my capoeira class is a church (or, rather, what church should be)

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.