Fascinated by the Hungarian seminar, I did some serious flight booking for this spring. I had three seminars on my mind: Zurich, Ljubljana and Skien. I bought flights straight away for the first two. Regarding school it seemed possible to attend - I wouldn't be skipping any classes. Still I was wondering how would I cope with the forthcoming pile of exams.

A spring like this I didn't quite foresee. My long relationship came to an end and this led to some unexpected psychosomatic symptoms. I managed to get over the worst, so I thought I should go anyway, wether I could train or not.

In the end I was happy I went. The trip was a success, mainly because I felt so warmly welcomed by the organisers. My accommodation was again something that made me feel privileged. Thanks to Emina and her family.

The emphasis of the training was naturally nanbu sotai techniques. We also did some nanbu keiraku taiso katas, also in a sitting position. This allowed me to do some of the stuff I missed in the Hungarian seminar. At the end of the seminar we also did wide selection of budo-ho katas, namely all nanbu katas, seipai, ikkyoku and sampo sho, which we got deeper into in small groups.

I thought I was not up for it, but in the end I did all the trainings except one. Unfortunately there was a price for going to a seminar trip with weakened health, and for me the price was diarrhea. I might have caught it anyway, but being a bit off the edge - which means reduced immunity - didn't actually prevent it. Because of being ill, it took a bit longer for me to get back on track after the seminar, but after all I feel like it was a good decision to go. And the exams went also quite okay, although I had to postpone one of them.

Kalle Lönnroth, 2 dan