Busho-festival

I have been compiling a site in Notepad for the last two weeks, every single day so my brain has pretty much burnt out. So now I decided to take a little break and add something interesting in my blog.

I am going to visit a Hungarian folklore festival this Sunday in the city of Mohacs - the so-called Busho-festival. It is kinda farewell to the Winter season. A bit about its origin:

The aim of this event is to chase Winter away. People wearing scary masks and wool-fell are going around in the village with bugle-call, cowbells, and shouting "Bao-Bao" (which I dunno what means). They go to each house, pass round the animals of the farmers, and scatter ash on the yards. It is believed to keep evil spirits away. Also, on the street they keep pulling the womens' hair, so that it would grow longer. At the end of the festival, the strawman which represents the Winter is burnt away (pretty much like Woodoo, isn't it? Scaaaary :-) ). The high light of the day is the mens' scrum held on the main square of the village in the evening. Attending the scrum was required in the old times for boys to get into adult life and to be considered as a man.

More about Busho here (in English).

And now back to coding...

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UPDATE

Here are some photos, shot at the Busho Festival this last Sunday.

Harmony and mess

This morning I saw a woman on the train with her kid. The kid was around 5-6 years old and was mental handicapped. It seems that there are many mental handicapped around my area.
When I see such cases it always makes me think about how strong these people are. Both them and their parents. What enormous strength it requires to not chose the easier path: to throw these beings away. What a strength it takes to accept the fact that you have to devote your whole life to taking care of someone who will never be able to take care of himself, and who will never be able to give you grandchildren, if s/he lives that long at all. These parents probably have to give up their own life for these children - it is a huge sacrifice, that I can only admire. I wonder if I will ever get to the point of wanting to have a child - will I be able to face and accept a situation like this? I am not quite sure...

On the other side I am sure these people - both the parents and the children - give much more love to each other than "normal" people in "normal" families. Usually these families are the manifestations of real love. There is another family with a girl (around 13-14) who has Down-disease. I always see them when I ride the bus Tuesday and Thursday nights after training. They talk to each other with so much tenderness, and their whole face is just shining. And it's not only accassionally, but every time I see them. Probably these people could teach us some things about what real love is like.

It's pretty much in contrast with what I had to do the other day. Mom asked me to be her "security guard". The guy with whom she's co-renting a flat, just disappeared and does not want to pay the rental fee, which means that in this case mom should pay double to the landlord and that's something she really can't afford. In fact, the co-renter guy is a violent one.
And so as the guy was supposed to come back that day for his stuff to take it away, mom asked me to be there, as he kind of fears me (thanks to mom who always proudly tells everone what MA I was into :-/ ). So I was there, and after a while the guy arrived. He was quite calm while I was there, we talked a bit and he promised to bring the money next day (today), then packed up and left.
Mom called me this afternoon again saying that he did not bring the money and when she went to his company too meet him after work, he told her not to expect money and also warned that he would kill her. So atm I am just thinking about talking to this asshole and tell him to expect some "fun" if he plans to keep up this atitude. But maybe it does not hurt to first sit down and think twice what I say/do. I don't want to make an even bigger mess out of the one we have now.
I've heard a good advice from an old lady in our family: "night is a bad advisor". It does worth to listen to the advice of the elders...

Breakthrough

About the tests, held this past Saturday

I arrived an hour earlier so I had plenty of time to warm upbefore the start that was scheduled for 10 a.m. I was a bit surprised to see that heaps of whitebelts came whom I did not know at all. It turned out that the other dojo's students also joined us for the test. A few minutes before the start A. arrived and said that we might be interrupted during the test as the school that's gym we rented, organized something for the same time, same place. A. however said that we should not worry, the test will be held anyway, as we exceed them in number and also we're stronger :-) It somewhat loosened up the stress that was visible on everyone. Well, no wonder, A. always established very high requirements for each grade.
The test started at 10 am sharp, with those who went for 10 kyu. Man, there were so many! About 20 people. They had to do some basic ukemi and kamae, and a lot of theory (e.g. history of Bujinkan, etc). The majority of them were quite okay. Then some of them went for 9 kyu - more kamae, more ukemi, more theory. One guy eventually got 8 kyu and he had to do some basic stuff, like uchi mawashi dori, soto mawashi dori, sabaki kuzushi-no kata, sanshin no kata.
This section of the test ended after 1.5 hour so we had a little break.

As all the windows were open and we had been sitting on the mat during the first half of the test, my muscles and joints got all frozen so I used this break to warm up again - especially as I knew that A. might ask me to join those who go for 7 kyu - the next level to come that day. Although I went for 4 kyu there was a chance for being called out, because I've never taken a test at A. - all the tests I took so far were at another dojo and even the last one was long long years ago. So we agreed that I should expect to be asked to do everything from 10 kyu up to 4, to show what I know, and he'd decide whether or not I can have the 4 kyu - based on how I do during the test and also considering how I'd been working and how I've improved my knowledge since the time I got back to normal trainings.
The break was over and A. called up 4 guys for 7 kyu - he still did not call me. The guys had to do some ukemi as awarm-up, then Gyaku gi kihon gata, also O soto gari, O soto keri, Ko soto nage and Gogyo no kata. When they finished and went back to the mat, A. looked around and gloated upon me with an evil smile - he did not even call my name but I knew it was my turn so I stood up and walked out. This interlude raised a light laugh in the dojo which I really appreciated - laughter always helps me to relax.
First he called up a 7 kyu guy to assist me as an uke. He delivered different attacks at me and I had to evade them by applying ukemi. After a while I had to do some counterattack plus the ukemi. Then came the hanbo part - at first I had to present different kamae and some Tsuki uchi no kata. Then he called up a 2 kyu guy for being my uke; he had to attack me on various ways without letting me know in advance, and I had to do whatever I wanted to, but applying a little bit of this, a little bit of that - depending on what A. asked me to do (like, different hits, kicks). Unfortunately one of my Kokens were a bit too hard on the guy's temple so poor him released a funny complaint at the end of the test. Luckilly he had no serious injury.Then I had to do the Ganseki gata with him (nage, ori, otoshi, keri), each for all kinds of attacks. And then it was over, which really surprised me because I expected more. Was it me expecting too much or did A. not want to torture me too much? I dunno. But I definitely felt much better when I sat back to the mat.

Then came the last two guys, one of them went for 1 kyu, the other one for shodan. Boy, they were tortured like hell! A lot of randori stuff - against one and two attackers. Also a lot of kenjutsu, hanbo jutsu, Nage gaeshi, gyaku gi gaeshi, tanto jutsu, SFR Ten no Kata and again - randori, randori and randori. I think both of them lost some 6-10.000 Calories by the end of their test. They spent at least 30-40 minutes out there I think, and they stood the field very well!

A. announced a 20 minutes long break again and when it was over he announced the results. Everyone passed. It was kind of strange to receive the certificate that my dojo issued, but now as some time went by since then, I can say that this test was really needed for me. I think things got to their place and this dilemma regarding my low self-confidence about what I can or can't do in training, has vanished and is no more a huge obstacle. Not because of the grade I earned now, but because I proved to myself that I can do very well if I put myself together. Actually I am able to perform much better than I'd thought so far. I just really need to put myself together sometimes.

Those two guys who got 1 kyu and Shodan got a huge applause! Well, they really deserved it - they did a nice job.

When the whole thing was over, I went to the yudansha and thanked them for all the help and encouragement they gave me.They knew how important step it was for me and kept pushing me forward when I collapsed or gave me their ear when I needed someone to talk to.

Thank you guys, you are so cool!

Lull that foreruns the storm

Well the big day is approaching... tomorrow I die or survive. Probably it is not a big thing for some of you, but this particular test will be important in my training. Not because of the result but because of what I will learn from it and use in my further training - irrespective of whether I pass or fail. I did not go for my usual extra Friday training today, as I decided to take a little break and relax for tomorrow.

I am translating some religious texts instead. One of the Buddhist communities here is organizing a significant event. Some of the most sacred Buddhist relics (e.g. Buddha's tooth) will be exhibited for 3 days, before they continue their "World Tour". The "World Tour"'s purpose is that as many people as possible will receive the blessing of seeing these rare and precious relics and learn more about the message of loving-kindness and peace. The project's final station will be in Kushinagar (India) in 2008. There the relics will be placed/built in a monumental Buddha sculpture. The exhibition here is scheduled for October, exactly on the weekend when one of the highest level instructors from our MA comes to our country to give a seminar. So probably we can make it as an optional program for those interested. But I will announce it on the forums only when the place and times and all the other details will be fixed.
So they asked me to translate all the promotion materials from English and also to give my voice for dubbing the video/sound material. At last something I am good at and like to do!

Now it's time to go to bed, busy and hard day is to come tomorrow...

Thoughts and deeds

Yeah, I've been a slacker in the past two weeks - I did not post anything. Well there are times when you need to chew on things before you actually finalize them in your head. But probably you can never finalize anything - the way how you percept things usually changes by time. You don't get involved in them the same way after a few months/years.
Although there would be so many things to write about, but probably there is no point in doing it just yet. Later, maybe. Although I've put down some thoughts in the form of a poem. Things I can't discuss with anyone always end up as a poem. It helps me speaking my mind and expressing freely what exactly I think/feel - with whatever tool I want to do that.

Valentine's Day today. This is quite a new thingie in my country, we started taking it over when I entered secondary school so I would not say that it is "in my blood". The main thoughts of this day seem to be nice tho... 1) Lovers' Day - well, this day was very silent from this aspect. I like to be alone but not like now. Today it did hurt; 2) Day of the Protector of Firefighters - I don't know too much about this story, nor I found info on the net. Anyone could enlighten me, please? 3) The day of forgiving. I was told that on this day one can confess all the bad things/mistakes s/he made and the other person should forgive him/her. Is this true???

Okkkay, training time:
Kyu/shodan tests will be held this Saturday. I noticed that I'd been pretty tensed recently when it came to practising for the test. I guess I am nervous.
I am going for 4th kyu but to tell the truth I am not too confident about the success - and the downturn period I am recently in does not do any good to my healthy self-confidence (or to its lack actually).
The only one reason for why I go for it now is that I want to cut off the vicious circle I've generated in the near past by withdrawing from tests in the last minute, which then resulted in less and less certainity and self-confidence. Which then resulted in withdrawing again... and again .... and again .... Also, I was adviced to go on and on and on, even if there seems to be no hope. So I do that now because there is no hope that I can pass this one, but at least I keep walking.

I also noticed in the past few weeks that whenever a shodan/nidan came to me and to my partner while we had been practising and started correcting our mistakes and explaining things (without actually being asked to do so!), I got annoyed and completely blocked down, like having a blackout. And now during the past two trainings noone came to me to help but I had to realize for myself what I did wrong, and I noticed that I managed to get it done right at the end.
So I think it's not always good to be provided with the solution instantly on a silver tray, there are times when you have to find the problem for yourself and fix it.

Anyway, there is one more "official" training before the test on Saturday. Many things can happen until then. Even the whole world can change!

A drop of Nature ...

The other morning while I was walking to work in the city centre, I noticed a strange noise coming from above. I looked up and I got amazed by the view.
A squad of 12 wild-goose was flying by, high above the blocks. It was such a strange view in the middle of this modern city that I had to stop for a minute and give them a watch.
The squad was seemingly moving slowly, rather like swimming in the air, but as they got closer I could see that actually they flew swiftly and the movement of the whole team was just so powerful! I was amazed to see the consonance between the members of the squad, they moved perfectly together, following the top-goose. Every one of them knew their place within the team, there was no rivalization. They flew away swiftly to the south and after a minute the team disappeared somewhere behind the top of the buildings.
When they appeared the whole city seemed to go mute and the rush stopped until they disappeared. Or was it just me who experienced this? Anyhow, this was the first occassion in a long time when I felt really easy and happy.

This experience made me think about the simplicity of life. We human beings got so far away from this kind of calmness, from nature, that we can't even recognize what we miss. We build skyscrapers, wonder-cars, hyper-intelligent computers, we make businesses of dollarmillions, but we forget to live our own lives. We are always dissatisfied and want more and more. Nothing is good enough. And while we are chasing our dreams, we forgot where we have come from and we forget about what we are given by nature. We forgot about Nature, our home. We forgot about the real ourselves. We should take back from the speed and sometimes stop for a minute or two to look around and appreciate what we are granted. Then we could see how simple and great life can be.