In 2013 I signed another 5-year lease for our school on Market Street. I thought hard about it; the first five years the rent + triple net was $2500-$3300/mo over the term. The second was $3300-$4200; and now the third five was to put me well into the $5000/mo by the end of the term. This did not include utilities, business taxes, marketing, or any of the other costs of doing business. Oh, did I mention salary? No, it didn’t include that either! Still, the Moon was definitely a thing by this point and I just didn’t see any option. Rather, I didn’t want to see one.
Our level was really improving. By this point we had 150 students and several teachers with their own classes: Joyce, Doug, Laura, Larry and Nina were teaching a little and subbing for me and though they may not have seen it at the time, they were beginning to develop their own fan base. I still rode them pretty hard during those early days of their teaching, but secretly I could not have been prouder of what I saw happening. We continued to have master workshops and trainings with our grand teachers and local experts in their fields, but more essentially, we all trained hard on a daily basis; steaming up the windows nightly and wiping up condensation that dripped down from the pipes onto the floor. Our school was robust. We rocked the floor. So, when it came time to sign the next lease we cleaned, repainted and dug in for another five.
Our Disciple Posse met a few times during the year, notably in Chicago for CXX’s 60th birthday, but the highlight of 2013 travel was another trip back to the Village, this time with my BFF, Allison Helm. After a day in Beijing highlighted by an afternoon in the famous 798 Art District, we joined the D’s and their group for the 10 day with CXX. Allison and I suffered jet lag, bad plumbing, physical exhaustion, black flies and mind-blowing training of that trip with gusto. We cherished the training and new friends and unforgettable friendship moments. To this day we talk about our photography walk through the now long demolished Hutongs behind the Ditch, the tall corn totems in front of the houses and drying beans and peanuts set out on the street. I dare say however our BFF claim to fame may be that I convinced Allison to eat Donkey and she loved it!
This was also the first year that CXX & CZQ opened up their main school to create branch schools outside of China. Along with the D’s, Allison and I were fortunate to represent our schools. Other US inductees included Allison’s husband Bill Helm, Betty Dong, AZ, Andy Loria, Chicago, and Stephan Berwick, D.C. The Chenjiagou main school has grown its branch schools throughout the world since then, but unlike the explosion of disciples worldwide, the numbers of these schools remain in check. They are not financial endeavors for the Chen Family; they are based on longevity and commitment. CXX and CZQ continue to work very hard to assure the quality of Chen Family Taijiquan remains solid. Along with our commitment to the Moon on Market Street, our relationship with the Family and Chen Taijiquan was to continue to deepen over the next several years. For further reading about this trip, click here.
2013 was to be Chen Bing’s last year in Seattle due to his increasingly busy schedule, but also the Moon had clarified our commitment to the school of CXX and CZQ. This, in combination with Gaspar’s departure and CXW’s busy schedule, gave our school a little breather for hosting. We had been hosting 6x a year, this along with running a teacher training program was frankly becoming exhausting. Backing out of that a bit also gave me more space to answer my student’s call to get more of them to China! Despite tails of black flies, pulverized thighs and Donkey, the buzz about these trips within the school was just too much for students to resist. We had all fallen in love with CXX by now, too, so going to China was not just training, it was visiting family at their home. Doug, Laura, Susan, Meg, Mary, Phyllis, Rich and our friend from Portland, Kathy got on a plane in early September and made the two-day trip to the Village. For all but Doug it was their first trip. I had hired Davidine to translate for us so David and a few of their students were there as well.
There is nothing like training with CXX in his home. He loves the Village and it shows in how he inhabits the place. Riding then his bicycle (now his electric scooter), mediating disputes between Villagers, walking out for buns in his slippers, laughing at us bumping around the streets of the Gou, making friends with the locals. CXX does not just live in the Village, he is the Village. Being there as his student gives one a bit of street cred too. The training was, as always, brutal in just the way we like it at home, but training in the Village is unique. It is said once you drink the water of Chenjiagou, your legs shake, and you must always return. (Of course we do not drink the water!)
Yes, the training was spectacular; unfortunately, the weather was not. I do warn my newbies to be prepared for anything, actually I try to scare them out of going; clearly it just eggs them on. But, I digress. To my point: it rained. Or perhaps better stated: it rained torrentially nine out of ten days of the trip. There is no drainage system in place, the streets were flowing. At that time the quad was dirt and we had to walk across it to get to class. Our shoes sunk into muddy potholes, slurping up with every step. The black flies of early September were especially voracious; Standing with them landing on our bodies for 30 minutes 2x a day gave the term disciple a whole new meaning. None of us had the correct footwear except Susan, the Oceanographer, so we covered our shoes with Ziplock bags and held them on our ankles with rubber bands.
And yet, CXX remained undeterred. The training was as rich and deep as ever. In fact, the rains that year gave us a chance, much like this Covid time now gives us a chance, to cocoon in, to shave off even more distractions and singularly concentrate on the moment at hand.
Click here for further reading about that trip.
There are two things I’ve never regretted spending money on: travel & training. And frankly, the two combined are one of the reasons I love the martial arts, there are always interesting places to go and fascinating people to meet. 2014 was also the year I travelled to Chicago to teach at the NWMAF, National Women’s Martial Arts Federation, and Pennsylvania to teach at the National Qigong Association’s Conference. I met many amazing people along the way who remain friends and colleagues to this day.
Induction into Chenjiagou Xue Xiao, 2013 Trip, NWMAF, 2014 trip, (check the rain out bottom right), foggy windows, cleaning the dojo old school