Well, I haven't posted in a while, so here is an update:
My body hurts. My legs are wrecked from tumbling. My arms and chest are sore from lifting weights. My neck is sore from endless exercises involving kip-ups. My abs are sore from the two hundred sit-ups we did this morning. All that aside, my Shifu said that my newest form was almost good. If I can get it all the way to good by tomorrow, next week he will teach me Shaolin Staff. Special bonus: First staff gotten from the academy, free. If i can learn the staff quickly, maybe I can move on to Eagle Claw and Sword. I am going to try to make up a drunken form and maybe me and Kevin (USA) and Bret (ENG) will make up a three person drunken fight. In Sanda, the Chinese kickboxing group, we have started to prepare for the upcoming match with Korea. Unfortunately I will not be there for it, I will already be back in the states with my fiancee and family. Every month we all get together and perform our forms and have sparring matches in the big training hall. When I post this, hopefully, there will be some pictures that I have taken with my new digital camera on the site so you can all get an idea of the place I am staying.
I wrote that last bit a while ago, so here is what has happened since then:
My legs were so torn up from wearing 4.4 lb. weights for three full days of training that I had to take to days off. I learned the Shaolin staff form in four days and will perform it and the "small flood fist form" at the next test in ten days. I was able to rest during my to days and log all the video I have taken so far; seven hours, and write a little bit. Because of the rest I had the energy to make these new posts. All my best to all of you.
I am back today and doing just fine, all healed and I actually set a new pace for myself running today. Check me out.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Academy Politics
The academy works as follows:
Headmaster Che Wen Long, one of the richest men in Jilin, a millionaire even by American standards, shows up to pick up money and sometimes to accompany friends, possibly investors, and treat them to banquets and Shaolin performances. He is the final word on all matters not settled by his underlings. Next in line is the Vice Headmaster Che Wen Bin. He takes care of the running of the school, as is tradition in China number two is the one who does the work. He walks around during the day, following and observing different groups as they train. He sometimes calls for tests for the hole academy every few weeks. We all go run the stairs one at a time and get timed, we do the 4-5 miles village run for time, the whole academy runs down the T, along the beach, and then up the stairs for approximate times. Approximate is the best they can do with one digital watch and forty or fifty students being tested. Next are the Shifus who deal with their own students issues. Ultimately the responsibility for the students falls to the Shifus. If a Wushu group student gets drunk, it is the Wushu Zhang Shifu's problem. If a Baji student gets caught turning on the power after lights out, it is Lin Shifu's problem to deal with. If a student leaves a group, the shifu is penalized. If a student leaves the academy early the shifu is blamed and it causes trouble. Then come the translators. If a student has an issue, the translators are the first line of defense for the academy. Some of the translators are better than others at seeming to be on the side of the students but, in actuality, they are completely controlled by the Ches. If they go too far out on a limb for the students they may find themselves fired that day. In the past two years, two of the best, most experienced, shifus have been fired and for dubious reasons. Since I have been here, the gatekeeper and the Chinese kid's shifu have been fired.
No one's job is safe. During the recent Chinese Labor day holiday the shifus asked during a line-up if we would mind them having one or more days off. To go home, my shifu and Shaolin Zhang shifu needed four days off plus the weekend so they could make the long train trip to Henan province. We all said they could have as many days off as they wanted since we were devoted to them. They said they would take four days or none since the two would prefer to either go home to see their families or work to keep making money. After the first training session we were informed that the vice headmaster had agreed with their plan but doubted that the headmaster would. We all signed a petition to give them the days off, the translators as well. By lunch we heard that it had been rejected. Sanda decided that if they wouldn't give him the time off we would do our best ourselves. We lined up in front of the Shifu with a translator and explained that we were all going to be sick for the rest of the week and that he should feel free to take a trip home since he would have no students to teach. Unfortunately this tactic was not successful. while our shifu appreciated our attempt, he said the headmaster would not believe that we were really sick and would not allow the shifu to leave the academy. We were all rather outraged but training did proceed. For one or two sessions we would train somewhat seriously and for the rest of the beautiful summer days we ate ice cream played basketball and strolled through the woods.
Headmaster Che Wen Long, one of the richest men in Jilin, a millionaire even by American standards, shows up to pick up money and sometimes to accompany friends, possibly investors, and treat them to banquets and Shaolin performances. He is the final word on all matters not settled by his underlings. Next in line is the Vice Headmaster Che Wen Bin. He takes care of the running of the school, as is tradition in China number two is the one who does the work. He walks around during the day, following and observing different groups as they train. He sometimes calls for tests for the hole academy every few weeks. We all go run the stairs one at a time and get timed, we do the 4-5 miles village run for time, the whole academy runs down the T, along the beach, and then up the stairs for approximate times. Approximate is the best they can do with one digital watch and forty or fifty students being tested. Next are the Shifus who deal with their own students issues. Ultimately the responsibility for the students falls to the Shifus. If a Wushu group student gets drunk, it is the Wushu Zhang Shifu's problem. If a Baji student gets caught turning on the power after lights out, it is Lin Shifu's problem to deal with. If a student leaves a group, the shifu is penalized. If a student leaves the academy early the shifu is blamed and it causes trouble. Then come the translators. If a student has an issue, the translators are the first line of defense for the academy. Some of the translators are better than others at seeming to be on the side of the students but, in actuality, they are completely controlled by the Ches. If they go too far out on a limb for the students they may find themselves fired that day. In the past two years, two of the best, most experienced, shifus have been fired and for dubious reasons. Since I have been here, the gatekeeper and the Chinese kid's shifu have been fired.
No one's job is safe. During the recent Chinese Labor day holiday the shifus asked during a line-up if we would mind them having one or more days off. To go home, my shifu and Shaolin Zhang shifu needed four days off plus the weekend so they could make the long train trip to Henan province. We all said they could have as many days off as they wanted since we were devoted to them. They said they would take four days or none since the two would prefer to either go home to see their families or work to keep making money. After the first training session we were informed that the vice headmaster had agreed with their plan but doubted that the headmaster would. We all signed a petition to give them the days off, the translators as well. By lunch we heard that it had been rejected. Sanda decided that if they wouldn't give him the time off we would do our best ourselves. We lined up in front of the Shifu with a translator and explained that we were all going to be sick for the rest of the week and that he should feel free to take a trip home since he would have no students to teach. Unfortunately this tactic was not successful. while our shifu appreciated our attempt, he said the headmaster would not believe that we were really sick and would not allow the shifu to leave the academy. We were all rather outraged but training did proceed. For one or two sessions we would train somewhat seriously and for the rest of the beautiful summer days we ate ice cream played basketball and strolled through the woods.
Toilets
Forgive the crass topic. It is one that is essential, in more ways than one, on a China blog.
The toilets at the academy are, thankfully, western style toilets. Chinese plumbing still cannot tolerate toilet paper, however. Aside from that minor inconvenience, the facilities are quite satisfactory; once one gets used to the smell. I have made it a rule not to smell anything in China on purpose. The various scents and odors wafting on the wind or assaulting your nose like The Blitz are unavoidable. Let me explain: Often in the evenings, during training outside the lower training hall, a cloud of smoke from the trash pile being incinerated behind the academy will settle over the courtyard. More often than not, this cloud is colored by the distinct smell of burning plastic. Luckily smoke and the smell of burning trash are fairly easily tolerated, especially by someone who smoked for as long as I did. The most difficult to negotiate are the public restrooms. Walls and floors covered in urine, used toilet paper filling waste baskets or in small piles on the floor, cigarette butts and burns marring the walls of the pit toilets, and the general sense that the place has never been truly cleaned is rather overwhelming. There are some public restrooms that don't fit into this category but they are in establishments that can segregate their clientele. Even in nice places, the Black and Gold for instance, the smell of the bathrooms is immediately offensive to the western nostrils.
Once one gets used to the smell, using the bathroom in China presents other problems; those of flexibility and endurance. Pit toilets are, in fact, a hole in the floor. Sometimes, as in outdoor toilets, the pit simply runs outside the building, preferably onto a hill, but not necessarily. Nicer toilets do have full plumbing, if not the capacity for paper. One then places one's feet on either side of the hole and guesses at one's aim. Many newer toilets have places indicated for the feet, complete with little ridges for grip, to help with aim. Toilet paper is the responsibility of the user of the restroom so one must always carry a small roll in one's bags. Once in position you face the endurance trial of holding yourself, flat footed, in a full squat throughout the whole course of the deed. If this weren't enough, when it comes time to wipe, balance is called into play as you try to keep your clothes and bags from falling to the dirty floor as you clean yourself up. Once done, however, one feels a certain satisfaction at having successfully negotiated this imperative transaction.
The toilets at the academy are, thankfully, western style toilets. Chinese plumbing still cannot tolerate toilet paper, however. Aside from that minor inconvenience, the facilities are quite satisfactory; once one gets used to the smell. I have made it a rule not to smell anything in China on purpose. The various scents and odors wafting on the wind or assaulting your nose like The Blitz are unavoidable. Let me explain: Often in the evenings, during training outside the lower training hall, a cloud of smoke from the trash pile being incinerated behind the academy will settle over the courtyard. More often than not, this cloud is colored by the distinct smell of burning plastic. Luckily smoke and the smell of burning trash are fairly easily tolerated, especially by someone who smoked for as long as I did. The most difficult to negotiate are the public restrooms. Walls and floors covered in urine, used toilet paper filling waste baskets or in small piles on the floor, cigarette butts and burns marring the walls of the pit toilets, and the general sense that the place has never been truly cleaned is rather overwhelming. There are some public restrooms that don't fit into this category but they are in establishments that can segregate their clientele. Even in nice places, the Black and Gold for instance, the smell of the bathrooms is immediately offensive to the western nostrils.
Once one gets used to the smell, using the bathroom in China presents other problems; those of flexibility and endurance. Pit toilets are, in fact, a hole in the floor. Sometimes, as in outdoor toilets, the pit simply runs outside the building, preferably onto a hill, but not necessarily. Nicer toilets do have full plumbing, if not the capacity for paper. One then places one's feet on either side of the hole and guesses at one's aim. Many newer toilets have places indicated for the feet, complete with little ridges for grip, to help with aim. Toilet paper is the responsibility of the user of the restroom so one must always carry a small roll in one's bags. Once in position you face the endurance trial of holding yourself, flat footed, in a full squat throughout the whole course of the deed. If this weren't enough, when it comes time to wipe, balance is called into play as you try to keep your clothes and bags from falling to the dirty floor as you clean yourself up. Once done, however, one feels a certain satisfaction at having successfully negotiated this imperative transaction.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Chang Chun Itself
Changchun looks like Mexico. The colors, the concrete construction, the conspicuous lack of green space. It is the third world trying to climb up. Poor people starting to see some of their number make some money. After passing tenement style housing we get tot he bus station, a few blocks from the train station and I take a stroll to see what is around. Shops are everywhere. the first floor of every building, almost, has stores and what look like apartments above. I walk through a mall, outside of which some sort of hip-hop dance performance is going on. It is Labor day weekend for the Chinese. I buy a belt and try to haggle over the price and, for what seems like the twentieth time, the sellers won't have any of it. 35 yuan for a belt seems a bit much to me. It is only $4.50 but this is China. I buy it anyway. I ask a cab driver if he knows McDonalds, he doesn't. I smoke a few cogarettes and stroll through the open stalls in the mall again. I ask another driver for "may don la", my best guess at a chinese approximation of the English pronunciation. KFC is, after all, "ken dan gee". This time i've got it right. I sit and enjoy my big mack meal and watch from the second floor a presentation in front of a jewelry store. models in slinky, tight dresses take turns standing around, like models, and flashing rings on their hands. Many people stand and watch.
I wander the city for a few hours, alone. We are required to sign out of the Academy and to travel with someone else but i forget this weekend. I feel pretty safe and conspicuous. Everyone is nice and though most people stare a bit no one is obnoxious. They are more used to foreigners here. I think i am getting used to being "special" to drawing attention and it feels almost as strange when i don't as when I do. Being an extreme minority is quite the experience. The rampant consumerism is starting to wear on me as I walk through a huge indoor mall with Armani, D&G, and other absurd brands that are most likely knockoffs, if good ones. I passed a "ANMANI" shop ourside the mall. Prices here are marked but I know that people must still bargain because they seem much higher, still not too close to american prices but high. I begin to yearn for a place where bargaining is not involved in practically every purchase. Fast food, the train station, and the grocery stoor are about the only places where bargaining is not essential to avoid being ripped off. Please can't someone do it for me. It is exhausting and even if you get the price cut in half you still don't feel great about yourself. I was so fed up i paid 50 yuan for a hat and didn't bargain one bit.
I met my fellow student travellers at a Five star hotel constructed, seemingly, out of marble and red carpet. It was pretty awesome but the decor was forgotten as we sat down to an "all you can eat" buffet. Chefs were on hand to cook steak and fish any way you likes as well as sushi chefs to keep the plates full of rolls and sashimi that melted in your mouth. I ate pasta, salmon(blackened and baked), steak with real blue cheese, squid, and deserts by the plate and by the bowl. Icecream with chocolate sauce, fruit yogurt puddings, cakes, and a chocolate fountain to dip fresh fruit. I stuffed myself till i almost passed out. It was amazing, the highlight by far. A close second was the game of bowling we played before dinner. I crushed everyone as they don't bowl much, but wasn't it great to hear those pins even on this side of the world. We hit the clubs for a few hours that night and I danced to some popular hiphop and we had fun, then I slept in a hotel room with six other people and after a bit of shopping and a two-and-a-half hour train ride standing between cars i was back at the Academy for some rest. Si Ping will have to suffice for my travel destination for a while, I spent more than any three weekends previous on this blowout. It was worth it.
Hope all is well in the land of the Free, I hope the English accent i speak with most often here doesn't linger after I get back. I can't help it, surrounded by Brits as I am. Peace y'all.
I wander the city for a few hours, alone. We are required to sign out of the Academy and to travel with someone else but i forget this weekend. I feel pretty safe and conspicuous. Everyone is nice and though most people stare a bit no one is obnoxious. They are more used to foreigners here. I think i am getting used to being "special" to drawing attention and it feels almost as strange when i don't as when I do. Being an extreme minority is quite the experience. The rampant consumerism is starting to wear on me as I walk through a huge indoor mall with Armani, D&G, and other absurd brands that are most likely knockoffs, if good ones. I passed a "ANMANI" shop ourside the mall. Prices here are marked but I know that people must still bargain because they seem much higher, still not too close to american prices but high. I begin to yearn for a place where bargaining is not involved in practically every purchase. Fast food, the train station, and the grocery stoor are about the only places where bargaining is not essential to avoid being ripped off. Please can't someone do it for me. It is exhausting and even if you get the price cut in half you still don't feel great about yourself. I was so fed up i paid 50 yuan for a hat and didn't bargain one bit.
I met my fellow student travellers at a Five star hotel constructed, seemingly, out of marble and red carpet. It was pretty awesome but the decor was forgotten as we sat down to an "all you can eat" buffet. Chefs were on hand to cook steak and fish any way you likes as well as sushi chefs to keep the plates full of rolls and sashimi that melted in your mouth. I ate pasta, salmon(blackened and baked), steak with real blue cheese, squid, and deserts by the plate and by the bowl. Icecream with chocolate sauce, fruit yogurt puddings, cakes, and a chocolate fountain to dip fresh fruit. I stuffed myself till i almost passed out. It was amazing, the highlight by far. A close second was the game of bowling we played before dinner. I crushed everyone as they don't bowl much, but wasn't it great to hear those pins even on this side of the world. We hit the clubs for a few hours that night and I danced to some popular hiphop and we had fun, then I slept in a hotel room with six other people and after a bit of shopping and a two-and-a-half hour train ride standing between cars i was back at the Academy for some rest. Si Ping will have to suffice for my travel destination for a while, I spent more than any three weekends previous on this blowout. It was worth it.
Hope all is well in the land of the Free, I hope the English accent i speak with most often here doesn't linger after I get back. I can't help it, surrounded by Brits as I am. Peace y'all.
To Chang Chun
Everyone, not literally, but many people from the academy went to Chang chun over the weekend to celebrate three birthdays and to get away from our little world here. Most people came to Si Ping on friday and bought train tickets for saturday morning and some just took the train to Chang Chun on friday night. I waited till saturday morning to try to buy my ticket and there wasn't anything until 3pm that day. So i went outside and asked some of the bus drivers if they were going to chang chun. they kept pointing me in the same direction but after the third bus I realized they were pointing towards the bus station. I went to the ticket office and asked what times they had for buses to Chang Chun and found a 10:15 or an 11:00. I asked for the 10:15 and the woman told me to come back later and get my ticket. I went to KFC and then went shopping at the Zhong Xin. Around 9:45 I see if anyone was at the internet cafe and headed to the bus station. i bought my ticket and by 9:55 i was sitting in the station, eating a banana, and reading "Time's Arrow". I opened a soda bottle for two old women with a tiny girl and spent some time making faces at her and the little boy sitting next to me. I had stepped outside to smoke, the bus and train stations being two of the few places it is not permissible to smoke but spitting is still allowed, and cabbies come up to try to convince me to take their service to Changchun. they try to suggest that I would be much more comfortable in a car with music and room to stretch out. They are faster than the bus, they say. For a mere 200 yuan i could ride to Changchun in style (my words, not theirs). I merely point out that the bus only costs 25 yuan and the price drops to 160. When I point out that I have already bought tickets they turn away. At the bus station i go to buy a bottle of water and pack of Baishas for my little trip. I choose a nice looking old woman to buy from and she is keen to sell me. I point out the Baishas and ask for a bottle of water. She bags them and tells me 6 yuan. I tell her 4 and she starts to tell me no, that the things I want are more, the cigarrettes 4 and the water 2. I tell her i know the smokes are 3 and i take out the expensive water and choose the brand that i know costs 1. She gives me a rueful chuckle and wags a finger at me. i am learning here.
I spent the three hour bus ride reading and sleeping and watching rural china out of my window. Here, in China, they farm every scrap of land possible. In the US i am used to flat stretches of farmland stretching off into the distance, but here, the land is whatever shape it is and the farming is done against the natural contours of the land. They plant up and down the side of hills. They plant to the very edge of the arable land. If there are sections of a field that are not plowed and sown, or ready for sewing, then they can be assumed to be unplantable. All the work is done by hand. Donkeys or mules draw the plow in front of the men working. Crops are seeded one at a time by people, usually old men, using these strange pogo stick-esque devices. I have yet to see any harvesting but I imagine it is all accomplished through china's greatest resource: Labor. Farmer's appropriate, annex, sections of highway to dry their corn. It is spread over the road and then walked through, forming rows, mirroring the land they have pulled it from. Furrowed like the fields. When it is dry it is swept and scooped into sacks, weighed, and the sack is sewn up. The sacks, which must weigh around 100lbs., are then hand loaded to overflowing onto trucks.
I spent the three hour bus ride reading and sleeping and watching rural china out of my window. Here, in China, they farm every scrap of land possible. In the US i am used to flat stretches of farmland stretching off into the distance, but here, the land is whatever shape it is and the farming is done against the natural contours of the land. They plant up and down the side of hills. They plant to the very edge of the arable land. If there are sections of a field that are not plowed and sown, or ready for sewing, then they can be assumed to be unplantable. All the work is done by hand. Donkeys or mules draw the plow in front of the men working. Crops are seeded one at a time by people, usually old men, using these strange pogo stick-esque devices. I have yet to see any harvesting but I imagine it is all accomplished through china's greatest resource: Labor. Farmer's appropriate, annex, sections of highway to dry their corn. It is spread over the road and then walked through, forming rows, mirroring the land they have pulled it from. Furrowed like the fields. When it is dry it is swept and scooped into sacks, weighed, and the sack is sewn up. The sacks, which must weigh around 100lbs., are then hand loaded to overflowing onto trucks.
Friday, April 27, 2007
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).
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).
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
BIG NEWS
MEREDITH AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!
I asked her and somehow she was confused enough to say yes. We are so happy together and our life in Athens has been perfect despite a job she can't stand and nothing much to do. She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met and I can't wait for us to get more chances to spend time with all of you.
All my love.
Chris
I asked her and somehow she was confused enough to say yes. We are so happy together and our life in Athens has been perfect despite a job she can't stand and nothing much to do. She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met and I can't wait for us to get more chances to spend time with all of you.
All my love.
Chris
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