HK Day 2

are the titles of my posts too boring? in response to reader comments (all two of ya... thanks Eric and Chris :P): Yes, Eric, i've spent lots of time (and money) already on WT stuff; think of dan:WT::eric:tennis. :) it is quite hot and humid. yesterday (day 2) was not as bad as day 1 though. the humidity is kind of welcome since Beijing is so dry. the KFC (and other standard American fastfood fare) is crazy here. they had like chicken cutlet over rice with vegetables and other decent looking plates. it's almost as if you want to get Chinese takeout style food (but less greasy), you have to go to a KFC or Pizza Hut here. i may get adventurous and actually try one of those dishes out... Christopher, what's on lockhart street?

something i forgot to mention in yesterday's post that been on my mind is how just in a day (and reinforced further on my second day) i've come to very much appreciate two things: 1.) the kindness of strangers in helping you know where to get off your bus or get to the MTR (subway), and 2.) the greatness of air-conditioned buildings that you can walk into freely on hot hot summer days/nights.

yesterday i stayed in 'til pretty late, "planning" ahead (read: surfing the web and chatting). i finally left to go meet with Sifu Robin around 3:30 PM but the bus (to the MTR) hit some major traffic. it took me nearly 1.5 hrs to get to the IWTA headoffice. saw some more cool historic video clips (lots of ones from HK news reports) on Grandmaster Leung Ting and WingTsun. instead of going to train at the Leung Ting Gym, we decided to get dinner and head over to Baptist University early to train there before the class started.

we got Japanese food at a good place (don't remember the name) near the HQ, and Sifu Robin was being the overly gracious host and refused to let me pay. he said i could get the next one, so hopefully he doesn't make it too difficult for me to pay next time. :) (fighting over the bill... serious signs of getting older...?)

after dinner it started to pour so we grabbed a taxi to Baptist University. we ended up running late for class, but still made it there before most of the students. there was a decent turnout of students, including all the students who went to Hungary. The class is taught by GM Leung Koon (GM Leung Ting's brother), Sifu Robin, and Sifu Jon (who's apparently in Taiwan for a few days). It was good to see si-suk-gung again, as well as be in a WT class again after having been away from one for over a month.


after the class ended i started training with Sifu Robin a bit, and received some nice corrections and guidance from GM Leung Koon. Unfortunately, the security guard came by and told us it was time to leave. some of students regularly get dinner together after class and asked if i wanted to go, but Sifu Robin and i decided to find somewhere else to train some more. we found an empty (and non air-conditioned) hallway and trained for about another hour. :D

close to midnight, we headed to Mong Kok where he showed me a mini-bus that could take me back to Kennedy Town. we couldn't figure out if it brought me to the area i usually took buses, but it was the closest bet so i jumped on. the bus driver told Robin to have me pay first (everyone pays when they get off) since i don't speak Cantonese.

fortunately on the bus, the girl sitting next to me a.) spoke English and Mandarin, b.) knew where the bus terminal was (where i usually get on buses when i leave). it was actually not bad at all getting back on the minibus, except for the fact that the bus drivers here drive like absolute lunatics. the minibus driver had a penchant for quickly swerving and accelerating whenever possible. at one point, we almost slammed into a double-decker bus. we brake so hard that everyone lurched forward and a guy's small shopping bag either fell out of his hand or tipped over and stuff went rolling down.

so i should probably have said this earlier in the post, but yesterday wasn't a terribly eventful day. :P it was a fun and relaxing one, so thanks for sharing in it with me!