End of Week 1

Today marks the end of my first week here in Brazil and five days living in the CM System gym in Curitiba. A lot has actually happened in this week so I figure today is as good a day as any to finally create a record. Here it goes.

I flew into São Paulo last Wednesday and spent a couple days in my old apartment which I haven't seen in about 15 years since we left Brazil. I stayed with a friend of the family that lived in the same building as us so it was great to catch up. Despite having lived in São Paulo for 4 years when I was younger I completely forgot all my Portuguese. Fortunately, I hatched the idea of one day returning to Brazil last November (while I was cooped up in my parents apartment after losing that Thai boxing fight) and started studying Portuguese then.

Scenery from the bus ride to Curitiba from São Paulo

So after my two days in São Paulo, I caught a bus through the jungle down to Curitiba. Once we were out of the city the landscape was incredible. Another bike trip, Nic? After about 6 hours I arrived in Curitiba, the largest city in the province, and made my way to the gym. My roommate, Andrew, whom I met in Thailand wasn't at the gym so I met a couple of pro fighters who live here. Seconds after introducing himself, this guy Baby throws the equivalent of Brazil's GQ at me and brags that his roommate, Gustavo, slept with one of the girls featured on the cover (he indicates which one in the next photo). As it turns out, Gustavo, who's only 22 years old, is a jiu-jitsu prodigy. He's won the world jiu-jitsu championship 5 times for all belts except black but he's preparing for the next black belt tournament to be held in May in California.

Gustavo

Last weekend I went out with Andrew and a couple of the other guys sleeping across the hall, Dinis and Big Joe, to a tower overlooking the city. Curitiba is Brazil's model city and after living in São Paulo I can see why. There's no trash on the street, great public transportation, lots of parks, and an astounding concentration of beautiful women.

Left to right: Big Joe, Myself, Andrew, and Dinis in a tower overlooking Curitiba

Not surprisingly, a lot of the fighters work as bouncers on the weekends to earn some extra cash. Big Joe and the clubs future star, 16 year old Mateus, invited Andrew and I to the bar they were bouncing and got us in without cover. Damn, cover at a bar? If you want to party hard, Brazil is the place to be. Bars and clubs here usually close around 5 am and sometimes later and yet the guys that work on the weekdays still make it to 1030 training the next day. Out of curiosity I asked the guys if it is conceivable that someone who is 5'10'' 150lb, such as myself, work security and they assured me they could hook it up. I think it'd be a pretty cool experience but working till 5 am? Damn...

Training stared again on Monday and, fortunately, the schedule here is a lot more manageable than it was in Thailand. The exact schedule varies from day to day, but its something like this. Vale todo, which is what mma comes from, is at 1030, followed by jiu-jitsu at 1200. We usually go to a gym to lift weights at around 330 and are back in time for the evening boxing/jiu-jitsu class. There is also a beginners jiu-jitsu class at 1030. All the classes last about an hour but they're pretty intense. Right now Im just doing the 12 o'clock and 1030 jiu-jitsu since Bruno, the Thai boxing coach and Brazil's number one 154lb fighter, bashed me in my ribs on Saturday preparing for his fight this Saturday. So, you trained in Thailand, eh? Me too. Bam!

Except for these isolated incidents and despite what one would expect of pro fighters, everyone here is actually very friendly. A couple of the guys here have really interesting stories so in future posts Ill do some interviews of them. No one here besides Andrew and Cristiano Marcello (CM System) speaks English so I spend a lot of my time studying Portuguese, listening to the guys talk, and watching Brazilian TV.

Monday night, Diego, one of the gyms more senior guys and a jiu-jitsu black belt disappeared in the middle of the night after taking all the cash out of the register and defaulting on several loans the other guys gave him. He was a friendly guy but Andrew, who's knew him for about a month, says that we was kinda crazy and had a drug problem. In the picture below he's the guy without a shirt.

Left to Right: Mateus (future star), Danilo, and Diego

A lot of the guys were pretty upset but today the gym had an unexpected visitor: Wanderlei Silva! The gym owner, Cristiano, is his old jiu-jitsu instructor so he dropped in to say wassup since they both just won fights within the past couple weeks. Everyone in the gym was pretty starstruck and some of the girls working in the offices above us came down too so Wanderlei took a lot of pictures and signed a lot of shirts.

Yeuuuh!

This is definitely getting a little on the long side so I'll wrap it up. The training here is world class, the food is great, and my gym-mates are all really cool. If any one is thinking of quitting a job they dont like or dropping out of law school or something, there's still room here at the gym... I'll be in touch!

Christiano is next to Wanderlei, then Gustavo, and Bruno. Baby is behind Wanderlei on the left. I'll introduce you to more of the guys later.