April 17th - Another Friday

A Beautiful Foggy Morning

Morning Thoughts 🌅

Well, I knew I was going to be sore but waking up was really rough. My body felt as stiff as a board even though I stretched a little bit after power training yesterday.  At least the weather seems nice today as it is quite a cool and foggy morning. Even though I was sore and tired my body still woke me up real early (05:45) and it seems my body keeps waking me up earlier and earlier. It is probably just another weird affect that this place has, at least I get to see the beautiful mornings and get prepared for the day.

Evening Thoughts 💤

Training was good today. Power stretching was tough, as it should be, but Master Peng had us work on our back and our side splits plus a few more arm stretches than normal. My legs were really stiff today so I feel that I didn't do as good as I could've but man the pain was so much. Next time, I hope to have more progress.

Then it was time for a challenging forms class. Challenging because of how sore and stretched out I was which made it difficult to do any of the forms I knew. That didn't stop me from reviewing 通背拳, 初级长拳三路, and 少林梅花单刀. One good thing did happen, I nervously asked Master Peng if he could teach me the last moves of my broadsword form. I was nervous because during testing he said I had to add more speed to the form so maybe I was asking too soon. Luckily, he grabbed a sword and showed me the last... difficult moves. Now, I have a goal for the next 30-ish days: to improve my broadsword skills.

After forms class I did a deep clean of my room and then we all were assigned different areas of the school to clean once we ran THE REAL 10K RUN. Many were still injured but Raja, me, Terina, and Matt were able to actually run the full 10K which is a cool run through the country side up to this neat lookin' temple which I wasn't able to get pictures of. Our time wasn't that bad either, Raja finished in 46 minutes and I finished 47-48 minutes. It was an exhausting run but a really good one.

Warrior Monk - 武僧

As I've been training here one of the many motivators for me has been that feeling of "earning" the monk suit at the end of the year. The monk suit seems like such an iconic uniform that immediately makes people think of Kung Fu and even though I think it is really neat my view on it has changed a little bit. I've realized that these Warrior Monks in China, the real ones, put in a lot of effort, time, and just so much into their skills that I don't think me wearing a monk suit would be right. Me wearing my training gear or my custom Kung Fu clothes would be alright because I'm still a "kung fu guy" but no where close to being at the level of a Warrior Monk.

Maybe its because I've also learned a little more about the Shaolin Temple while I've been here that has made me respect the Masters and what the Shaolin Temple is. I don't want to be a fake wanna be monk or a "white monkey" monk. I'm not even sure if I want to be a warrior monk anymore but I am sure that I want to continue doing Kung Fu.

Its just a thought that has stuck around throughout the day.

It's the weekend! What are all of your plans?

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