March 30th - Village Travels and Goals

A little river in Cao Liu Village

Late Night Thoughts 🌝 晚上思考

This was a harder Monday than normal. Not physically but mentally. I'm not quite sure why but I have a theory. The weekend was way more relaxed than my other weekends have been. I didn't train much, I studied a lot, talked with other students a lot and even went to the village with a few of them. The weather was great, we ordered some fast food, bought things, and did so many relaxing things on that day. I think my mind was still in relaxation mode when Monday came.

The Spring Bloom has caused some nice plants to grow

The classes today made me realize many things; Basics Class made me realize I need to practice my basics more and to keep stretching. The reason for this is because some little kids have joined our class and seeing how they do the moves compared to how we do the moves... we look pretty bad. But, they've grown up doing 武术 (Wu Shu) and we haven't.

Forms Class made me realize that there are so many ways to do the same form in Kung Fu, so its not that important. This one needs a bit of explaining. I'm learning the "Plum Blossom Broadsword" form from Master Peng and Master Yan (because he was injured for two weeks). Now that Master Yan is back, he saw what I learned and this caused Master Peng and him to debate as to what moves and what ways were correct. Thankfully, I've just started learning the form so Master Yan didn't correct too much but he did correct quite a bit. That is why I say its not important, because every master has their own way of doing the same form. So just practice what you're taught and what you remember.

Zhan Zhuang Village

Sanda (散打) Class showed me how relaxation and the additional practice that I do really does help. Today we reviewed 后踢腿 "Back Kick" and learned 后摆腿 which is "Backwards Sweep Kick". In the beginning I felt the normal nervousness that I feel during Sanda Class but today I didn't let it get to me. I focused on translating for everyone and just relaxed as I did the exercises. During "review" Master Yan said my back kick got better and when learning the new kick he said I did it well.  Which is something I haven't heard Master Yan say about my Sanda before. It was nice but I think the key was just me being relaxed and not focusing on doing the moves. Which is odd when you think about it.

Wish I knew some of these plant names

Another thing on my mind has been my "goals" because I'm not sure if they are the same anymore. The main purpose of being here is still to learn Kung Fu which is what we do everyday but before I had goals like do the splits, learn this move, learn this style, learn this form or weapon. Now, I think I'm just in the simpler mindset of just learning Kung Fu. Whatever the Masters give me or teach me I'll try to learn to the best that I can. Many things caused this shift in focus but I think the main changer was realizing how much there was in Kung Fu. So many weapons, styles, forms, exercises and all of them have different purposes as well. Some are meant for fighting, others are meant for performance, some for personal health or meditation and other reasons. It is crazy what all is contained within this thing we call Kung Fu. Other students feel the same too, they're just here to learn any Kung Fu, while others do want to study something specific like Snake Form or Drunken Form. But hey, life changes all the time, why can't goals?

This is another nice one we found while walking

I've also realized that I've been here almost two months now. Dang, only 10 more to go.

Through the ups and downs that I've felt while being here I still like it. The training is good, Masters are nice, the people are nice, and the place is slowly improving. I do miss home at times but that is normal for my first real solo journey. A big question in my head is; Would I stay longer? And the answer is usually no because I know that a big part of why I like it here is the other students and most of us are all leaving at the same time so without them, this place would be missing something.

A year here is definitely long enough for me although I think I might continue this Kung Fu Journey in the future at some other location. I just think it is so cool that something as simple as Kung Fu can bring together so many different people all to the same place. It is cool how well we all get along here.

How was your guys' Monday? Were you ready for the week?

Sometimes the greatest strength come from within