No more fear

I have started socializing with my neighbors. There is this one little girl, she's maybe 6 years old, who often runs up to me and asks "do you have time to play?" According to her mother, she wants to learn English from me, but I am not sure how much of that isn't wishful thinking from the mother's side. And my, the mother is nosy! She already walked into my apartment once and remarked what a big fridge I had! Way too big for one person! And recently I let the little girl into my apartment, she kept bringing me fruit and other snacks, and of course I also had to let the mother in. And she was absolutely not shy to inspect my furniture, test the softness of my mattress and ask how much I paid for this and that. This lack of privacy is something I have to get used to, especially after six years in North-America. I don't really mind though, I don't perceive it as unfriendly. Even in my Kung Fu class (yes, I finally found a school), where I am clearly the attraction and people come and stare at me or eavesdrop when I talk to the teacher. And it's so funny how offering a piece of information (like "I teach physics at Nanjing University") creates a satisfied murmur in the crowd :) Of course, another reason they stare is that I am making a complete fool of myself there. The students are mostly kids, with beginners as young as 5 and the majority younger than 12. Some of the older kids can do pretty amazing stuff, they are all extremely flexible, can do splits, somersaults, jumps... one guy can even jump and kick while he's flying through the air (like in the movies!), but since I am a beginner there, I have to march in one line with the 5-year olds. Well, there's not so much of a march or a line, usually they run from one end of the hall to the other or roll around on the floor. It's kind of impossible to copy what they are doing (well, I could just wave my arms like mad and topple over, but I don't think that would get me very far), so I have to send a helpless look to Teacher Xu (he's not a 师父 "shifu" just a 老师 "laoshi" which might be an expression of the fact that this is not a very traditional school, it's more a sports club, but I also find it very down to earth - I have to say I am slightly annoyed with Westerners who run martial arts schools and call themselves(!) "Sifu", even if they don't speak a word of Chinese), then he drops his bamboo stick that he uses to keep the kids at bay and shows me which combination of jump, kick and slap your foot with your hand I am supposed to do.

On weekends training gets really crowded and all the parents sit around watching their kids and me - the new attraction! Good thing I had my ego already broken, I guess :P Once I had a twelve year old showing me a sweeping move, it was quite humbling to have her tell me to keep my back straight :) But man, did she have flawless stances and posture! That this is much harder for me because I have to move about three times her weight was of course not obvious to her. So, I was pretty much dead when she was done with me. In the meantime her mother stopped by and wanted to go home saying "you've been here nearly two hours!" to which she replied "but I'm teaching her!" (and yes, I actually understood all of that in Chinese, but talking to teacher Xu I need a translator, which means I talk to someone else in Chinese and they repeat it (with the right accent) to him... oh well, I am used to being treated like an idiot by now, thankfully that doesn't hold me back from talking to strangers anymore). One of my students found out about this school and sent me the address, which was still hard to find. I biked around quite a bit in this huge sports complex; there are tennis courts, basketball courts, old ladies doing some kind of dance in a big parking lot, table tennis and badminton halls... but i couldn't find the 武术馆 "wushuguan", until someone I asked pointed upwards; then it occurred to me to check out this seemingly abandoned sports "theater" (if you're from East Germany think "Kulturpalast") - turns out it's not so abandoned at all, they are using the lobby for martial arts! well, it would be a waste not to make use of the parquet, wouldn't it? It's really funny, there are punching bags hanging from the open stairways, and below people train Kung Fu or kick boxing.

The first time I went I just wanted to check this place out, but I happened to get there just before class started and after a little chat with the teacher he agreed to let me try (I got a little speech that I have to be willing to train the basics and will not start off with forms - at least I think that's what he was saying :) so I think they are serious about what they are doing) and was apparently satisfied with what he saw. He says that I should train the basics (what they do is slightly different from what I learned before, much more about flexibility and jumping, it's a much more open style than) and in two months or so we'll see. He says he would teach me the Chinese Lohan style. They train six times a week, so this could be potentially intense, but I certainly won't go there every day. So far I went four times in one week. It's a bit weird, I haven't quite figured out what *their* style is, but when I asked one of the older students he said they all do something different. At first I had no clue what he meant by that, but then I saw that some of the adults who hang out there (and most of the time chat and smoke) from time to time take one of the kids to the side and teach them something individually. There is this one girl for example, she's learning Tai
Chi, and to me her moves already look pretty close to perfect, but they keep criticizing her. I still don't know what to think of those guys... they always show up in sports gear, but I have never seen them actually do anything! Teacher Xu, who is the oldest, runs the training with the little ones, and he's still pretty flexible for his age (I think he's between 60 and 70, not sure). He still makes a flawless split and his posture is really good. Although I am sometimes reminded of ballet by the kind of steps and jumps we are doing :)

Remember me complaining about fireworks? Well, they actually never stop. People are getting married every day and apparently close to my language school, because every day we have to pause class for a couple of minutes because of the mayhem outside. And that's not the only one of course. Sometimes I also see fireworks in the evenings. They really love them!