Monthly Archives: December 2015

Spain trip, Part One – Madrid

I’ve been trying to keep a journal throughout our trip through Spain and to Morocco.  The writing is a little different from normal…more like notes in some places and in present tense from whatever day I was writing.  Too much to change to make it sound better, so take it or leave it.  🙂

Madrid – Day One – We found our hostel pretty quickly and though it smells smokey, it’s clean and has a small balcony with a view of Puerta del Sol.  The streets are packed tonight!  We went out to find some protein bars at El Corte Inglés (the Herrod’s department store of Spain), strolled through the crowds down Calle Mayor, found Cervezería La Mayor just to take pictures for the Panama crowd, saw the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor, then finally found a good place to sit down and eat.  Had the best olives with some kind of red pepper oil on them…best I’ve ever had.  Also the best patatas bravas – a HUGE plate of them – that I’ve ever had.  Eric loved them too.  Gambas al ajillo were fine.  Croquetas de jamón were pretty decent too.  Rounded it off with Cruzcampo (beer) and some crusty amazing Spanish bread dipped in the red pepper oil.  AMAZING.  I love this country.

Flight was interesting.  Really old plane with only a few screens for the ONE inflight movie that was something crappy.  Didn’t even show us the map of where we were over the ocean and how much longer we had until we arrived and all that.  Some parts of it were just gross, like the bathrooms and between the seats.  There were also hard bars in the seats that made sleeping even harder.  Luckily, my husband is amazing and he let me sleep in his lap for most of the flight.  Really turned out to not be as bad as I expected.  Really excited to be back in Spain!!!

Day Two – After a cold night trying to manipulate covers between two single beds smashed together so we could snuggle and me sleeping in my fleece, we woke up freezing in a room without temperature control….at 1:30 pm local Madrid time.  Whew!  Slept clean through from around 10 pm the night before.  Guess we needed it.  We had closed the shutters which let almost no light in, so it was like a cave in our tiny room.  Eric’s backpack had a thermometer on it which said 70 degrees, but even he admitted that it was way too cold…apparently we’ve been in Panama for too long.

We got up and moving and headed out to find a snack.  We went to a gorgeous glass indoor market where Eric found some croquetas and I bought my favorite food in the world – bocadillas, or Spanish sandwiches.  I bought one with chorizo and one with jamón serrano…both on hard Spanish bread.  Yes, I know I’m not supposed to be eating gluten and blah, blah, blah, but oh my word, this stuff is too good.  I can’t stay 12 days in Spain without eating bread or cheese or churros or anything gluteny or with dairy.  It just won’t happen.  My favorite thing about this country is the food, so my stomach will just have to hang tight.  I’m being a little careful at the moment, but once we get back from Morocco, it’s on!  I have big plans for eating on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
We took our snacks and walked down to the Royal Palace.  Unfortunately, it had closed early (1pm…which we slept through) for election day.  I thought it was pretty brilliant to have election day on a weekend…so everyone can go…but then again maybe people in the States wouldn’t bother b/c they’d be out of town or busy doing nothing or something…I don’t know.  Anyway, we took our time strolling between the palace and the cathedral right next to it.  Since Eric was well rested and well fed, he even offered to take photos and selfies with me!  Unprecedented.  I’m glad to finally know the key to that little mystery.
I had decided that I could take or leave an inside tour of the cathedral, but Eric was up for it, so we went in…and man, am I glad we did.  It was no ordinary cathedral.  It was gorgeous.  Huge.  Something about it was just different.  Beautiful painted ceilings, pointed gothic arches, guilded everything, and a mosaiced chapel that is one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever seen.
We also checked out the crypt, which interested Eric more than it did me.  He found one tomb that was dated January 2015!  There were several that were fairly recent, actually.
After that, we started the 2+ km walk towards Parque Retiro, the Central Park of Madrid.  This walk is down one of the main streets of Madrid, Calle Mayor, and took us back through Puerta del Sol, where we’re staying, which I’ll liken to Times Square.  The park is beautiful and HUGE.  We found the big lake where people rent rowboats and sat down beside it for a bit.  We got some patatas bravas (roasted potatoes with a spicy sauce – same as what we ate last night only not nearly as good) and relaxed for a minute before completing the walk around the lake.  Eric again was sweet to take a few pictures of me trying to do some capoeira moves in fun places, then we walked on back to the hotel for a rest.
In Parque Retiro, Madrid’s Central Park. Beautiful!
Big anchor in Parque Retiro
Famous
Our last dinner in Madrid was at an outdoor tapas cafe (yes, tons of people were eating outside in 40 degree weather) at Puerta de Alcalá (a big arch in the middle of a huge traffic circle).  We had some wonderful tapas (meat plate with jamón serrano y chorizo, plus two others that we didn’t identify), ham croquetas, and chicken tikka masala with rice.  Oh, and cerveza.  Not bad.
Mom asked us to take a nice picture together that she can use for her New Year’s card. This is what we came up with. Not sure what’s up with the lime…

Batizado photos – Unidos Pela Capoeira 2015!

I’ve been avoiding writing this post because I’m overwhelmed by how amazing an experience the batizado proved to be.  Not to mention the fact that I have over a thousand photos from the week, thanks to Eric!  I’ll attempt to sum it up for you…

As I said in my last posts, it was hard.  I worked harder that week than I ever have – physically, at least.  It was hot.  The gym was stuffy and once a day someone would get the brilliant idea to turn off the fans so we could hear the mestres speak.  Personally, I’d rather not die of heatstroke and just plan on reading body language and hand signals, but no one asked me.  But gosh…it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  Amazing people from all over, all working hard together, all encouraging, all with a sincere desire to improve…completely committed to this crazy sport and to the people who practice it.  It was inspiring.  The mestres were incredible, not only to watch play, but to play against…talk about a challenge.  Yet I always had a smile on my face in the roda because I was falling more and more in love with capoeira…with the mandinga – the malice or clever trickiness with which capoeira is played.

We’re also blessed with incredibly friendly, easy-to-talk-to mestres.  This was particularly important to me as a non-Portuguese speaker.  Everything was done in Portuguese, so I had to rely on my Spanish knowledge to interpret what I could from what they said.  It took a lot of work, and plenty of interpretation help from friends, but throughout the week I picked up a lot.  Eric, however, was less than pleased when I came home speaking a few phrases in yet ANOTHER new language.  He’s finally warming up to Spanish…I don’t think I’ll push it with Portuguese just yet.  I do, however, want to continue learning on my own, as it’s so important to capoeiristas.

Getting to the next level in capoeira is not just about the physical aspects of the sport.  You must also learn to play all the instruments, sing in Portuguese (eventually leading the songs for everyone…eek!), learn history, learn the language, and work diligently within your school.  As you move to the higher levels, you are depended upon to help teach classes, work with lower level students, work with the kids’ classes, etc.  It’s really easy to come up with capoeira-related tasks/events for every day of the week.  This isn’t a sport that you really want to pick up casually…or at least I don’t.  I’m in, and I love it.  I want to stay in, although I’m nervous about how that will look once we move back to the States after having it be my whole world here.

With that, some photos.  First, a few of our special guests and teachers, Mestre Barriga, Contra Mestre (CM) Ivan, and Contra Mestre Rodrigo.

CM Ivan
Árabe, Paola, George y CM Rodrigo at the rooftop pool at Jessie’s apartment.
CM Ivan in Casco Viejo.
Mestre Barriga
CM Ivan, Mestre Barriga, CM Rodrigo llegando a Panamá
CM Rodrigo in his signature pose. I don’t know where it originated, but most photos throughout the week featured someone in this pose. Oh, and that’s Jhonnatan with him. Nickname: Por que…b/c he asks a lot of questions.
Mono y Contra Mestre (CM) Ivan
CM Rodrigo
CM Ivan and CM Rodrigo
Jessie and the mestres – serious as always!
CM Ivan in Casco Viejo. I love this shot! Not mine…

Hanging out throughout the week before and the week of the event:

When you put a capoeirista in a pretty setting, you can guarantee that theyll end up upside-down and asking you to take a picture of them
Jessie! My sweet gringa friend.
Our gorgeous view!
The guys watching the girls do a little samba on Árabes birthday. Not obvious at all there, boys.
Mono has gotten to be a really good buddy to me. A great coach, an encourager, and a dear friend.
Hanging out with Árabe in our cool shades.
Profesor Apaxe from Colombia. He’s the one who I played against on stage on the last day in order to get my green cord. He also awarded me my cord. Great salsa dancer too!

Kids’ class, random practice photos:

Red light, green light, but with a mestre. Fun!
The guys practicing the Puxada de Rede (roughly, the pulling of the net…a classic Brazilian dance).
CM Rodrigo leading the kids’ class on the final day of the batizado. They had a blast with him!
Daughters of two friends (Auri’s daughter Vicky and Lourdes’s daughter Sara)
CM Rodrigo helping a little girl to do a cartwheel or au.
The roda is a little different when you have a giant man playing against a tiny little girl. Hilarious. So sweet.
Some of the kids have some serious talent!
Auri’s daughter Vicky trying to push CM Ivan down. Not technically a thing in capoeira, but gosh it was amazing to see how he could stay in his handstand while she shoved him! Hilarious too.
Prof. Apaxe spinning on his head because, well, he can.
Flying!
After the kids’ class.
All the kids under CM Rodrigo’s influence…for better or worse!

Okay, I still haven’t gotten to the final show, but I think I’ll leave that for another day.  Thanks to everyone who’s asked about the event!

We’re flying to Madrid tomorrow night.  We’ll go through Tangier (Morocco), spend Christmas in Salamanca, visit a friend in Barcelona for a few days, then head back to Madrid to fly back to Panamá.  We get back here on Dec. 30…then Eric heads to Raleigh from Dec. 31 – Jan. 9th!  Whew!  Busy!

 

Batizado Day 2

Today was hard, but satisfying.  After the fact, you know?  It’s not like I was sweating it out in this sweltering gym and thinking the whole time about how wonderful it was to be pushing myself this hard.  No, a lot of the time I just thought about how it’d be embarrassing to puke.

So you get a better idea of how this works, there are probably 20-25 of us from Panamá, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, and as of tomorrow, Miami.  There is one mestre – Mestre Barriga.  His name pretty much means Belly.  In case I haven’t touched on this before, everyone in capoeira has an apellido, a nickname.  Sometimes you get it when you do something stupid and people call you out on it, sometimes it has to do with how you look, like one friend who is named Irmão, or brother, because he looks a lot like our contra mestre.  Sometimes it has to do with your style of play.  My gringa friend Jessie was really good at Kung Fu before she started capoeira and she’s super smooth and quick, so they call her Ninja.  I’ll get my name at the end of this week!  Can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with for me!  I think I’m the only one without an apellido at the batizado…so I’m ready for it.

Here you can see my friend Árabe (left), CM Rodrigo (middle), and Mestre Barriga (right) at the Canal yesterday.  Of course, they played a little capoeira too while they were there, but my favorite of the photos they sent around was this one:

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Jogando capoeira at the Canal:

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So back to Day Two.  It’s just amazing how hot and suffocating the air is inside the gym.  There are some fans, but unless you’re standing right in front of them, they don’t do much.  My goal is usually to position myself in front of one when we start a class.  By dinnertime I was feeling pretty rough…mostly nauseous from the heat and exertion.  I made myself eat though, and laid down on the floor for 20 min or so.  I still wasn’t great for the rest of the day, but I made it.

After dinner, one of the things that we practiced are martelos.  Martelo literally means “hammer,” and according to wiki is defined generally as a kick with the instep with the most common target being the head.  CM Ivan decided that we needed to work on taking kicks, this time to the upper arm.  So…we paired up and began kicking the mess out of each other.  Not comfortable.  I worked with one of my Brazilian friends, Thaisa, which in hindsight may not have been the best choice.  The girl doesn’t mess around.  I definitely got some practice in.  I can take a hard kick.  And I have the giant bruise to show it.  I named it Thaisa.

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The most impressive duo during this exercise was definitely Mono and our German friend Noel.  You could hear their kicks land throughout the gym, over all the other kicks and talking and groaning.  Within 5 minutes of finishing the exercise, Noel’s arm was purple.  Mono posted this photo of his own shoulder last night.

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Continuing with injuries, I’ll give you the rest of the rundown.  Remember how I broke off a piece of bone in my finger a couple of months ago?  Well, I reinjured it yesterday.  Who knows if the piece broke off again or if it’s just jammed or what, but it’s swollen and I can’t get my rings on again.  Fun.

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I also managed to land on my kneecap pretty hard on Night One of the event.  I didn’t feel it much then because I was in the roda and playing against a guy who must be 6’6″…adrenaline kinda takes over…but the next morning I had some intense pain whenever I put any weight on it or touched it.  I knocked it a little yesterday and that didn’t help.  I can still walk fine and move it pretty well though, so…onward!  Funny thing about all these injuries – they’re ALWAYS on the left side.  Never fails.

Oh, and I think I got lied to by one of the contra mestres last night!  I had heard throughout the year that there is a certain toque, a certain rhythm, that you’re supposed to play on the berimbau if someone dies in the roda.  Of course, this dates back to when capoeira was used in serious combat, so you don’t get a lot of that these days.  I think there would be more CPR and 911 calling these days.  But anyway, the actual toque seems to be shrouded in a bit of mystery.  I asked CM Rodrigo about it yesterday and was surprised and excited when he was happy to share it with me.  I videoed it and shared it with a few others, thrilled that I had cracked into this secret world.  NOPE!  Turns out he showed me a fairly standard toque, but not one that I’m used to, so I didn’t know the difference.  Dang it!  The quest continues…

A few pics from the day:

I’m excited because Instrutora Rebelde, a woman from Miami, arrived early this morning.  I can’t wait to meet her after hearing about her all year.  Plus, she’ll be the one and only female instructor in the crowd.  She has quite a reputation, so I’m excited to see her in action!

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So if you’re reading this today or tomorrow, say a prayer for endurance, proper nutrition and hydration, and no puking.  Halfway there.

In closing, Summer is adorable and ready for Christmas!