Well I'm all on my own now... the kung fu gang has headed back to the states and I start my solitary adventure. Travelling by yourself and with groups are really different beasts. It was a lot of fun running around with good friends, but with so much going on it's hard to find the time to let things sink in. First of all, it's weird for me for a journey to have so many different legs. From leaving early to spend time with family in California to travelling with a group of friends who are travellng less than a third as long a time as you, it's very hard to fall into a groove. As the time marches on, people get homesick or irritable from the stress of it all, and I know from experience that's natural on any trip. Still, it's a little weird when you know you're way too early in your journey to get sick of it... especially if you plan to take much longer and crazier excursions in the future.
I'm only a month in but I've already learned a ton. Learning a very different language like Chinese is really hard. Duh. I studied really diligently to be more ready, but really nothing beats the hard realization of how much you still suck. Duh again. It's all good though, I couldn't even quantify how much I pick up every day.
It all comes back to one of the main reasons I love to travel. You can never learn so much so fast as when everything around you is new. Like a baby, your brain is immersed in new experiences and information and spurred to learn by a clear and present need to retain and try to understand. All your senses are given a reboot as there's a whole new wealth of experiences informing them. Globalisation has diminished this to some extent of course, but as small as the world may get, it is still a huge and amazingly diverse place. I'm struck by the odd similarities, like the insides of kung fu schools on opposite sides of the globe, or the generosity of strangers everywhere you go. How can mountain farms and villages look so similar in Hualian and Chiapas?
I've been extraordinarily lucky to meet so many different masters of kung fu, having not even quite reached seven years of study myself yet. I have had better and worse experiences but always I am renewed in understanding who I want to be and why I practice my art. I had a feeling about Taoism, the philosophy, long before I new anything about it, and that feeling is still strong. Trying to find the natural flow in life is much harder and simpler than it sounds before you try it, but it certainly doesn't dissapoint.
Really, if you have any chance, travel. Try not to plan too much. Be as open to what comes as you were when you were born, and as long as you can think fast, don't sweat the small stuff. Wherever you are on this planet, the food can be amazing, the people can be selfless, the land will be beautiful, and all the better if they come in forms you couldn't have expected.
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