February 28th - My Fourth Week in a Kung Fu School

A Tired Me eating my Friday Chocolate Drinking Hot (Powdered) Milk

Afternoon Thoughts

Man, Fridays are always a great way to wind down as it is just the perfect ending to a hard week's training. We have the Morning Tai Chi class (that I don't go to), breakfast, power stretching and then forms. After a usually delicious lunch we move on to cleaning the whole school making it, and ourselves, ready for a new week.

But before I get to today, let me talk about yesterday.

Thursday was interesting as I realized my knee was getting better but I wasn't pushing it too hard. I wanted it to heal fully. I could jog for a little bit but I just walked the morning 2km. Then came Qi Gong (气功) class taught by Master Yan. We learned/reviewed Yi Jin Jing (易筋经) which I realized I had forgotten almost everything but luckily "The Ten Tiger" Shilat and Master Yan were willing to explain some of the moves to me. So thanks!

We helped build 3 out of the 4 stone tables there

After our morning Qi Gong, I was really tired and had an upset stomach from eating to much breakfast. But, once power training came I reluctantly grabbed a weight and headed for the large training hall. Class began as normal and I realized my body or mind wasn't ready for power training as I was panting and sweating after the first exercise and the first set (of many) 30 pushups. Something unexpected happened though. As we were in our fourth or fifth workout another Master came and said he needed our help to move some rocks. It was time for a new kind of power training. We literally moved these huge pieces of concrete with our hands and legs to help the Masters build three more tables behind our school for what will "hopefully" be a nice area in the summer.

It was better than normal power training, that is all I have to say.

Thursday's Dinner: DELICIOUS Fish, Veggies, Eggs, Potatoes, and Rice.

Evening Thoughts

Well, Today has been a good day. Lots of training, sweating like crazy, stretching sore muscles, and actually feeling like I've made some progress. Maybe it is because the end of the month has come and I'm realizing that I've only been here a month. But in that month I've learned:

• 五步拳 - Five Step Form
• 集体拳  - Our School's Group Form
• 少林通背拳 - Shaolin Tong Bei Quan
• Parts of a Baji Quan (八极拳) Form
• Parts of a Xing Yi Quan (形意拳) Form
• Learned what Sanda is and some Moves in Sanda
• Relearned the basics and realized that I have to keep working on them

Plus I got to meet all of these cool people here who also share the same interest for Kung Fu/China/Food. Some I've only known for a short time before their adventure has ended while others I've been able to know for a while now. It is just a great experience, not to mention that meeting and getting to know the Masters is an experience in itself.

Friday's Lunch: Tofu,Onion,Egg Dumplings, Chicken Meat, and Veggies

Also, today while training forms I had some people compliment my effort that I put into learning it as today I went all out learning it. I don't know what was different today but my mind, body and energy were all there so I just kept doing the form over and over nonstop. Then Master Peng taught me some new moves and I just kept going at it with speed, power and energy. I was drenched in sweat and tired.

That is why I like basics/forms class, because I always feel this way after these classes. Its a great feeling.

Friday's Dinner: Broccoli, Veggies with Eggs, and Potatoes

With over half the students being injured, Master Yan has offered everyone the opportunity to go see this Chinese Acupuncturist. Before, I told him that I would go but when he asked who was going today I didn't raise my hand as I think my knee will be better soon. I'm able to jog for short distances, I can do basic jumps and flips, I'm able to do forms and kicks. Way better than before, which has been a huge morale boost too but I know that I can't push it to the full limit yet and I'm planning on wearing the knee brace for another week just to be sure. We will see on Monday if I am correct or not.

I guess it is time to conclude this post as it is a bit long, but its long because I feel like this is a big step for my "Kung Fu Journey". One month down, many more to go. If I make this much progress in a month then how much progress will I see once this is all over?

I'm not sure where this journey is headed but I think I'm starting off on the right foot.

What are you doing this weekend?

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