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Arnoldo's
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| 10/1 It is now about two am; my clock is all screwed up. I am sleepy during the day and wide awake at night. I arrived here Thursday evening. It was a very long exhausting flight. I was totally un prepared for this trip; it is very hard to communicate with anybody. Just finding something to eat is incredibly hard. I stayed at the Taipei hostel the first night and then moved to the Life Hotel the following evening. It is a total dump, but at least I have a shelf to set up the computer and a private area to leave my things out. It is quite depressing to think what I gave up to come here- but the tijiquan here is incredible. Men in their late seventies and early eighties, tiny little men, throw me around as if I am a rag doll. Right now I am so sore and achy. |  |
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10/4 I am well and doing a whole lot better than a few days ago-as a matter of fact I am doing great. I'm still living in the same dive, but I love going to the park every morning. It is incredible the amount of knowledge in that park. It is pretty late right now, going on 12:00, I just came from the school of the National Push-hands Champion. He invited me to study with him; in exchange for teaching him english. So I'll be going there on Wednesdays and Fridays. |
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10/5 I am glad I didn't know how difficult this trip would be... I guess it's like anything in life; the more you are willing to put in to it, the more you get out of it. I love going to the park in the morning. Some of these guys are pure genius in the art of tijiquan. I met a man today who is fifty years old; who has been studying for forty-four years. Would you believe that him standing on one leg, one leg- I could not push him over. |  |
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10/8 Things are looking up quite a bit, I found a couple of Buddist places to eat. The Chinese Buddist are vegetarian so these places are relatively safe to eat at. I'm pretty good at saying a big bowl of brown rice. Tommorrow is Sunday the Buddist close on Sunday so it will be a real challenge. A few times I broke down and went to McDonalds, They are all over the place. Wu Rung Huei, took me to the house of Jyh Jian Soong A Master of I Chien T'ai Chi Ch'uan; to met him and his family. He is ninety-one years old! This was quite an extreme honor, to even met him, he also evaluated my form. It is so very depressing to have all this knowledge right here and let it slip through my fingers for lack of communication. |