Pei Mei Wannabe

I can't believe I neglected to mention that last week, E had her first lesson in my kung-fu style. She's been itching to learn it since almost the day we met. It is what brought us together, after all.

Not that I'd necessarily want it to get out, at least into my old martial arts circles right away. My old instructors have a generally free, relaxed, Americanized attitude regarding the transmission of their martial arts -- except for the kung-fu system. I remember an old student who Mrs. R heard showed our booklet. It's the modern day equivalent of those old kung-fu scrolls you see in movies. All the terms and moves are in shorthand. There's virtually no way even an experienced martial artist could just pick it up and understand it all. And yet, Mrs. R almost freaked.

Plus, in this day and age, challenge matches do still happen. I live in a town where Bando is the martial art. The grandmaster does live here, after all. God forbid I get caught by the wrong people swinging kali sticks around. All I know is I'm too old and too slow to have Hung Wei Lo or whoever come and challenge me with his Flying Screaming Phoenix Ninja Fist Style in order to stop me from teaching the "gwai-lo."