If anyone had asked me at any point over the last two years and nine months what I really wanted, the only answer I could have given, apart from for Tottenham to win the league (or anything at all!), was to come back to China, go to the Chen Village and study tai chi. It's the only thing I've wanted to do since the last time I was in China, and I pretty much spent all my time back in England preparing to come here again. And now it's about to happen! Tomorrow I'm taking the train up to Zhengzhou which is the capital of Henan province, and at some point on Tuesday I'm going to get to Chen Jia Gou.
It's hard to sum up how I feel at the moment, oscillating between extreme excitement, a bit like a four-year old on Christmas Eve, and extreme nervousness. Although I've trained in China before, I think this time is going to be different. For one thing, Kun Yu Shan, the school I was at before, taught many different martial arts whereas the Chen Village, as the name suggests, focuses on Chen style tai chi.
For the benefit of most of you who are not obsessed with tai chi, here's a bit of background: A bit like with yoga, there are different styles of tai chi, but they are all derived from Chen style. If you've seen people doing tai chi, probably you've seen smooth, graceful, slow movements, and while Chen tai chi does teach you to move smoothly, gracefully and slowly, it also has forms which contain a lot of fast, explosive movements, and when you see this it becomes much more apparent that tai chi is a martial art and not some kind of decorative oriental hand-waving. And if you want to learn Chen tai chi, obviously the best place to go is the Chen Village. There are a few different schools there; the one I'm going to is this one: http://www.china-taichi-guide.com/Taichi-Schools/Chen-Zhao-Sen.php if you're interested enough to have a look!
So, I'm giddy with excitement at the prospect of realising a dream, and pretty scared at the same time. Scared because it's going to be REALLY COLD, which I already know having been in the north of China in the winter. (I hope I have enough clothes! Bought some lovely red thermals the other day.) It's going to be physically painful, especially as I haven't been doing that much practice recently due one thing and another. And really, I'm not sure that anyone apart from me and June, who sends out the emails and stuff, will speak English! They did offer me a translator but I couldn't afford to pay for that on top of everything else so everything is going to be in Chinese. I think my head will be spinning by Friday. Total immersion!
Which is, even though it's scary as hell at this precise moment, exactly what I want. It's not easy for me to explain WHY it is that I want this so badly that I'm prepared to be cold, sore, and quite possibly lonely and homesick; I just know that it's been my sole motivation for a very long time, and it's happening tomorrow! And who knows, if this dream comes true, maybe Spurs'll win the league....... : )
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and have a wonderful 2012. Next entry from Chen Jia Gou!
