quando meu mestre se foi, toda Bahia chorou, iaiá ioiô, iaiá ioiô, iaiá ioiô...
Missed 
this kid more then usual today. His pedagogy, I mean, of course. I would say I didn’t know how good I had it, but I did. I did know. I’m still learning, still loving it, but at this point, I feel like it’s almost in spite of Roberto. Today was one of those days when you realize how much you still suck, but without the feedback to put you on the road to sucking less. Trying to go a bit out of your comfort zone and - figuratively but also quite literally on more than one occasion today - slamming into the wall. And getting kicked in the head? Yeah, why not, that too.
Some of the other kids are pretty great, though, and there are steadily more and more better capoeiristas from other schools dropping by or moving to town, and I’m learning a lot from them. I’ve been playing for longer than the school has been around, which isn’t saying much, and while it’s nice to have a non-threatening environment being one of the more experienced ones in the group, it’s better to have a challenge. I met a new kid today who has been playing for three years in New York and wants to get a group of UMD people to practice regularly. Yay.
If you weren’t already convinced that I was crazy, I’ve also started forfeiting amazing, well paying, resume building, dream jobs working with South American Fulbright scholars in a study abroad/language teacher training programs (well just one such job) because it conflicts with my batizado, and I’m giving up my idea of applying to for a scholarship to study, of all things, Portuguese, next summer because it conflicts with going to Brazil with Sul da Bahia...
And, yes, I only write about capoeira anymore. But no one reads this anyway, so don’t even try to make me feel guilty about it.
I could write about orientation, too, for example, but all I would be able to say is that, especially after all this talk about teaching and a workshop on landing a job in academia, I am beyond confused about what I want out of life and not really sure what I am doing here.
Sometimes I think academia is a terrible idea, and other days I think being a professor wouldn’t be such a bad gig, but then I’m faced with the not insignificant dilemma of which field I would want to be a professor of...
SLA? Applied linguistics? Maybe. International education? Biochemical engineering? Medieval art history? I like the language education thing, but have absolutely no intention of getting a PhD in literature, which seems to be what is expected unless you find a weird school that lets you get away with applied linguistics. It’s also been a long time since I was particularly enthusiastic about Spanish, if I ever was. A part of me thinks I would love to be a Portuguese professor, though perhaps that is less than practical. The fifth most common language on the planet is always relegated to an afterthought in departments of Spanish and - did someone say we had another language in this department? - Portuguese. All the half-way interesting courses about Lusophonia are taught in English if at all, everywhere except Brown University (where I can maybe fantasize about being a grad student but never a professor...). That’s just like me, being attracted to things in part because they are off the beaten path and then getting annoyed when the entire world doesn’t appreciate them as much as I do. Ha. Plus, aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? I’ve spent a grand total of 45 days in Brazil and 30 in Portugal, so I can’t claim to know the culture very well yet, and I drew a blank on how to say “I’m just looking” when the woman at the Brazilian market yesterday offered her assistance. (I did, however, buy some amazingly passion fruity passion fruit tea, and if that isn’t enough to make you want to dedicate years of your life to Brazilian Portuguese, I don’t know what is.)
Also:
... and this one of Peninha just makes me laugh.
this kid more then usual today. His pedagogy, I mean, of course. I would say I didn’t know how good I had it, but I did. I did know. I’m still learning, still loving it, but at this point, I feel like it’s almost in spite of Roberto. Today was one of those days when you realize how much you still suck, but without the feedback to put you on the road to sucking less. Trying to go a bit out of your comfort zone and - figuratively but also quite literally on more than one occasion today - slamming into the wall. And getting kicked in the head? Yeah, why not, that too.
Some of the other kids are pretty great, though, and there are steadily more and more better capoeiristas from other schools dropping by or moving to town, and I’m learning a lot from them. I’ve been playing for longer than the school has been around, which isn’t saying much, and while it’s nice to have a non-threatening environment being one of the more experienced ones in the group, it’s better to have a challenge. I met a new kid today who has been playing for three years in New York and wants to get a group of UMD people to practice regularly. Yay.
If you weren’t already convinced that I was crazy, I’ve also started forfeiting amazing, well paying, resume building, dream jobs working with South American Fulbright scholars in a study abroad/language teacher training programs (well just one such job) because it conflicts with my batizado, and I’m giving up my idea of applying to for a scholarship to study, of all things, Portuguese, next summer because it conflicts with going to Brazil with Sul da Bahia...
And, yes, I only write about capoeira anymore. But no one reads this anyway, so don’t even try to make me feel guilty about it.
I could write about orientation, too, for example, but all I would be able to say is that, especially after all this talk about teaching and a workshop on landing a job in academia, I am beyond confused about what I want out of life and not really sure what I am doing here.
Sometimes I think academia is a terrible idea, and other days I think being a professor wouldn’t be such a bad gig, but then I’m faced with the not insignificant dilemma of which field I would want to be a professor of...
SLA? Applied linguistics? Maybe. International education? Biochemical engineering? Medieval art history? I like the language education thing, but have absolutely no intention of getting a PhD in literature, which seems to be what is expected unless you find a weird school that lets you get away with applied linguistics. It’s also been a long time since I was particularly enthusiastic about Spanish, if I ever was. A part of me thinks I would love to be a Portuguese professor, though perhaps that is less than practical. The fifth most common language on the planet is always relegated to an afterthought in departments of Spanish and - did someone say we had another language in this department? - Portuguese. All the half-way interesting courses about Lusophonia are taught in English if at all, everywhere except Brown University (where I can maybe fantasize about being a grad student but never a professor...). That’s just like me, being attracted to things in part because they are off the beaten path and then getting annoyed when the entire world doesn’t appreciate them as much as I do. Ha. Plus, aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? I’ve spent a grand total of 45 days in Brazil and 30 in Portugal, so I can’t claim to know the culture very well yet, and I drew a blank on how to say “I’m just looking” when the woman at the Brazilian market yesterday offered her assistance. (I did, however, buy some amazingly passion fruity passion fruit tea, and if that isn’t enough to make you want to dedicate years of your life to Brazilian Portuguese, I don’t know what is.)
Also:
Click to view... and this one of Peninha just makes me laugh.