Kevin (L.) came "back" from Virginia (he moved away 2 years ago) this week for Taiji Legacy. He stayed over at Michael's place, but since Michael has to work, I took Kevin out most of the time.
On Wednesday, we went to lunch at Todai and then roved the Willow Bend mall for a bit. After that, we met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han and went to Java. We played spoons and jenga; the girls got mad at me for intentionally screwing up the stack while removing jenga blocks. Haha, it's strategy! *wink wink* Later on, I went to kung fu and brought Kevin along (he used to train with us). They had us do some slave work to help prepare for the tournament after class. Blehhhh.
On Thursday, I thought I'd hafta help do tournament setup stuff again, but I didn't. Kevin and I met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han again then proceeded to argue over where to go to lunch- we ultimately ended up at Subway. After that, we went to Main Event. We played laser tag against a bunch of little kids; surprisingly though, they weren't half bad. Well, I got the high score again, and my our team won despite the 7 vs. 11 odds. Afterwards, I overheard 2 of the older kids from the opposing team talking, and they were like, "Yea, that guy on the other team was a monster!" ("monster" or "master," I can't remember, but it's a compliment either way, haha.) Then we shot pool for a bit; Kevin was the only one who was any good.
We had to get up bright and early on Friday to drive down to Arlington for the kugngfu tournament. Friday was actually the ChinWoo competition, so there weren't as many people. We basically just competed 4 forms: Jeet Kune, BaQua Sabre, Shepherd Pole, and 5 Tiger Spear. I did about as good as my peers, but we did poorly as a whole. The judging was rather blatantly biased, even some of the international comptetitors who have no knowledge of the local rivalries pointed it out. That night was the Master's Demo. We did lion dance, dragon dance, and kungfu for the show. (I really don't know why we have to perform kung fu. It's not like we're really masters or anything. It feels kinda funny just being out there for the sake of representing our school.) Well, the show was pretty good, we got to see He JingDe, arguably the best wushu athlete in the US, doing his thing- it was amazing. Afterwards we had to clean up, it was a massive pain in the butt- everyone was already all tired out. Then basically everyone from our school stayed at the Country Inn. It wasn't a particularly high class establishment, and we were packing absurd numbers of people into each room.
On Saturday, we had to wake up early to help set up again. Things ran late, as they do every year, so the events of the Taiji Legacy tournament started probably somewhere around noon. We did a massive 15 lion dance; it was really hectic. Then there was a public taichi exercise demonstrating the 5 major styles; I did a little thing during the Wu(Hao) segment. Then all the ChinWoo schools did a massive tantui (basic form) demonstration, blehhh. Then we did dragon dance again, set up, and probably started the actual competition around 2:00ish. Well, by then, everyone from my school was all tired out, so none of us did very well in competition- we all just wanted to go home. I withdrew from about 3 events. And some of the events, I just walked away after competing, without bothering to stay to find out the results. The only notable thing I won was gold in the BaJi division. I didn't even deserve it really; only one of the five judges knew what to look for, and he (not so coincidentally) gave me the lowest possible score. Afterwards, I talked with him and got some pointers. (Note to self: BaJi spirit requires explosive power in each move; cannot be confused with Northern longfist style)
At night was the Sanshou (full contact fighting) competition. I was assigned to the staging area to help fighters put on and take off their gear. The most memorable part of the night was when Malcolm (the only Sanshou fighter from our school) picked up his opponent and dropped him on his arm. The elbow bent against the joint- it was sooooo nasty. After the matches, we had to help clean up again, blehhh. We had to sleep packed in the hotel again, and so I opted to just sleep in my car. Man, I had the windows rolled down, and the mosquitoes really did a number on me, acck!
On Sunday, all I competed was KungLi Kune. Normally, KungLi Kune is one of my best events cuz it emphasizes more strength and less finesse, but I panicked and sucked it up. =(
*In other news, I got my housing info from UT. I'll be staying at Andrews (honors dorms) with Nien.
On Wednesday, we went to lunch at Todai and then roved the Willow Bend mall for a bit. After that, we met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han and went to Java. We played spoons and jenga; the girls got mad at me for intentionally screwing up the stack while removing jenga blocks. Haha, it's strategy! *wink wink* Later on, I went to kung fu and brought Kevin along (he used to train with us). They had us do some slave work to help prepare for the tournament after class. Blehhhh.
On Thursday, I thought I'd hafta help do tournament setup stuff again, but I didn't. Kevin and I met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han again then proceeded to argue over where to go to lunch- we ultimately ended up at Subway. After that, we went to Main Event. We played laser tag against a bunch of little kids; surprisingly though, they weren't half bad. Well, I got the high score again, and my our team won despite the 7 vs. 11 odds. Afterwards, I overheard 2 of the older kids from the opposing team talking, and they were like, "Yea, that guy on the other team was a monster!" ("monster" or "master," I can't remember, but it's a compliment either way, haha.) Then we shot pool for a bit; Kevin was the only one who was any good.
We had to get up bright and early on Friday to drive down to Arlington for the kugngfu tournament. Friday was actually the ChinWoo competition, so there weren't as many people. We basically just competed 4 forms: Jeet Kune, BaQua Sabre, Shepherd Pole, and 5 Tiger Spear. I did about as good as my peers, but we did poorly as a whole. The judging was rather blatantly biased, even some of the international comptetitors who have no knowledge of the local rivalries pointed it out. That night was the Master's Demo. We did lion dance, dragon dance, and kungfu for the show. (I really don't know why we have to perform kung fu. It's not like we're really masters or anything. It feels kinda funny just being out there for the sake of representing our school.) Well, the show was pretty good, we got to see He JingDe, arguably the best wushu athlete in the US, doing his thing- it was amazing. Afterwards we had to clean up, it was a massive pain in the butt- everyone was already all tired out. Then basically everyone from our school stayed at the Country Inn. It wasn't a particularly high class establishment, and we were packing absurd numbers of people into each room.
On Saturday, we had to wake up early to help set up again. Things ran late, as they do every year, so the events of the Taiji Legacy tournament started probably somewhere around noon. We did a massive 15 lion dance; it was really hectic. Then there was a public taichi exercise demonstrating the 5 major styles; I did a little thing during the Wu(Hao) segment. Then all the ChinWoo schools did a massive tantui (basic form) demonstration, blehhh. Then we did dragon dance again, set up, and probably started the actual competition around 2:00ish. Well, by then, everyone from my school was all tired out, so none of us did very well in competition- we all just wanted to go home. I withdrew from about 3 events. And some of the events, I just walked away after competing, without bothering to stay to find out the results. The only notable thing I won was gold in the BaJi division. I didn't even deserve it really; only one of the five judges knew what to look for, and he (not so coincidentally) gave me the lowest possible score. Afterwards, I talked with him and got some pointers. (Note to self: BaJi spirit requires explosive power in each move; cannot be confused with Northern longfist style)
At night was the Sanshou (full contact fighting) competition. I was assigned to the staging area to help fighters put on and take off their gear. The most memorable part of the night was when Malcolm (the only Sanshou fighter from our school) picked up his opponent and dropped him on his arm. The elbow bent against the joint- it was sooooo nasty. After the matches, we had to help clean up again, blehhh. We had to sleep packed in the hotel again, and so I opted to just sleep in my car. Man, I had the windows rolled down, and the mosquitoes really did a number on me, acck!
On Sunday, all I competed was KungLi Kune. Normally, KungLi Kune is one of my best events cuz it emphasizes more strength and less finesse, but I panicked and sucked it up. =(
*In other news, I got my housing info from UT. I'll be staying at Andrews (honors dorms) with Nien.
posted by Dear Daniel at 8:49 PM
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