ilai

Last Thursday, I rode in C's car with

rhean and Y to Ohio for a karate tournament. During the trip I made some exciting discoveries, some of which I list below.

Citgo gas stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio have luxurious bathrooms. And some of them even have large showers.
Even within the same style of karate, the forms and techniques can vary wildly. An extra hand swirl here, some dynamic tension there, curved fingers in the spear-hand position, and different target locations make some of the seisan and seiuchin katas look drastically different.
People from other dojos are really aggressive during sparring. I got seriously whacked.
Little kids are really cute when they perform katas. Little kids are also really impressive when they perform katas.
Higher-up black belts do some seriously crazy s*** when they spar, such as dropping their guards (it looked like a game of chicken) or rocking back and forth while leaning waaay back (drunken boxing!).
Bonking someone on the head counts as a point during sparring. This seems to work for bigger kids against some of the smaller tykes.
Hotel rooms built from concrete grain silos have echo-y acoustic centers.

Addenda:

I-80 through Pennsylvania is under heavy construction. Seek alternate routes.
There's a lawyer in Philly who (reportedly) looks just like rhean. Be on the lookout!