training camp

today after class, i attended the first day of kung fu training camp. most university students have finished their classes, so they were able to start at 8:30 this morning. i had to arrive after lunch because i have class for the next two weeks. when i arrived, we spent most of the afternoon doing some serious stretching. there was a whole set of stretches which required a partner. one that i did had me standing with my back to a wall while my partner slowly lifted my straightened leg to about an inch above my shoulder. most of the stretches were for a count of thirty and each count was probably about five seconds. my friend and i were wondering what we had done to deserve such punishment. maybe an hour or more afterward, we started something like our normal set at ntu. i noticed i was able to kick much much higher.

i left around 6 with my friend henry. he gave me a ride home on his scooter. i'm still a little wary of the things after my last scooter riding experience. now henry is a pretty calm soft spoken guy, but i've been led to believe that anyone who regularly rides a scooter drives crazier than a bank robber in a getaway. i've also been led to believe that people from kaohsiung are especially crazy. henry is from kaohsiung.

within seconds of pulling onto the street, we were tailgating a bus, about three feet behind it. coming to the first red light, henry steered into the oncoming traffic lane, passed three slowing buses, and pulled back in to the right side of the road stopping at the box marked for scooters. another exciting maneuver was trying to beat a semi through a right turn with the semi to our left and parked cars to the right. henry decided to let the semi go first, but not before squeezing far enough ahead that i could spread my arms and touch both the semi and the parked car. another new experience on the ride was that my eyes teared up, maybe because my eyes were being blasted with air pollution.

well, all's well that ends well. i made it home, had some dinner, and finished my homework. tomorrow is day two of the training camp. looking forward to it.