Todo dia

My percussion instructor is awesome! He really has a great handle on how to get started on the Brazilian rhythms. Today, I learned a samba variation and ijexá. The latter is quite difficult, although it sounds simple. My hands have a hard time staying with their own parts. His name is Jorge (pronounced Georg-ie), and he often wears a t-shirt with São Jorge (Saint George) on it.

It has been difficult to express what I want to know (I'm still not that great at Portuguese), and I am certainly having a hard time understanding him. However, the great part is that I am forced to use what I know how to say and understand! Better language mapping that way.

Today is the last night my friend Maddi will be in Salvador. :*( I am really going to miss hanging out with her, and I hope I get an opportunity to visit her in Sydney in the next year.

Tonight, I plan to head out to a historical area called Pelourinho for one last dance-in-the-streets-with-the-sambistas. I've found myself to have done a fair amount of going out to venues and discovering the local drinks and food, but after three weeks in town, I am eager to completely dig-in and learn the things I want to learn from this city - the things I came here for: language, percussion, and music.

Boa noite!