my funny chongquan

hardly my funny valentine! training last night was horrific & wonderful. i know, us kung fu folks are weird. explainy? well, it was bloody hot as hell & i even spent a few minutes outside of temple thinking i'd acclimate from being in the freezing ac all day to the real temperature outside. i walk in & temple was dark as a dungeon except it felt more like an oven. it was like walking through a wall of heat. welcome! i changed quickly, the changing room was even worse! i sat in my shirt & kung fu pants in front of the mirror sorting out my shaolin hair (which i was so happy with!!) for a few minutes & i was covered in sweat already. people started coming in & of course slowly the temple lights (those horrible interogation lights!) came on & since folks were warming up, the heat became so much worse. solace: the fan was on & stayed on for a bit. strangely one fan does make a difference (although still not sure if one vote will... but i digress). once class started heng zhou turned off the fan & i heard a brother say: that's so mean! basics was a painful but i had chi, although i felt heavy from being drenched. didn't get yelled at by sifu (much) & i made it through yangshen yunshuo (hooray!) but i was all jelly legs by lihetui but i had to muster on. i ran out of line to go to the bathroom & damn! it was oppressive in there & i found myself behind a couple of newbies who were so slow it was killing me!! i heard someone yell give people space at ceshoufan which by the way is getting better although still one sided! then we did chuji quantao followed by xiebu, pubu & dingbu & finally stretch time! i walked around a bit to get my heart rate to equalize & as it was under 30 people, i decided to work on that stretchy machine which i could control though i realized i didn't know how to close it back down so i had to manoever to get out of it! i was mid-pidgeon stretch when quan tuo asked me to join the straddle. man! straddle is so intimidating. i have tried it twice before, with heng li & heng xu. the first time with heng li my hip popped out (pain!) & then heng xu was pushing me down so fast! this time with one foot in a plastic bag, i was slipping but not way out of control. i realize that i can hold myself up but that sooner or later my knee starts to hurt & i hold my breath too much. but i did it & assisted with another straddle crew too. i was hoping to change shirts but sifu told us to GO. i found myself behind quan tuo at waibaitui but i didn't get to work out the hips so i was going slow, jaka amituofo'd himself in front of me. i was better for zhengtutui, popping as i was in the beginning. i did yiluquan as far as i knew then stood in golden rooster for the duration. twice. back in for zuopan, xiebu & pubu. i ran to change shirts before floor work & when i came out sifu called for everyone working on 1st & 2nd forms which i didn't understand right away until quan tuo said my name with a head nod in sifu's direction. heng de took 5 of us, 3 of us as far in as 1/3 & the others just starting. heng de said my chonguan was funny & had me stand there punching the air for a minute since he couldn't sort out what was weird about it. other things to work on for me: straight arms, lower mabu/gongbu (it sucks because he could tell i could go lower), higher tantui (which tweaked the muscle on the top of my left leg! owwie!) & higher arms in position. also he said my gongbu need not be so long as long as my knee & foot are in a straight line. my arms were exhausted! then we practiced mabu/gongbu strikes for a bit before sifu had us close with pushups, situps & back stretches. i yelled a couple of MORE CHIs to cheer myself & others on! i ran to the sink immediately & splashed neck & face thoroughly (i did this serveral times during class to cool off when i felt faint) then for cleaning meditation i cleaned the altar, lit incense & sang softly to the buddhas but was busted by our brother seraphim who is returning to greece next week. he is so sweet as to give me his contact info (since i was fawning over the idea of going to greece with quan tuo). we will see him again next year, no doubt. so a quick change & a group of us went to have korean food. such a nice crew & good food & fun times. hannah even made us yummy cookies in shaolin colours!
boyos did not get a pee break. quan tuo & i watched a bit of harry potter 3 then had a scrub down then off to bed in the semi cool room.
another wicked training night! sifu is off to mexico for a week so we are going to have a more diversified series of classes with senior brothers in charge, am so looking forward to it. i plan on getting done with yiluquan & maybe even start erluquan by the time sifu returns. tee-hee!
more chi!
train harder!
shaolin si!