I''ll skip through the bloody details of getting used to the place, no one likes to hear bitching anyways, and suffice to say that after about a week I settled down into a rhythm and started to get used to the place. Here is what a typical day would look like: 5:30a Wake up to the sound of the "Shaolong military march" followed by even cheesier Chinese music. Stumble out of bed, wishing that I had gotten to bed earlier the night before. Pull on some warm up pants and a t-shirt and stumble out the dooor.
5:45a Line up in front of the dorm building and attempt to stretch. After the last of the music has stopped, Sifu will have us march out of the complex and run alongside the 4000 other red-clad Chinese students. Thursday is long run day.
6:30a (except Thursday) Go either to the training hall or park and stretch out, maybe to some Tai Chi or breathing exercises.
7:00a Line up and are dismissed to go eat breakfast. Get to the cafeteria early, before the little brats toss food all over the stairway to the laowai (foreigners) section. Breakfast is usually (read, always) rice, beansprouts, and the signature Shaolong tomato and egg dish. Every once and a while, there are crunchy bits of sweet dough and/or rice porridge. After breakfast, return to room and try to catch a nap before mid-morning practice.
9:10a Wake up, put clothes back on, and line up downstairs again. Stretch instead of playing the warm up game (either touch or basketball) because people always get hurt playing the games. After the game is done, there is a group stretch, followed by general exercise (kicking or sprinting). Finally, we get to work on forms.
10:40a 20 minute break, then resume forms training until noon.
12:00p Line up and are dismissed for lunch. Lunch consists of rise, one or two vegetable-looking dishes, pumpkin if we are lucky, and tomato and egg. Maybe I will also buy something from one of the windows in the downstairs cafeteria. After lunch, go upstairs, update journal, and try to get in another nap.
3:30p Wake up, dress, line up, etc... Afternoon training is mostly forms, either Tai Chi or stick form for me, and acrobatics once and a while. Acrobatics is really fun, particularly headflips.
5:10p 20 minute break, followed by more training. On Monday and Wednesday, our group gets the dubious pleasure of Chinese class, where we learn useless words and phrases from quite possibly one of the stupidest people in China. Ignore the teacher and try to get something out of my own Chinese phrase book.
6:30p Line up and are dismissed for dinner. Dinner consists of rice, one or two vegetable dishes (with small bits of meat if we are lucky), and, you guessed it, tomato and egg. After dinner, trade stories/learn German swear words from my roommates.
7:40p Go back downstairs for evening roll call. Line up and count off. Afterwards are dismissed to go to free training.
8:00p Free training in the hall, where we can work on whatever we want to. This was only mandatory on Tuesday and Thursday, but my roommates and I went pretty much every night. This was the only place for me to learn Shaohan form (the prerequisite to the stick form) from the other students. Would sometimes also practice acrobatics, and later stick form.
9:00 Go back to room (building is locked down at around 9:30). Shower if water is still available, and try to get some sleep. Yeah right about the sleep. Normally fell asleep between 11 and midnight, then wake up bright and early the next morning...
Overall the camp was a really good experience and I was sad to go. In just under a month, I managed to learn two Tai Chi forms, a Kung Fu form, and the first stick form, not too shabby!
No comments:
Post a Comment