Jess, that cracked me up. It brought back memories. I had to have my pants tailored (but then again, that was the standard in Taiwan at the time) because my thighs looked like a competitive weight lifter's.
Master Zhang used to have us hold splitting, almost 100% back-weighted, spine straight, in a medium to low stance, until our thighs stopped shaking. Same with both stances in drilling ( back-weighted drilling and forward, deep bow stance with forward thigh and leg externally rotated, spine straight from heel to crown, chest almost touching forward thigh).
And the infinite repititions of the rear-weighted bengquan would have us in spasms.
But if you told kids these days they'd never believe you.
As for Paris (Paris, Mon amour....) Bao is right, there is some great Vietnamese food to be had - but avoid the Chinese places like the plague. Right off the top of my head, the restaurant I always go back to is La Auberge de la Reine Blanche. Even when they are having an off night they are very good - and the lunch prix fixe menu is a true bargain. There are a couple of other very good places on the same street - I will post a list of favorite places over the weekend - mostly bistro, but if your budget allows there are still excellent haute cuisine places that are not outrageous (unlike in the States).
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d695128-Reviews-Auberge_de_la_Reine_Blanche-Paris_Ile_de_France.htmlWith regard to the Tian Gan video - no, he is only demonstrating 6 of the 10, plus "Song" (which we did as a separate exercise). He is demonstrating (in order) Kan, Tiao (Diao), Zhuang, Beng, Zhua, Ye, and Song.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche