This has been a rather strange week. There are a lot of changes happening at the school right now. Our class has started training together with one of the Chinese kids classes. Let me explain: all of the students at the school are split up into numbered classes according to how long they've been here and their skill level. 1st class is the long time Chinese students who help coach other students and already know almost all of the forms, they have been here for 4-8 years and are between 18 and 23 years old. The 2nd class is Chinese students who have been here for 2 or 3 years, they know a lot more than we do and are super duper fast. They are usually around 15-17 years old. 3rd class is my class, we're all foreigners in the traditional program who have been here for just over 1 year. We're really old (20-35) by Chinese standards and thus have pretty unique strengths and weaknesses. Then there is the 4th class of Chinese students who have been here less than a year, some as young as 10. There is also the other foreigners class called the "health promotion class" for a wild assortment of people from all over the world who stay for anywhere from 2 years to 2 days.

This week the 2nd class's teacher had to go home for a family emergency and 2 other coaches are going to teach in Europe for a month so Shifu has combined our class with theirs. Luckily we're working on something that they really needed to review but it's still really bizarre to be training with them. It's not much more difficult training but the vibe of the class makes it a lot more challenging. Most of the kids are terrified of Shifu so you can practically smell their fear in the air. It's really difficult to stay relaxed in that kind of environment and really tiring too. We were all pretty happy to get to the weekend.

I'm sure that a few more weeks like this and everyone will relax and get in the groove. It's helping my Chinese a lot so that's cool and I know we'll get faster just through osmosis.

http://www.wudanggongfu.com/kungfu/xingyi.htm

Here's the address to our schools Xing Yi page. It's not too in depth but if anyone wants to learn a little about the style we're learning right now you can get an overview. I'm really enjoying this stuff so far, although it's definitely not easy. I think it will help us become better fighters too. It seems very combat effective to me, especially the footwork.

It's been a good week. I knew it was going to be rough when I had sore muscles halfway through mid-morning class on Friday. Only 6 days left after that! haha. It was great to be back into training though and we started learning a new style called Xing Yi. It's not just one form but a whole system of forms and fighting training with an internal side too. I'm excited to start working on something that requires a whole new way of moving again. Up to now we've mostly been doing long fist style which is good for beginners because it really opens up your body and helps you keep relaxed but it's exciting to move on to a more advanced style. I'm enjoying the feeling of unfamiliarity that comes with each new move we learn, it's like starting all over again from scratch.

There is a really important tournament coming up next month which quite a few people from our school will be competing in. Our Shifu sent the cream of the crop from his most advanced class to try out for the Wudang team in the 'traditional kung fu' division a few days ago. These guys are absolutely amazing! Funny thing is that not even one of them made the team, instead the judges chose only students from the Wudang performance team who don't know any traditional forms at all. They did modern wushu and got selected for the 'traditional kung fu' team. It's completely ridiculous but, sadly, not surprising. Modern wushu is so much more highly valued by the government here that things like this happen all the time. It really reminded me of why I'm here. Shifu decided to create a traditional class for foreigners for this reason, he believes (and I agree with him) that this style will not survive in it's current form within China. In order to save this tradition, we have to take it outside of China. It's sad but true and I just hope it works.

On a more personal note I've been thinking a lot lately about what I really need to be happy. When we first came here last year I brought so much stuff with me that I thought I would need and would really use a lot but as time goes by I realize how unnecessary it all is. I run out of things or they get broken/lost and I just don't miss them. At home it's so easy to accumulate stuff even without buying it for yourself. I guess I could do the same here if I wanted to but I have everything I need for training and beyond that.....there's not a lot of opportunity for much else. It' hard to explain but the longer I spend here, the less excited I get about 'stuff'. Even food. I used to love food and it was one of my greatest pleasures to eat really delicious food but now it's more for sustenance and less for pleasure. Mom, if you're reading this, I still look forward to eating your home-cooked meals when I come home this year so don't think you're off the hook! haha