It's finally cleared up here and it's hot, hot, hot again. I'm not complaining though because at least now if I wait long enough, the sweat does eventually dry.

I'm feeling pretty good this week. I had a lot of energy for training and it sure felt great to be outside again. I wish there was a way to train outside in Canada all year round but I don't see how it's possible. At least back home I don't have to worry about all my clothes getting moldy in the closet after a few weeks of rain. That was a rather unpleasant discovery. I'd mentioned having to wash clothes the old fashioned way and now imagine doing half your wardrobe at once....yuck.

Anyway, things are going well overall. the school is packed right now so Shifu's been really busy which means we're left to our own devices more often now. It's kind of nice to review and practice on your own sometimes. I'm enjoying motivating myself again, feels a little like last year during the UBBT. Choosing goals and pushing forward on them.... it's a fantastic feeling.

Rain, rain go away already!

It's been raining off and on here for at least 2 weeks straight now. I've heard that large parts of southern China have flooded and there's no end in sight. Every time I check the forecast I see a weeks worth of little cartoon rain clouds in my future.

Not only does it suck training indoors when the school is at full capacity and there's no room for anything, it's so humid that you're basically standing in a cloud at all times. Usually before lunch I take my sweat-drenched training clothes and hang them up to dry for evening class(a little gross I admit but if you had to hand wash and hang to dry you'd stretch the laundry too). Now the air is so damp, they never get dry. I could leave them there for 2 days and they'd still be damp. Lucky for you guys, you're too far away to smell me!

At least it's only 30 degrees out instead of 40, I don't have to worry about sunstroke right now either. haha

Well other than that, all's well. I've been studying Chinese a lot and I'm happy with my improvement. In a few months when I'm finished with my audio lessons, I can start a new program for INTERMEDIATE speakers. oh la la.

There are two excellent articles written by one of my classmates here about Taoism and how, in the west, we often don't get the whole story. Everything is over-simplified and yet abstracted and all the practical points for beginners are missing.

http://www.wudangtaoistarts.com/articles-1/yu-huang-xin-yin-miao-jing/

http://www.wudangtaoistarts.com/articles-1/a-commentary-on-practice/

There is an interesting parallel between what is written in the second article and what Sifu Brinker always says about practice. A lot of what we do you can only learn through direct experience and repetition, reading and talking about it will not help you to achieve mastery.

Something that my teacher here talks about is that experiences of Qi (chi) come from our bodies, not our minds. We need to train our bodies to be healthy, strong, and sensitive before we can start to feel our own Qi on a deep level. If people have these intense visions and feelings without the foundation of physical practice, it is often just an illusion created by the mind to entertain us. The first step is to train your body. The rest comes later. Many people want to skip the 'hard stuff' and go right to the mystical, magical type of training but as we all know, you can't build a house with no foundation.

Anyways, check out these articles for an interesting perspective that's different from what we generally have access to in the west.

This week training has gone well. We started learning a new form called capturing the dragon, taming the tiger fist and though it's challenging, I'm really enjoying it. I look back on how difficult it was to learn new forms a year ago and I'm really happy with how far I've come.

I really need to work on my Chinese more though. I've been slacking pretty hard on that for the past 2 months or so and I've hardly learned any new words. It's pretty easy after a hard class to just lie around on my bed napping and watching a movie or something but it's not much more effort to do an audio lesson at some point in the day. They're only half an hour anyways and I think I can squeeze in a few each week. I'd like to be pretty much fluent by the end of the program so I'd better get to work then!

Canada day in China:

Just like any other day really. Luckily it falls on a Thursday, our day off, so we get to rest and relax. It's super hot and humid today so I haven't done much besides reading in my room with a fan on full blast. Ran a few errands and went out for lunch earlier but after that I just hurried home and took a cool shower. It's been a nice day but I still long for a little taste of Canadiana, maybe some barbecued veggie burgers and grilled veggies, homemade salsa and chips, good ice cold beer, national anthem....ahhh. I'd mention the fireworks but those are pretty much at least a weekly thing here so it's not very special.

Well everyone at home please enjoy one of the above for me. It's funny how things like this seem so much more important when you're away from home. Happy Canada Day!