Beau was pulled aside by airport security because he didn't realize that having a huge knife in his luggage might not be ok. When the guard asked him what he had it for Beau replied nonchalantly "picking my teeth." They showed how impressed they were by confiscating his knife and running a cross check on him via Interpol. In the end we got through security alright but Beau doesn't know how he's going to sleep at night without old Sharpie.
On the way to the airport we saw people doing tai-chi in the morning light. Beijing is known for its tai-chi as Shaolin is known for it's kung-fu. There was an old man running with a broom handle held in his hands, another slowly moving between stances on a dilapidated alter, a woman walking backwards down a roadside path. Pretty cool.
We've been at the Shaolin Temple for about a day give-or-take and are both pretty roughed up from the two training sessions we've had so far (one at 6 am and one at 9 am). Our guide/master is a 22 year old monk named Jay (aka the Hungry Monk) who seems like he's already wiser than anyone I know. When we walk around with him we get treated like royalty - the seas of onlookers seriously part for this guy where ever he goes. Maybe the fact that he could kick most people's heads off before they could blink has something to do with that. He brought us all around the Temple and let us go into places visitors are not normally allowed to go, like within an arm's length of the largest jade Buddha in China. This place is amazing - the mountains, the buildings, the statues, the culture, the people - it's like nothing we've ever experienced.
So, anyway, we're half-way through the first day and doing well, not Keano Reeves in the Matrix well (whoa, I know kung-fu), but pretty well for lanky oblong foreigners.
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