Philadelphia: Training and Futbol

So it is saturday night (technically sunday morning) here. Happy 4th of July everybody! I wished my country happy birthday, and it felt kinda cool. I expect sleeping tomorrow will be stupidly impossible cuz of fireworks (which started on wednesday). I'll give you guys the lowdown on this week. Monday: got here, got lost on the bus system trying to get here. On the way I discovered 3 things: 1. I am a minority up here 2. Philadelphia is very large, and easy to get lost in 3. You know you are in a bad spot when you get helped out by a homeless dude trying to sell you a package of boxers Once I got myself to the house, I pretty much just slept all day, which is all I ever do up here - the heat just sucks the life out of you. Tuesday: emilie had her first lesson, but since this blog isn't about her, you will have to ask her yourself if you want to find out about her adventures. Only interesting thing: I vowed to not let her walk around Phily alone whenever possible, and we would NEVER walk around at night unless absolutely necessary. Reasoning: if you havn't been following my status updates, I live in the hood. Not like south Tucson hood, this is the east coast, gangs all around you, scary as FUCK hood. Wednesday: first of eleven rope lessons with one of my two teachers, Brenden (also the person we are staying with). We asked for hardcore training, to not ease up, and work us until we can't work anymore. Well, we got it. We stumbled home after the most intense hour of our lives. I learned, in that day alone, 4 new transitions, 3 new climbs, 2 new tricks, and a conditioning exercise (someone make a 12 days of rope training song about that, please). Thursday: More emilie training, I juggled in the corner, and decided that I wanted to learn walking globe, seeing as they have 5 of them. So while emilie is in her acrobatics and conditioning classes, I will do that. I like to watch her trapeze classes, because I am leaning just by watching. Friday: rope lesson 2/11. same as wednesday: really intense, lots of learning. Thank goodness I have a notebook to write all this stuff down in, otherwise I'd never be able to remember it. I am gonna have a lot of stuff to teach my kids when I get back home - not just tricks, but technique that needs sharpening. THEN LATER THAT DAY! Actually, imidiately, I kinda ran out of the studio to catch a bus. I took this bus to the subway station, and that to downtown phily. I have been to new york, when I was younger. I don't remember it very well. This blew me away. Everything was huge, and I couldn't tell which way was north, but the best thing was, IT WASN'T THE HOOD! Everyone had friendly eyes, there were street performers, and I wasn't a minority. There were people of every color running around these busy streets. I found myself in the Irish Pub I was looking for, and since it was game day, they wern't checking IDs. I stood in the back and watched the best futbol match of the tournament to date: ghana v uruguay. Alas, our team lost, but we had an amazing time. All of the Ghana fans bonded together, and whenever something went right we went crazy hugging and high fiving and yelling. I had a very sore voice. This yelling and screaming contributed to me getting sick the next morning, and not being able to go to the German Bar on south st. to watch the Germany v Argentina game. Which I now regret, because it was a killer game for Deutschland. Ah well, I am gonna get to watch them play spain on wednesday before my rope lesson (google maps, you are my best friend). Today: I slept all day, and then read some stuff, and slept some more. It's a recovery weekend. The heat is killer, and the training is exhausting, and I spend a lot of time doing nothing... More to come next week in Connor's Crazy Adventure!