Shalom, Ya’ll!

Kung Fu 4 Kids!
As some of you know, I sort of help out my Kung Fu teacher every once in a while when he’s busy or feeling like he wants to sit at the sideline and just observe everyone. Because of this, I not only am the senior student at our school, but I’m alsoseen as the senior student and “go to guy” for other students. It also has its drawbacks since I’ve now been roped for our Kung Fu 4 Kids program, which teaches Kung Fu to two groups, 5 to 9 year olds and 10 to 15 year olds. It requires a lot of patience – especially the 5 to 9 year olds. Especially this one particular kid; Lorenzo, my 5 year old archnemesis!

Now, usually it’s my teacher who leads the class, and Alwin, another student, and myself who help out and keep the kids in line. Basically what we do is train with them, so that they have someone to look to when they get stuck, and when they don’t know what’s going on anymore, which, sadly, happens quite a bit. It also means we answer questions from both the kids and the parents, do the warming up, do the stretching excercises, and keep the kids in line. Last Saturday my teacher had to perform Kung Fu at a festival, so Alwin and I were left to our own devices to teach the class. We pulled out our playbook and decided upon some activities and strategies. The ole “Good Cop, Bad Cop” routine was chosen, me being the designated Bad Cop. I was pretty hard on them, but not cruel, I feel. I’m a benevolent dictator. An enlightened despot, if you will.

I think I might have scared one of the mothers, though.

Sudoku
So Eva introduced me to the concept of Sudoku, the Japanese puzzle-games that are now so immensely popular in the U.K. It’s a really good waste of time during my morning commute, though I have to be careful not to let it interfere with the reading that I want to get done in that time as well. Basically, they’re a cross between logical matrices and crossword-puzzles. Like Eva commented, crossword-puzzles are usually for people with a good sense of language, while these are like crosswords, only you work with numbers. Alpha vs. beta, it seems. :)

In other news; my the ball of my left foot hurts when I put too much weight on it. Either I’m getting too fat for my feet to support my weight, or I hurt it during Kung Fu or something. Neither option seems unlikely to me.