That’s it; all over. I completed my last module this morning, and went to a quick revision this afternoon. That’s the end of it all for now; I’ve said my farewells for the time being.

Heh; sorry, even though the rain prevented this morning’s class with Sun Lao Shi, I was up just after 5am to get ready to go, and I’m dead tired right now. I almost fell asleep in Starbucks this afternoon!

Tomorrow I’m going to rest (read: sleep) and when I’m refreshed will write my review, I hope.

It’s 6:17am, and I was due to meet Sun Lao Shi for training - but it’s raining, so that’s not going to happen. Instead, I thought I’d upload a few more pictures….

This is the park on campus where I train:

The gymnasium on campus, where the Olympic wrestling events will take place:

A couple of shots of Ritan Park, where I’ve been catching up with Dragoncache:

The dumpling joint where I’ve been eating lately:

I’m counting yesterday as day 11, even though I didn’t go….

I was up at 5:30am; yesterday Sun Lao Shi and I agreed to meet a little later today, so I was there at 6:30. We worked on the 8 basic palms and their applications, and then reviewed the first set of the 4 palms in more detail.

After that, we went into the Shanxi whipstaff, and the time just flew by! Before I knew it, it was time to move on. He gave me a spare staff, but in the current pre-Olympics security climate there’s no way I could take it downtown, so I had to cycle back to my university, leave it at home, then cycle back to Wudaokou. I grabbed my usual breakfast at Lush, and then headed down to the Yiquan Academy.

I forgot my copy of the curriculum again, so I can’t tell you then name of what we did; essentially, it was uppercut punches - first of all singly, and then in combinations, all in a static position.

That was all I did until lunchtime, at which point I headed down to Jianguomen, grabbed lunch at Subway, and spent the afternoon in Starbucks at the Friendship Store. It turns out that if you buy Earl Grey you get two-for-one (don’t know if the other teas are the same) which was cool. I finished off Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, which struck a number of chords - I really can identify with the protagonist in many ways! I’d seen it in Singapore but never bought it, which was the right decision - I think I needed to read it now, and not while I was still in Singapore…

When I got back to the Academy at 5, there was another westerner there, an Israeli called something like Gil. I’m not sure how long he’d been there, but he waited until 5:45, and as Master Yao still hadn’t arrived he gave up and left. He’s apparently here as an Olympic volunteer, has studied some yiquan and Shaolin styles before, and found the Academy via its website. I gave him Master Yao’s phone number, so he may be back.

After trying the Shanxi whipstaff in the morning, I was curious about Yiquan’s staff techniques, so I asked if I could do some work on that - so that was what I learned this afternoon. Nothing very exciting, just one static pose, but it did actually give me some insight into posture.

Master Yao arrived with the Japanese student about 6:15, and corrected me a few times. Apparently he’ll be there tomorrow morning.

I was chatting to Carlos last night, and he’d got the impression I’m fed up with the Academy; I can see why my recent posts may have given that idea, but it’s actually not the case! Wait for my final roundup at the end of the week!

That was the phrase I introduced to the Zhongguancun Toastmasters Club this evening, in my role as Wordsmith. It was an interesting evening, as we had a rare joint meeting with the Microsoft Toastmasters. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, I attend Toastmasters every Tuesday evening, which for the last couple of weeks has meant I can’t go to the Yiquan Academy on Tuesday afternoons.

I needed to catch up with my manager today to discuss an idea I’ve had for a prize to be awarded to students next semester, for the best group project. It involves drumming up private sponsorship, so needs a bit of thought and planning. The idea only struck me last night, and it needs to be acted on quickly if we’re going to do it. So…. I called up Master Yao and let him know I couldn’t make it at all today. Tomorrow willI be no problem, though. So no further yiquan news today!

It wasn’t a martial arts-free day, though! I got up shortly after 5am, and met Master Sun Ru Xian not long after 6. We reviewed the eight basic palms and then the first set of the 64 Palms again. After that, a surprise! He started teaching me the Shanxi whipstaff set. Yay! I’m - ahem - not exactly a natural, and rapidly became a menace to passersby, small animals and low-flying aircraft, but I will get better! Ahem, I hope. Poor Sun Lao Shi, I often think he must go home after lessons and bang his head against the wall at having such a retarded student! I’ll keep trying, though. He had a spare staff which he’s giving me. He’s a really generous guy. I think I’ve really fallen on my feet, finding him as a teacher. I do need to work hard to live up to his commitment.

As for that… look back at my post on “the narrowing of the ways”. After five years of searching, I rather think I may have found the right mix of teachers and styles to focus on. More on that in a future post, coming soon!

Situated just outside the Physical Education University’s West Gate, this shop has a lot of obscure bagua weapons in stock!

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