Monday, September 27, 2004

Home sweet home....

Aaaahhhhh... Finally back home! I have to admit, although I love going out, travel around meeting new people, and all of that stuff there is nothing like coming back home. Just being back makes me feel better, I guess it's the 'gettin out of the box' feeling that refreshes you from the routine hassles of everyday life.

Anyhow the trip was a lotta fun. It's good to go out there and interact with other capoeirista, watching the different styles and flavors if you will of other people. Testing yourself and realizing that even though you might feel good about your game, there is always more room for improvement. Personally I think that my game is pretty good for my level, it needs a few corrections here and there but otherwise it's pretty damn good. Still now I think it's the best time to start training much harder and picking up the level of my game even more. Oh yes!!

Anyway I gotta get going, gotta have some food!!
Be back later...

Thursday, September 23, 2004

I knew it...

Man I knew that I wasn't gonna be logged on for just twenty minutes and go to sleep. I'd already been on for over an hour here doin' stuff. Oh well it's ok I gotta make up for the time that I'm not gonna be on this weekend (lame excuse) since I'm going to the Agua de Beber Batizado in Sac-town. =oD

Anyhow I almost forgot that today's a friends b-day, I gotta give her a call don't want ppl to get all mad and stuff right?? Although I haven't spoken to her in some time... But then again you gotta keep the good relationships going right?? hhhmmm... ok, ok I'll be a good friend and call her up. =o)

Speaking of b-day's my dad is turning one year older on Monday. I gotta make a mental note and remember to give him a call. I haven't been able to talk to him in some time, although for that matter I haven't been able to talk to anyone in my family for some time. I gotta give them a call, although I know already the type of conversation that we are gonna have... So focuse more in your future bla,bla,bla... Do something and get your act together bla,bla,bla... hehehe, it's ok though it kinda reminds me of the good old days. =o)

Ok, now it's for real I'm gonna go hit the bed and rest, FINALLY!!

Fatigue...

Oh yes, that's the word for today... actually it's more for the entire week. I haven't been able to catch a good night sleep in almost a week since there has been a lot of stuff going on lately. Last weekend it was because fo the excessive amount of partying plus the show which we had at Broadway Studios, then on Monday I had to take granny to the emergency room since she fell down and sprained her shoulder, thank God it was only a sprain a no broken bone. *whew!*

On Tuesday I went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow... hhhmmm it was ok, although I tought that it was gonna be better. Lately all the movies I've been to have really sucked... Still I am waiting for that one movie that's gonna save my belief in Hollywood...

Anyhow on Wednesday I went to train (finally!) after what seem to be an eternity of not training and decided to have a full workout (even thought I have my wrist injured). Althought I had a tough time with some of the floor movements I was able to do everything, but just to be safe I didn't play in the roda in the end and just played the berimbau. Then I went home and instead of just going to bed I decided to play around with my new toy... Bad decision I stayed up late again browsing around looking at my fortune as predicted by the Chinese Calendar, emailing ppl, and rippin' music...

Then today I woke up early to take granny to the doc for a follow up on her shoulder. Then I went with Formighina to the school where she is teaching capoeira, and after we were done we headed to Acrosports. Needless to say that I was just too tired to hang around there so I went down to Sarah G's crib to chill, have some Thai Ice Tea, and catch up on things. So after having something to eat we headed back to Acro to train and I just decided not to take class since I was too tired... So I just chill there until class was over and headed back home, and now I'm bloggin'... NNNOOOOOO!!! Again on the new toy... Arrggghhh!!!

But no I gotta be strong I won't be on for long tonight I gotta get some sleep, yeah sleep that sounds good... So I'm out catcha later!!


Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Cap, cap, capoeira...

Oh yeah today was another day filled with a lot of capoeira.

As it had been for the past two weeks today I had to teach at the Lycée Français La Pérouse, and as usual everything went fine. Mestre got me this little gig since he was not gonna be in the country this whole month, so he was kind enough to ask me to sub it for him. At first I really was scared since it was gonna be my first experience teaching, but you know as with any other things in life 'once you try it you get use to it' or something, hehe... Anyhow I had really liked the experience of teaching the kids and hopefully I will be able to continue doin' it in the future, I'm actually thinkin' of asking Mestre when he comes back if I can stay teaching that class until the school finishes the program, hopefully he'll agree we'll have to see what happends.

Anyhow that class went really well, I had the kids go over what we had done last week and apparently they all were paying attention 'cos they remembered all of it, well most of it. They only had trouble remembering a few minor details, but they were things everyone eventually gets. I wasn't trippin' about it, and so I moved on to having them pair up and work on a simple sequence in which one of the kids does a mea-lua de frente, and the other does cocorinha.

(*Now for those peeps not familiar with capoeira, a mea-lua de frente is a circular front kick, in which you kick from the outside to inside; and cocorinha is an escaping move in capoeira which consist basically in squatting down with both feet flat on the ground with one hand also flat on the floor and the other arm up covering you face*).

After having them do that I decided to round them up in a roda and show them the instruments that are used in the bateria, which include the berimbau, atabaque, pandeiro, agogo, and reco reco. The only bad thing was that since I wasn't planning on a music class today I didn't had all the instruments, only the berimbau, pandeiro, and agogo. So I had to make due with what I had and I got each of them to play the pandeiro and agogo while I played the berimbau, and since that seemed to work I got two volunteers to play the instruments while the rest clapped their hands. Then I moved on to teaching them two basic songs: o sim, o sim, o sim and paranae. Which they got fast and so I decided to have them play in the roda for a little bit having them do the sequence we had done earlier. I was so proud *sniff,sniff* it brought tears to my eyes, hehe!

I am so proud of the kids I have, all in all they are a good bunch and they make it easier on me since most of them seem to like capoeira. I got to admit that I am loving this experience!

A Quick Intro...

Well so I guess you found it, finally!!! Welcome to my little space on the web, my little time killing project. Ah yes the blog...

I guess I'll start by giving a small intro about myself. My name is Edgar Lopez, currently I'm 25 years old, and living in San Francisco, CA. Although I was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala my destiny lead me to this fabulous city in which I been living for almost two years and about four months.

During this time I've been most of the time taking care of my grandma which fell ill back in March of '02 of an Aorta Aneurysm which led to several other problems including the failure of one of her kidneys and her eventual need of dialysis. Now for those who might not know dialysis is a procedure by which the person gets plugged into a machine which sole purpose is to 'clean' the blood, getting rid of the toxins in the body.
Anyhow that was the main reason for my arrival here, and since I've been here I guess I can say that my life has taken a 'twist'. Meeting a lot of different people from all over the world, experiencing new things, getting into situations and dilemmas which I would have never imagine.

As for my current way of life, well it's pretty simple actually. For now I'm pretty much into Capoeira, which is a martial art whichs roots emerge from Brazil. I've been training it for about a year now with a group called Capoeira USA. Let's see what else??? Hmmmm, well for now I guess it's enough since it's pretty late and I'm just almost dying of sleep here, but don't worry I'll keep on putting more tomorrow I guess...

Later!

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

The begining of the end...

Well what can I say finally I have started my blog... The begining of the end... No more secret thoughts, or keepin' most of them quiet, finally a way to talk my mind away... or write it for that matter! Let's see how this will go.