October 22nd - Interesting Performance

The Stage as we were leaving

Master Tang.

Plans with Master Tang never go according to plan.

That is apart of the adventure I suppose.

Tuesday while eating dinner, Master Tang invited me to this performance. He had me wear my monk clothes and even prepare for some questions that the host of the performance would ask me. So, I took my spear form and shortened it down to a "theatrical" version which has all the cool moves and nothing else. I prepared my responses to the questions and even memorized a little introduction of myself so I would be ready.

Arriving at the Stage, 5:00 pm

Master Tang, Coach Qi, another Coach and I all left the school at 4:00 pm to go to the village where we were performing. The Coaches and I were allowed to practice on the stage a bit and Master Tang told me to change some moves a little bit. Then, we went to a Kung Fu School and relaxed for a bit.

As we were relaxing, Master Tang brought in some random guy who wanted to learn how to do a hand stand and had the coaches teach him. Try to teach him. After waiting around a bit and trying to teach this guy we left to eat some dumplings then the Coaches and I started walking around the village. (After getting milk tea, of course) It was getting dark, my stomach was really full and I was wondering if the performance was ever going to happen.

Finally, we walked back to the staging area and met back up with Master Tang. It would be a whole other hour of different people performing before we would get our 30 seconds on stage. Dancing, singing, a comedy act, and more were all performed before us. When it was time for us to go up, my nervousness, full stomach, and all other jitters were gone. I got up, performed well and then waited for the host to call me back up.

By the end of the day, I felt just like this cat.

Going back up on stage was something I didn't want to do. I was told it would be short but it wasn't. The questions she asked me were completely different and she asked me to perform again... the second time I messed up. Luckily, when that was over we all grabbed our things and left as more performances went on behind us.

The evening was spent eating hotpot and talking. More so me listening while getting handed a lot of food as the Coaches and Master Tang drank. I was just happy to get back to the school and finally sleep.

It was a full day of training and performing.

I'm just glad its over.

Side Note: Today's meditation was very relaxing.