We got back from our short class trip to Xi'an on Tuesday evening. It was a really fun and relaxing time. I barely thought about kung fu at all, never mind talk about it, which I think is a really great way to re-charge. They say a change is as good as a rest, and I had both. I got a fancy new paintbrush and it was so much fun to test it out yesterday, I fell in love with it as soon as I tried it in the shop.

If you're ever in China, check out Xi'an, it's the coolest city I've been to here...so much history.

Oh, and while we were there, guess who else was there to see the terracotta warriors? Michelle Obama! They shut down the entire exhibit just for her. I didn't see her or anything, it was just a weird coincidence that we happened to be staying in Xi'an at the same time.

So back to training tomorrow and I am renewed and filled with vigor!

Tomorrow we leave to go to Xi'an for 4 days, our last class trip. We've already been there but we didn't have the time (or funds) to go on a bigger trip so this place is easy to get to and we know it's  a lot of fun already. I'm already really looking forward to the food, it'll be so nice to eat something different! The hostel we're staying at has this pesto chicken sandwich that is to die for....yum! It'll also be nice to take some time off of training, I'm enjoying doing my own thing more now but I'm pretty sore after this past week. Some of my classmates have been here since the start of December and they really need to get out of here for a couple of days, they're starting to lose it.

So in my next post I can write all about the delicious food I got to eat. Yay! FOOD!

It's been sunny and lovely all week so everyone is much more cheerful in general. I don't really mind cloudy weather but a month straight, with rain, is a bit much.

I went through all my forms videos to pick out some of the things I want to work on during class time. The main flaw I saw was that my side kicks were too rushed, I hadn't really finished the kick before I was on to the next movement. I'll be working on really defining those kicks. It actually ties in well with something I've figured out this week: I have an imbalance between the strength in my quadriceps and the gluteus muscles. I've been relying too much on my strong (and tight) thighs and it's caused some problems. For a few months now I've noticed some weakness in what I thought was my lower back and I've been having periodic knee pain for a really long time. I thought these were unrelated but apparently they're both symptoms of underdeveloped glutes. So, guess who's going to be doing lots of deadlifts and leg extensions? This gal. It should also give me more power on those sidekicks too so it all goes together quite nicely and now that I'm doing so much individual practice, I should really get a chance to fix this stuff. It's gotten me all jazzed up for the next week of training!

Today is the first sunny day we've had in weeks and you could really feel the difference in the mood of everyone here. The simple things really make a huge difference sometimes, don't they?

Before the afternoon class today I happened to look out the back window of the school and into a little park area that's back there and I saw one of the new students maybe 12 years old or so back there practicing some moves, fighting imaginary enemies, and what looked like pretending to be Bruce Lee, sound effects and all. It was so cute and funny but it also made me feel really happy and reminded me of something very important that I sometimes forget; Kung fu is fun! Thanks kid, you made my week.