Tuesday, February 5, 2008

more boxing info and random other stuff

2.5.08 8:38


It has been more then a week since I have last put some thoughts down on paper. Not too much going on in this head of mine lately. I have been entirely too tired to really do anything except live. I guess I am staying busy but so busy that when I do have free time an average of an hour or two before bed I don’t really want to do anything constructive. A movie or a computer game here and there has been my vice in my off time. It is a shame too because I was reading some really good stuff and becoming more of an informed person only to have that taken away and replaced with entertainment. Oh well.. I can always learn tomorrow ;)

No really, that reason my days have become a lot busier is that boxing is upon me. Glorious boxing! Last Monday was my first actual practice and boy was it a work out. Luckily I am still treated as an oddity and in a weird way a celebrity that the other guys don’t want to hurt me quite yet with an exclusion of one so, thus far without the mouth guard and head gear I have been ok. That’s right I am throwing in an exception in there. There is this one boy .. there is always one boy in these types of gyms that just doesn’t understand the term warm-up or practice and always goes full out at any opportunity. They can be very dangerous individuals when not controlled. At the old gym I worked out at, the first day of sparring they trainer says go easy its his first time and he hears… Kill him. enough said Monday we are doing this wrestling warm up drill and this kid goes straight at me for a take down. Though he was unsuccessful I reversed it took him down then we are sitting there with each other in choke holds breathing heavily until we realize the coach is yelling at us to quit it. I have had similar experiences since but I do have about 30 pounds and nearly a foot on the kid thankfully, I should be able to handle him.

Little knuckle talk…

Outside of that, they are great. Sorry mom, my knuckles are pretty gruesome looking. If you thought my knuckles looked bad at home after just doing knuckle push ups you would be very angry with me now. The first day we did this drill where your partner grabs your legs and you walk on your hands around the gym. The Second time you do it on your knuckles… and the floor is about as hard as concrete… it rips up your hands pretty good if you are not used to it. I love it.

Done with the knuckle talk…

Any who so I box Monday Wednesday Saturday for 2 hours in the evenings and Tuesday Thursday is basket ball in the evenings. Thus I normally don’t’ get home earlier then 7:30 3 days and week and no earlier then 8 2 days a week. Those are some long days.

So given the speed at which last week flew I don’t have too much to talk about. I have turned away alcohol the entire week and will continue to do so because boxing has started up and I have a valid reason to tell the host dad no thanks on the wine… at least no more then half a glass.

I have been doing the tutoring thing now. I started it up so where my tutoring … ok let me catch you up.. I am trying to learn Romanian here so im working with a tutor about 3 hours a week now. Though I am quite in the mood for grammer and just need someone to talk with and correct me. So … this last week went ok I guess. I hear all kinds of crazy gossip about everyone in the city and learn random home remedies to any time of illness. I have not quite worked it out so I am talking all that much yet because she loves to talk and frankly I don’t’ have that much to say in return but it’s a start.

Saturday we met outside and had my “lecture” while walking around the city. I thought this is a great way to practice my language and see the city while she would explain what things were and where thigns where. Saturday we took a walk to our hospital compound. It is a huge place kind of set back in a park like setting. It would be beautiful in the summer and even more beautiful without the falling apart concrete walls and buildings. Good thing is I never knew where it was and now I know. I also walked around and got to see the forest that is protected by the government and where a milling factory is located. My teacher read my tutor manual the peace corps gave me to help teach me and it said something about helping the student learn about what ever he is working with so she thought that was close enough to agriculture so why not? I thought it was a successful outing and I look forward to our next adventure.

How about this. The kids absolutely love this cup game I brought them. Thank you Aunt Sue for sending it. Its called speed stack or something equivalent. Where you stack these cups in pyramids as fast as you can and then take them down into one stack. You can race each other or race your time. That combined with the introduction of skip bo at the center has greatly improved my life. You can only play a german version of uno that has added rules so that the game never ends so long before you just wanna scream. Skip bo is a favorite card of mine and I thoroughly enjoy playing it with the kids. And of course dominating every opponent in chess who dares to pick up a pawn… they are all under 13 with the exception of farina and she really has no excuse for the lashings I put on her in that game… :P.

Anybody seen blood diamond? That’s a depressing movie, don’t watch it if you are in kind of a downer mood. Stick to the uppers like Super Troopers to get you through the day, you will be a lot happier for it. I watched the Packers play the Giants a couple of days ago on NFL replay I got of itunes. It took forever to download but it was worth it. I must say the Giants looked tough and at the end when micheal strayhand … that’s not how you spell his name but whatever…. Said now that they won that game they aren’t just going to the super bowl they were going to win. And the looks on his other teammates faces and their confidence really made me believe that they had it in them to win. I can of course say that now that they did beat the undefeatable patriots but I did see something there.

Super Duper Tuesday today! I await the results and will actively listen to NPR tomorrow in podcast form as I listen to the wrap up of what happened and everything. Exciting day, and this is the first time I have ever really listened to or read about this polotics and its kinda exciting.

Told you all nothing really happened this week, but I had to come up with somthign to write so nobody thinks I fell off the end of the earth, plus I guess in future years when I am bored or my kids ask me what it was like in the peace corps… if they ask that question… I dunno if I would have been interested when I was a kid…. I can just hand them my book of blog entries and they can have a field day.

Love you family! Happy birthday Julia!

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