Master Chan Tai San's Death Day

I arrived home from my Saturday job anticipating leaving for the weekend.  I discovered my siblings knee deep in mopping floors with no sign of imminent departure. I remembered that today was the Death Anniversary Chan Tai San, our school's most important ancestor.

 "We are going to Kung Fu, to have a cultural experience." I announced and told them we had to leave now. I have never been to a Death Anniversary, which I kept referring in my head as "Death Day" like in Harry Potter.

Death Day began with a lion dance. I wished it could have been longer. They played live the large Chinese drum (think Mulan), and the lion paraded around and it was just plain cool.

Next we all lined up to burn incense at the shrine of Master San. My sister G has an unsteady hand so I was nervous for her to stick the incense sticks into the flame. The sticks wouldn't light so I quickly moved her along, and stuck mine into the fire. I don't know what happened in milliseconds next but yeowwww! I burned my fingers! Feeling like an idiot I tried to copy Sifu's way of thanking the Master, which felt hasty and shallow, because I just wanted to run my hand under water.

Then Sifu explained in ancient Chinese religion they believed even though someone has died they still live in the next world. It is our job on earth to make burnt offerings to the person (Master San), of his favorite worldly pleasures. So we would be burning stacks of cash, cigarettes, and alcohol all in Death Day Fun.

So we now had a much larger open (indoor) flame going pretty strong as kids lined up to toss Benjamins (fake) into the fire. My siblings watched in mild awe. This was not your typical Saturday activity.  'A' was mildly nervous as my 6 year old brother took a stack of cash and inched closer to flame. Totally dangerous activity :)

Death Day ended with everyone eating a bite of Master Chan Tai San's favorite Food, "Fried Chicken", and watching Kung Fu demonstrations dedicated to the Master. I wanted to do a form but chickened out, pun intended.

Watching the forms was my favorite part. Kung Fu is so vastly different in its style and performance. It was absolutely stunning. So because you made it to the end you get to see the video of my favorites :)

Boot Camp Class, Kung Fu, and 5 pounds.

I cannot remember if I have ever detailed Kung Fu Boot Camp. I will express what took place through the medium of storytelling and vivid language.

I decided to take the Boot Camp class. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's gruesome.

I jokingly told Sifu I wanted to lose 5 pounds that hour. He grinned and said, "Great, no problem, lets do it..." I weighed myself at this point and (Side note) -There was hint of "you have no idea what you just got yourself into" and I quickly said, "Oh no I'm just joking...kind of...I mean I would like to loose five pounds right now but I'm a little worried."

We started a jog around the building as our warm up. I don't run, but willed myself to run the length and thanked the Kung Fu ancestors that we were not running a mile :) We stopped at the designated point and started piggy back runs. I rock at those. (Thank You Kori Wakamatsu's Modern 241R class.)

Then things took at turn for the bad. Pacer runs. I could feel the heat from the asphalt in the soles of my black Nikes, into the stitching of my black socks. My black capris were soaking in the heat from the southern 6 o'clock sun and I began to regret wearing a 3 quarter length grey princess sleeve shirt.
I have never felt the urge to undress in public, but as I ran from line to line all I could think was tearing off my shirt and shoes, with no shame.

It was during those pacers that I developed the chills. Heat chills. Pretty sure I was having the onset of heat exhaustion. When we finally let up for a water break that noticed that I was past my usual red faced exercise complexion, and was settling into a nice face palate of puke purple.

Back outside. I was ready to surrender. Running, jumping, bigger jumping....run up the hill for push ups run down. (I told Sifu that I already did 14 push ups that day, so I didn't need anymore.) I had made a terrible mistake in coming. How was I going to make it through this class and onto my actual Kung Fu class after?

Surprisingly made a shameful finish at the end of 30 minutes later. Judging by my appearance I should have left after Boot Camp, but I stayed, in my gross mess of a state, and hoped we would not be doing fighting drills today. (Didn't want anyone to fight such a sweat soaked person.)

And drills began. Front stretch kicks, all the way through everything we needed to know for the upcoming test. There were so many drills. My Nike Air tennis shoes, felt like Nike Lead. I could barely lift my feet, let alone swing my arms. I was a hot mess.

And at the end of Kung Fu I weighed myself, I had lost 2.5 pounds.