The Shaolin Scene

So in Beijing, you saw us in pretty dresses and heels and eyelashes and drinking tea with our pinky fingers lifted up and all that. In Deng Feng, the birthplace of Shaolin martial arts, we were taught to kick ass. And boy did we kick. Over and over again until our knees only felt pain. Half of the people in our group were from the Shaolin temple back in California and they had come to China mainly for the purpose of visiting the original Shaolin temple. We, as beauty pageant girls, seemed a little out of place but we quickly made ourselves at home taking lessons from a very talented (and cute!) Shaolin shifu and mastering this art. We also did some other things:

Like visiting a Shaolin school and interviewing with a local TV station (what can I say, we got paparazzi all over China.)

We checked out this amazing percussionist-based performance in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater. It was this big mountain/cave thing where they built the stage.

Breathtaking.

For half the night, I was like this monk, who was napping meditating throughout the entire show. I didn't regret missing the flying monk part though because a) my cousin-in-law can do that in his sleep and I get to watch him do it all the time and b) the music, the night air, the comfy seats... it was a perfect place to nap!

We also gardened and tidied up a monk's cave home (more on that later)

And of course, we also made our nether regions sore by learning Shaolin martial arts! More on this later as well!

I'd definitely say this portion of my trip was the most out-of-the-ordinary and refreshing. I did keep getting nightmares sleeping in the hotel rooms though but praying to Jesus Christ helped snap me out of it! Praise God for new experiences!