Curitiba & Capoeira

My rugby has been going good while i have been here it's opened up new opportunities and he as given me new friends whom are local brazilians, My rugby trip to Curitiba was awesome I got to hang out with my friends more and do things together that will keep friendships for life. On the way to Curitiba we had the bus encounter technical difficulties so we all had to wait it out until the mechanics arrived and they could find the problem then fix it but it the mean time I got a chance to use my video camera and capture the surrounding people, landscape and traffic. The bus eventually returned to working order and we continued on towards our destination, when we got there we had arrived with 3 teams ready to play, a womens team, an adults team, and our under 18's team. We unloaded and had lunch while the womens team went to prep for their game first. Next after the womens team were the adults team which showed the strength of our by taking the victory against Curiitiba then it was ours, by the time we played it was already dark. Our game was'nt the best as we had just enough to field a game of 10's rugby whilest the Curitiba team had subs on top of their 15's team so they had alot of fresh players at their disposal, at the end of the game we had been beaten but it made us more hungry for a win the next time we play as I seen the commitment in the next trainning sessions we held .It was late by the time we had something to eat and eventually leave Curitiba. Our bus did'nt arrive back till one o clock in the morning

and we had all had enough for the day.

Capoeira is the next sport I have just began to do, my first experience of brazilian capoeira was awsome and even better its free because the university where it is held is having a little project with capoeira by holding free lessons and giving those of us who stay free capoeira pants. I had done my first lesson and it was great, I tryed everything with all I got but it takes alot of concentration and co-ordination to even come close to how the instructer does the moves. It takes alot of finesse to do capoeira as it is a combo of dance and fighting, the moves are done really slow so we can learn them first before we can use them so we don't hurt ourselves and the beat is so diffirent but cultural and to my liking, the instruments used are the drum and the most important a intrument called the be-dim ba-ol(I don't know how to spell it but it sounds just like this when i say it), all these intruments are played whilst the group sing along with the constant rythm of the instruments.At the lesson I went to most of us were just starting the project as I met people who were on their second and first day.

Easter

Easter experience in Brazil was totally different to what im use to in N.Z. This holiday is celebrated here with the utmost importance like any other holiday.The school got to have a 4 day holiday by finishing school on a Thursday and it was fun having Easter eggs for a midnight snack before going to sleep. The celebrations I had with my family were great We hosted a lunch at our apartment where we exchanged eggs with some of my host mothers family on a saturday which was awsome and on Sunday we were hosted by my host fathers family at their home which was full of people, chocolate, food, and more chocolate. After the lunch my host fathers father, him and myself went to a football match hosted locally, our family supports a team called Avai and they are allways a good show when I go and whats more they seem to always seem to win when I go but thats just pure luck, they are one of the best if not best ranked team in this states football.The entire experience was all new and a learning experience of how different cultures and people make some holidays take major priority over others.School has been great i've recently cut my hair and it's totally out of the ordinary here it's a cut from my home in N.Z

and when I introduce my haircut to the class it causes a major stir, even though I might not understand fully my intuition feels so promissing that my peers enjoy that im different and for that accept me, well from my friends in class I think they do anyway just by the way they were excited to have a word or 2 with me, touching my hair, smiling from ear to ear, it was good. Rugby trainning is beginnning to be easier and easier as I have built a rythm and my rugby friens like too they all got something to say although it might not be good they just like fooling and having a good time which is what its all about.