Shaolin - Day 1 (Cont.)

The last post was more on how we got here and then a brief overview of what we've done since we've been here. Let me see if I can paint a more detailed picture of life as (an extremely watered down version of) a Shaolin monk.
We woke up this morning at 5 am. There's no heat in our hotel and it's definitely almost winter time in this mountainous region of China. It's probably around 45 to 50 in our rooms. I thought the water was pretty much unheated and took a cold shower in a cold room (turns out I'm retarded and Beau took a nice hot shower in his room). Oh, although there are two large beds in each room we had to get two separate rooms since we're here representing the temple.
So after that we stumbled out of the hotel into complete blackness on the side of a mountain. Somehow we navigated our way down a ton of stone steps not being able to see anything and made it to the wide stone road that leads to the temple. We ran there to get warmed up (literally) and then waited by these ancient stone lion pillars for Jay. Jay and another monk whose name I unfortunately don't know solidified out of the shadows running full tilt and yelled "Beau, run!" So we ran. We ran up the side of the mountain still in pitch black night behind the two monks. At one point Jay stopped short and held out his arms. There were two dogs growling at us, blocking the way, but with a few claps of his hands Jay got the possibly rabid animals to sit obediently on the roadside until we passed. Probably the best decision those dogs ever made.
Since then we've been working mainly with the unnamed monk with Jay looking on. He started us with horse stance (which has made it nearly impossible for me to climb stairs at this point) and throughout the day has forced us to commit a sequence of at least 10 moves to memory. In the three training sessions we've had so far (the first on the side of the mountain while the sun came up, the second in an all-wood temple made without a single nail, the third on the second floor of said temple) the monk has shown me how I could easily be killed by varying an inch in technique (darn monk scuffed up my shoes and tried to kick me in the nuts) enough for me to twist my ankle around 180 degrees no matter how bad it hurts. Tough love.
Now we're back, waiting in our respective rooms (yeah, internet in the room but no heat) for Jay and the other monk to come and get us for our final session of the day at 8 pm. He told us to eat an early dinner. I'm not wasting my money when I know those two are going to make me puke anyway.
I complain in a lame attempt to be funny, but really wouldn't it be kind of disappointing if training at the Shaolin Temple wasn't incredibly hard? Well, it is, and we wouldn't have it any other way.