Hey guys, I haven't been here in a while, and last I was here I wasn't here for long so I'll refresh your memory about me. I'm 16, a junior in high school, I've studied Hung Gar (canton) for about 3 maybe 4 years now, I also do the lion and dragon dance at my school, I'm interested in Taoism and Buddhism, I've read alot on these things, and have personal beliefs based around them and other things, but have never visited a temple for either.

My mom this summer is wanting to send me to a program in China to teach english to kids, so that I keep productive and don't sleep in the whole time. It would be in Hunan, in the city Xiaoshicun (I believe, i know it's in hunan). I've read the schedules and such and my only concern is I won't have enough free time to explore what I'm truly interested in, and will be constricted to staying with their schedule and not finding my own. I would really love to just go to china to just study martial arts, and Buddhism (I'm more interested in practicing Buddhism than Taoism as I'd like to consider myself one, but I haven't taken refuge). Of course whenever I look into google for some travel angency that fits my needs, it tends to be some big group tour where you take group classes, and learn taiji from a very basic level and only receive 1-3 classes as most of it is focused on exploring china. If any of you guys know of a place/person/organization that could really help me find a sifu willing to train me, I wouldn't mind group classes but I learn so much faster on a personal level. It's hard to express sometimes what I'm looking for, but I don't want the typical tourists experience, I'm already somewhat exposed to chinese culture because I'm lucky to attend a very traditional school that does preformances for chinese holidays and such. I just want to submerse myself in training the mind body and soul. I'm sure people on this forum have a similar desire, and I'm lucky enough to have parents who would support me in this. If anyone can help me in anyway, I'd be extremely thankful.

Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, I don't mean to hurt your eyes.