The First Great Adventure of my Life.

Pt. 1
You'd be surprised how flexible your ribs can be when a 230 lb man of toned muscle is ramming them with his shoulder. Needless to say when it happened to me and I was in the midst of stumbling backwards I started wondering exactly what I'd gotten my self into. Unfortunately while I was shuffling my feet, instead of thinking about his higher motivations in life, he was thinking only of placing a well positioned leg under my feet, and when I had finally reached the conclusion that this had in fact been a mistake I also reached the concrete with little more than the expected thud.

The crowed of 40 or 50 students surrounding us gave out a gasp and shudder. But I got up, I'd been committed so I stepped back up to my opponent and our wrists again came in contact. And in a few more moments I was back on the ground, this time thinking there was probably something about this guy none of the other students had bothered to tell me about. Again I rose to my feet, and again I was returned not to gingerly to the hard ground.

I had been hanging out with the Tai Chi club that was meeting every day next to the Confucius statue. I went there to watch them. But because I hadn't payed the club dues I felt that I shouldn't be practicing with them. They had all been doing tai chi for no more than one or two years so when they heard I had been studying for 5 years they had been very impressed. But for anyone who is wondering, while I do have a black belt at 5 years, really in the tai chi community 5 years is still a beginner. Despite my protests every so often they would insist that I do some tai chi for them to watch.

After a few days I started asking about their teacher. They said he had recently moved away but would come once a week. So I waited eagerly to see how advanced he would be.

This day, which I refer to as “why even bother getting up day”, this was the day their teacher was coming. When I arrived I sat and watched them for a good hour and a half, and I could tell that their master was definitely very good, and knew what he was doing. When the group of students started practicing on their own some came over to me and introduced me to their master, after which they insisted I do a form for them. I obliged, actually a bit nervous with the master watching me, but when I was done he gave me plenty of compliments and I felt pretty good about my self, though sometimes I wonder if they lower the bar because I'm an American.

After that some of the students asked if I would do some push hands. I had a group of 4 or 5 people around me. I would take one of them on while the others watched. For those who don't know push hands is a way of practicing the meditation and martial arts applications of tai chi with out all the arm breaking and killing involved with the actual moves in tai chi. Two people face each other and they touch each other wrist to wrist. They keep in contact in order to feel where their opponent is and to manipulate their energy so that they can win. In the US we always did it so that when your opponent is forced to take a step you win. I've pushed with a few people in China where there isn't really any winning, and your feet aren't anchored. Your free to walk around your opponent all you want.

As of yet none of the students have ever beaten me, with them though I play the step and your out rule. Eventually I was getting hungry so I was getting ready to go, when a few of the students I'd been pushing with called me over to the larger group. None of them could speak much English but they told me as best they could that this man, now standing in front of me, wanted to push with me. Now we are taught in tai chi that size doesn't matter, muscle and strength doesn't matter, and it's something I've come to learn, in class I have tossed a 200 lb man with little effort simply by using the correct techniques So his size didn't scare me, assuming we was at most a 2 year student like the rest of them I should have no problem with him, and in fact if he tries to use all his muscle against me it would give me all the more energy to use against him.

But as our wrists came in contacted something seemed different than I when I was pushing with the other students, perhaps I could feel the strength of his chi, or maybe something in the way he moved qued me in to his skill, but I think it was probably the fact that suddenly every single one of the students had stopped what they were doing and had surrounded us in a huge circle like something out of a bad Kung Fu movie. I only had a moment to wonder why everyone was so interested before I landed with all my body weight on my left shoulder.

Since I started doing tai chi I have gotten very used to not falling, I have much better balance than I ever had before I started learning and even such things as navigating a slimy rock bed next to a creek while fishing has become easier, sure I stumble plenty and on the afore mentioned rocks I still slip a lot, but the actual incidents of falling completely to the ground have become almost none existent. But this day I started getting used to landing hard on my back or sides. Each time I hit the students and growing crowd of passers by that were stopping to watch would let out a groan on my behalf.

After a while though I started getting used to his style, not saying he was in any danger quite yet, but he definitely had to work a little harder each time he added another bruise to the collection. I'm gonna go into a play by play for the next part because it's cool

“So Rick, it looks like Ian is becoming less and less enthusiastic every time he gets up, is he getting tiered or has he just reserved himself to defeat at this point”

“Well you have to understand he completely underestimated his opponent in this match Steve, he went in completely blind. We can obviously see he is breathing very heavily but I think he may also be taking a moment to gage what he previously thought of as a sure thing.”

“Hmm, interesting. OK well Ian's back up and here we go. Well Rick it seems we don't have this large fellow's name any where, lets just call him...The Doughnut”

“The Doughnut Rick?”

“I skipped breakfast this morning-But no time to change it now their wrists are in contact and there off. Ian appears to be trying only to avoid The Doughnut's feet, which have been tripping him up all day, but The Doughnut is crafty, he's using his weight to try and further tier Ian down.”

“Oh my Rick did you see that, Ian just barely escaped the...uh....Doughnut's arm cruncher there, if he hadn't bent his elbow right then Ian may have spent the next few months in a full arm cast. Ian is rebounding now, trying to keep his center of gravity below that of (sigh) The Doughnut's. It seems now that Ian is actually trying to go on the offensive.”
“Yes Steve, it seems Ian has taken in all he plans to from his opponent at this point and thinks he knows enough to-OH, my it looks like Ian landed hard with his weight crushing his left leg, his knee is gonna be sore tomorrow”

“But he's back up and ready for more punishment, Rick, holding his hands up to signal he's ready. OK back, again Ian is just avoiding the feet of his opponent, and he just barely avoided another close encounter of the earthen kind, he he, now Ian is...oh my whats this, it looks like Ian's got The Doughnut on the Ropes, Ian is pulling The Doughnut's left arm down now, and he's following with the raise of the right arm, and whats this...yes The Doughnut is falling but so is Ian, all he needs to do is stay standing and YES HE'S DONE IT HE'S WON”

At this point the crowd Erupted in applause, and I stood pretty tall for a moment. When the guy stood up I held out my hand to say thats enough you won a bunch I won once lets call it even. But he didn't seem interested in that, we went a few more rounds that I think were just so he could make it absolutely clear that he could wipe the floor with me any time he wanted.

That little bit of info that I felt I was missing I learned from one of the students afterwards, apparently this guy had come with their teacher today to give a guest lesson, he had apparently been studying for 10+ years and was a professional martial artist.

Pt. 2

Well that was Saturday, Sunday i got a call from my master and Monday I was on my way to see the school he had arranged for me to start learning wushu and tai chi at. In one heck of an accomplishment, I managed to arrange the time and figure out the address of the school over the phone with the school all with out a spot of English.

I got in a cab after class on Monday and handed over the address, after a lot of back and forth mostly the cabby saying something and me saying louder each time “I don't understand” he eventually got me where I was going.

The gate had a big Yin Yang on it. Next to the gate was a security guard station, and beyond that was the biggest martial arts school I've ever seen. There were many buildings I could see that were nothing but dorms, I later learned that all the students at the school, except for me probably, lived there at the school.

I met the person that had been arranged to meet me, Zhong Shifu. He didn't speak English but was able to explain a few things about the school in Chinese And I told him that I would probably be coming twice a week for now, just because I was very out of shape and it would be a little while till I could get back to my usual regiment. We agreed on Monday and Thursday at 1 for now as we walked towards where I would be learning.

In the US my school is small, When we were learning weapons we were always avoiding the lights, and each other as we crowded in to the work out space, on Saturdays the tai chi class would get down right crowded after 50 or so students showed up. So when I climbed the 3 flights up to the practice area and opened the door, I acquired a pretty stupid grin, just one more thing that my beard seems to effectively hide. This room was the size of a college basket ball stadium and had nothing but mats and carpets for practicing wushu. The ceiling was a full 2 stories above me nothing I could ever hope to hit with my sword even if I threw it.

Zhong Shifu asked if I was planing on learning the rope dart to which I replied an emphatic “Dui”, he pulled the weapon from a case on the side of the room and stepped to the center of the nearest square of carpet. A rope dart is a long, maybe 12 foot rope, with a heavy medal weight on the end. You swing it around obviously, but the spectacle comes when, while swinging, the rope wraps around your arms, legs and body in various different ways then with a flick of your wrist or a straitening of your arm all the energy is released at once shooting the weight like a bullet in a strait line, and considering the heft of the weight I can imagine it just decimating someones skull, but to be fair the practicality of using it in a fight is just absurd, it's just for fun and to look cool.

He didn't teach me anything that day, it was just a demonstration day apparently. But when I came back on Thursday he gave me a rope dart and started teaching me, that day and the next Monday I started learning a ton, a lot of stuff I'd never even seen before. But while my reacher was wearing long sleeves I was not so smart, as the rope is always wrapping around your elbow, and since I was practicing for an hour and a half, I beat up my elbow pretty good, and the next morning my elbow had turned completely purple, pretty impressive for someone who doesn't bruise to easily. When I go back on Thursday I plan on being a bit better prepared in the apparel department.

In other news, October 17th was my 20th birthday, which actually means very little. In the US I've been waiting to turn 21 for a long time, I'm really not all to interested in drinking, but pretty much every rock show that comes to town is a 21 and over show. You are so limited, in a lot of other ways too. When your friends go for lunch they have to adjust their plans for you because the place they were thinking of is a bar. But here there is no drinking age in China, so I'm free to go anywhere already. I've been to a Chinese club, just reinforcing the hypothesis that I really don't belong in a club, especially a club that plays nothing but Chinese pop music, and where you keep getting shot in the eye with lasers. Give me the woods and a nice stream any day, which I have been missing quite a bit.

And yesterday the sky was blue, that may not seem like huge news but consider the fact that, on some days when the pollution isn't so bad, so that you can see the planes flying over head, people on the street stop and gawk at the white trails left behind. So a day where it's actually blue is amazing. I think I've seen 2 or 3 blue skied days since I've been here, and it's already been nearly 2 months.

When I received my student visa from China, I also received a piece of paper that was stapled into my passport. It told me that with in 30 days of my arrival into China I had to get my self a residency permit otherwise I would be staying in China illegally. And as it is my way I waited 28 days before doing anything about it, but do something I did. Three days ago I got up early and took to the streets to hail my self a taxi. I handed the driver an address hand written by a man working in the office. The driver nodded his head, which turned out to be a total lie, and we took off.

The cabby tried his best to make small talk with me, and I actually did understand a bit of what he was saying, but soon the difficulty of conversation muted the cab for the duration of the trip until he told me that he didn't know where I was trying to go and could only get me some where in the general vicinity. So he dropped me off and left me to find the police station on my own.

I had been there once before. A week and a half prior I had gone with a group of students and a representative from our school, but there were so many people there that day that they ran out of time, and I didn't get my chance at the desk. So the man from our school told us to come back on our own. So I knew at least what the building looked like, and the area I was in did look familiar, but i had no idea how to get from point A to point B.

I asked a few locals for directions, and not being able to understand there words I acted solely on there emphatic pointing. Now in China the only thing that out numbers police stations are government owned banks, so when I found my self in front of the wrong big blue sign I was not surprised. I walk in anyways, intending on asking directions to the other station. I handed the man at the desk the piece of paper telling me about the residency permit, thinking that might get the message across, but of course it didn't and I ended up spending 20 minutes tying to explain that I was lost and trying to get some where else. The whole time more and more people were constantly being called over to see if they could make sense of my mishmashed Chinese, and soon 10 people where all listening intently, breaking in with phrases I didn't understand to try and help me out. Every once in a while I would reach into my back pack to pull out various props, the hand written address, my passport, the piece of paper from my passport, my dictionary.

But eventually, after my point was finally understood there was a sudden response of “lets go!” proposed in English by one of the male officers in the crowd, as if they had been wanting to take some sort of action for the whole time and were jumping at the chance now.

They led me to the street and put me in the back of a squad car, which I think was unnecessary, though cool, since we only ended up driving 2 blocks and turning left. But never the less I thanked the officers warmly and shook their hands before walking into the large building.

There were few people in today so I very soon heard my number called and found my self sitting across the table from the man that would grant me my permit. As I reached into my pack to get the papers I needed, the officer leaned back in his chair so his blue uniform wrinkled and hung loosely from his shoulders, then took a long drag from his cigarette. I took out my passport and placed it in front of him. He did not pick it up immediately, but waited a second, not long just one second, maybe two, just long enough to look over the small blue booklet as he slowly exhaled, watching the wisps of smoke in his peripheral vision. Unlike most Chinese I've met, he showed his age. He looked like a man that was not defeated by life, but tiered by it. I imagined what he had done as a police officer, I wondered what his life had been like. I thought of the rouge police officer, that had been forced to sit behind a desk as punishment for not playing by the rules, but had the sole secret to taking down the Chinese mafia, if only the pain in the ass boss man would listen to him.

Calmly he leaned forward resting his elbows on the desk and took the passport. He looked it over silently, as he had remained since I first saw him. He typed my information into the computer and stamped three pieces of paper with bright red ink, then pushed one of the paged towards me. He looked me in the eye, pointed at a line and said “sign here,” in English. I signed my name and he took the paper back. And asked for 400 kuai. I handed him the money and he gave me a receipt. He pointed to a date on one of the papers and said, “come back here” the date was for the 30th. “so 3 days?” I asked. He leaned back in his chair again. “is today the 28th” he asked smoothly. “oh yeah sorry, so two days” he nodded his head and I left the station.

Theres something about a person with a story, even if you can't tell what that story is. They move differently, act differently, even if they don't want to tell their story, it shows in they way they eat their food or walk down the street.

Recently 25 new Americans arrived at our school, which is 5 times the number that here here already. When I was meeting a few of them and I told them that I had come here on my own expecting to be the only American, and possibly the only English speaker. One of them asked me what could have possibly possessed me to come to China alone. I simply told him I was a masochist. And even though I was kidding it rang with more truth than I let on. I want to have a story to tell, I want one of the most amazing stories people have ever heard, and stories worth telling don't happen in your living room, in front of the TV. They don't happen at the computer writing spread sheets or in the same old places that you've always been. They come when your in a dark ally, when you don't have money for rent, when you break an arm, or loose a loved one. Stories start with something hard, something difficult to over come, and the best stories end when you survive, and not only survive but destroy the challenge, when you struggle for so long and work so hard that you almost can't make it over the final hill, but in the end you do make it, and you not only make it but you stand up, and you look down on all the things that tried to hold you back, that now are just little artifacts down in that dark valley. Then you see the next mountain even bigger and darker, and your only thought is, “I wonder what this hill top would look like from up there.”