Si Ping

As i sit in an oversized, overstuffed chair at an internet cafe behind the KFC in Si Ping I have to look at what I thought i would be doing and how different it is from what I AM doing. Today I bought DVD's for about $0.50 a pop and I picked up some clothes that I had made two weeks ago. I picked up some candy while at the Zhong Xin, a sort of chinese WalMart but without the soul crushing corporation behind it. I have gotten much better at bargaining but i still have a lot to learn. As I type up this post after three days of not training to get all the way better from a cold that has been hanging on for over a week, I can take some stock of my progress so far. I have not been drinking or doing drugs for over ten months and, despite the amount of beer consumed by the other academy students, I have not been sorely tested. I spent the days not training trying to sleep and watching movies. I picked up 25 DVDs on my last trip to SiPing. But over the last three weeks I have much improved my running and general fitness. I have learned two short forms from my Sanda Shifu and I have been invited to learn Eagle's Claw from one of the WuShu Shifu's. They like my tumbling ability and are always telling me to do flips or asking me to try to break bottles on my head. I have a Capoeira class at the academy on Sundays and people seem to really enjoy it. I hooked up my iPod and played Capoeira music on the stereo during the last class. It is starting to get nice here and it has been warm enough for most of our training sessions to be outside.

Despite the movies and the candy there is alot i miss about being home. Meredith especially, but all of my friends in Cleveland and Athens and elsewhere. I miss walking the dog in the morning and making coffee for Meredith and I. I miss knowing what is going on in the dance department and seeing everyone's pieces. I miss fast food and sleeping in. I miss people ignoring me as I walk down the street since foreigners, though not uncommon, still can excite and intrigue. I miss studying chinese when it didn't matter so much how much i learned because everyone still spoke english. China is an intersting and an alive place. SiPing probably has two million people and is still a backwater city. I am slowly making a temporary home here but it cannot compare to the home i left. I am also realizing some fierce nationalistic feelings in myself and want to be a good ambassador of the United States. I love and miss you all. (especially you baby).