17 Juli - Good hard training

Capoeira was back to normal tonight and I didn't realize how much I missed it. When Mesquita (the guy from Brazil) was here, training seemed a little lighter. I got put in the girl box which means I trained with the other women and the kids. Honestly though, I like training with the guys because they train hard. Nothing against the women, of course, I just like pushing myself till it hurts and making sure that I will be good and sore tomorrow. Maybe a little masochistic, but so be it. Ricky and Predo, the usual teachers, don't typically pair me up with the other women and the kids. They don't make me do 20 backbends in a row either, so it's all relative. Just a different style of teaching, I guess.

Turns out my travel plans worked out for the best because JooJo, Mesquita's brother is coming next weekend and giving a workshop in Tubingen where the sister school is. JooJo's name is Joseph, but since that is not a typical Brazilian name, it is hard to pronounce, so they call him JooJo - funny. Ricki said he is really amazing at Capoeira. I missed the last workshop because I was in Amsterdam, but I like it when the schools get together and have a big Roda session and we all get to play. And, I've been wanting to check out Tubingen anyway. Should be fun.

It was pouring when class was over, so we stayed awhile chatting and hanging out while we hoped for the rain to settle down. We finally decided we should just go... we've gotten pretty used to getting soaked all the time anyway. Besides we were pretty hungry as we always are after class. I wanted something other than pizza tonight, so we checked out a few places on the way to the station. I have really been craving Mexican food, but haven't seen any such place. We settled on a Greek place just across from the station and by this time were dripping wet. The waiter didn't know any English at all, but we did ok with pointing. He brought me a shot of some horrible tasting liqueur that tasted like black licorice. I made such a face that the man at a nearby table burst out laughing and started talking to me in German. Said he wanted to buy me a different shot to warm me up and help dry me off. I just wanted to sink under the table. He ordered me what I think was some kind of vodka and I tried to explain that I just don't drink much and don't like shots. There were no non-meat main dishes on the menu so we ordered an assortment of appetizers. A plate of garlic feta, feta stuffed peppers, rice and feta, eggplant mush, and pita bread. We quickly turned from starving to feeling sick and ended up leaving most of it. Not sure if it was the amount of oil and cheese that everything seemed to smothered in or what.  The waiter brought me a cordial of some kind, but I didn't really like that either so he and the man gave up. Don't think we'll be going back there.