Kung Fu Lessons

Whenever you talk to someone about Zhongshan, they always bring up a man named Sun Yat-sen who was apparently someone important but I didnt know how or for what. I did a bit of research on the matter. Sun Yat-sen is considered the founding father of Republican China. He played an instrumental role in inspiring the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. I do not know a lot about him but I do know that he is Zhongshan's claim to fame. The Sunwen Memorial Park is a park created in Sun Yat-sen's honor and it happens to be right across the street from our school. The pictures are of the park. The second picture is the view from the park of Zhongshan. We see the park everyday but we finally decided to venture inside today. We had a bit of time between teaching and our Kung Fu lessons so, even though it was pouring rain outside, we went for a stroll in the park. The park is very green and beautiful. We want to explore the park more because we here that there is a pond and some waterfalls there that we didn't run into. When it was pouring rain today, there was steam coming up from the ground because the rain was so cold and the ground is so hot. Thank heavens for daily rain storms. I hope it cools off by the time the rainy season ends. The humidity and I are not very good friends at this point. 

Today we had our first Kung Fu lesson! Here are some questions that I thought you may have that I will preemptively answer, like a ninja. 

Was the lesson awesome? Yes.

Will you be able to walk tomorrow? I would probably have to say no. I can hardly walk now and it has only been a few hours.

Is your teacher named Spring? Absolutely he is. Spring is 27, studied Kung Fu for 4 years instead of going to college and he now makes his living by teaching Kung Fu. He is adorable and is a good teacher. He speaks very little English but tries very hard. When he was introducing himself today he said, "My name is Spring, not like autumn or summer. Like water spring." We will be sure not to mistake the meaning for his name for the season. 

I cannot picture you doing Kung Fu Tessa, do you have pictures or perhaps video to prove that you are really doing it? No, I do not have pictures but others have pictures that I plan on getting my hands on and destroying in some way. Before they are destroyed, I will post one so you know that I did indeed take Kung Fu lessons. I also have video's of Spring doing Kung Fu which, i admit, is not as much fun as watching me try to do Kung Fu but it is still pretty awesome. 

Is doing Kung Fu like being a ninja? Yes. It is exactly like being a nina.

How often do you have these Kung Fu lessons and for how long? Once a week for an hour and a half. Believe me it is plenty. Spring also gave us a million things to practice doing everyday we will will be very busy. Spring said that he would be very disappointed if we didnt practice and Spring is not the type of man you want to disappoint. You better believe I will be practicing those moves he taught us and doing those crunches. 

Does Spring play soccer? Yes. 

Why is Spring named Spring? Apparently his name means water in Chinese so someone decided that Spring was a good English name for him. I shall not judge. They are going to give us Chinese names next week and I am pulling for my Chinese name to mean owl or tree. 

Did you and Wendy wear matching purple pajama pants and black shirts for the lesson today? Yes. The pajama pants were planned but the shirts were not. 

If you were to describe Kung Fu, how would you describe it? It reminds me of Yoga. It is all about muscle control and flexibility. You sweat like a pig and you feel like you are hardly moving at all. 

I love our Mandarin, cooking and Kung Fu lessons. I cannot wait until our next Kung Fu lesson.