And The Clock Hands Move So Fast It Makes The Wind Blow

Man... I'm sore. Specifically, my lower legs are sore. This, I think is the sign of a good sparring session. In this case, a pair of them, back to back.

The first one was interesting, in that I had two partners at once. They were less-experienced, and didn't make good use of the fact that they could flank me. Still, they certainly forced me to keep aware of everything that was going on. They both tended to try to dance away and avoid me, rather than one of them engaging and letting the other one get behind. I'd like to think it was because I was able to attack their base/out-range them if they got too close, but it had at least as much to do with their inexperience as it did with me taking advantage of my leg length.

The second session was with a much more experienced guy, and it was one-on-one. I'd forgotten how tiring a back-to-back session can be. This kinda forcibly reminded me. At first, we were evenly matched, I might have even had the advantage. I did manage to sweep him when he went up on one leg to try to kick me at one point, though he quickly became much more wary after that. Also, my handwork is not nearly as good as my footwork. I'm much more adept at kicking than I am at punching. This came back to bite me once or twice when I took shots to the face (we were wearing gloves, so no damage, but I still got the point). As the fight wore on, it became harder and harder to kick terribly high. I went from having a kick deflected from his arm to brush his face to having to work to kick much above his waist (with a martelo/side snap kick/whatever you want to call it. Ultimately, this resulted in a mis-aimed kick which he ended up blocking with his knee, rather than his shin. That shit hurts, lemme tell you.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun (regardless of the soreness), and good practice. I've got another Volunteer coming to crash with me on Thursday - he's the guy who's done Muay Thai for 6 years, and I'm excited to finally get to train with him.

In other news, I got dragged to a concert last night with a few other Volunteers who were passing through Dupnitsa. I say "dragged along" because it was a chalga concert. For those of you who have never heard of this particular form of music, chalga is apparently pretty popular through much of the Balkans. It's traditional Balkan folk music, run through a pop idol filter and given a heavy dance beat. It sounds about like what you'd expect. The music aside, it was an interesting time, though it was a bit weird to see kids that I'd peg as maybe 10-11 chainsmoking.

Also, immediately prior to the concert, we went to a restaurant about 5 minutes from my place, where we met some Irish gentlemen, who apparently live in Dupnitsa as well. Contact info was exchanged, so it should be interesting hanging out with them at some point in the future.

Speaking of The Future™, it should also include pictures, in a rather immediate sense (i.e., before the end of the weekend), as I've cleared off my camera and have a computer with which to upload them.

Later, flipsiders.