Dateline: Vienna

Amituofo! As many of your know Richu, Heng De and I have come to Austria for two weeks of international training, and while you all are just starting class right about now, it's 1 am on Wednesday here and day one is complete.

We got to the airport at about 2 am our time, where we were met by Oliver. He drove us to the temple where after meeting Heng Yi we all promptly fell asleep. We woke up, got some lunch, and then - promptly fell asleep. Jet lag, it's tough. And we wanted to be super rested for our first class.

It was a great class to begin our stay. There was a film crew here taping for Austrian TV so it was a mixed up but chi-tastic training experience.

First off, let me say our Austrian brothers have a LOT of chi. Everyone is wonderfully welcoming and helpful, and they train hard. Good thing too because class was totally different from training in New York and there were many times I was confused as to what the heck was going on (even if I am technically their Aunt, as I was introduced :D). There were all kinds of crazy tumbling and walking backwards in a bridge, lots of stances and chuji quantao over and over and over and over again. It was the hardest that form has felt in a long time. :) De and I introduced everyone to the wonders of the straddle stretch, while they had us walking around with each other on our shoulders. It was exciting to be training the same and yet so differently.

Afterwards we went out for dinner with several folks and everything felt just like home only without a few of my favorite dorks! It was lots of fun though, talking training with new folks and making new friends. We even got free Chinese new year plates from the Chinese restaurant. There is more detailed blogging to come, but now I got to finish catching up on my jet lag.......