Capoeira

“It’s a dance that fights, it’s a fight that dances.” (or at least that is what is claimed on the brochure that I stole from the events board in the ATLAS building on campus)

Let me open up by saying that I have never seen a capoeira dance, but it is on my list of things to do. The reason I decided to open with it, is because the first hybrid of interests that I crave is culture. I learned so much about myself and the American way of life as I lived and traveled in Europe. My love for a culture different than my own  (which I’m not exposed to in Boulder) … ((as much as I love Boulder, we all know that it isn’t that diverse.)) will be sprinkled about sporadically as it affects my newly legal, Buffalo football game tailgate party attending, French musical producing, on the verge of independence claiming life.

I was told about the Capoeira dance from a Brazilian girl I met in Europe. I’m not going to lie, the girl was a tad bit strange,  but I was intrigued to learn of something that I knew nothing about: the Capoeira. This dance is a unique game that is dangerous and influences break dancing, hip hop, jazz, and more. It was one of many cultural weapons used to break the chains of slavery in Brazil.

I spent January through June of 2009 studying in a college town of about 140,000 (40,000 of which were students) titled, Aix-en-Provence. Below you will find a compilation of the emotions felt throughout that experience there.

1. The Bisous

“I am so awkward when I meet new people, who obviously give the kiss on both cheeks as the French way. And being an American I forget that and am nervous as it, so I constantly forget just making it more awkward.”

2. Madison

I began to integrate into the French College Student Way of Life.
“Tonight I just got back from a French Dance class located at the Engineering School on ‘Le Rock and Roll.’ So naturally we all were wondering what the hell this entailed- well in case you were wondering it is swing dancing! It is the craze in France right now and its just hilarious. They teach the basic easy steps and then you get into another big dance move, and I am completely lost when we’re swing dancing to Britney Spears. That brings me to another point, everywhere you go you hear the worst and tackiest American music. I’m talking like horrible, and by horrible, which is relative in music, however the Grease Soundtrack can not be heard more. We danced with the weirdo French boys the majority of the night and were ready to leave after our feet hurt from dancing our hearts out to “Go Grease Lightning” met some cute French boys at the end though. They started talking to us by asking if we knew the Madison. They said it like “MED-EE-SUN”. I was like no what it that? I thought that maybe they were referring to the French word for doctor, “medecin”, but then they started to do this dance. It turns out they were talking about this popular French dance that they think all of the American kids are doing. It is very 1970’s “hustle” like, kind of electric slide like and there are different versions- but everyone is doing it. They tried to teach us but we couldn’t get one part of it.

3. Study, Shmudy

“I am attending IEFEE. This is the institute of french studies for foreign students. All classes are IEFEE are taught in French. You are required to take a certain amount of Language per week (grammar, vocab, labs…) of either 12 hours or 10 and then you have to take 2-4 electives in addition that are taught once a week. The electives are more lecture styled. The language classes remind me of elementary school. We have one teacher for like 6 hours. We do lots of exercises and participate a lot. We don’t really have homework or like exams/papers though. (Maybe we do and I just haven’t been given a syllabus yet.) The French teaching style is obviously very different than the US and it is really interesting to see. If my French professor didn’t resemble Hugh Grant, I might be more upset. ( ; ”

4. And then I got a concussion in Belgium.

“So I woke up on sat. morning and went to the bathroom and was really faint and, well I fainted. I also passed out because I fainted so hard hit my head. I hit it really hard when I passed out and started bleeding out of my head. I actually split open my head and had to take an ambulance to the hospital in Brussels. Trying to explain how you feel in French when you are on a stretcher in a foreign country.. Let me tell you that is a new experience. I have a gash on the back of my head and I had to get stitches- they were worried that it was concussion. Once I started to puke in the hospital, they knew that I had a concussion. I learned a lot of new words that day. My theory- they should teach you the really important words in foreign languages first (like words to use in the HOSPITAL.) Luckily, the Cat scan came back and I am fine, ha. Wow. That was a minor (kidding) part of that trip. I didn’t get to go to Bruges that day with the rest of my friends and instead became friends with these two guys from BU (Boston University) who were really nice. Love Hostels. Their beds were right next to mine, in the white room. They even bought me a chocolate waffle.