MLK Day

“We are not the makers of history, we are made by history.”

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! Actually, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Today, we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., a chief spokesman for the nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement. He’s most well known for his “I Have a Dream” speech, but instead of writing about that speech (which I’m pretty sure your English teacher or History professors have made you do it at one point), I want to write about a less common quote by him.

“We are not the makers of history, we are made by history.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

What does this quote mean? Well, history is simply the past, but it’s a framework. It shows a societies mistakes and the progressions to lead to a new innovation for our society. Yes, we do make history in a sense, but our mistakes are what shape us in the present. Let me put it in terms of the theme of my blog. When you lose a fight, Oh well. Shake it off, and learn from your mistakes! Maybe you didn’t block quick enough, maybe you accidentally let your guard down, or you should’ve kicked instead of going in for a punch.

Another example: You’re not the same person that you are as you were in middle school vs high school, and switching from high school to college. You probably had some drama happen, like you’re gf/bf broke up with you, friends hated what you did at soccer practice, or you ruined a chance to get a date to prom. We learn from those experiences. Yes, technically we made that happen, but history all together shaped us to become who we are.

 

New Year, New Me

Hey everyone! Wow..100 followers. Thank you guys! I apologize for not having time to blog in the past 3 months. Let me tell you…. I was one busy man. I had a regional conference in Charleston, South Carolina for my business fraternity, I was in another Greek fraternity (which I later resigned from), I started working a new job, then finals, school, and..you know what? No excuses.

To be honest, in the past few months, I haven’t even had the time to practice much. But, hey…New Year, New Me! I pretty much got lazy and last semester with everything, but this year is a whole new story. See, just recently I resigned from my Greek fraternity so I could dedicate more time to my business fraternity, Pi Sigma Epsilon.

Yes, that’s them! Beautiful people, with bright futures, business majors, and just a lovely family of friends. This picture was actually taken at our regional conference back in November. Anyway, they have become my life. This semester, I was named Recruitment Chair and Production Assistant! So exciting right?!  Additionally, I’m keeping myself busy by working a job as a professional fundraiser at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. It’s a pretty boring job, but I get paid to just talk on the phone so I guess it’s not too bad. Plus I’m keeping busy with taking 15 credit hours this semester.

So in conclusion, I’m going to be busy, but I will try my best to set aside time to talk to you guys! My plan is to blog at least once or twice a week. Plus, it keeps my martial arts studies sharp when I take a moment to review my path and reflect on what I’ve learned. Anyway, I’ll leave it at that tonight. Look forward to some new post this year, and new techniques, tutorials, and much more! I’ll try my best to keep this active! Thanks again for all the support, and keep on training!

 

Tennis vs Martial Arts

Hey everyone! Today I want to talk about a sport that I recently just got into. So this semester, I decided to take a tennis class for my Physical Education credit, and WOW! It was the best decision on my life!! I absolutely love tennis! The feeling of being on the court and acing a person or just winning a set is awesome! Well, I’m not that good yet being that I’m in beginner’s tennis, but it’s still fun. What I’ve also noticed is the similarities of tennis with martial arts! My tennis coach uses a lot of the same methods to explain tennis as I would in martial arts, and at the same time playing tennis made me realize that this is also a good way to improve martial arts. Here’s what I mean:

1.) The most obvious reason would have to be “Hand-Eye Coordination.” Being able to swing and hit the ball just right is like staying on target with a kick or a punch.

2.) Timing. You have to time the ball just right before you just swing and miss like in martial arts you are anticipating a person’s attack so you can defend.

3.) Rhythm and patterns. I’ve learned a lot about rhythm and patterns in martial arts like throw 2 kicks and a punch over and over, then trick them buy changing it up after a few sequences. It’s like in tennis when you hit the ball to a certain side of the court for a little while, then suddenly throwing in a top spin or something.

4.) Most importantly, Technique. I can’t stress enough how important technique is in anything! Technique is how you perform your move, and it makes a big difference when you can do it right. For example, if you don’t chamber enough for a side kick, you can possibly shorten your kick or have your kick stopped half way. In tennis, the way you hold the racket and the angle that you swing is very important because it determines where the ball goes.

Well, that’s it for today. If you haven’t tried tennis, I would highly recommend it because it is a very fun sport! For now, I’ll just leave it at that.

Identity

Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while! I’ve been so busy lately at the start of school, and now I think I have some time to breathe but still…not enough. Haha! Let me go ahead and list off my busy schedule and involvements before I start what I want to talk about. So I’m currently balancing school work, with actual work on the weekends, being active in the UGA Karate Club, and active in not 1, but 2 Fraternities!! Haha Talk about a busy life for a typical college kid. Anyway, I think I have my schedule down where I can talk to you guys for a little while.

Today, I want to talk about Identity. First, I would like to propose a question. How do you identify yourself? For example, I define myself as just a basic white chick who loves Starbucks and Glee more than anything living inside of a typical college frat guys who loves to party with an Asian persona. I know what you are thinking…that’s weird, right? Well, everyone has one so it isn’t that weird. Now, what’s your martial arts identity? What do I mean by that? Well, everyone has a way that they fight or perform. Like Bruce Lee, staying on his toes and yelling, “Whaaaatttaaa!” Mine is just quick shots and toying when I’m tired.

The reason why I’m talking so much about it is that everyone should do what makes you feel comfortable. Find your rhythm in fighting or perform kata. It is what identifies you. Another reason is that since I’m in so many extracurricular activities, I’ve been kind of having an identity crisis because I have to be this for this event, and I’m another person going into another event. Well, that’s all for today.

Kungfu Bootcamp Part II

Here’s part two!

B E I J I N G breaths

*This post was written on Saturday July 11th! Apologies for a delayed post.

The feeling of eyes tracking my every move never lessened throughout our week at Shaolin Temple. Even as our bus was teetering away from the campus on Friday, students stared at our group with fascination. Regardless of this foreign intrigue though, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I became friends with some of the long-term students at Shaolin Temple. By the last night of our trip, little kids were knocking on our dorm room, asking if we wanted to watch a movie or play cards.

Tuesday was our second day of kungfu, and it started as always with a morning run at 5:30. The two highlights of the day were the interviews I conducted: the first with our kungfu coach and the second with the African American student from Long Island named Moses. After lunch, my…

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Social Study Trip: Everybody was Kungfu Fighting

I can’t express how much I love going to China each year to breathe the Shaolin air and train at the Shaolin temple. I apologize for blowing up my blog with almost nothing, but Shaolin stuff. I promise I’ll move on from this eventually!! Anyway, here’s another post from one of my students and friend at Shaolin!

B E I J I N G breaths

*I didn’t take my laptop with me to Shaolin Temple (biggest regret) so this is an entry from last Tuesday (June 7)

My fingers are the only part of my body that isn’t sore.

Today was our second day of learning kungfu at the famous Shaolin Temple. I am here on the HBA social study trip, which acts as sort of break between the two semesters we cover here. All students have the opportunity to experience a different facet of Chinese culture on this week-long trip: of the options including inner-Mongolia, Shanghai, and Huizhou (hiking up Yellow Mountain), I decided to enroll at one of the oldest kungfu schools in China. This is an amazing opportunity to learn the traditional Chinese art and to gain a better understanding of Buddhism.

On Friday, right after our midterm exam, the Shaolin Temple group set off on our journey via high-speed train to…

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Appreciation

Hey everyone! Well, currently, I’ve moved everything in to my new apartment in Athens. Refrigerator is stocked, books are bought, school supplies check, and everything that I need is in place. It is great! It feels great to finally start living on your own like cooking for yourself, cleaning the house, and well just taking care of everything by yourself with the people that you love. At the same time, I’m feeling a little sentimental. Do you guys remember my post from 2 days ago? Here’s the link if you haven’t (click here). Well, I can’t help but to think about my adventures in China not only this past year, but the years before. I miss it.

I miss the friends that I made, and I miss the cheap food. (Like for real…In the picture above, the all you can eat barbecue and hot pot was only like 50 yuan (Not even $8!)

All this food here was no more than 200 yuan (About $31!)

Sorry if I made you hungry, but the point is that I’m beyond appreciative for what I have now! It didn’t really hit me on how much my parents put in to the house and me until I started to grocery shop and cook for myself until I saw how much I spent for myself! Like $830 for 5 books?! Man, college textbooks are way overpriced! I mean, I got it all right now! I have a TV, laptop, books, coffee pots, music instruments, clothing, and machines that do things for you.

 

For example, you had to wash clothes by hand. I washed clothes like every 2 days. It was tiring, but at the same time I felt accomplished after I finished.

Anyway, the main point is appreciation. Be appreciative for what you have because I promise that there are people in this world who wish they had what you have. You have internet right? Of course, because you’re reading this post, but do you think the people at the school I went to had internet or computers or even a smartphone? No, they lived a hard knock life. I’m so appreciative for what I have, and I guess that is all for today. I just wanted to be sentimental and show my appreciation for my life.

Throwback Thursday

Hey everyone! Well, earlier I was just scrolling down Facebook and I ran into this:

http://from-doughnuts-to-dumplings.blogspot.com/

It is one of my student’s blogs about her experience in China this summer! Of course, being me…I skipped straight to the part where she talked about Shaolin haha! Anyway, this post just gave me flashbacks and made me really miss my students and China. Words can not describe how amazing it was to have had the opportunity to coach these students.

Here’s their video that they made talking about their experience at Shaolin. This literally made me cry. It was amazing, and if you still don’t believe me about how amazing it is to have the Shaolin experience, watch this video. I’ll shut up! Haha! Anyway…that’s it for today.

Update! :)

Hey everyone! I’m a little behind on blogging, but don’t worry, I’m still here! Well, I just moved into my new apartment in Athens, and man…it is awesome!! I’ll show you guys later as soon as we finish setting up and decorating a little bit more. It is still pretty blank. Well in the past week, I’ve been helping my parents out at the store and getting ready for move in day, but I start going back to UGA Karate Club in two days! So, look forward to some new post coming up! Originally, I planned to update every other day or something in China about what I’ve learned, but sometimes it just takes a little while to sink in. Look forward to more mini throwbacks of lectures, tutorials, and everything from Shaolin with the additional things from UGA Karate Club. Until then, please continue to share and follow! 🙂

But he doesn’t know the territory!: Shaolin Temple part 2

And here’s part 2 of her post! Again, don’t forget to click her follow button!! She’s an amazing writer 🙂

Eva in China

First of all, to all (both) of you who enjoyed my The Music Man reference, thank you. Actually, this post is pretty long, so if you wanna just watch that video and not read this then I won’t judge you hardly at all.

Thursday was our final day of gongfu practice. I don’t have much more to say about gongfu, but wow do I have more to say about our teacher. Like, I knew that he grew up in America, that his native language was English, that he only came to China in the summer. I just didn’t believe it until I saw it. He speaks Chinese like a native speaker (at least to my ears) and he’s so at-home in the gongfu world that his “Chinese” personality is a fully fleshed out. Generally speaking, even when us HBA kids are speaking Chinese and embracing Chinese culture, we seem like…

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