Before I go...

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So I fly to China in 65 hours, but I decided that before I go I should enter a blog entry.

So I'm going to be learning Kung Fu in China from Shaolin Monks this time next week, and for the next 2 months. This was always an ambitious project considering training is a minimum of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week at the academy, but made more so by my previously lamentable state of fitness. Everyone has a favourite "Katherine's rubbish at sports" story. Say "sprinting" to my family, it's a funny story. Say "hamster" to my friends, similarly funny story (also interestingly involving sprinting). Even "static trapeze" has its moments. I have always been awful at sports; it was the only class at school I got a detention for.

But hey, not to let anything beat me, 3 months ago I decided that I was going to do this. I would prove to myself that I could do anything I wanted. Having been to the gym 4-5 times a week for the first 2 months, and twice a day 5 times a week for the last month, I'm actually pretty fit now. Add onto that a weekly karate lesson, and I should hopefully be able to manage this.
I do say hopefully, because I'm well aware that this will probably leave me limping to my bed at about 8pm every night because I'll be so tired...

So I leave very soon, which is scary and exciting in probably a 3:1 ratio at the moment. I fly to Beijing, then stay overnight before taking the train to Yantai and arriving at the academy at about 7.30am on 28th February, to start training the next day. This seems very soon though I really am pretty much ready. Got to love those qualifiers.

I packed today, which now only requires me to unpack again to get out things I still need, insert things I'd forgotten and then undoubtedly forget something vital like one shoe out of a pair. But having done it reassures me that it can be done and I can pack light. Well, what counts as light for me. My brother and sister-in-law kindly donated their hiking day pack for my travels, and my sister let me borrow her shoulder bag for hand-luggage.

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Photos

Packed
Oh yes. This is packing light.

Comments

[Owain]

I tink you will find that it is only your brothers bag. What with your sister in law still having her own. Will you have access to the internet in this Saholin monk get away? When I hear monk, I have a mental image of an austere environment which has a desperate lack of anything that uses electricity.