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Yesterday was the long-anticipated White Dragon kung fu tournament, Henry’s third tournament since he joined the school. It’s held at this huge gymnasium at USD, and people from all seven branches of the school come to compete all day. We got there at 7:45am because Henry is part of the Lion Dance team, who perform the opening ceremony, so he had to be early to practice. Here’s a video of the lions practicing without costumes; Henry is the tall boy who is usually nearest the camera at the right side of the scene. The back-end of Henry’s lion is a really nice boy named Mister Clements (everyone at the school goes by Mister or Miss).

I tried to film the actual performance but I pressed a wrong button (haven’t used my new camera for video very much yet) and didn’t get it, but the team did very well and Henry and Mister Clements landed all their complicated stacks and everything!

Henry competed in three divisions (based on sash color and age/weight) — Technique, Form, and Continuous Sparring. He did very well in all three and won a Silver Medal for Form! We are so proud of him, so very proud. All three medalists in that division of Form were from Henry’s school. Go Clairemont!

It was a long long long day… Henry’s division of Continuous Sparring was one of the very last ones, so we didn’t leave till nearly 5pm. But I had my book (Busman’s Honeymoon) and my knitting and a big cooler of food, and Henry had his kung fu friends to hang out with, and it was very fun to watch all the other people competing, too.

Congratulations again, Henry!