Disconnect from the US and Learning How to Fight In Ecuador

Yesterday, you already saw my class schedule, I had Ju Jit Su today. After searching for my other 4 classes around the campus for 4 hours, it was time for my class. There were about 10 people in the class and 2 instructors. In the beginning, they had us say who we were and why we are taking the class. I said that I'm taking it because I wrestled before and it should be similar and fun. So after the 1.5 hour class, the 2 teachers asked if I wanted to spar with them.

What went on in my head: "let's see, my body is still adjusting to the altitude, I've never done Ju Jit Su before, they are the teachers so they are probably really good....of course I do!"

Thanks to years of wrestling and training by all those at Fox Valley, Martinez, and Waubonsie, I found myself on the mat with 2 other pros with the rest of the class just watching us in amazement. Don't get me wrong, I never made them tap, and they did make me tap a few times, but they didn't get it much! I was also doing some unique moves that I did in wrestling that I could tell they didn't see really before [Caldwell, you know when I straddle between people's legs then lift up their entire body so only their head is on the ground... yeah, they were confused by that]. I was proud. After the class, the main teacher told me that I need to help them with their take downs, so that should be fun in the coming weeks! The only thing I wasn't so thrilled with is that I will have to go to Quito to buy a $60-$70 kimono. I'll just treat it like my book expense for the class.

Later at night, I realized how disconnected I am from the US. This isn't necessarily a bad thing considering this is one of the reasons I decided to come to Ecuador instead of Europe. Europe is too much like the US and I hear too much about the US on the news there. Here, it's mostly Ecuadorian news and South American things. I'm actually going to start reading the daily newspaper to immerse myself more in the culture and better my Spanish vocab.

I say this because I was watching the news and they brought up the story about that CRAZY 22 year old (pretty fugly if I do say so myself) that killed the people who worked for the federal government. Then I heard Sarah Palin said after: "Don't retreat, instead RELOAD!" She has got to be the WORST politician alive. I bet that this fugly disgrace for a human being had a crush on her, saw her map of the people she wanted out of congress, and thought it'd be romantic. In my opinion, both need some major lessons about life (I'm keeping this PG rated) and I'm glad to be out of that mess. Then again, I'm saying that in a country that has had 9 presidents in the past 20 years.

Entonces, I'm looking forward to my first full day of classes tomorrow! Hopefully, my Spanish will improve that much more and I can learn to curse all politics in Spanish... business people are the ones who have the real power around the world any way. I'm going to stop this tangent.

¡Bien Venidos!

Michael