I have not written an update in while (well a few days at least.) Alot has changed and gone on since my last post. So here goes:
1. We've had some new people move into the house and they taken over the part of the house i was initially staying in. They're 14 people from Ecuador living in that part of the house. They mainly keep to themselves and seem to have their own private bus service. They arrived last saturday - the day that Johnny and Nicky left. They ended up being really loud their first night here - they were up having some sort of dance party till at least 7am Saturday night/Sunday morning. Not very fun at all. They seem to have cooled down and are training but not sure where. someone said they are training at Gracie Barra or Minotauro's gym. Either way they are usually gone all day and come in during the evening make noise, go to sleep, then do it all again the next day. They will be here till the weekend then they will leave to go back home. Which is good because I will be able to move back to my little part of the house. right now there are 4 of us in one common room which leaves little "Alone Time." Long short - they can't leave soon enough.
2. The 3 English guys left - first it was Nick and Johnny on Saturday. Then Antony left early Monday morning. So the house is a bit more quiet then it was when I first arrived. They were all really great guys - I'm glad that I got the opportunity to meet all 3. Safe journey's to all of them.
3. The weekend was hell. I got not sleep Friday as the guys went out because Nick and Johnny were leaving. They came back at like 5am and Antony and Jordan ended up getting into a big time argument that almost came to fist-a-cuffs. so that keep me up Friday night. Then i had to wake up early because the large group from Ecuador were arriving that morning. Saturday was more of the same - Antony, Jordan, Fernando, Bas all got drunk then came back with some gals and loudness ensued. Of course once they settled down the Ecuadorians decided to have their dance party till 7 am. Needless to say it was a crappy weekend for sleep. I was pretty pissed off. I think anyone would be.
4. Training is going good but my age is showing as everyday it's like being run over by a trunk. I hope that i can keep this up and stay relatively injury free. I would be so upset if i got a major injury. right now my elbow are sore - sorta like a tennis elbow thing. We did some judo throws last night and that always does it for me.
5. I'm starting to find my way around the Barra (my part of Rio) and i've begun to explore and do some picture taking. There is alot of down time in between training in the morning and training in the evening. It's been kinda of chilly the past few days so the beach is outta the question. I do worry that I'll attract the wrong attention with my camera. But you know you have to take a chance on life and hope for the best - which is exactly my attitude.
6. I think I will try to do a private lesson with one of the black belts this week (Friday or Saturday) to help with my Guard passing. I do believe it will be Homeo (not sure of the spelling) that I'll have to talk with about doing a private session for guard passing as that is his forte; or so I've been told.
7. There is a really pretty gal that lives on our street and one of the guys that stays here - Ipar(not sure of the spelling but he is from Germany) said he's seen her around here before. So maybe, just maybe there is some hope to forget about that Blue Eyed Heartbreaker from Raymond Alberta. I hope so - I'd love to meet somone new.
8. So today I decided to go to the Barra Shopping Centre - which is the largest shopping centre in South America - Again i've been told this so I'd have to clarify this for sure. But it is huge - i only explored one floor because it was that big and after a morning training session I was super tired and did not want to do so much walking. I was told that it was very expensive there and that it was not worth buying anything there. Upon my visit to Barra Shopping this was confirmed. Everything is so over priced. For instance, i was looking at some Addidas shoes and they were R$68,00 but this 5 payments of R$68,00. Most people cannot afford to buy them outright so they have the option of paying for shoes in installments - that's hard to wrap my head around. That is life down here.
I wandered around then decided to head home and go to sleep so I could attempt to train tonight. I took some pictures of the mall - but got told that taking pictures is a no-no; which is strange because I was told it was okay to do so. Anyhow, the pictures are of some of the sights at Barra Shopping. After picture taking i made my way to the bus stop and waited for number 175 bus - lots of buses came and went and finally I noticed a bus approaching that had 175 on the front. So took my R$2,20 and got ready to board it. Payed my fare, grabbed a seat and prepared to get close to home so I could walk home and get some sleep. Well the plan took a big detour. I cannot say for sure where I ended up but all I know is that we hit some free way and went into a long tunnel. Once we exited the tunnel we passing by a Favala (those shanty towns that are off limits to anyone not from there.) So at this point I started to freak out a bit. I took out the map that Dennis gave me with the address for the house and took it to the money lady on the bus (you pay the lady and she give you change if you need it and she lets you in the turn stile. Anyhow, she said that i was on the wrong bus and that i would have to wait till they got to the central and I would have to find the bus to Barra da Tijuca.
So we got to central - which I assume is downtown. The lady pointed me in the direction of the buses I needed to check for the 175 Barra da Tijuca. Eventually I found the right bus, payed my fare and then sat on it for about an hour till i got to the main bus stop in Barra. Needless to say i was tired, hungry, and a bit shocked at my busing adventure. The only problem was that I did not take pictures because we passed some shady parts of town and I did not want to take the chance of being robbed, or worse.
on the upside i got to see the areas of Copacabana and Ilmpana - the places I was going to stay originally. Let me tell ya - I'm glad I did not as it is way, way, way too far from Barra. So despite the packed house - I'm glad Im here as I've met some cool house mates and they've all helped me find my bearings here in Brazil.
so that was my big adventure - Barra Shopping then the two hour, scenic route, bus ride.
I skipped training tonight as my arms were still killing me and I was dead tired from my days adventure. I will wake up early and get to the morning training and hopefully my arms are feeling better so i can Train twice tomorrow.
Well that is my little update for now - I hope that I don't take as long to update next time. I just got busy and did not have as much time to write.
take care and all the best to anyone who reads this.
A.
1. We've had some new people move into the house and they taken over the part of the house i was initially staying in. They're 14 people from Ecuador living in that part of the house. They mainly keep to themselves and seem to have their own private bus service. They arrived last saturday - the day that Johnny and Nicky left. They ended up being really loud their first night here - they were up having some sort of dance party till at least 7am Saturday night/Sunday morning. Not very fun at all. They seem to have cooled down and are training but not sure where. someone said they are training at Gracie Barra or Minotauro's gym. Either way they are usually gone all day and come in during the evening make noise, go to sleep, then do it all again the next day. They will be here till the weekend then they will leave to go back home. Which is good because I will be able to move back to my little part of the house. right now there are 4 of us in one common room which leaves little "Alone Time." Long short - they can't leave soon enough.
2. The 3 English guys left - first it was Nick and Johnny on Saturday. Then Antony left early Monday morning. So the house is a bit more quiet then it was when I first arrived. They were all really great guys - I'm glad that I got the opportunity to meet all 3. Safe journey's to all of them.
3. The weekend was hell. I got not sleep Friday as the guys went out because Nick and Johnny were leaving. They came back at like 5am and Antony and Jordan ended up getting into a big time argument that almost came to fist-a-cuffs. so that keep me up Friday night. Then i had to wake up early because the large group from Ecuador were arriving that morning. Saturday was more of the same - Antony, Jordan, Fernando, Bas all got drunk then came back with some gals and loudness ensued. Of course once they settled down the Ecuadorians decided to have their dance party till 7 am. Needless to say it was a crappy weekend for sleep. I was pretty pissed off. I think anyone would be.
4. Training is going good but my age is showing as everyday it's like being run over by a trunk. I hope that i can keep this up and stay relatively injury free. I would be so upset if i got a major injury. right now my elbow are sore - sorta like a tennis elbow thing. We did some judo throws last night and that always does it for me.
5. I'm starting to find my way around the Barra (my part of Rio) and i've begun to explore and do some picture taking. There is alot of down time in between training in the morning and training in the evening. It's been kinda of chilly the past few days so the beach is outta the question. I do worry that I'll attract the wrong attention with my camera. But you know you have to take a chance on life and hope for the best - which is exactly my attitude.
6. I think I will try to do a private lesson with one of the black belts this week (Friday or Saturday) to help with my Guard passing. I do believe it will be Homeo (not sure of the spelling) that I'll have to talk with about doing a private session for guard passing as that is his forte; or so I've been told.
7. There is a really pretty gal that lives on our street and one of the guys that stays here - Ipar(not sure of the spelling but he is from Germany) said he's seen her around here before. So maybe, just maybe there is some hope to forget about that Blue Eyed Heartbreaker from Raymond Alberta. I hope so - I'd love to meet somone new.
8. So today I decided to go to the Barra Shopping Centre - which is the largest shopping centre in South America - Again i've been told this so I'd have to clarify this for sure. But it is huge - i only explored one floor because it was that big and after a morning training session I was super tired and did not want to do so much walking. I was told that it was very expensive there and that it was not worth buying anything there. Upon my visit to Barra Shopping this was confirmed. Everything is so over priced. For instance, i was looking at some Addidas shoes and they were R$68,00 but this 5 payments of R$68,00. Most people cannot afford to buy them outright so they have the option of paying for shoes in installments - that's hard to wrap my head around. That is life down here.
I wandered around then decided to head home and go to sleep so I could attempt to train tonight. I took some pictures of the mall - but got told that taking pictures is a no-no; which is strange because I was told it was okay to do so. Anyhow, the pictures are of some of the sights at Barra Shopping. After picture taking i made my way to the bus stop and waited for number 175 bus - lots of buses came and went and finally I noticed a bus approaching that had 175 on the front. So took my R$2,20 and got ready to board it. Payed my fare, grabbed a seat and prepared to get close to home so I could walk home and get some sleep. Well the plan took a big detour. I cannot say for sure where I ended up but all I know is that we hit some free way and went into a long tunnel. Once we exited the tunnel we passing by a Favala (those shanty towns that are off limits to anyone not from there.) So at this point I started to freak out a bit. I took out the map that Dennis gave me with the address for the house and took it to the money lady on the bus (you pay the lady and she give you change if you need it and she lets you in the turn stile. Anyhow, she said that i was on the wrong bus and that i would have to wait till they got to the central and I would have to find the bus to Barra da Tijuca.
So we got to central - which I assume is downtown. The lady pointed me in the direction of the buses I needed to check for the 175 Barra da Tijuca. Eventually I found the right bus, payed my fare and then sat on it for about an hour till i got to the main bus stop in Barra. Needless to say i was tired, hungry, and a bit shocked at my busing adventure. The only problem was that I did not take pictures because we passed some shady parts of town and I did not want to take the chance of being robbed, or worse.
on the upside i got to see the areas of Copacabana and Ilmpana - the places I was going to stay originally. Let me tell ya - I'm glad I did not as it is way, way, way too far from Barra. So despite the packed house - I'm glad Im here as I've met some cool house mates and they've all helped me find my bearings here in Brazil.
so that was my big adventure - Barra Shopping then the two hour, scenic route, bus ride.
I skipped training tonight as my arms were still killing me and I was dead tired from my days adventure. I will wake up early and get to the morning training and hopefully my arms are feeling better so i can Train twice tomorrow.
Well that is my little update for now - I hope that I don't take as long to update next time. I just got busy and did not have as much time to write.
take care and all the best to anyone who reads this.
A.
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