Natasha Baker!

I'm so excited to tell you: I just came back from a capoeira class in Martinique! I went to the martial arts school in Sainte-Marie, the town a few kilometers north of where I am. It's hard work! I was definitely sweating profusely by the end. (Although here in Martinique, it seems like pretty much everything you do makes you sweat profusely.)

Also, one of my CM2 (approximately French fifth grade) students was there. He had come with his mom, who participated, but he mostly just sat and watched and read his picture books. I went up to him at the end and asked if he remembered me from class. He said he did. It was kind of adorable.

Anyway. I had a lot of fun; everyone was extremely nice and it really is a very cool sport. However, it's rather expensive to join so I don't know if I'll go back again soon. But I was thinking of you the whole time, Natasha Baker! And I enjoyed the small glimpse into this very fascinating culture you love so much!

La Capoeira et Les Manifestations

Just fyi,

Today all throughout France lycéens (high school students) took the streets in protests against the proposal to raise the retirement age to 67. There was one at my school, too, one that would make UC Berkeley very proud...

On another note, I went to a capoeira class tonight. God, it is incredible how just being back in that environment can bring such a sense of calm and relief so quickly. It felt wonderful to be back in my element...although I miss my Boston roda and the class wasn't super dynamic. One of my students was there, though, kinda cool.

The capoeira class was located as most capoeira schools are: in a run-down building, far from the town center. It was a bit of an adventure to find it, as the building is not labeled and is not in the best part of Brive. I remember telling some of my students I was going there to take capoeira classes and they were dismissive because it wasn't a good neighborhood supposedly. It's fine, really. It's just less wealthy than the areas my students probably come from. There were several HLMs (low-income housing units) around it and everything just looked more run-down. We practiced inside of what looked like a school gym. But hey, that's life, and when capoeira is done right, it doesn't matter where you are. After all, capoeira was born on plantations and transferred to the streets...it wouldn't be quite right to practice in a fancy space.

Anyway, Brive is lovely, my readers.

J'aime Limoges - et la Capoeira!

So, because I was done with class around noon on Tuesday and didn't have work until Thursday, I decided to take a mini mid-week vacation to Limoges. In about 24-hour I accomplished all of the following and had an absolute blast:

Saw some of the American assistants I met last week at our meeting and had a great time with them.

Bought some amazing chocolate from "L'Atelier du Chocolat Bayonne" - I got one called Ibarritz. I highly recommend it.

Went to a Brazilian samba/forró/axé class AND a capoeira class. It's shameful that I have never taken a Brazilian dance class before, considering that I am half-Brazilian, a Brazilian citizen actually, and my family comes from the region of Brazil which made forró music famous. And to think that the point in my life where circumstances were just right in order to make up for this conspicuous gap in my cultural upbringing was in Limoges, the littlest big city of France. The other American assistants came with me and it was one of my best memories yet.

I learned (finally) the basic steps of samba and most importantly, I was reminded of that truth about never judging people by their appearances. The class was (obviously) mostly French women (and one guy for the dance class, several for capoeira) and they had all been there longer than me. Some random French lady knows how to samba better than me! It is an amazing blessing that globalization has provided - that we can taste and sample from the rich well of cultural diversity and gain a sense of empowerment by doing something different.

And capoeira was just wonderful. It was a beginner's class, but having been away from the roda all summer, I'm glad it was only that. And God, que saudade! The first song we sang in the roda was "Roda Maravilhosa," you know:

Bem-te-vi vôou, vôou
Bem-te-vi vôou, vôou
Deixa voar
Lá lauê lauê lauê lauê
Lá lauê lauê lauê lauê
Que som o que arte é essa
de luta e brincadeira
Que roda maravilhosa é essa
é o Batuque Capoeira
Em cada som, em cada toque
em cada ginga, tem um estilo de jogo
Em cada som, em cada toque
em cada ginga, tem um estilo de jogo
Lauê lauê lá...
Lá lauê lauê lauê lauê

It made me miss BCBC's capoeira family so much and our part in the Mandingueiros dos Palmares capoeira family...if you guys are out there, know that I am going to do my best to keep it up here. I found out that there are classes offered in my city once a week on Thursday nights. Hopefully I can make that a regular thing.

Anyway, after class we went out for dinner, which, at 10pm on a Tuesday night, is very hard to do in Limoges, but we found this great little French fast food type place and since one of the other assistants was also from California like me, we were quite amused by the fact that "California Girls" was playing when we walked in.

Today I went shoe shopping because apparently Limoges is quite famous for its shoes and well, I'm quite happy with my purchases. As well as the eclair I ate while wandering around downtown...it was very much a moment of bliss.

Later, one of the assistants met up with me and we walked into a chocolate shop simply to look around. The lady working there asked us if we wanted a sample of a chocolate-covered raisin. We both said yes because hey, it's free chocolate. Once we'd eaten it though, we quickly came to the conclusion that this was the best chocolate-covered raisin we'd ever had, no joke. No Raisinet crap.

Took care of some paperwork for the "mutuelle," which is supplementary health insurance. Standard health insurance is part of my program and a sum is deducted from each month's salary to cover it. However, the mutuelle sounds like a pretty wonderful deal because for 105 euros for the year, you're essentially covered for all situations, and covers dental and eye care, which the basic health insurance plan doesn't.

Did I mention our wonderful lunch of lentil soup, baguette, goat cheese, grapes, and raspberry champagne? One of the beauties of French cuisine is that even the cheap stuff (like the Carrefour brand goat cheese) is of such high quality because the French are extremely protectionist (so it seems) of their food. The high standards definitely show through.

We also did a little grocery shopping at Lider Price, a discount grocery store. Again, great prices, great quality.

I am back in my place tonight, but must say that I am a huge fan of Limoges. It is a very underestimated city.