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.
