April 18th - Relaxing Weekend

Saturday Morning 🌄

Whew, 05:15 today but I have already gotten so much done. Washed my blankets and sheets, shaved, did my laundry, and began writing this post! I think I enjoy waking up early more and more as there is something about waking up and seeing the world "wake up" that is nice.

It is crazy how much my "lifestyle" has changed. Hearing how my friends are doing back home makes me think I made the right choice coming here and pursuing this silly Kung Fu Journey. This has been such a great journey so far even though some of the days are quite painful. I've learned a lot, done a lot, changed a lot and met some cool people along the way.

All I know is that if you want to go for some dream you'll have to make sacrifices and really be focused on accomplishing that dream, no matter what obstacles may come in your way.

I'm not sure what I'll do today but I feel that today is going to be a good day.

Little Monk

Sunday Afternoon 🍵

This weekend has really been relaxing and I've done more training than I thought. Yesterday, I spent the morning talking with my parents but the afternoon/evening was spent training. Late into Saturday night I watched the movie Constantine with everyone which wasn't that bad of a movie but not good enough for me to watch it again. Today, my morning was spent talking with my sister and then I trained for 2-3 hours on various different things. Flexibility, Broadsword, Handstands and then some basic rolls.

I've had a lot of energy but my mind hasn't been focused which has led me to relax throughout most of the afternoon. I did find some cool products that I might buy on Taobao.com as I will need some clothes for the colder months and I've been looking for some "cool" testing clothes to wear. Something that would be unique, not like the monk suit or a tai chi suit. Something different. I've got some ideas but I need to figure out my shirt, pants and shoe sizes before I buy anything. I just want to look a little different. I don't want to wear the monk suit because of a previous reason, I don't want to wear purely traditional Chinese clothing because I'm not Chinese, but I also can't just wear my training clothes as that's not cool. 😎

Me, pretending to be cool

Future Journeys - 将来的探险

This is more so to help me sort out my thoughts at this current time but you might be interested as well.

Right now, I enjoy Kung Fu and throughout our meditations I've thought about one day teaching it. Maybe not at some big school but I think it would be cool to teach this to someone some day but to become a good teacher one must first gain a lot of experience and knowledge. And really, I just want to continue living and traveling like this for a little bit. So, here are some schools (old and new) that I've been looking at.

Shaolin Xinyiba : Henan, China
Website, Price: $890 / month ($10,680 for 1 Year)


This is the newest school on my list as it has been popping up more and more. Considering it is a direct off branch of the Shaolin Temple and you train right next to it... it seems like a good option. It is one of the most expensive options out there but the training isn't promising too much. It is just Shaolin Quan and even on the website and videos there is a constant focus on basics and sparring. Seems like an interesting option for a shorter stay (or a longer stay focus on refining basics). Not my next choice for a school but it looks really promising.

Southern Shaolin Temple: Kunming, Yunnan, China
Website, Price: $7,350 for 1 Year


This is a big contender for the next place I go to. When I found out the Southern Shaolin Temple had a foriegner training program where you live in the temple and just train kung fu (you don't have to do monk stuff). Man, it sounds really cool. They also don't make too many promises with what they teach which is a good thing. Its just Shaolin Quan and lots of Buddhist culture stuff. You also get to live in Southern China in the capital of Yunnan which is awesome. Warm weather.

Qufu Kung Fu School: Qufu City, Shandong, China
Website, Price: $5,500 for 1 Year

STILL on the list after so long and is the contender for my next place to go. They are still active with updates, their website is modern and nice, and it seems like a good school to go and train. It "sounds" like they take grading more serious than they do here but I'm not sure. They do offer a lot of different martial arts to train which I've become really skeptical of but it has a good price for a year of training.

Tian Meng Kung Fu School: Feixian, Shandong, China
Website, Price: $5,369 for 1 Year

Tian Meng is always in the back of my mind because they are active on social media and they seem very professional/strict. There apparently is a "school uniform" too, which is cool and they don't offer too many martial arts. The area is also beautiful and would be a cool place to go and train. Contender for my next place to go to.

Dragon Mountain Kung Fu School: Rizhao, Shandong, China
Website, Price: $5,400-$8,520 (Different room type has different cost)

Dragon Mountain is on here purely because of the location. Rizhao seems like a cool place to train and it looks beautiful. The training doesn't offer too many classes, just the normal Tai Chi, Shaolin, Wing Chun and Sanda. Honestly, not that big of a contender for my next place to go, just a cool place I'd like to visit. Maybe would stay here for a shorter amount of time.

Rising Dragon Kung Fu School: Fujian, China   
Website, Price: $7,880 for 1 Year

Rising dragon is an interesting one. It is in Fujian province which is where Karate came from and it seems like you get to choose what style you want to learn/focus on while you stay there. They teach Shaolin, Xing Yi Quan, and Tai Chi. You get to live in a temple as well. Their youtube is active but the website is a bit disorganized. Probably not my next choice but would be a cool place to go and train for a short time.



I always over think this (like i'm doing now) because my goal isn't to just learn Kung Fu, its to explore, travel, meet new people, and improve myself throughout these adventures. I could just choose a school and stay there for a long time until I master Kung Fu but that wouldn't be the "Johnny Way". Meeting other masters and students is part of the excitement and every place would present new challenges and opportunities to me.

Sure, I have many months more to go on my journey at Maling Mountain Kung Fu School but I do have to think and get inspiration for future en devours. Whatever those might be.

Hope you're all doing well where ever you may be in the world.

Are you all ready for another week?

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