dont get your feathers ruffled marcus. folks on forums can be pretty ridiculous sometimes. youll find that only a handful of people will give you quality responses, most will attempt to use you to feed their own ego's. now, that said, anyone who studies cma knows that flexible weapons are considered " advanced" in any system. so it's understandable that people question you when you say that you know them but you have no formal training?
however, to go back to your topic here, sign up for wushu classes when you get to tacoma. there are some very good schools in washington. you may not be aware of this, but although training in china will be a great experience for you, many of the worlds great teachers have left china for the U.S. Canada and Australia. so find some good instruction locally. to get the most out of your experience in china, you should have a solid basis in the basic wushu forms and techniques. also, university of washington and washington state have wushu clubs, go check them out, you may be able to train, but maybe not compete as a non-student. also learn the taiji short form, its the shortest and most popular one, this will give you a start in the internals, which are an integral part of wushu as a whole.
in a nutshell, you need to get started on the basics-good luck!
The thorn protects the rose and harms only those that would steal it's blossom