brazil, capoeira, etc… (it’s so lovely here)

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