So I had a week of vacation to use up before the weekend of march 1st otherwise I would lose it. So I took advantage of it and went out to visit Mary and Pan.
I took off on the 20th and flew out of another snow storm out of the Quad Cities. My flight out was delayed so that threw my schedule off and Mary was not going to be able to meet me at JFK. So I was on my own with my luggage to take the Train, Ferry and Bus to get to Mary's on Staten Island. It was easy enough. The hardest part was actually walking in Manhattan to the ferry station with all my luggage. I arrived downtown right in the middle of rush hour with me packed up like a pack mule trying to plow thru busy sidewalks was not the most fun but doable. It took right around 2 hours from JFK to Staten Island using public transportation.
Thursday was pretty quiet I decided to rest up from getting up at 4am the morning before I started traveling.
Friday of course that is when New York had to get it's snow storm. The City got around 6-9 inches of snow. But luckily it was not frigid cold like it was in Iowa. So we just stayed put Friday as well and just walked down to Good Fellas for pizza.
(Mary showing off her Blue Berry head)
Saturday we decided to head downtown to meet up with Raf and Laura one of our Hapkido Alumni.
We went to this great Polish restaurant where I had a great broiled Salmon and beer. Afterwards Raf took us to this great Ale house.
the place was standing room only ( we had to wait outside until a very tough and old looking bouncer would let people come in after a few would come out). As far as beer went you only had two choices LIGHT and DARK. Raf had told us that at least in the past the people who ordered the most round of drinks were the ones who got to stay and the people who were drinking slow were kicked out. So of course the last thing I wanted to do was to get kicked out so after Raf bought two rounds I bought the next two rounds. And since Mary does not drink beer I had to drink her rounds. Luckily the glasses were not that big so it was good practice for drinking your pitcher for testing.
Afterwards we visited a comicbook shop that Raf and Laura enjoyed and then a chocolate restaurant. There was quite a line to get in to the chocolate place so Raf and I left the girls to wait in line and headed to a bar to use the restroom and since we had time on our hands have a couple more rounds of Guinness. By the time the girls were seated and we had met up with them ( as Mary tells me) my speech was getting a little slurry ( I didn't notice but oh well). After some dessert Laura drove us back to the ferry terminal. I am always amazed at how easy it is for them to drive around Manhattan. They always seem to be able to find the best parking spots and have no trouble getting around the island.
Sunday Mary and I hungout on Staten Island she had allot of class prep to do. So we just had bagels and watched the first season of LOST on DVD whenever she could take a break. ( we were going to try to make it thru the entire season but unfortunately time just was not on our side.)
Monday Mary had to teach that evening and still had allot of class prep to do so she worked most of the day while I piddled around the apartment . When she left for class I decided to head to Manhattan and to go visit the "World Martial Arts Center" one of the few placed I could find on the internet to offer Hapkido. Now I have to be perfectly honest that when I first saw their video on their website I was not that impressed. Coming from a Hapkido style that did no forms or allot of striking I really found myself asking is this Hapkido?
The Dojang offered a day pass for unlimited workouts so I figured it would not hurt to at least try it. Dojang is set up so there are classes offered all day long. Once you pay your monthly fee or day pass you can train as long as you want and many classes as you want. Since I got a late start I was only able to take the late class of the evening. I did not pack my uniform since I originally did not plan on visiting any schools but luckily the day pass for the "WMAC " came with a free uniform. It is a Taekwondo grade uniform with the WMAC logo on the back. When I arrived at the Dojang I introduced myself to the instructor and he signed me in for his last class. Since the intro video had all these forms and weapons I stupidly asked what they were teaching tonight and he looked at me and replied "Hapkido" . I quickly changed and lined up with a few other students. The class consisted of another white belt along with myself and a couple of green and blue belts. The class was an hour long, and consisted of allot of conditioning ( my abs really needed this) then some Striking and kicking drills. We then did some short stick work consisting mainly with striking. The last 15 of class was "Self Defense" where the instructor paired up with me and we did what Pak Family Hapkido are used to. It was really great working out with the instructor, we took turns grabbing and trowing each other in a freestyle set of different grabs. It was easy to show each other how we worked out and everything was pretty close to the same. We ended class and after the class is done they offer open mat to do what ever you would like to work on. The instructor and I decided to do knife defenses and once again just took turns throwing each other. Some of the other members hung around watching us and after about 10 minutes I had to quit to start the trek back to Staten Island. My ego got fed a little when I went to the changing room when one of the members came up to me and " Sir, you are definitely not a white belt" and I explained where I was from. The other white belt was present and commented on how we would like to learn what the instructor and I was doing. It made me feel really good to be able to visit another school and be able to workout so easily without any attitude or " This how we do it and it's the only way there is" complex that you can occasionally run into. Compared to the weekend seminar we had with Berkley Hapkido in Ames a few years ago I would go back to WMAC anytime.
It was about 10pm and such pleasant weather compared to what Iowa had been going thru I decided to walk back to the ferry terminal instead of hopping on the train. Walking down Broadway thru the financial district is actually pretty nice.
Tuesday Once again Mary had to work most of the day so I hung out with Pan and watched TV. We packed up late afternoon and headed into Manhattan to check out a Kendo school in the upper side. I wanted to check out this school because the instructor
Kataoka Sensei was not only successful doing Kendo in Japan but also played the part of Maj. General Hayashi
in Clint Eastwood's movie "Letters from from Iwo Jima" The NY Kendo club works out in an older church on the one of the top floors which is an old Gymnasium.
(the web page below has a nice video done by NY 1 news)
http://www.nyckendo.com/index.html
Mary and I arrived a little soggy due to it raining most of the evening in the middle of the beginner class. It was really neat to watch the beginners practice their drills and almost mesmerizing with the sound of the SInai's (bamboo swords) hitting each other. The beginner class melded right into the advance class where the members suited up into their armor and really started to do their drills. It was a real treat to watch such a dedicated group workout. I was a little disappointed that no one came to talk to us about joining the club or to see if we had any questions. Their website stated to feel free and come watch a workout. But I felt to try to ask a question I would be interupting and intruding on the class. Maybe if we were able to stay till the end of the class we could of talked to someone but Mary had allot of work to do so we headed back to Staten Island. Luckily it stopped raining.
Wednesday we woke up and went to a little coffee shop that we both like that is just down the street from Mary's apartment. When we are lucky there is no line to get in. The food is really good and not bad priced especially if you can get there before 11am when they have breakfast specials. Between food and LOST Mary had to work and teach class again that night. Originally I was going to go workout at an Aikido club not far from Mary's place. But decided not to, when I could not find Hapkido on Staten Island I decided to look for Aikido. The only place I could find was actually not far from Mary's. The only problem was that the instructor had moved around Staten Island around 3 times and had web pages of each place and address so it was really hard to track him down. Once I found his most current page it was 3 years old and had not been updated. I sent a couple of emails and he did respond but did not answer all of my questions. So I decided to head back into Manhattan to have supper with Raf and Laura again.
We ended going to a place called "Blondies" It had some really good wings. According to Raf this place is one of the only "Iowa Hawkeye" bars in New York. It actually caters to all of the big 10 but I guess there is a good following of Hawkeye fans there. We called it an early night since I had to pack and they had work to do so I headed back home to pack up and meet up with Mary when she got home.
(pan before the flash)
(pan after the flash)
The flights back were ok, I got back into the Quad Cities pretty late and of course I came home to snow and crappy roads. I am getting so tired of driving interstate 80 at 40mph.
Oh well, hopefully spring will be here soon.