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Arnoldo's Taipai Journal
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Arnold is a Tijiquan ( T'ai Chi) instructor in Austin, Texas. The following notes are excerpts from his emails about his travels to Taipai, Taiwan where he took advanced classes from the masters of this form. |
| 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 unprepared 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, just one leg, I could not push him over. |
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10/8 |
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