tradition and pain
One of the last rituals in kung fu class is Sam Sing (sp?).  You whack your forearms against another student's forearms for a minute or so to strengthen the bones.  At some point, one of the students will signal that it's time to stop with a particular hand gesture.

For some reason, when I first started, I thought I heard that the older student always gave this signal.  So I would go on smashing my arms until the older student signaled that we should stop.

This has been a painful misunderstanding.

There are some students that won't stop; they just keep going, for whatever reason.  They usually have very hard arms.  I assumed they were just jerks, since it was traditionally their role to call it to a halt; they were trying to force me to break tradition or something by asking them to quit.  So for the last year, they probably thought I was the jerk that was challenging their strength by not signaling that I needed to stop.  Ouch ouch ouch.

Anyway.  That's the tricky part about learning in the traditional way.  A lot of rules are unspoken, or explained only once, and you're expected to pick it up or listen the first time.  It's about respect.  But I've run into some false assumptions as a result, here and there.  And mistakes can hurt.

So, still training.  Rough first day back after sitting around all weekend at GPNW, but I feel 100% better after sweating out all the fancy food and beer I consumed.