Meu primeiro batizado

I'm in Seattle right now waiting for the last night of my first batizado. For those who don't know, a batizado is a yearly event primarily in capoeira regional schools where the new students are initiated and other students are given their new cords after they've been tested by the profesor or mestre. They're usually huge events that take up a weekend or longer with workshops, fun, open rodas (games) by the ton and of course the troca de corda (changing of cords).

Here's a rundown of mine so far:
Friday: I show up right when we were supposed to start, but luckily everything was going a bit late so it was okay. I was nervous as hell because I've never trained with this group (I train with a small group in Spokane) and well, quite frankly it was intimidating. After meeting some of the people, Mestre came and and I met him.

Mestre led class for a while and when he spoke it was always profound. Look a bit down, there's a post with some of his words of wisdom.

We then split into two classes; higher cords and crua/crua and crua/azul and trained even more.

Then came the roda at the end. It is the largest roda I've ever been in and was flat out amazing. There is literally no way to explain the energy, the feel and the bond of that roda unless you've been in one.


Saturday:
Workshops all morning where we were pushed to our limits and beyond. I learned so much in those hours that I'm amazed at what I can do now. Yeah, it was that intense.

Then another open roda...mestre played against his son in an angola game. It was seriously the most awesome thing to watch. There were some other angola games, then we went to regional style for everyone. The energy was even higher this time around.

Tonight: the troca de corda and maybe another roda. I'm anxious but calm at the same time.
***Edit***
So I got there a little early and received my shirt. I was nervous as hell that they'd attempt to call me up to get a new corda, but they didn't yet. At the same time, I sort of wish they had to just test my skills and prove myself. Its hard to explain so I'm not even going to try, but yeah, its not a good or bad thing really.
There was a roda for the higher up students and that was also very fun to be in/near.

After that, Kelsey, Thomas and I went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant and not even a few minutes after we showed up, Mestre, Profesor Coquino and many of the other higher-ups came in the door. They all started singing and playing instruments while we were eating. The kicker: Prof. Coquinho came up to my table, sat down and talked to me for a few minutes. He's a man of very few words, so I'm very grateful for his gesture. I made sure to say good-bye to everyone at that table, and Mestre just looked at me and gave me a giant grin. It was a great close to the weekend.

Oh, my Portuguese is inteligible :) That is a good thing to know (I ordered in Portuguese at the restaurant).
***end edit now***

Tomorrow: I return to Spokane with new skills, knowledge, inspiration and hopefully a thing or two to share with my grupo.