My First Offical Jiu Jitsu Lessons

The day after I moved here, someone in the plaza near my house handed me two 3-day passes to a nearby gym so my roommate, Cris, and I decided to try it out.

The first day, we went to a yoga class and the teacher can be perfectly summed up with the word douche. Never have I had such an arrogant, unhelpful teacher and especially in a yoga class. Normally, teachers are patient and help you gain confidence by encouraging you. This guy was the opposite...and he was a dick right from the start.

Before the class started, we started talking and I warned him (all in Portuguese, of course) that my Portuguese isn't perfect so that if he asked me to do something during the class and I didn't do it, he would know that it was because I hadn't understood the directions. His response: "You're in Brazil. You need to learn Portuguese." He said it as if I'd just said I hated the language or something. "Right." I told him, "That's why I'm in this country. I'm learning Portuguese but I'm not perfect because it takes time." Idiot.

He then proceeded to speak English to me the entire class. ?!?! I didn't want him to since I'm trying to learn Portuguese but he seemed to be enjoying it a lot and never let up. I am not even shitting you when I say that, at one point, he came over to where I was doing a balancing posture and sat down beside me, leaning on the floor with one arm. No joke, this is what I heard: "I, uh, compose music in English. Yeah, I have a jazz band and I play x and y instruments (I forget) and this guy over here (pointing) plays the flute in my band." He kept talking for a while and I smiled politely and said things like "wow" and "cool" that you say to a little kid telling you something about their new toy.

This conversation, mind you, took place during a little break he took from walking around the room and being a complete douche to everyone else in the room as well. He walked around with his chest puffed out and his hands clasped behind his back like a military officer and dished out rude comments about people's non-perfect yoga. At one point he asked Cris if she would rather be at home sleeping and he snorted out a pretentious little chuckle every time someone wobbled a little or fell out of a posture.

Disclaimer for anyone who hasn't done yoga: He is literally the only teacher (person, for that matter) I've ever encountered in yoga who is like this. All the other people I've ever done yoga with were amazing. Just don't take a class with this particular guy and you should be good to go.

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BUT that was only our first day at the gym. The second day, we decided to try a jiu jitsu class. I'd done a little bit of jiu jitsu with Nico (my old roommate who is a jiu jitsu master in Peru) before but not a whole lot since we focused more on self-defense than anything else.

I'll never forget the first time Nico and I did jiu jitsu because I had no idea what is was actually about before we started. I'd just decided that I wanted to train in some sort of martial arts fighting sport because they look like fun. Well, for those of you who are in the same boat as I was, I'll explain.

We threw a mattress in the middle of the room and Nico told me to lock our door (remember, we shared a room in a house where a 5-person family and 14 other dudes who trained at his gym lived). He said that if someone walked in that it would look bad. I told him that it'd look worse if we were in there with the door locked and to quit being dramatic and start teaching me jiu jitsu. "Fine," he said, and he laid down on his back on the mattress and said "come on." I stood there looking at him before I hesitantly started to crouch down and he impatiently grabbed my body with his two legs wrapped around my torso and pulled me down.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the normal position for jiu jitsu. Maybe you guys already knew this but I didn't. One of the goals is to get the opponent into this position so that you can control their entire body with just your legs. "Well damn!" I said, "Yeah, hang on...let me lock the door." It really would've looked bad had someone walked in.

So anyway, Cris and I went to a jiu jitsu lesson at this same gym and it was the opposite of what our yoga experience had been. No one at the yoga class had talked to us and the teacher had been a dick but, at the jiu jitsu class, no one was a pompous ass--literally everyone there was super nice to us.

It started with a warm-up which I liked because we did a lot of Insanity-type exercises. Then, for the main training, Cris and I went with two of the most advanced guys in the class so they could start to teach us some basics and the rest of the class learned other, more complicated moves on the other side of the room.

We basically spent the entire class in that main position I mentioned above. We had to control the other person with our legs, do one of the two maneuvers that we learned that night, flip the person over us and onto the floor and then land on top of them, sitting up. To them, it's just a sport, but to me it seemed like a mix of wrestling and some other stuff that I won't get into...which reminds me, these guys had incredible bodies and beautiful faces. Awkward. There was about to be a lot of nervous giggling on my part but they were all really professional and encouraging so they made it easy to learn.

I was picking up the moves and having way too much fun flipping these dudes onto the floor (like when I used to have such a blast boxing with Nico...I don't know why I enjoy these "violent" sports so much). The class ended with people partnering up and wrestling (I don't know if that's the right terminology for this particular sport...I'm still new) for a timed period. BOY is that a good workout! And it's freaking fun. It reminds me of back in the day when Brendan and I used to fight to the death over the tv remote and whatnot. Yes...good times.

The teacher and everyone in the class were really welcoming and told us to come back. ALSO, get this: the teacher dances. Wth?! He knows the dancing places that play kizomba around here where we live so, as soon as all the holiday festivities are over, it's ON.

I normally wouldn't pay money for a gym but I'm thinking about it now that I've taken one jiu jitsu class. There is literally no better country to learn in if I'm going to practice this sport so I feel like I should be taking advantage of my situation. YAY FOR NEW SPORTS!! :D

Cris and I have one free day left at this gym so I'll update again after!

The Brazilian Run-Around

After 4+ months of visa paperwork, headaches and "sorry, there's nothing I can do"s, I finally got my passport back and was able to come to Brazil where the bureaucratic mess continues. Once here, I had to register my visa which entailed making copies of every page of my passport, taking a third set of passport photos and fingerprints, filling out a bunch of paperwork online, printing the forms, taking them to a bank, paying the fees (another $100) and then making an appointment at the federal police office at the international airport and hour and a half (and two bus fares) away where I could register. That may sound easy, but when you're on foot and trying to find internet, a place to print and a place to make copies (all at different places), it's extremely time-consuming.

Amazingly, they accepted my registration the first day I went (that is the only time I've succeeded at something Brazilian-visa related on the first try). Am I done now? Not quite. I have to go back in 50 days to pick up my official ID or whatever it is. Then four months later I'll have to border-hop to come back in on my tourist visa if I want to stay. And should I choose to do that, I'll have to go back three months later to renew the visa to stay if I want to be here for the full year. Each of those simple steps will turn out to be nice and long.

Disclaimer: I realize that I have no right to complain because the visa process for people to come to the U.S. is much worse. Many people go through way more than that just to be denied. I'm just explaining in case people were wondering what it's like to get a visa here.

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The bureaucracy doesn't stop there, though. Everything in Brazil is such a lengthy process that it almost seems like a joke. I think I've commented before in my blogs about the insanely long lines at grocery stores and banks and whatnot. I need to put pictures in here at some point because it can be pretty incredible sometimes.

This past week, I found myself marveling at the process involved stopping in a rest-stop along the highway to pee.
1. Upon entering building, press a button in front of a turnstile.
2. Take little re-useable plastic ticket-thing (damn, I really should've taken pictures) with a number and barcode on it.
3. Turnstile then allows you to walk through.
(Every time you want to buy something, whether from the store shelves, the self-serve hot food bar or at the counter with fresh bread and whatnot, they scan the plastic ticket thing and you hang onto it until you leave. You have to participate in this entire process even if you're not buying anything.
4. You may then use the bathroom.
5. Wait in line as all the people who are actually buying food from the self-service bar get their tickets scanned.
6. Get your ticket scanned and proceed to the convenience store-like other half of the building.
7. Walk all the way to the far end of the building, around a bunch of empty tables, in order to make a U-turn and come back to the check-out.
8. Wait in line again with all of the people who are actually buying things.
9. Have your ticket scanned so they can see you don't owe any money.
10. Finally leave.

And don't think that it was just this one place. This kind of process is Brazil's specialty.

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That bureaucracy is something that everyone here deals with on a daily basis (part of what I attribute Brazilians' overall patience to, though I don't know if that's really the cause). Foreigners, though, have some extra issues to deal with as well. The other day, I stopped to buy some grapes from this guy that always sells fruit right around the corner from my house and right outside the bakery where my friend Clarice (the one from the YouTube channel I mentioned in the last blog) works. I asked him how much and I thought I heard him say "três" meaning three (which is super cheap...less than $1) so I handed him three reals. He looked at me and enunciated "dez!" meaning ten. I guessed I'd misheard. Ten seemed a little expensive but I already had the grapes in my hand and everything so I just went with it. I like to support local vendors when I can so it's alright if it's a little more expensive.

Then I walked into the bakery and started to tell Clarice and she freaked out. "Did you pay 10 reals for those?! He charges me five." She stormed right out to the guy and told him that she'd sent me to buy the grapes for her and she wanted her change back--the same amount he always gives her. He had sort of a dumbstruck look on his face the entire time they were talking and he eventually gave me two reals back but still had three more than he should've. Yes, yes. Just like in Peru (and everywhere else), there's a price for the general population and there's a special price for gringos.

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Last but not least, if I'm going to have the word "run" in the title of this post, I have to mention some serious hustling that I witnessed just two days ago (and not for the first time).

I was in the street waiting for a bus and suddenly a bunch of people were yelling and chasing after a guy who'd just robbed someone. He'd run out into traffic to make it difficult for people to chase him but some did anyway. There was a cop car with two cops standing outside of it and we all watched from across the street as the thief ran by them, literally within an arm's reach. We watched in amazement as the cops did absolutely nothing about it. They stood and watched, the thief got away and then life eventually went on again.

If you treat your poor people poorly enough (Brazil doesn't do sh*t to take care of its poorest citizens) and have the rich people parade around with their expensive bags, jewelry and iPhones, this seems to be a pretty much guaranteed daily situation. Then the cycle spins out of control...the rich people get more scared of the poor people, the poor people are even less taken care of and they end up in even more dire situations and having to find more ways to get money. Then, boy, do they end up extremely skilled in darting across four lanes of moving traffic!

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Brazil is certainly an interesting place. Like anywhere else in the world, it has it's pros and cons; it has things that go along with my personality and things that don't. But it's teaching me patience with all it's rules and processes (we all know that patience is not a natural strength of mine) and the visa shenanigans and gringo problems are well worth the opportunity to learn this beautiful language, try new sports, make amazing new friends, spend long days on these incredible beaches with mountains all around, and enjoy the crap out of my life. Brazil, go ahead and continue just as you are. I'm obsessed with you either way and I'll see if there's anything I can do to help you while I'm here.

My First Week Back In Rio!! 8D

Guys, I know I've said this before but it literally couldn't get any better.
When I got to Rio, I took a bus to Laranjeiras, where I used to live, and went to see my old family (my precious 82-year-old Dona Maria and the entire fight club--the 15ish MMA fighters). I hadn't even walked 20 steps away from the bus and I noticed someone walking next to me. I looked over and it was Bernard, one of the first friends I made when I first moved to Rio! (He was one of the guys I met on the beach when I was out running and we all ended up playing soccer, going out dancing and playing capoeira together.) It was such a coincidence running into him there because he's not from that area of the city but it was so awesome. He took one of my bags and walked me all the way to my house.

There, I finally got to chat with Dona Maria (one of the people I credit for helping me learn Portuguese the first time I was here) and some of the guys. They even cooked for me! They're the sweetest.

Then I headed out to check out some apartments. I had five lined up to see but I ended up liking the first one enough that I decided to stay so I moved in that night. I'm living with a small family (mom, dad & 6-year-old son) and they rent out the rest of the rooms to girls around my age who are here studying or working. Right from the start, these girls have been awesome. There are four of us who have gotten close (the other ones are nice but we're never home at the same time so I don't really know them) and we've been hanging out, going dancing, going to the beach and whatever when we can. They're all super sweet and have been really helpful since the very first night, when my roommate, Chris walked with me to the store to show me where it was. They're seriously awesome!! One of the other girls, Clarice, who is particularly hilarious, just moved away from her family for the first time because she wanted to travel and make a life of her own that didn't quite follow the norm. She reminds me a lot of me when I was younger and I'm kind of obsessed with her. She started her own YouTube channel when she moved here and she let me be in the last one! (My Portuguese is horrible but it was fun anyway!) Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqYd46W5-Fw

 The day after I got here, there was a Kizomba Congress (which I found through a friend of a friend that I stalked down on facebook once I saw the word "kizomba" in his profile picture) and I knew I had to go! Obviously, I had no one to go with so I went by myself. There was one other girl in there who wasn't either Brazilian or Angolan and became friends the instant we introduced ourselves. She's from Sweden and she's freaking AWESOME. We've been hanging out every day since, mostly living on the beach, and she's just as obsessed with dancing as I am so look out, Rio! Emilie and I are coming!

It gets better! I've just completed my first week of Portuguese classes and they've been incredible. They're really similar to the intensive Spanish courses I took in Mexico all those years ago and I'm loving it. There are eight students in my class and, including the teacher, we're from nine different countries (Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, Canada, Germany and, of course, Brazil and the U.S.). We're all different ages and from different backgrounds and professions, here learning Portuguese for a variety of reasons. All of our discussions have nine distinct perspectives and I love it! Pretty much everyone in the class already speaks English and Spanish (actually most of them speak like 5 or 6 languages...I'm trying very hard not to be jealous) but we do a pretty great job of speaking Portuguese when we're together on breaks and after the class.

That reminds me...after the class! Listen to this routine. Wake up, four hours studying this ridiculously beautiful language with a group of wonderful people, then a few of us always go for lunch (usually sushi), and then we head to the beach, meeting up with other friends a lot of the time. Afterwards, Emilie and I buy a liter of fresh coconut water each and head home together. Some days I go teach for a couple of hours afterwards (but not much right now since a lot of people are traveling) and other days I stick around to watch the sun set. Then I get home and hang out with all the awesome people in my house, speaking in Portuguese the entire time, telling stories and joking around. Seriously. I can't believe this is my life. I couldn't make it better if I tried.

Some particular highlights of the last few days:
1) We were assigned to teach something to the rest of the class at the end of last week (we were studying the imperative verb tense) so I taught my class how to read and write in Korean (just some basics since I only had like 10 minutes), all in Portuguese. It was awesome!
2) Two of my housemates & I went salsa dancing on Thursday and we were out til 6 a.m. There were some amazing dancers there and I got to dance with them a bunch! (I just need to get some non-flipflops for the next time I go...there was a lot of my shoes sticking to the floor and coming off...not ideal.)
3) Tonight my friend and I took a free Jiu Jitsu class (somebody handed me free 3-day passes the other day when my other housemate and I were walking through the main plaza over here and stumbled on a free zumba class that we decided to partake in) and it was awesome. Besides that, it turns out the teacher dances too and he had info for me on where I can find dancing around where I'm living now. Why is everything so perfect?!?

I have my first trip coming up soon so I'll keep everyone updated! :)

New York Thanksgiving

I'd always wondered what it was that people loved so much about New York but I've now realized it's the same thing we all loved about Seoul--it has everything you could possibly want, no matter who you are. Pretty much all I need to be happy in life is to be able to dance, go on adventures, hear (& speak) other languages and to spend time outside. I was able to do all those things in New York and it was great. I was super impressed by the Bachateame party at Cache and had a blast every time I went to dance at the Copacabana as well. There were some great dancers (no surprise there) and I loved every minute of it!

I also, obviously, had a blast staying with my Lizzy & Christian who graciously let me live with them for 5 weeks of the time that I spent in the U.S. 'What was the best part?' you may ask. It was most definitely the Puerto Rican Thanksgiving I got to attend!

Friends becoming family is one of the most beautiful phenomena in this life and Christian and Lizzy sharing their wonderful families with me has provided me with some of the best moments from the last few years. For Thanksgiving this year, Christian let me come to his family's house and it was incredible. Of course, there was that "You're family from the second you walk in the door" attitude that had his grandma, mom, aunts, uncles and cousins all making me feel right at home. Then there was the amazing food that his mom had cooked for us. And then, yes then, there was the salsa. Salsa music played in the background from the moment we walked in the door, all during our meal, and all the way until we left. After we finished eating, people broke out into dancing and it was beautiful. That joy, that passion, that beauty is something I want in my life every day. I'm thankful this year for too many things to count, but certainly for the wonderful people in my life, for music & dancing and for happiness. <3

Minimizing Stuff & Maximizing Experience

Probably the most productive thing I did while at my parents' house in Ohio was get rid stuff. I now have a plastic bin of clothes in their basement, two drawers of photos and paperwork and a shelf of scrapbooks I've made from my travels. Other than that, I have my 65-liter backpack here with me and that's all I own.

My old room last year,
before we left to backpack Peru
(Photo featuring Lizzy Turner)

My old room now (that shelf is all travel scrapbooks)

 All my life, I've heard those inspirational quotes about how money and material possessions aren't as valuable as we often act like they are--that they're not the part of this life people really care about once they reach the end of it. Hearing this advice though, I've simultaneously experienced all the marketing--the commercials, sales, coupons & so on everywhere I look. We all insist on buying the newest iPhones and an absurd amount of clothes and useless junk.

I know not everyone is the same but, from my experience, for me, those non-materialistic quotes definitely seem like the advice to follow. You know...

"If you don't have many possessions, then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself." ― Jose Mujica

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."

“No level of pleasure from any material possession compares to the feeling of unconditional happiness.” ― Edmond Mbiaka

I believe these things to be true but I don't just want to walk around saying them; I actually want to live them out.

Why have I come to really believe this way to bring greater happiness? Because I've had the average amount of stuff and now I have a lot less. The less I have, the happier I feel--the lighter and the freer I feel. If I want to move houses tomorrow, I can. If I want to switch countries tomorrow, I can. Nothing is tying me down anywhere. I feel better knowing that the things I used to have on shelves or in boxes that I wasn't using are being used by someone now. The 9 inches of hair that I just chopped off is going to someone who will make wonderful use of it, too. Everywhere I go, I have what I need and people share with me so I want to do the same.

I think normally it's hard for us to make those moves, though. People who have houses feel like they should fill them because that's just what you do. You generally buy the biggest (most comfortable) house you can afford for your family and then you fill it with stuff. It's normal. But I really wonder if that's causing unnecessary stress for people. It certainly causes unnecessary work for them and now I truly doubt that it makes anyone any happier. I think some people even feel somewhat trapped by the amount of stuff they have and yet it's hard to let go of it. Well here are a couple of tips, then...

Tips: For whatever reason, it always feels like you shouldn't get rid of things because you might use them later. I don't know why this is so deeply ingrained in us (maybe it comes from the time of our evolution when we had to stockpile a bunch of crap because it was such hard work to get it in the first place? I have no idea) but I have the urge to hang on to things, too. The goal is to let your logic take over instead of your feelings here. If you haven't worn a clothing article in over a year, donate it. Don't hold on to it just in case...give it to someone that will actually use it. If you have stuff that you don't actually use on a regular basis, give it away to someone who will.

One thing that taught me just how little I need was trying to fit everything I wanted into my backpack the first time. I spent a year traveling Peru and Brazil and felt like I had way too much stuff. When I went back to my parents' house this time then, I knew to get rid of almost everything I had that wouldn't fit in that bag. I did and it felt great! I'm in Brazil again now and I still know that I have more than I need. If you want to try to get rid of things (shirts, for example), decide on a small space to use for measurement and force yourself to get rid of whatever doesn't fit...it could be a backpack too or anything else!

Don't fill your house with stuff just because you have space and you can. Keep only what you really need and use. Trust me: the more you get rid of, the better you'll feel! (...and don't buy other stuff to replace what you get rid of! Just enjoy the freedom!)

Learning, Making Friends & Making The Most Of A Situation

The reason I have so much trouble not traveling is because I need to be learning at all times. It's a fine way to be since no matter how much I learn, I'll always have way more than actually possible on my to-learn list and I know how to keep this need-to-learn satisfied at all times, simply by living abroad.

Every moment of every day is filled with learning vocabulary in new languages, learning how to correctly and creatively put sentences together, learning how to better pronounce the sounds and pick up more of the native intonation, learning directions and how to get around in the new city/country, learning how to behave according to the culture I'm living in, learning new dances, sports and activities, learning to see from someone else's perspective, learning more about how the whole world works, learning how to make new foods, learning how to be creative, and the list goes on and on.

Being in the States for the past four months, I could've gotten bored out of my mind--not because the U.S. is a boring place, but simply because I've already spent more than 18 years in this country and the rate of learning here is much slower for me than it is when I'm in a new country. Four months was an unexpected amount of time for me to be here but I feel like I was able to make it pretty productive. In addition to getting to hang out in-person with some awesome people, I spent a lot of time taking four courses on Coursera.org and it was really a great experience (totally recommended to anyone who wants to learn for free!). I also found a whole bunch of books I wanted to read and came up with ideas for projects that I could start in the next year or so.

Of course, reading books, studying and imagining my future travel plans are not the same as actually going out into the world and doing. That kind of education cannot be replaced for me. For that reason, I can't feel entirely productive here but it was the best I could do and it was enough to keep my brain occupied.

Another great part of this trip was the little bit of moving around I got to do. Heading back and forth between Pennsylvania and New York a couple of times, I got to take the Greyhound and Megabus and I ended up meeting some really great people. On one of my trips, I met a mother and her daughter from India. The daughter was here studying abroad and her mom had come to visit. On another trip, I met an 18-year-old boy from Mexico who was backpacking through the U.S. on his own and I was really impressed by that. I certainly didn't have the balls to do that at age 18...or the brain to even come up with the idea. On my last trip here to New York, I met yet another 18ish-year-old Mexican boy studying abroad here and a beautiful girl, Nawal, from Syria, a medical student, who is now a good friend of mine.

It seems the next best thing to traveling is meeting travelers when I'm here, giving me the opportunity to be friendly to them just as everyone has been to me when I've been in other countries. It gives me the chance to reciprocate all the friendly smiles, the help with directions and communication, the creation of a warm, welcoming environment and the comfort and excitement of having a new friend to talk to. People have been amazing to me all over the world...much more so than I ever could've imagined based on what I grew up learning and hearing from the society around me.

Nawal and I talked pretty much the entire trip from Cleveland to New York and have been in touch since. I feel so lucky to meet such incredible people and it puts my heart at ease whenever a traveler in the U.S. tells me that they have been treated well by Americans (so far that has generally been the case). Anyone who reads this, whether you travel or not, continue being friendly to travelers. They're alone and happy to meet new, friendly people so they can share different perspectives, swap fun stories and make new friends. Life's an adventure for all of us and I want everyone's adventures to be as beautiful as mine have been!