http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8cNagcxhEs&feature=related

This Saturday our evening class was a little unusual. First we sparred, then we did throws, then Shifu had us practice a bunch of different falls and tumbling stuff. I can finally do kip ups! If you don't know what they are, watch this youtube video. I've practiced them before but never really got   it....I managed like 2 successful ones in my life. This time I just walked up there and banged out 10 in a row! I was surprised but also super excited, so excited in fact that I got carried away and ended up with a doozy of a stiff neck for the rest of the week. My neck was so tight that I was really dizzy for about 3 days afterwards. I think the muscles were pulling on the bones in my inner ear and if felt really gross. So I took it easy and got Mel to massage it for me every day. Kind of a waste of the rest of the week, next time I'll just do a few of them. Simon also massaged it for me yesterday and since we were staying in a hotel to celebrate my birthday, I took a bath afterwards. That finally fixed it and I feel all better now.

I really enjoyed getting away from the school for a day. It was so nice to sleep in a nice, soft bed in a lovely, clean room with air conditioning. It's wonderful to live like a westerner again once in a while. It's so far away but I'm already looking forward to December.

On Monday I celebrated my 31st birthday. I can't believe I've been alive for that long, it seems like the blink of an eye. In our traditional class, I'm the second oldest member but I rarely feel old. In fact, in a lot of ways, I feel like I'm getting younger and younger the longer I stay here. I'm sure I look older (especially with all the sun exposure we get) but I've gotten so much stronger, healthier, and more flexible that physically I feel younger than I did when I came here. Slowly old injuries are being healed and I feel vitality in a way I'd never experienced before. Don't get me wrong, I still get really tired sometimes and wonder if I can even go on, but the good days are starting to feel pretty amazing.

Friends my age at home are settling (or already settled) down. Buying houses, getting married, getting divorced, having kids, well into their career paths. I'm here with no stuff at all, with people a decade or more younger than me, just completely focused on myself and kung fu. I sometimes feel as if I should want more.....but I don't. I know that I'm in exactly the right place for me right now. Sometimes I want to leave but I know that dissatisfaction is a part of the process. Being here is very challenging but I know it's what I need to become the Brandi I was meant to be.

So I'm getting older.....and feeling more and more confident about my choices in life. What more could one ask for?

I just got back yesterday from a whirlwind trip to Shanghai to renew my passport. I left Monday afternoon, took the overnight train, stayed 2 nights and then another overnight train back. It was pretty crazy and I didn't have a lot of time there for much fun stuff but I did enjoy eating some delicious baked goods. Overall I found Shanghai really expensive (more than any other city in China) with not much to do. It was scorching hot though, otherwise I may have walked around a bit more. The food was also expensive though of a pretty good quality. I enjoyed a bagel with cream cheese and a beet juice on the side, butter croissants, and a lovely ciabatta sandwich with a yummy belgian beer to go with it. Everything else was...meh.

Glad to be back but still a bit worn out from so much travel in such a short time. We're starting ba xian gun (eight immortals staff) this week so I'm looking forward to that.

We finished learning spear last week, just in time too because it's been raining a lot an we've been doing most of our training indoors these past few days. It's a really fun form to practice but mine still needs a lot of work before it'll be up to par in my opinion.

Friday we had a stretching evaluation where our class, together with the Chinese students, showed Shifu a variety of different stretches and either got a 'pass' or a 'fail'. It was kind of fun to watch everyone do their very best stuff, pretty inspiring. Even though I technically failed a lot of them, I did my personal best on a lot of the stretches so I'm pretty happy with that. Shifu's standards are very high. I'm really happy with how much my flexibility has improved this year, hopefully it continues.