its saturday night, and so far the best weekend of my year. ive only slept 4 hours in the past two days, and im pretty sunburned. i love SF.
summer is off to a good start=]

last wushu class for a while tomorrow...

The two years since last Team Trials has flown by. I remember the 2007 Trials as if it were yesterday. At the same time, however, quite a lot has happened!

After 2007 Team Trials, held July 2007, I spent several very mundane months back in Virginia with no idea what to do with myself. I had tried hard, and failed to make the US team and injured my back in the process. I had left the city I had come to consider my home, and had returned to what I considered a black hole that would cause my demise. After all too long a period of self pity, and aimless wondering I finally got shit together and figured out what I wanted to do. GO BACK TO BEIJING! I started working part time, and found a language program in Beijing that would meet my needs and hopefully help me reach the level I wanted to. To keep myself sane, I spent most weekends driving 2 hours (both ways) to and from D.C. area to train at USWA. I stayed in fairly good shape, although training only on the weekends was definitely not enough to truly keep my wushu up to par. Although it was helping me stay sane, I still wanted to do more.

In the spring of 2008 Zhang Gui Feng (my coach at the time) offered me the chance to compete in a competiton in Hong Kong, with Wu Bin as my chaperone! There was no way I could turn down this oppurtunity, so I immediately arranged to take several weeks of work, and made arrangements to stay in the D.C. area for a solid 2 weeks to prepare. In mid/late february I headed to HK, ready to go!

As I arrived in HK my friend Colin Cheng (Zhong Heng仲恒) from the HK wushu team met me at the airport and helped me get to my hotel.  It was my first time in HK, and the first time id seen Colin since the Wushu World Games on 07'.  The tournament kicked off the 2nd day I was there, and both my events were scheduled within about an hour of eachother. The tournament went very well, and I landed two gold medals!  

After returning to the US I went straight back to work and started saving money for my return to Beijing. July rolled around and I eagerly hopped on a plane back "home". I hadnt felt happier in quite some time. The 7 months or so (my 3rd long term stay) in Beijing were filled with many adventures, and lessons I will never forget. My chinese, once again, improved a great deal and I made another group of amazing friends that I hope to stay close to for the rest of my life. My only regret was that I only trained twice the entire time I was there!!!

In late January 09', as my semester of language school ended, I moved back to the US. There was no way I was gonna move back to VA, so I opted for the place that had a group of my friends, and ofcourse WUSHU! I decided I would move to Berkeley, CA. I started training again within a few days of arriving, and have been with solid regularity since. NOW WE'RE PRETTY MUCH UP TO DATE!

Approaching 09' trials I started to contemplate the previous trials and how it all had gone. I decided I was going to do better this time, and learn from my past mistakes. I ate, and trained smart and made sure to give my body all the proper therapy I could. I did not want to hurt my back again! Cross training with weight helped quite a lot! This time I felt ready!

June 20th came and I headed south to Cupertino! I arrived at De Anza college gym, and was greeted by many friends, and other fimiliar faces from the past. I love the wushu community, and all the amazing friends ive made through this sport. If it werent for them, I wouldnt be at the level I am today, if still in this sport at all! The competiton went extremely well. I placed 3rd in changquan with a score of 9.48! I am fairly happy with my score, and overall performance which landed me my spot the US (C) Team.  Making the team, regardless of A B of C has been a goal of mine for a long time now, so in a way I feel proud and accomplished. However, seeing how much ive improved in the past 2 years makes me extremely driven to improve THAT much more! C team is enough for now, but in 2 years, its A team or nothing！！！

If you fully read this entire blog I am very surprised, but appreciative. I was not intending on writing anything close to this long, but I guess it was good for me to get it out, and to look at whats happened the past 2 years.

Below is a video of my performance at Trials. LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE =]


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRhItTA9hIQ

Last but not least, I just wanted to congratulate everyone who made the team this year! Everyone was NIU BI!

For everyone in San Francisco who's looking for a quick, decently priced, amazing lunch get ready for CARTE415! CARTE415 is a new lunch concept from renowned chef Joshua Skenes. The first "carte" should be up and running within the next few weeks. Check out the website http://carte415.com and follow on twitter for further information and updates on the opening!

CARTE415 also have some pretty tight t-shirts as well!

Made from 100% pima cotton, SUPER comfortable!


Logo

Saw this and had to laugh just a little. I also appreciate how straight forward it is.
刚看到这个广告就笑了。我喜欢因为很直接。


“有精子吗？"
这广告上写着，你有健康的精子每周就可以挣道200美元！ 谁都不用再找工作了哈哈！