Last few weeks...

I'm down to my last few weeks here in Brasil and on Monday my mum and her husband just arrived and now we're in the middle of a holiday/tour through Foz do Iguaçu, Bonito, Cuiabá and the Pantanal.

While it's awesome to see my mum again and more of Brasil I'm kind of sad that I'm missing out on training and keep thinking of all the things I could be working on improving and learning before I leave.
The last week back in Rio will be HECTIC because I'm going to be trying to train as much as possible, while playing tourist guide and doing all my favourite "Brasilian" things (mainly eating and beach time) before I leave.

Anyways Foz do Iguaçu is truly amazing and worth seeing. I heard before people saying the Argentinian side is better but to do both sides if you have time. After having done both I have to say that BOTH sides are great! I might be biased but I think I like the Brasilian side just a little bit more. You can see a great panorama view of the falls as well as get up and close like on the Argentinian side. This afternoon we got a 10+hr bus ride to Bonito to look forward to, then more tours in fresh water rivers, lakes etc then the Pantanal. I'll do another post with pics and stuff once I have the time.


São Sebastian
Last Wednesday it was a holiday (for Saint Sebastian the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro... according to wiki). There's always a holiday for something and half the people can't even remember what they're for there are so many. There was an open mat session at the gym at 10:30am and after it seemed a perfect day to go to the beach, which is exactly what we did. Nothing better than having a lazy day at the beach. Sitting out in the sun and when you feel like it taking a swim in the water to cool off.

Anyways here are some pics from that day:

A packed beach on a public holiday...


Praia do Pepê at the end of the day...



A nice pic of Scoobie...



A nice pic of Jeff...


Hope everyone is making a great start to 2010, I know I am and I hope the rest of the year goes just as well. I got a good feeling it will :)

A good week...

Blue Belt...
Yup to start off with the first big news; I just got my blue belt on Monday.

Gordo gave it to me in front of the class and obviously I was quite happy. It was the end of the evening class and he was giving the customary closing speech, in Portugues of course, so naturally I was tuned out but heard “faixa… blah blah… he doesn’t speak much portugues… Pacquiao (what everyone's been calling me here)”

The best part though was at the end of the class when we did the customary “shake everybody's hand” and I got to shake the hands with many of the people that have helped me along the way to achieve my blue belt. Even if I had only rolled with them once or they just gave me a few pointers on a certain technique, it was a real honour for me to get to look them in the eye and say "Obrigado."

After an afternoon session with Dennis


Me with Rommel, Dennis and Gordo



Private and guest appearance...
On Thursday I had a private in the afternoon with Gordo and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to cover but I mentioned "top game" and he seemed to go over some spots that I'd been having some trouble with. It was almost like he knew all the exact positions I wanted to cover. Private went good and once again I was shown more than enough things for me to work on let alone remember.

One funny thing was that a black dog randomly came into the gym and was jumping around happily all over the mats and even came up to us jumping all over trying to lick everybody. One happy dog that was. Eventually the owner came in and managed to get him off the mats and settled down.

After the private I was planning to just rest, but of course I wanted to try out some of the things I'd just been shown. So of course I stayed behind, and was glad that I did. Because while we were being shown the technique for the day, none other than Kyra Gracie rocked up to train. Needless to say I was pretty stoked/starstruck but did my best to look normal. I think I was just as starstruck seeing her than Vitor Belfort or Mario Sperry, but to be fair I wasn't 100% sure if it was Vitor or just a guy that looked like Vitor lol.

Unfortunately I didn't get to roll with her (and no... not in that way!). Which would of been cool because we're about the same size and weight I think, or to see her roll because I was busy rolling too (which was probably a good thing because I ate beans for lunch and had gas lol). But I did manage to get a really nice group photo after the class. I wanted to ask for an individual one but didn't want to be one of those "annoying fanboys" interrupting a conversation with friends asking for a pic, hopefully she shows up again so I can get one.

After the 6:30pm evening class



While it was cool to meet Kyra Gracie and more than awesome to finally receive my blue, I realise how much further I got to go in this game especially after rolling with high coloured belts and getting smashed as per usual. Like on Thursday morning when I got to roll with Antonio Braga Neto and the only way I could describe it was like “getting my ass kicked in slow motion” lol. He went REAL slow and light on me and I tried my best to remain relaxed and not spaz out (giving him my arms etc.) but he was still all over me like a wet blanket. Pretty much he was just waiting for me to make a mistake. Which I knew, he knew and I was trying my best not to, but to no avail.

When I look back and think of all the work that I've put in to get here, it makes me realise that there's a LOOOONG road ahead. But like they say "it's the journey and not the destination," and what a journey it has been so far!

A good night out...

You know how you have a group of friends that plan a night out, then everyone starts drinking a bit early and people get tired and it doesn't look like it's gonna be a good night, then everyone ends up going out anyways and it turns out to be pretty good?

Well last night was one of them nights. I'm not going to go into much detail but pretty much it was:
- bbq in afternoon for Tommy and Zoro (who are leaving to Singapore tomorrow).
- eating, drinking, swimming.
- going home to get ready to come out, meeting everyone and feeling no "going out" vibe.
- then forcing myself to drag my ass out and man up by drinking a Red Bull.
- waiting for ages for one group of mates to show up (while catching a power nap in between).
- eventually getting to the club and feeling good.
- getting crunk while watching the boys get crunk too.
- meet a girl. kiss a girl. get shit from mates for taking too long to make a move.
- watch a friend pass out and become the laughing stock of everyone.
- order food at a gas station (because they have cafe like places in there). wait ages for food then realise you have to give the receipt to them so they can make (WTF?! damn Brasilian food ordering service).
- get home 7:30am-ish. wake up 11:30am-ish. wtf!

Pictures coming soon... which will give you a better visualisation of the things going on yesterday.

BBQ / Pool party / sausage fest





Zoro and Tommy


Beginning of the night...


drinking. posing. dancing. Rio big gun show. more dancing.














Daybreak... 7:30am!!

Laptop died...

The other day my laptop screen decided to die on me. Hopefully it's just something with software but I don't know (I kind of rebooted it badly by pulling out the battery). Kind of devastated about it because now I got nothing to do at home. At least I still got the warranty and it's towards the end of my trip and not when I first arrived here. Still gotta get in contact with Apple though (that's right, I'm a Mac guy).

Obviously it'll make updating my blog a bit harder now, but I have some old posts saved that I haven't put up yet (on local things to see and do), so got those to fall back on. Sucks because I wanted to edit some videos and things, for the moment I could probably still make some videos but that will be basic without any titles or anything.

For now check out these photos, from In The Guard, of Rafael dos Anjos training for his fight in the UFC Fight Night. Can you spot the handsome Asian guy looking on in the background? lol

New Years Eve in Copacabana...

Gringo photo shoot before leaving the house to catch the bus to Copacabana. Most of us wearing the "traditional" white for New Years. Tommy later changed his shirt on the way to catch the bus.

Me rocking a R$10 hat I bought... I thought it looked cool anyways lol. They also had 2010 bandanas and glasses, the kind that Elton John would wear.

Having a beer while mixing it with the locals. If I had 1 real for every time myself or one of the other Asian gringos got called "Japa" or "Japonês" I could of had R$1000. It kind of got annoying because none of us are Japanese.

Pictures of pictures...

The crowd, imagine this but times 100x that's how crowded it was.. literally shoulder to shoulder with people

I don't know what's going on here, but I've also seen the dude with the whack Mr. T haircut at Maracanã stadium before.

Group shots before we all got split up...

Amongst the muck at the stroke of midnight...

The fireworks show was crazy, it literally went for about 20 minutes straight. Everytime I thought it was the "Grand finale" and that was the end a few more fireworks would shoot up and Boom! Boom! for another 5 minutes straight.

Crowded would be an understatement if I was to describe Copacabana beach that night. We got separated from the other guys (trying to walk to the toilets, literally it took us about 20-30mins to walk 50metres it was sooo crowded) and ended up right on the edge of the water with some of the waves coming in and splashing up to our shins. I don't even want to think of how many people pissed in that water. Kind of funny because alot of people were swimming in it as well haha. I can't even remember the countdown except that my portugues counting backwards sucks haha and unfortunately I wasn't next to any single ladies (unless you include 13year olds lol) during the countdown.

The fireworks show was awesome though. Wish I had of brought my digital camera instead of buying a disposable film one. But I was too paranoid of it getting stolen or something since there's a few favelas close by to Copacabana (lol @ stereotypes...).

Overall it was an event to experience. But I think next time if I'm in Brasil for New Years I'd rather stay in Barra or somewhere local. The huge crowds and LONG wait for the bus or for an unoccupied taxi really put me off, mainly the long wait for a bus/taxi part.

Plans for 2010
Well this year will definitely be about change and growth. When I get back home I'm going to have to find a job and will be moving to another city mid year with my family. I'll also look to keep up my jiu jitsu training (at a good level I hope) and perhaps have my first MMA fight, but I still feel the need to work more on my ground game. I'm kind of thinking just getting in there and having a go, not wasting time etc. because win or lose it's all an experience/lesson. But I want to be 100% confident going in. Either way I have a feeling this year will be a year that I really find myself and the direction I want to go in life, which I already know but it's kind of like that old Bruce Lee quote:

"Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do."