So, Shanghai, I can sum it up in three words: dirty but fun.
I didn't train nearly as much fu as I would have liked to, but I had a lot of cool life experiences. The nightlife in Shanghai is awesome and I got to brush up on my pop and lock skills and go from getting beaten in dance battles nightly to actually winning a bunch. Learned how to carry on a fairly simple conversation in Chinese, even though everybody here speaks the local dialect, which I didn't learn, aside from ala budong.....
The martial arts scene here is certainly healthy, and certainly good in comparison to North America in terms of sheer quantity and diversity, but I've come away liking my teacher's method more than ever. The taiji guys I trained with were really quite good, and I hope to keep practicing what I learned from them, but my first love is still xingyi and bagua from YH.
I think I'll miss the food here the most. I wish Canadian Chinese restaurants could get their shit right. Let alone get stuff like Shizitou or any other number of totally awesome zuofan that you can get in this city. Another food related thing I'll miss is being able to buy a steak and shrimp for like the equivilent of ten bucks Canadian at a super classy restaurant.
Also, I somehow lost like thirty pounds and I look damn handsome right now. Gotta keep that up in Canada when I get back.
Big shouts out to Ian and Antony, who are not only awesome martial artists, but really fun to hang out with.
Just thought I'd give you guys an update.
Next year its off to Japan to teach English, so I'll hopefully be seeing some of you over there!!
