Off to see the Wizard...of Wudang

Journal entry from Sunday....
What a day it has been so far. I spent the morning recovering from a hangover because I stayed up till 3am drinking beer with Ville, Anders and Lars. We spent the evening talking about our country's culture and learning something new from each other. When I awoke up around 9am, my head was pounding and I still felt a little drunk. I thought some breakfast would help but my stomach did not agree. I came back to the room and forced myself to throw up in order to feel better. And it did! I felt like total ass but at least I didn't feel nauseous or have the aching headache. In the afternoon, I checked out of the hostel and hung out in the lobby area until it was time to leave. There I met an italian girl, Carolina, who has been studying chinese for the past 6 months. She told me that in January she will return to China and work for a year for one of the insurance companies in Beijing. I thought that was rather impressive. The cool thing is that she spoke spanish, italian, french, english and now chinese. So we communicated in spanish mostly, but at time she did catch herself asking me questions in italian.

One of the girls at the hostel helped me plan my route to Beijing West Station to catch the train. She told me it would take about 45 minutes on the metro and that I would need to arrive an hour before departure. I took her advice and proceeded on my way around 2pm. As I was walking down the hutong towards the main street, it dawned on me how much I enjoyed the stay in Beijing. Such an interesting culture and the city brings to life all aspects of China, from the modern to the traditional. You see lamas and monks walking down the sidewalks, you kids imitating westerners with blonde hair, the older generation playing chinese chess on the streets, vendors selling caramelized fruit and kabobs, and cyclists merging with ongoing traffic.

When I arrived at the Military Museum Station, I flagged down a taxi driver and pointed to my map. He understood and took me the train station, driving through the hutong and honking his horn at every pedestrian on the street. The entrance to the train station was packed and the taxi driver pointed to area where I needed to go. I strapped on my backpack (which by the way weighs about 18 kilos) made my way through the crowds. One thing about crowds in China, you are either shoving your way through or you are the one being shoved. Masses of people were sitting in the different waiting lounges until their train number was called. I had no idea where to go so I found myself sitting in the McDonalds on the second floor until it was time to board. I again found myself shoving my way through another crowd just to get to the train. Crazy, I tell you.

On Jan's recommendation, he mentioned that the soft sleeper is the way to travel in China. He said the hard sleepers, though 220 yuan cheaper, are not the safest place for westerners because your luggage is out in the open. Also, you can't sleep comfortably because are sharing a car with 66 other people and no privacy. So opted for the soft sleeper when I arranged my ticket a few days ago. I'm so happy I took his advice because I only share a small room with 3 other people and we are closed off to the corridor. I even have a small area where I can store my luggage without fear of having it stolen. There are also vendors that walk the corridor selling beverages, fruits, nuts, snacks and romen noodles. It's almost 11pm now and I've been in my sleeper alone which has been a blessing. Im enjoying the solitude because it gives me the opportunity to read and also update my video journal. I only have 14 more hours before arriving at Wudangshan where someone is supposed to pick me up.

Journal entry from Monday...
Last night a couple joined me in the soft sleeper. I had just turned out the lights and was getting ready for bed when I the door opened. In came this couple and they looked alittle shocked that they were sharing a room with a westerner. I said "ni hao" and they both just starred at me, like was an animal at the zoo. They didn't say a thing; they just put their bags in the over head compartment and laid down. The gentlemen had the top bunk and snored all night long. It was worst the the signature Fleshman snore; I wanted to punch this guy. With only a few hours of deep sleep, I was up at 6am and laid in the my bunk. I was able to sleep for the next 2 hours because the guy woke up and decide to sit in the corridor. The rest of the day I spent either in the corridor or pacing around the train. The couple eventually opened up and the wife said "hello" to me. They even invited me to play cards with them (chinese rummy I believe).

I arrived at Wudangshan at 1249pm and seemed a little lost because Master Yuan said that there would be someone there to pick me up. Welll I walked out of the train station and these 2 women approached me and wanted me to stay at their hostel. They kept insisting and I kept telling them "bu yao" (i dont want that). Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was a student from the school. He had a piece of paper with my name on and asked me if I was 'luigi". So we proceeded to walk to the school, which was about a 15 minute walk from the train station. Jian took me into Master Yuan's office and poured me some green tea. We talked about what I came to study and he told me that I would meet Master Yuan later. Jian gave me the training schedule and asked if I wanted to begin today. "Of course," I responded. That's what I came here to do. So at 250pm all the students met in the entrance of the building and we walked together to the temple. I immediately realized that I was not the only foreigner at the academy and that made me feel better. There are about 20 foreigners training anywhere from 1 month to 5 years and from all parts of the world. So the training began with basic stretching and then it was off to line drills. We did the basics for an hour and the next hour is spent on your own, practicing what Sifu has taught you. Since I was the new guy, I had to learn the basic form. They noticed that I had kungfu training and said that I would pick this up quickly, and I did. I learned the entire basic form in a matter of minutes. So over this next week, I will begin learning taiji 28 and then some other forms as well. I will speak with Sifu Yuan and ask him if I can learn the tai yi because I saw these 2 Canadian girls practicing the form and it looked rather interesting. One of the chinese students told me, during the line drills, that my kungfu look strong and I had good form. He was impressed with my style. The cool thing is that I just jumped in the afternoon training like I've been here for months. I can only imagine what my body will feel like after a weeks time here. Training is from 6-7am, 8-10am, and 3-5pm. We have breakfast at 730, lunch at 1230 and dinner at 6pm with a mediation at 8pm. The rest of the time is spent practicing what you learned. We train every day of the week except Thursdays.