I was going to take a blog holiday this week, but I got an
email from someone saying how much they were enjoying my blog, and it was so
nice to feel appreciated that I decided I would write something! And this time, it is going to be about an
ordinary week in Chen Jia Gou, because I realised an ordinary week here may be
un-ordinary to other people.
The first thing that’s happened is that spring, FINALLY, is
here! There was some rain at the start
of last week, followed by sunshine, and that must have done the job because
suddenly the trees have produced leaves, there’s blossom and bees, and the
magnolia tree has some lovely dark pink flowers. Everything is so much easier now it’s
warmer. Not wearing thermals is simply
amazing. Being out in a T-shirt and
feeling the sun and wind on my arms is wonderful. But this could be strange Western behaviour. Many of my Chinese tai chi friends, who
never seemed to feel the cold and would trot about in two layers while I
shivered in five, are STILL wearing thermals, and none have bared their
arms. Maybe there is a specific date
when thermals are officially removed, washed and stored for the summer. Or maybe it’s that the Chinese know it’s
going to get a lot hotter than 22 degrees and they want to be able to feel the
benefit of removing layers as it gets hotter.
The tattoos have attracted a bit of attention, especially in when seen
in combination with the strange hair, unusual placing of jewelry and love of
bright orange clothes. I am not exactly
blending in with the locals.
As it’s now light in the morning, there is a run at
6.30. I am not a big fan of
running. It reminds me of school and
wearing a horrible bottle-green sports uniform, and it seems like so much
effort for so little fun! At least if
you work hard cycling up a hill, you know you’ll get your reward as you
freewheel down the other side. I don’t
find any reward in running, except I feel more deserving of biscuits. Still, it’s a pretty laid back affair and only
Sha Wei, Andreas (new German student), myself and the teenage boys run the
whole thing, probably around four miles.
If I wanted, I could probably avoid running altogether, it’s very much
up to you how much effort you put into your training. But I have a thing in my head, I don’t know
if it’s pride or stubbornness or what, that will not let me. I have
to go on the run, and I have to run
the whole way. And the only way to make
this vaguely enjoyable is to listen to full-on thumping psy-trance very loudly
so that while my body is running, my head is at a party somewhere just as the
sun’s coming up and the best DJ’s just come on.
Grandmaster Chen has done a lot of teaching this week. He doesn’t teach in the way Yan Fei or Tin
Tin do, he’s got other stuff to do, and I think by the time you’re a tai chi
grandmaster, you can pretty much decide your own rules. But as the weather’s become better and more
students have arrived, he’s become more hands-on. Almost every day, all the students, about 13
people now, have been gathered together to work through Lao Jia. It’s very cool! Everyone is super-attentive when he’s
teaching, and it seems that he really enjoys it too as there’s lots of laughing
and smiling. There’s also lots of
Chinese I don’t understand which can be frustrating as I know I’m missing information. But there’s nothing I can do about that
except keep studying when I can. And
we’re really lucky that such a small group of students can learn from someone
like Grandmaster Chen. At Chen Xiao
Wang’s school there are many more students, and he’s very often not there
himself. When he is there, the school is
even busier, so again, I’m very happy to be tucked away up a little road and
away from the craziness of downtown Chen Jia Gou.
Chen Xiao Wang was actually here this week to give a
workshop on push-hands. Chen Xiao Wang
is very well known outside of China, and he’s often abroad giving seminars and
so on. So when he’s in town, there is a
sudden influx of foreigners. It was very
strange to wander down to the supermarket for an ice-cream after dinner (new habit! I run, I deserve ice cream!) and see six
foreigners in less than one minute! It made
me realise how odd I must look, because they looked so tall and pale and
generally out of place. It gave me a
shock!
The food cravings are worsening. Earlier in the week I wanted a Panini with
mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and pesto SOOOO BADLY! Yesterday I played ‘what would I eat’ which
was not very clever. I have a vivid
imagination, and sitting on the steps in the sun before afternoon training, I
managed to come up with a shortlist of Aaron’s lasagna, roast chicken and roast
potatoes followed by lemon meringue pie , or a proper pizza, all of which I
could see, feel and remember the taste of.
Also yesterday I realised that in eleven weeks I will be able to eat
toast and marmalade! This is very
exciting! Andreas was a bit sniffy about
foreigners who come to China and miss food from home when he first got here. By the middle of his third week, he was fed up
with eating man tou twice a day and we went out for dinner and had rice
instead.
Sometimes life abroad is a series of happy discoveries;
coffee, fried egg sandwiches, Oreos in Chen Jia Gou (there was a bit of an
addiction through the winter but it’s under control now). This week’s discovery was that the big
supermarket in Wen Xian sells REAL Skippy peanut butter! What with that, two cups of real coffee and a
passable slice of cheesecake, today has been a very happy Monday.
