Blue Belt

As I mentioned in my last post, tonight I had my test for blue belt. It was only in February that I tested for my last belt, purple. So not very long. What happened was that at the twelve hour class, Sensei Santilo gave me a test invite. My main instructor hadn't even seen me do my lastest form in completion. Which was why she hadn't given me the test invite. But at the twelve hour class Sensei Santilo saw me do it, and said I was ready. Which is an amazing honor.

The thing is though, the tests are rough. The twelve hour class was long. But testing is intense. Two and a half hours long. The thing is, you dont go there unless you know your stuff. So the testing is more a test of endurance, determination, and tenacity. It was the most challenging and intense night of my life.

At one point, when we were dong our defensive maneuvers, our instructor Mr. Dires did a take down. So I'm laying on the ground with him over me. He tells me get out of it. So I roll away. So then he kneels on me. And tells me to get out now. So I manage to roll away again. Mr. Dires though, doesn't give up. We subsequently grappled on the ground for about five minutes or more. Grappling is like wresting. The idea is to lock out the opponent, using a wrist log, arm bar, choke... that sort of thing. But I refused to get locked out. By the end I was absolutely exhausted. I finnaly gave up when he pulled out a club (padded and soft, just a practice one) and started hitting me with it lol. It was exhausting but fun. The other people there were excited for the break, me I was out of it for the next twenty minutes lol.

Anyways, it was rough, it was exhausting, it was fun and exhilarating. And now I am a blue belt. Which is exciting and cool. And now I get to learn a sword form :-p. So I'm excited. Though, i hope that the next testing will be longer than two months away.....

12 hour class

Well yesterday was a 12 hour karate class. From noon to midnight. I must say by the end of the night I was exhausted. My favorite part when we had already been there for eleven hours, they choose that time to do sparring.... But I digress. The whole thing was a lot of fun, and it was also a great learning experience. But my favorite part was that at the end of the 12 hours the head sensei of the karate school here, a third degree black belt, gave me a promotion paper. So that was awesome. To have the head karate instructor himself say that you are ready for the new belt is pretty cool I think. Anyways that means that next weekend though I will be testing for my blue belt.

I appologize for no pictures from last weekend. But I figured Sara more or less covered the trip pretty well.