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:

Jogando capoeira at the Canal:

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!