faster route to soup!

I walked to get soup with Hannah today. We were in a rush to get there and back because Shifu said he didn't have much time. I think we were pretty quick taking the red route avoiding the China Town crowd. We walked East on Grand St., turned right on Center, turned left on Hester and then right to Baxter St.



According to Google Maps and Hopstop.com, the fastest route is through Canal St. (blue route) -- which is not true.

I've tried that route. Fighting my way through mad China Town shoppers takes a lot of chi and time....


Next time I'll try walking down on Grand until Baxter.

*update*
Heng De pointed out that the temple is actually below Grand. When I did Google Map I gave a wrong address.... Hannah and I actually walked down Howard, not Grand. That's why we didn't walk all the way to Baxter.... I guess I..... need to train harder...

Be Good to Yourself -- Sleep!

Oof. Today I trained after an evening of much fun and a few hours of uneven sleep and man did I pay the price. I was stumbly and off balance during lunbi caijiao, so Shifu sent me to the side. And then after the rest of the class started practicing their forms, and Shifu came to the side to work with us, he knocked me to the side yet again for bad lunbi caijiao.

When I'm stumbly and tired, I tend not to extend enough, and I take an extra step in between each one because I'm struggling to keep up with the pace of the line. Shifu has knocked me out of the line for this before, and normally I am very mindful of how I do lunbi caijiao because I don't want to repeat this mistake again, but I guess today I was so bushed, it didn't translate to my actions. So he made me do basic caijiao and then lunbi caijiao non-stop for what seemed to be the longest 45 minutes of my life.

Miserable. I wanted to cry as I heard Mo and Sucheela trying to give me chi. In the end, I am glad I went, but boy, do I need a good solid six hours of sleep or more.

Oh, I did learn a new thing today -- Mo and I stretched with Julian, a newer student who hasn't been training that long. Looks like he's in his early to mid 20s, brown hair, an interesting line design tattoo on his left forearm, and a tiny gold stud through a part of his left ear, not his lobe.

Ok, now I'm going for a nap. Zzzzzzzzz.....

I learned new erluquan moves today!!! yay yay yay....

Room to Breathe - On the Side

I was on the wider side of the carpet yesterday during the basics. I intentionally picked that side because I didn't like the dry hot air blowing from the heater above the changing room. It was wide and comfortable at the beginning. Towards the end when a few people got sent to the side, things got a little tighter.

I got sent to the side once when we first moved to the new temple. It was almost impossible (for me) to do tenkongfanyao in that space. So this time - I tried to give them space. The problem was that the space that was left in the middle got so narrow I could do only 2 or 3 moves and I would run out of space.

So I would like to ask anybody who happens to read this and trains on the wider side of the carpet next time to turn the line a little sooner - to be mindful of people training on the side while waiting for our turn in the line.

And for the people in front of the line - please be aware that the space gets narrower - if you can, please move a little bit toward the middle - try not rush people in the back of the line or yell at us to move to the side - because there's not much space on the side...

Stretch Harder!

Last night in class, I learned some new stretches.

First, I stretched with Neo and Ren. We did this one stretch that's good for the hamstrings and the back of the legs in general. I sat on the floor with legs out straight in front and feet pointed up. Ren sat facing me, with her feet against mine, and her feet pushed down against mine, so mine were bending towards me. In the meanwhile, Neo put his back to mine and leaned backwards onto me, so that I was folding in half at the waist towards my legs, and back straight, as always. See crude illustration number 1 below:

Fig. 1

Next I met up with Branden who taught me yet another stretch, this time for two people. You basically sit with your legs on the floor in V formation facing each other. You grab ahold of each other's forearms. Then, the person assisting in the stretching places his feet closer in along your legs, leans backwards and pulls you and your arms back towards him, so you lean forward and your legs stretch out wider. And then you can reposition yourselves and go the other way to torture the other person! See crude illustration number 2 below:

Fig. 2

It's good to mix it up!

Know Your Place in Line -- Turtle Style

Yesterday was a small class -- 19 of us, led by Joshua. Yowza!

So, normally I'm more of a back of the line kind of girl, lately inching up a few people up just because there are so many new people. I guess that happens when one has been training for over a year now. So when we split into two lines on Saturday to do basics, somehow I ended up second in line behind Branden. Yikes! I had never been that close to the front of the line, and I debated dropping back, but given number of relatively new people in my line, it was kinda appropriate that I stay put. So, I decided to challenge myself and run with it, quite literally.

I did okay, sticking tough through caijiao, gong bu, lunbi caijiao etc., but I found myself trying to keep pace with Branden who was ahead of me and who is always consistently either first or second in line. And it was rough, I realized, because not only has Branden been training longer than I have, but he is also taller than I am, so that in itself made it difficult to keep up. As a result, I found myself not going the full length of the carpet, as I usually try to do, and being sloppy.

So by the time we got a few of the basics in -- I think it was maybe around lihetui -- I decided to drop back and settle into 4th place in line, where I was much more comfortable and was able to do everything properly.

I am pleased that I tried the challenge and understood myself. I know I probably ought to push myself to move up in line a little bit more, but I also want to make sure I'm not rushing for the sake of looking speedy.

(This is a classic rendering of the Chinese character for Turtle, pronounced Gu or Gui. The turtle is a symbol of longevity, an animal who can neither run nor jump yet makes steady, unrelenting progress toward his goal.)