I was about to say that it feels normal doing taiji here as there are so many people doing it here, along with the dancing, shouting, walking clicking prayer beads, walking backwards, walking and clapping, banging their backs, feet or hands on trees etc, but yesterday morning I turned round mid-Xinjia form to face a big SLR on a tripod!
Walking back to my hall today I happened across a group of Chen taiji practitioners. I watched for a while, the approached and asked if they were doing the same form as me. I was asked to demonstrate my form, and a woman in the group followed behind at the same pace so it must have been. I then asked the teacher if he'd teach me push hands. He was great. I just wish I could speak more. I did get a few tips, like the 3 sounds to make when pounding mortar and to have more "yi" - intent - when pushing hands. The teacher of this mainly sexagenarian group invited me to join him this evening... but cold and snow kept me indoors.
Walking back to my hall today I happened across a group of Chen taiji practitioners. I watched for a while, the approached and asked if they were doing the same form as me. I was asked to demonstrate my form, and a woman in the group followed behind at the same pace so it must have been. I then asked the teacher if he'd teach me push hands. He was great. I just wish I could speak more. I did get a few tips, like the 3 sounds to make when pounding mortar and to have more "yi" - intent - when pushing hands. The teacher of this mainly sexagenarian group invited me to join him this evening... but cold and snow kept me indoors.
In Clinic our group of three has been more engaged this week. We're taking out needles and I'm getting to grips (literally) with placing the shorter ones in the gap between my index and middle finger and the longer ones between ring and little finger. When I've amassed enough from the plethora of points on the head then I put the pile in the test tube in my lab coat top pocket or that of my "tongshi" (classmate). Yesterday when I came back after clinic to change clothes (to my smelly jumper for the canteen - I keep it in the bathroom steam clean every time I shower, which is only possible 7-8am and 7-10pm when the water is hot). Tomorrow we start a new block with a famous doctor who is supposed to put students on the spot with questions and also gives lectures. I think I'll learn a lot more, but this first block has been fun and the doctor is so lovely, the room is like an extended family of stroke victims and their relatives who help each other and have such respect and gratitude for the doctor. As well as her quick diagnoses from MRI, CT scans etc and the wonderful faces of disgust she pulls on witnessing a vile tongue, or asking parents why their son is so fat, the case that I'll remember is the hypochondriac woman who had every test from the west and there was nothing wrong with her. After probing about her headache that wasn't a headache, kind of a sore feeling in the chest etc, the doctor coaxed the cause for maladie out of the patient - her daughter wasn't married! The doctor bluntly put rationality back into the patient's perspective - "look, you are the woman of the family. If you fall apart, the family will fall apart". After giving her a calming acupuncture treatment, she told the husband, if you go to Russia, you must take your wife". Who needs a shrink when you have Dr Zhao?
To get away from the group and campus and feel that I'm in China I plan to disappear for a few hours every weekend. Just get on a random bus and get off somewhere and wander around. Yesterday I found myself on the 209 and jumped off at Heilongjiang University campus and was invited to go bungee jumping with a group of fun-loving students from various local universities. Don't worry, it wasn't just the 8.30am on Sunday start that put me off. Simone was astounded "they asked you? Didn't they know you were 44?" That's why I love her! Say it how it is! No couching of the truth in British bush beating circumnavigation of the harsh truth.
Last night we went out for an amazing Korean meal in a restaurant that was like someone's living room. An upturned wok was lifted to reveal the fluffiest omelette, wonderful spinach and peanuts, bulgogi beef (bulldogee was on the menu - not these puppies or any other poor old dog for me!). The fermented tofu soup was a bit much too, but I'm still waiting to sample the "stinky tofu" and to suck marrow from bone soup with a straw... not!
To get away from the group and campus and feel that I'm in China I plan to disappear for a few hours every weekend. Just get on a random bus and get off somewhere and wander around. Yesterday I found myself on the 209 and jumped off at Heilongjiang University campus and was invited to go bungee jumping with a group of fun-loving students from various local universities. Don't worry, it wasn't just the 8.30am on Sunday start that put me off. Simone was astounded "they asked you? Didn't they know you were 44?" That's why I love her! Say it how it is! No couching of the truth in British bush beating circumnavigation of the harsh truth.
Last night we went out for an amazing Korean meal in a restaurant that was like someone's living room. An upturned wok was lifted to reveal the fluffiest omelette, wonderful spinach and peanuts, bulgogi beef (bulldogee was on the menu - not these puppies or any other poor old dog for me!). The fermented tofu soup was a bit much too, but I'm still waiting to sample the "stinky tofu" and to suck marrow from bone soup with a straw... not!
Penang uncle and cousin at
Great Great Grandmother's tomb
Paper money... to burn
Fortune tellers and fruit stall
outside the uni gates
Roundabout en route to
Carrefour - the subway is
a labyrinth of shops
Pancake lunch option
Students having fun at a
different university
Blue sky in the morning
Dancing ladies behind my
taiji spot
My newfound Chen taiji
group behind an electric
scooter
To get away from the group and campus and feel that I'm in China I plan to disappear for a few hours every weekend. Just get on a random bus and get off somewhere and wander around. Yesterday I found myself on the 209 and jumped off at Heilongjiang University campus and was invited to go bungee jumping with a group of fun-loving students from various local universities. Don't worry, it wasn't just the 8.30am on Sunday start that put me off. Simone was astounded "they asked you? Didn't they know you were 44?" That's why I love her! Say it how it is! No couching of the truth in British bush beating circumnavigation of the harsh truth.
Last night we went out for an amazing Korean meal in a restaurant that was like someone's living room. An upturned wok was lifted to reveal the fluffiest omelette, wonderful spinach and peanuts, bulgogi beef (bulldogee was on the menu - not these puppies or any other poor old dog for me!). The fermented tofu soup was a bit much too, but I'm still waiting to sample the "stinky tofu" and to suck marrow from bone soup with a straw... not!
No comments:
Post a Comment