Last week we spent 3 days just on meditating, eating lightly, and taking some Chinese herbs to build our chi. Our class has been talking about this for almost two years now, it was supposed to be something we did semi-regularly but we just now did it for the first time.

First Shifu bought all the herbs which we dried, steamed, and dried again several times before grinding them into a fine powder with this really ancient looking piece of machinery. Then we melted honey and some weirdly congealed bricks of donkey skin (Yes, I'm serious, it's supposed to be a blood cleanser) and mixed it with the powder and rolled it into 9 gram balls. Each day before meditation we would eat 1 to 3 of these "pills". We spent around 6 hours each day meditating. Morning session was 2 1/2 hours, afternoon was 2 hours, and evening was another 1 1/2 hours. We were allowed to eat fruit, a few cooked vegetables, and some special porridge that the cooks made for us with rice, barley, corn, beans, and lentils. I actually enjoyed eating only healthy foods for a few days, although I was dreaming about home-baked cookies from time to time!

I knew this was going to be challenging and it definitely was. The second day in particular was quite rough for me. I was in a lot of pain in my legs and feeling very discouraged pretty much all day but then in the evening we learned a really cool lying down chi gong which helped renew me for the next day. I woke up on day 3 feeling good and I really got a lot out of the meditation. I felt relaxed and calm, I was able to really focus on my dan tian (lower belly) and I think if we'd gone for 4 or 5 days, I would have had some powerful experiences.

Getting back to training has been interesting. I felt really good the first day, relaxed and soft and full of energy, now I'm pretty sore but I still feel more healthy and vigorous. I think we really did build up some chi over those 3 days, I just have to not waste it and continue to build more now. Although it was very hard, I'm looking forward to the next time we can meditate for 3 days, I hope each successive time will be a little bit easier and more rewarding.

Chengdu Trip

We got back this morning from our holiday to Chengdu. Some of you may remember Chengdu from the big earthquake that made the news several years ago. It's a lovely city with a small town feel and the people were quite friendly. We saw a lot of the local sights like temples, the tibetan district, parks, etc but the two main highlights were the pandas and Emei shan.

The panda breeding centre is on the outskirts of the city in a lovely scenic area. The place is full of flower gardens and pretty walking paths as well as adorable pandas! I was worried that the living conditions for the pandas might be inhumane (China is not big on animal rights) but it seemed really great. They had plenty of outdoor space, with lots of bamboo and it was very clean. The pandas seemed really happy and healthy and we got to see babies, teenagers, and adults. Seeing them on a television screen really doesn't do these sweet animals justice. They really were enchanting, even to the more stoic members of our group. We spent about 3 hours there but I could have stayed all day.

Emei shan is the name of a mountain we went to see that was about a 3 hour bus ride from the city. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery and the air was so fresh and clean. Apparently this area is where a lot of scenes from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon were filmed. There is also a famous kung fu style that originated here and is still practiced today. The Fuhu Temple was incredible in itself and the surrounding beauty just added to it's magnificence, I really hope to take my parents there when they come to visit. Unfortunately we only had a day and a half here and so we saw less than 10% of the mountain, I'd love to go back and stay for 3 or 4 days to have the chance to see everything.

Overall the trip was great and we all had a really fun time. It does feel good to be back though and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, sleeping on the train sucks!

We're leaving in a few days to go on a class trip to the city of Chengdu to see some pandas and visit a taoist mountain near there. I would be excited to go anyway but after this week, even more so. We trained quite hard and the temperature has skyrocketed to about 37 degrees in the daytime so it's been pretty torturous for me. Although this place will most likely be just as hot, we won't be training like madmen in the blistering sun. We're all really looking forward to a little rest and relaxation.

ahh allergies.

It's been very dusty here the past few weeks, we even had this crazy windstorm last week that blew dirt all over the place. In Canada I usually like the wind (unless it's -30 out) but here it is so incredibly dusty and gross. I would have thought that being in the mountains in a pretty humid area would mean we didn't have this problem but it seems to be China-wide. Spring is the worst, all the sand from the deserts in the north blows all over the country, combine that with the pollution and you've got a yucky situation.

I really miss Canada sometimes, I know there's still snow and it's cold and everyone complains about it but just think, it could be worse. I think I'm really going to appreciate the little things about home so much more after I return at the end of the program. I know it's easy to forget in the busyness of our day to day lives but we really are very lucky.

We started learning a new form this week called baji chuan. I'm not even sure what that means. I'll try to find out. It's a really cool looking form with lots of swinging forearm strikes and stomping. I was kinda worried about learning it actually, stomping is hard on my knees which have been feeling so much better lately. So far it's alright though, I'm a little sore but it's nothing that feels damaging to the knee joints, they haven't started collapsing on me unexpectedly again or anything like that. I guess they're still getting stronger and stronger. I wonder what will happen when we start running in the morning though, that was always the worst for me. Everyone is surprised we haven't started the early morning run yet. Last year by this time we were already about a month into it. It's seems pretty unlikely but it would be awesome if we just didn't do it this year, not only easier on the body but we'd actually be getting a full nights rest too. I imagine Shifu's just either forgotten to mention it, or he's holding back because the weather has been so weird and he doesn't want us to get sick. I'll just continue to enjoy it while it lasts.

We finished bagua, yay! We learned the last part on Tuesday and on Wednesday for performance I showed everyone. I only made one mistake which is pretty good considering how new it is. I was ok with it. One of the staff of the school took a video of me, if it wasn't for the stupid internet firewall, I'd post it here. Maybe I can figure out a way around it. I'll try for next week.

I got a weird stomach thing a few days ago and have had a headache since then, perhaps a mild flu or I ate something yucky. Shifu talks a lot about knowing your body is weak before you get sick and preventing it but I'm still just at the point of getting sick and looking back and seeing in hindsight that I could have maybe done something to stop it. I remember on Tuesday being extremely tired but I just attributed it to being the end of the week. Maybe with more practice I can realize these things sooner. Overall though I am much more aware of what is going on inside me. I think it's partly just paying attention but also partly due to our internal training like meditation, qi gong, and tai chi developing greater sensitivity. It's really neat to see improvements like these, things that no one but me can notice.

Last week it rained....and rained, and rained. I usually like rain at home but here it's really annoying because it last like a week sometimes! We also have to train inside which is pretty boring due to lack of space. I honestly don't remember many details from the week, it's a bit of a blur. We sparred one day and did rolls and throwing another day. Nobody got hurt so that means it was a success as far as I'm concerned.

We're almost finished learning our bagua form and that's cool. We learned the seventh part yesterday so only one more to go. This is definitely one of the coolest forms I've ever learned. I can't wait until I'm actually good at it! haha. I think that usually takes a while so I'll have to be patient and keep practicing.

I saw some flowers blooming today. I hope that means spring is finally here. The weather has been so changeable lately.