind me pushing down on my waist. I do believe he got me down farther than I had gotten before, which isn't terribly far. I was yelling a bit, and yelled one of the few sentences I know in Chinese, which translates roughly to a threat to punch the recipient in the genitals. I got hit for that one.

That Saturday several of us went again to Yantai; I figured I'd take the risk again. We went to a shopping mall and a couple of us played the Chinese version of Dance Dance Revolution, called Dance Super Station. I used to play DDR quite a bit in the U.S., and didn't think that I'd like playing this one as the arrows were on the diagonals instead of the orthogonals, but I have to admit I'm even more impressed with this one than I was with DDR. It's the same concept as DDR, but in addition to different arrow placement, it has a center button, and four motion sensors for the arms on the orthogonals, so there are 9 sensors instead of DDR's 4. The addition of the arm movements makes it a lot more engaging although it also makes it more difficult. I expected to look much like an epileptic monkey, but apparently DDR skills do transfer reasonably to this game as I wasn't having any problems with it, although I stuck to the easier difficulties. Now, westerners invariably draw a lot of attention here; we're quite the novelty and it's not unusual for a Chinese person to ask to have their picture taken with a westerner. A westerner playing Dance Super Station competently drew a crowd of about thirty Chinese spectators. I was visible from the arcade entrance, and it appeared that people came into the arcade from the outside specifically to watch me play.

This past week one of the mantis students dislocated his finger. The following day a wing chun student broke his arm. It wasn't just a slight fracture, but a bone-piercing-the-flesh break. Another student here has been on crutches and unable to train for some weeks due to a broken ankle. Fortunately, we have an Australian student here who is also a nurse, and she has been a great asset throughout all of this. Unfortunately, she then dislocated her shoulder two days after the wing chun student broke his arm. It is said at times here that it is not a matter of if one will get injured, but a matter of when. Injuries were so prevalent that the Sifus decided to cancel Sanda sparring Friday to avoid the possibility of further injuries that week.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Twenty-One and Twenty-Two

korric — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 14:36:00 GMT

Another Mantis student, Ian, and I were practicing an application, and it wasn't quite right. We were doing something wrong but weren't sure what it was. He mentioned that there should be a manual. This application was part of a form that we were both familiar with, so I performed that part of the form and, in doing so, realized my mistake. In the form I step twice during this movement, whereas in the application I was only stepping once. I then performed the application while stepping twice and it went exactly as it should. The form is the manual. My respect for forms increased again.

Last weekend was a fellow student's birthday, so a group of us took a cab to Yantai for dinner. We went to Jackie's, which is a Western style restaurant. I had a pizza, which was more or less an American style pizza but not quite as yummy, but it was a nice change of pace from Chinese food. Afterwards we went to Druid's, an Irish pub, so that we could continue our immersive experience with Chinese culture. After this, four of us then went to a bathhouse. When we arrived at the bathhouse, the first thing we encountered was an attendant telling us that we were not welcome there because we didn't have Chinese identification and no, passports will not do. One of the students among us spoke Mandarin, so there was arguing back and forth for some time, culminating in the attendant speaking with whom I presumed to be his boss and then allowing us in. It was a public bathhouse in which you relax naked in a warm communal pool (female pool on one side of the building, male on the other,) after which there is a sleeping area where one can spend the night. The sleeping area was basically stadium seating with the seats being reclining sofas that were comfortable enough to sleep in. The bathhouse has showers to use afterwards and provided toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, soap, shampoo, and even pajamas to sleep in. There was some minor comedy in attempting to communicate naked with the Chinese attendants to find out where to get towels and pajamas. Naked pantomime at it's best.

The next morning, the one Chinese-speaking student of us wanted to stay at the bathhouse to get a massage, so she gave the other three of us instructions on how to catch the bus from Yantai to Mouping. We could then take a bus from Mouping to Kunyu Shan. We had to get on bus 17 to Jesco shopping mall and then take bus 61 from Jesco to Mouping. So three Kunyu students, Carlos, Abishek, and I, were off to catch the bus. Easy enough. We got on bus 17, but we weren't sure how far down Jesco was nor whether or not we would successfully identify it when we saw it. Carlos spoke with some university students on the bus who spoke English, and they told us where to get off to get to Jesco. We walked all over the place in the cold trying to find Jesco. At this point I'm going to interrupt the story.

I grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which is a peninsula which has a canal separating it from the mainland. Cape Cod is a very popular tourist destination during the summer months, and tourists often have to ask for directions to the tunnel through which they can drive underneath the canal to get back to the mainland. Now, driving around Cape Cod you can see that many vehicles have tunnel permits affixed to the bumper so that residents can freely use the canal tunnel. People on Cape Cod are often very helpful in giving directions to the canal tunnel, only there is no tunnel. It's a grand joke. Tunnel permits are novelties that can be purchased in most convenience stores on Cape Cod. If someone gives tunnel directions they're probably directions towards the ocean.

After way too much walking and never finding Jesco, I began to wonder if the students on the bus had given us directions to the canal tunnel.

Although we never found Jesco, we did eventually find a bus stop for bus 61. We got on the bus and prepared to be transported to Mouping. Once in Mouping, I could get us on a bus back to Kunyu Shan, so we were finally on our way. After riding the bus for a bit, smoke began pouring out from the rear right wheel-well. The bus driver pulled over and inspected the wheel-well and poured water around it. As this didn't solve the problem he then called someone on his mobile phone, and moments later the bus was evacuated. We were back to standing in the cold and wondering how we were going to get back to Kunyu Shan. Eventually, another bus 61 drove up, but it was full. The Chinese, however, would not let such a silly thing deter them. The bus stopped and opened its doors, and some of the passengers from the broken down bus got on the newly arrived bus, although the majority of them were smart enough to wait for another bus. Not us. We were packed in very tightly, and an attendant was literally shoving Carlos from outside of the bus to pack him in so that they could close the doors. This bus did successfully get us to Mouping, where we then got a bus to Kunyu Shan.

Friday of week twenty-two I sparred again, this time with Ismael from the Netherlands. Ismael is a very technical fighter and I had been looking forward to sparring with him for some time. I've really come to love the form, Luen Jia. This is the form that I mentioned as causing me to appreciate forms in my post on weeks fourteen through seventeen, and is also the form for which I was graded in December. There are some takedowns in Luen Jia, and I tried one during our sparring, resulting in applause from the audience and Ismael on the ground. I managed to take him down four times during the first round using this technique. I knew better than to go another round against Ismael; his endurance is legendary at Kunyu Shan, and I believe he is the only person in the history of Kunyu Shan to have bear crawled backwards up the mountain run path the entire way from the temple to Yanxia cave. He's a machine, but very few people were sparring that day and he needed someone to spar with, so I agreed to go a second round. I got the better of him round one, but he got the better of me round two, although I still managed to take him down once during the second round. I watched videos afterwards, and I'm really proud of how well I executed some of those takedowns. I got a ton of compliments from people about my sparring that day, but I feel like a one-trick pony. My takedowns are good, my punching is okay, and my kicking is terrible.

Yesterday a group of us went to Mouping for lunch to see off Kenny and Laura, a couple who will be leaving this week. Afterwards the seven of us went to an ice cream shop. One of the others was unable to finish his ice cream, so I finished it for him. This happened a few more times. I finished my ice cream and Kenny finished his, but I finished the ice cream of the five others, so I was in ice cream bliss.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Eighteen to Twenty: Downtime for the Holidays

korric — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 22:08:00 GMT

One of the students in Mantis group recently went home to the U.S., where he will return to his job as a karate instructor. There is a kata in his style that is not generally shown to outsiders, but he wanted to present a gift to his kung fu brothers on his last day here. The kata is not complete; the master who was teaching it died before he could teach the complete kata. The student performed it for us as far as it is known, and it was awesome. The five of us that got to see it are accustomed to seeing some pretty nice displays around here as we live in a martial arts school, but this one was really a treat.

Mantis group has always been small compared to the other groups here, but now there are only five of us. For perspective, I believe Wing Chun has about thirty students and Shaolin has about twenty-five. [Edit: after typing this, we got three new Mantis students this morning, although two of them will only be here for 4 to 6 weeks.]

Week Eighteen, during Tuesday forms training, Master Qu advised me that I am no longer a beginner student, and that he expects me to learn movements "perfectly." He said that when I don't get a stance correct he is going to kick me. I took this as a compliment.

The following Thursday we were visited by a group of soldiers from the Chinese Army. Master Qu told me that the school has a reputation for good kung fu and the soldiers were here to observe our kung fu. Two students were selected to perform in front of the soldiers. One of them, Russell from the U.K., performed a Shaolin tiger form, and the other, Korric from the U.S., performed a mantis form. The soldiers thought that I did well, but in reality I missed one movement in the form that I did. I realized it right as it happened, but I didn't pause or react in any way so nobody knew of my error. It was a minor mistake and I was hoping that Master Qu didn't notice, but of course he did and he spoke to me of it afterwards, telling me that I need to practice more. None of the current Mantis students knew the form in full except for me, so the only ones who knew that I missed a movement were me and Master Qu. Russell performed very well, and I was honored to be one of the two students selected to perform in front of the soldiers.

A couple of months ago I was thinking about where I wanted to travel to and what I wanted to do for the holidays. Between not wanting to spend much money and procrastinating on making a decision I ended up not booking anything, so I just spent the time here. On the week of Christmas we only trained Monday and Tuesday and had the rest of the week off, and that Tuesday's afternoon training was a snowball fight among the students rather than our usual afternoon training. I tried to get a group of students to rush a Sifu and pelt him with snowballs but everyone was afraid to, so I casually walked past an unsuspecting Sifu who didn't have a hat on - not Master Qu, one of the other groups' Sifu - and dropped a handfull of snow on the top of his head, and then I bravely ran away. He caught up to me and kicked me playfully, laughing all the while.

The night of Christmas Eve the school served a Christmas feast during which a Chinese Santa passed out candy, and afterwards there was a fireworks display and a bonfire.
The time off was a really good break for my body. I didn't realize that I needed the break until I took it. The following Monday I and other students noticed that our bodies felt more relaxed, our kicks were higher, and we felt more motivated.
New Year's Eve featured another feast and fireworks display, and that week also we only trained Monday and Tuesday and had the rest of the week off. I went to the cinema that week with a few other students and saw the only English movie there, Legendary, which was subtitled in Chinese. Terrible movie, but I will say that a movie in a Chinese theater is a much better experience than in an American one in that the audience is quiet during the movie.
The first week of being lazy was great, but after the second week I am so ready to return to training.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Fourteen to Seventeen

korric — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 01:39:00 GMT

We're doing more training inside the training hall now that the weather is getting colder. The heat is turned on now, so it's more bearable, but it's still generally a little chilly in the rooms.

Fridays we normally go up and down the stairs between Wudang Temple and Yanxia Cave. As the ground is now covered in ice and snow they deemed this unsafe, so today they had us run to the parking lot at the base of Kunyu Mountain. I walked for about 10 meters near the end, but otherwise nonstop running along the icy road took me about 40 minutes to reach the base. Going back was slower as it was downhill and I had to be particularly careful of the ice, although I still ran most of the way as it was far too cold to do otherwise. There's nothing to keep you running like cold weather. At the base of the mountain, a couple of us took advantage of the scenery to practice forms.

There are two students here who have reputations of being particularly good at Sanda, Amed from Egypt and Felix from Germany. Last week I asked Felix to spar. We both know that he's way out of my league but Felix is very good at toning it down to match the skill level of his opponent, and it would be a good training opportunity. I told Master Qu that I was sparring with Felix that Friday and he didn't think it was a good idea, so of course I did it anyways. To quote my master in the SCA, "Korric has always had more balls than brains." Felix got me with a really hard kick to the head. It wasn't a knockout, but it did make my knees buckle and the Sifu stopped the match. I watched a video of it afterwards and saw that I had dropped my left hand (I stand southpaw,) leaving my left side open for the kick. I'm sure I'll be much more attentive to my left guard in the future as I really don't want to be hit like that again. It isn't fun.

This week I sparred again, this time against Ian from Wales. He was scheduled to spar against me and then against Felix, despite our master trying to talk Ian out of sparring against Felix. Ian is quite good and normally performs much better than I do when sparring, but I definitely got the better of him in the ring today. This was the first time that we had sparred against each other and I think part of it may be that he was unaccustomed to sparring against someone who spars from a left-handed stance. Ian was scheduled to spar against Felix afterwards but the masters didn't want him to continue, so instead I sparred against Felix. Again, Master Qu advised against it, but I told him it will be good training to spar Felix again (again, more balls than brains). I tried to pay attention to my left guard this time but I dropped it again and Felix got me with the same kick to the left side of my head again. It wasn't as hard this time and the match continued, but it certainly wasn't a gentle caress either. I did much better against Felix this time although he did of course do better than I did.

At lunch, each table is set with a plate of sliced seasonal fruit; currently the fruits are apples. There are students who steal pieces of fruit from others' tables on the way to lining up for lunch. As the food here is not high quality and not very varied, fruit is valued and it is considered extremely rude to grab fruit slices from other tables. Recently, the Sifus spoke to their respective groups about why the students should not be doing this, so some students must have complained about this and rightfully so. A few days before this announcement, however, my table handled it in a different way. After consulting with the others at the table I normally sit at, the following day I poured a very strong wasabi oil on the apples at our table before I went to the lunch line. Sure enough, a passing student ate an apple slice from our table. It was amusing, and I suspect that he will not be doing that at our table again. I also caught a fellow student from Mantis group stealing an apple slice; in his case I chastised him as was appropriate with him being in my group.

I also did my first grading today. Once a month we have grading, in which any student who wishes may perform a form in front of all of the masters and students, and the masters judge the performance. It's optional, and most of the students here don't grade, but it's good practice and gives an idea of where one is at. I performed Luen Jia form. I got an 8.49 out of 10, which is much better than I expected as I had just completed the form last week.

I'm starting to understand the value of forms in Kung Fu. I've always found them beautiful, which is part of why I chose Kung Fu over other martial arts, but there are moves within forms that look nice but appear nonviable to me. In applications class a couple of weeks ago, a senior student was teaching me a certain application which struck me as practical and easy to perform. He then pointed out that this was a sequence of movements found in Luen Jia. This explains why it was easy to do; I had been doing this application for several weeks in the form without realizing it. Master Qu recently taught me another application that I quite liked, and it turned out to be a move sequence within Luen Jia that I had been previously convinced would never be viable in reality and had no purpose but for performance. I'm no longer so convinced. It's one thing when someone shows me how a particular movement in the form is applied while I'm learning it, and it doesn't always seem intuitive or practical to me. But when the application is taught as an application in isolation, it's very intuitive if my body is already in the habit of performing the movements because it's been practicing a form for several weeks. There are some minor differences and transitional movements in the forms for performances in some cases. For example, an arm may be positioned slightly differently in the form for appearance than it would be in actual application, or the hand may be in a more pronounced "Mantis hands" position than it would be in application, but these are minor differences that are easily adjusted between application and performance. It's interesting and gave me a new respect for forms as a very useful training tool. They're also still beautiful.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Twelve and Thirteen

korric — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:53:00 GMT

Some students here challenge themselves by bear crawling down the stairs in front of the temple. Thursday, four of us went to the temple to bear crawl the stairs, but three of us decided to try a variation for an added challenge. Instead of bear crawling down, we tried ascending the stairs in a backwards bear crawl, crawling backwards feet first up the stairs. Having started it, I was committed until I reached the top of the stairs, but I will say that I will not be doing that again. I am unusually afraid of heights and facing down the entire time was just plain scary for me. Nevertheless, I did it this once. One of the others also succeeded in reaching the top, one tried but was not able to, and one did not attempt it.

Week Twelve we hiked to the top of Kunyu Mountain. The last time we did this was my first week here, and it was a very difficult hike for me at that time. This time it was a pleasant hike, perhaps because I knew what to expect whereas the first time it seemed to go on forever as I had no idea how far it was. Of course, my physical condition should also be better after a few months of training here. It was still a challenge, but it was a pleasant challenge this time. I also noticed this time that most of the students did not hike to the top of the mountain. We have about 70 students here, and I'm estimating that about 30 hiked to the top. In a way this is disappointing, although I feel good that I was one of those who did.

One of the great things about this school is the diversity of martial arts backgrounds. Some people come here with no previous martial arts training, others have years of martial arts experience, and there are a few students here who are martial arts instructors in their home countries. Having this congregation of martial artists of such varying backgrounds provides an excellent opportunity for learning, and a few of the students here run informal classes for any other students who wish to attend. For example, one student teaches Tae Kwon Do every Sunday, another teaches Brazilian Jiujitsu during the break after lunch every weekday, another teaches Krav Maga every Thursday. I also found a student here who is a kickboxing instructor from Mexico and is also very skilled with the rope dart, so he is teaching me the use of the rope dart on the side. Having just learned some basics with the rope dart so far, I can say it's a particularly difficult weapon to learn as it is in constant motion, but it's a lot of fun and it's gratifying when I control it's motion correctly. However, like with other flexible weapons, it can be painful when learning new movements.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Nine through Eleven

korric — Sun, 3 Nov 2013 21:17:00 GMT

There is stance called Qi Lin which is rather strenuous to maintain, and it appears frequently in some Mantis kung fu forms, so I tried a little excercise to get myself accustomed to it. During the hike to Yanxia Cave on Friday of week nine, I tried ascending while remaining in Qi Lin stance. Of course, I promptly regretted my decision to do this, but having committed myself to it I continued this way until I reached the cave at the top. The following Monday my legs still felt a bit exhausted. I did it again the following week, which was also rather tortuous, but the following Monday I found that it was easier to do the stance during forms training. The Friday after that I did it again, and it was still strenuous, but this time my legs didn't feel like jelly after the ascent, so that's progress.

On week eleven I sparred in Sanda for the third time. It's generally a small minority of the students that spar, but this time there were only three pairings total. My opponent, Gertjan aka Gertie from Holland, had prior boxing experience and more reach but it was still a pretty even match. I managed to pull off a leg sweep when he tried to kick me, resulting in applause from the audience.

There is a tailor in Mouping, and many of the students here order custom kung fu pants from him. There are three particularly popular styles of these pants at the school: one is of red material with black dragons all over it, one is of black material with red dragons, and one is black material with black dragons. I ordered a long-sleeve kung fu uniform of the all-black dragon material. I also wanted to design a uniform with green mantises on it but the tailor had no such material, but he could embroider a mantis on it, so my roommate suggested an alternative of a single mantis. I gave the tailor a mantis design for him to embroider on the leg of the pants. The roommate and I both ordered a pair of pants like this; I also ordered a sleeveless kung fu top to go with it. Two weeks later we picked up our orders and wore the pants to training. We both received numerous compliments on our pants from other students and even from some of the Chinese translators, and one of the other mantis students promptly ordered some pants with the same mantis design. If I don't do well in kung fu maybe I'll consider clothing design.

I'd like to learn a flexible weapon form here, as I think this would be a great form of exercise. I find flexible weapons such as chain whips, rope darts, and nunchakus aesthetically appealling, but according to malegislature.gov, MA General Laws Part IV, Title I, Chapter 269, Section 10 states that the following are illegal to own, even in one's private residence, in my home state of Massachusetts.
"...nunchaku, zoobow, also known as klackers or kung fu sticks, or any similar weapon consisting of two sticks of wood, plastic or metal connected at one end by a length of rope, chain, wire or leather, a shuriken or any similar pointed starlike object intended to injure a person when thrown, or any armband, made with leather which has metallic spikes, points or studs or any similar device made from any other substance or a cestus or similar material weighted with metal or other substance and worn on the hand, or a manrikigusari or similar length of chain having weighted ends..."
Nunchakus would be the best for exercising due to their weight and compactness, but they are explicitly forbidden. Rope dart is certainly allowed as it is weighted at only one end, but it requires the most space of the three. Chain whip would be my preference, but I'm uncertain whether or not it would be covered by the above definitions. If anybody is aware of any provisions MA has for the use of such weapons for legitimate martial arts practice or any precedent indicating the prohibition or allowance of the chain whip, please direct me to where I may find such information. I would like to be able to practice outdoors as there simply isn't enough space to practice with any of these indoors.

It is getting chilly here. The dorms inside are often colder than the air outside where the sun can mitigate the chill somewhat. Apparently there is a very specific schedule at which they turn on the heat in China, regardless of the actual temperature, and that time is not now. I try not to be a spoiled Westerner and I enjoy the simple living here, but I really am a wimp in the cold, so I purchased an electric blanket which I warm up for a few minutes prior to going to bed. On the upside, the school is now serving daily what they call ginger soup to combat colds. It's a very strong ginger tea, slightly sweetened, and it is lovely.

Kung Fu in China Weeks Seven and Eight

korric — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:23:00 GMT

My heels had been hurting for about a week, I suspect from running on hard ground without proper running shoes. Wednesday during the afternoon run it was really bad and I ran about 5 meters before concluding that this was a Bad Idea. I walked the rest of the way while conversing with a fellow student who was walking due to an injury. I told him about the pain in my heels and he told me about forefoot running. I did a little research online and discussed it with some runners here and decided to give it a try. One student warned me that my calves and ankles will be very sore for about two weeks while my body gets accustomed to it. He wasn't kidding. After two days of trying to retrain myself to run differently my calves definitely felt it.

I had mentioned in my last post that the food here is not adequately nutritious. Thinking further on this, the food is reasonably nutritious and features a variety of cooked vegetables as well some meat (usually chicken) or tofu for protein, but I would prefer more protein and there is a notable lack of calcium in the Chinese diet. I guess the food here is probably just as nutritious as what most Americans eat, maybe even moreso, it's just deficient in specific areas and most of it is cooked in liberal quantities of oil. I was accustomed to fresh veggies at home, so maybe I'm spoiled. I supplement my daily intake with a multivitamin, calcium tablet, and on power training days a protein bar.

Friday I asked Oleg the Big Ukranian if he wanted to spar with me at Sanda the next week. He accepted, and he and I then proceeded to talk smack to each other throughout the week leading up to our match. One day I stared menacingly at him through the dining room window for a bit while he ate. Another time at night I heard, "I'm coming for you, Korric" and saw Oleg outside in the dark staring at me through a hallway window. 'Twas all in good fun, of course. At least, I hoped so ;)

The following Friday, when I told Master Qu I was going to spar with Oleg, he asked, "Are you sure?". Great confidence boost there from my own Sifu. Oleg did better than I did but I held my own reasonably enough. I followed a punch with a spinning backfist which is not the most practical maneuver but it sure looks cool. He ducked the backfist and grabbed my waist to take me down, as Sanda does allow for takedowns. He didn't get the takedown as I grabbed his head to prevent it, but it was an impressive move on his part to have been able to time it so well. Even though Oleg got the better of me, Master Qu appeared pleasantly surprised by my performance.

I was talking to another long-term student who stressed to me the importance of taking vacations to avoid burning out if I'm staying here for a year. I want to take a vacation in December for about a week, and I've been doing a lot of research into some fun-looking activities. So far I've narrowed it down to three possibilities:
1. Scuba diving in Koh Toh, Thailand.
2. Visiting Chiang Mai and Karen Village, Thailand.
3. Looking for wildlife and zip-lining in Bokeo Nature Reserve, Laos.
Option two would be the least expensive and the most easy to arrange, but it's also a tourist trap. I'm also open to suggestions for other activities that meet the following requirements:
1. Relatively inexpensive. I prefer to pay no more than 1000 USD including airfare, although an exception could be made if it's particularly appealing to me.
2. In Southeast Asia so it will be warm and flying there from China would be relatively cheap. Think of the area covering Thailand and the Philippines.
3. I also prefer something with a director or guide to show me around as I'll only have a week, although this isn't strictly necessary.
I may end up doing none of the above, but they all sound interesting. Again, I'm open to other suggestions, as well as suggestions of why I should particularly consider one of the above.