ESPIRITO ROCKS

After I finally made it home from my Osaka trip, I'd vowed to dive into my bed, 1) because I was beat, and 2) I wanted to have enough energy to make it to capoeira class that evening, but the whole sleeping thing wasn't to be. After I took a shower and threw some clothes in the machine, I was hungry than a mug, so I had to make a stack of my famous Sunday morning banana pancakes to quell the hunger pangs. I read my e-mail, then ended up watching the Fight Club dvd Aaron had rented. That put me somewhere around 4-something, when I finally decided to lay down and rest. I ended up knocking off for about an hour when my phone rang. It was Erin from the gym. She'd just gotten off work and wanted to specify directions on how to get to capoeira class. I'm glad she called because I think I would have overslept otherwise.

I got up and got ready to go. I ended up being a little late, but it was OK because Z hadn't started class yet anyway; when I first started capoeira back in the summer, people told me that Z ran on "Brazilian Time." I had to laugh when I heard that, because they weren't aware of CP Time!

I said hi to Erin, who'd made it okay and was sitting on the side onlooking. We started class with a roda to practice playing instruments. I was empty-handed, so at first I stood there only clapping the rhythms. I went to look for a tambourine, but there were none left. Z went over and handed me his spare berimbau . He just told me "Ganbatte," the Japanese version of "Good luck." We rejoined the roda and began playing again. I had absolutley no idea what I was doing, so I just followed along by sight. It was my first time playing, so I was all into it, even though I have like zero skill with the berimbau. I wasn't sure how bad I sounded because I couldn't hear my playing over the din of everyone else. The berimbau is a great instrument; I definitely have to get one one day. The rest of class was spent practicing sequenced moves, which were really tough; it was basically like doing strength conditioning exercises. Though, I could tell that my legs had gotten a lot stronger in the past 2 weeks, as I didn't fatigue as quickly as before. I guess those mid-week practices paid off.

After a while, I noticed Erin had bounced. I wonder if she was intimidated by our workout, bored, or just had to be somewhere. I'm sure I'll bump into her again to find out what the deal was. Axe!