TAI CHI: Day 89, Tuesday November 26 2013

When we arrived at Tai Chi at 9:00am one of our master’s apprentices was sweeping out the platform. When our master showed up we went over the motions of Tai Chi again and again for nearly two hours. We stopped off at Jenny’s Cafe (a foreign food restaurant) on our way home, Kira and Sandy were there. We stopped to talk for a bit and then headed home to catch up on rest from yesterday’s excitement.

We had met up with Sonya that evening at our usual Uni-mart meeting place. We were late, but Sonya was later. She showed up on her bike with a pair of roller skates tucked under her arms. My bag was jingling as it contained her nun chucks. We were going to the law university to practice.

The “nun-chucking” took place in a large sports courtyard that was dimly lit by surrounding lights.

There wasn’t much “nun-chucking” happening yet when we arrived, so I borrowed Sonya’s roller blades (I was surprised they fit as her feet are much smaller then mine) for a bit while we waited. There was a group of people doing tricks who tried to teach me some. Sonya had a turn after me, and then her sister (who we had met on the way over) gave it a go. Sonya had to push her sister to get her started! Still the ability of the Chinese people to just pick something up and learn, and learn well, and learn fast, amazes me.

Eventually the cling of spinning metal drew our attention to the centre of the court. The “nun-chuckers” had shown up. We walked over to join them, and to watch them. One boy had two nun chucks going at once! We followed one girl’s instructions. We held our arm our straight in front of our face and turned our wrist in an up down motion. We looked ver pathetic next to all the pros. One girl was on her phone and started chatting with one hand while spinning the nun chucks with the other!

The later it got, the busier the court became. We had tai quan do going on one side of us, and kung fu on the other. Nate and I joined in some exercises to warm up. We had to walk three steps and then kick. Some of the guys were kicking as high as Nate’s head!

We stopped at cloud dream cafe with Sonya for some hot tea. After we left we experienced Jinan’s first flurries of the season! I was excited, but Nate was not impressed.