A bunch of my favourite students were away on a 'Project Week' trip last week, staying in a Buddhist temple known as Da Fawang Si, in the Songshan region of Henan province - the area famous as the home of the Shaolin style of martial arts. It is one of the few temples there that still runs a traditional kung fu school for its young trainee monks; and it is the only temple school which admits outsiders to study.
The party - twelve students and three accompanying members of staff - were subjected to six days of dawn starts, long training routines, spartan living conditions.... and vegetarian food. But they seem to have had a blast! (As one of the girls put it to me, "It's amazing how well you sleep when you've had to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning!")
And I am mightily frustrated that I was not able to experience this with them. The trip had originally been conceived by my friend, Pierre Biret, a keen martial artist who used to teach French for us. But when he had to go back to France suddenly after encountering unexpected visa problems at the start of the year, I inherited the leadership of the project.... and it was a huge load of stress and trouble to organise!
Unfortunately, I aggravated an old foot injury rather seriously while running a half-marathon in nearby Suzhou over our Easter Holiday six weeks ago. And I am now in so much pain I can barely walk - or even sleep. So, I wouldn't have been able to participate in any meaningful way in such a physically demanding excursion. And indeed, I needed to take a few days off to seek medical advice on the condition.
But I am very, very disappointed to have missed out on this. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.
I've just finished editing together the video that was taken on the trip... which has added salt to my wounds!
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