September 2006

let me explain:

the first day we (me and my brother michael) set foot into the class, we were greeted by a sweet brazilian girl who made us feel so welcome. she asked our names, ages, where we were from and made us feel ok about not know anything about capoeira. (she also pointed out all the americans in the class, just so we would feel even more at home).

one day we had to all fight in a circle and i was really nervous! two boys came over and encouraged me to go in. when i told them i was scared, they said i shouldn’t worry about anything.

soon after, the intructors became very familiar with us. they saw that we were trying to learn portuguese and would talk with us, asking how our weekends were, etc. they even gave us nicknames after we had been there only two weeks! (i’m andorinha and michael is bem ti-vi)

we met some american exchange students, who invited us to the movies and to the beach with them and all sorts of things. (actually, we never went anywhere with them because we hardly know them [don’t worry mom :)])

and today… today i had to fight in the circle. the moment i went in the orchestra started playing my song! (voa voa voa andorinha) It was so wonderful!

but it was the conversation i had after class that convinced me that my capoeira class is a church: me and michael were talking to one of the intructors, telling him we want to get really, really good, and michael said he would only be here for 6 months. then i told him i would be here for one year, all alone and he countered that with, “não, isso e sua familia” as he pointed to the capoeira school.

this is my family.

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on other news: i walked seven hours today! i got up at 7:30 am, went to my capoeira school to learn how to make and play a berimbau at 9:00 am, the class ended at about 12:00 pm and i walked with michael and two friends of ours (nicole and chiara- we learn so much portuguese from them because they don’t speak english). we walked to the mall to eat, then aaaaallll the way to the beach, then around and about. at about 5:00 pm, we walked back to the capoeira school (all steeply uphill) and made it at about 7:00 pm. wow.

and now i want to sleep for about a day and a half.

hey everyone!

check out my cousin Mariah: www.myspace.com/theglareofrockets

she is absolutely amazing!

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i seriously can’t wait to show you the pictures i have of brazil. they’re amazing. i’m going to try and take some video of my capoeira class. that’d be super amazing! i can introduce you all to my friends and intructors, show you the torture they make us go through- sometimes they all samba at the end!

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all of my hair is dark brown. it just is. but this morning i found a curl that was gold. seriously, like gold gold- i’m looking at it right now. so i think my hair is bored with itself and wants to change. maybe in a week or so, i’ll have hair the color of gold… cool, but not cool. i kind of like dark, soulful hair. Ah! maybe my hair just wants a few gold hi lights! i don’t mind that…

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i just watched the sound of music. what an amazing movie!

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alright, well… www.myspace.com/theglareofrockets. check it out y’all, seriously. she’s amazing!

i love you so much.

you are such a special person. and now you’re 12! enjoy this last year of not being a teenager (not that those years aren’t enjoyable too).

i hope you’re having a great time in Montreal you crazy cirque du soleil bug catcher boy. Brazil is singing happy birthday to you.

your sister,

erica

YAY YAY YAY!!!!

i finally got a capoeira nickname!! first, allow me to briefly explain the history: when capoeira was illegal in Brazil, people still did it underground. they had special songs to alert the capoeiristas when the police were coming and they had nicknames to make it harder for the police to find them. now, it’s just a fun tradition. that being said, my capoeira apelido is Andorinha! in english it’s that small and swift bird called a swallow. i love my nickname!!!!

oh, and here is the Brazilian version of David and Goliath (actually, i just made it up): David and Goliath were two capoeiristas who liked to fight together. David did capoeira and Goliath played the berimbau. one day, Goliath accidentally dropped the stone that he used to play the berimbau and David got so angry that he threw it at him and killed him!

anyways… my moms cousin flew in from recife today. she’s really nice. and tomorrow i’m going to pelorinho!

oh hello again!

i feel like a migrating bird… no winter this year… i moved from summer in california to more summer in brazil. it’s going to be very strange having christmas in the summer. but now i know what it feels like to be a bird! (poor things, they don’t know what they’re missing!)

yes, yes, i am now in brazil. this miraculous place! i think God had a bit of fun when he was creating brazilians- you can see many, many dark skinned people with bright blue eyes and blonde curly hair! it’s quite a treat. people here are so beautiful, i can hardly stand it. it’s a hard thing to be driving and have poor children asking for money. sometimes i look at the houses that are almost uninhabitable and see people inhabiting them. what choice do they have? but it’s those very house and those very people that make this place so beautiful. my grandmother says there are two worlds in brazil, the world in the mall and the world on the street.

portuguese seems like a kids language to me and i’ve often wondered why. i think it’s because the majority of my portuguese experience was when i was younger and i watched brazilian cartoons. only kids spoke portuguese in the cartoons so it’s seems like a kids language. it so beautiful though. so, so beautiful

i started capoeira a week ago. i’ve already made a few friends: a german girl named nina, who works at the brazilian culture center as a german teacher (yeah, i’m not too sure how that worked out), a brazilian named prisilla- she is so friendly! and an absolutely beautiful american girl whose family is all from spain. i forgot her name, but her capoeira nickname (apelido) is ‘princesa’, she won a contest with her school and got a grant to go to brazil and study females who do capoeira. i love capoeira! i love it soooo much! there are two types of capoeira: capoeira angola (more dance-like, slower, AMAZING. i want to learn it so badly) and capoeira regional (the fast, crazy one you see everywhere).

i really want to excel in capoeira. i want to be the best beginer of them all and then i want to impress and test the advanced people. i’m always jealous when an intructor is more pleased with another student! my heart flares up when i see their proud nods and smiles to each other! i hope it’s not wrong… God is jealous in a similar way! i think i understand him just a bit more now.

i think genius can be felt. it’s like a hundred million ideas coming at you at the same time, but instead of being overwhelmed you can embrace it and you want to spend time on each idea. the ideas don’t slip from your mind, they stay there waiting patiently to be turned over, around, upside down and backwards. i can never sleep if my mind is cleared. i always have to have something floating around in there, whether it’s a memory from the day or a daydream or a song. once i have things in my mind, i can sleep. isn’t that weird? don’t people normally have to have a clear mind to sleep?

well, no pictures yet… but they will come soon i hope. so, until next time! you all are really, truly lovely people

oh, and mom, i like frogs