“Oh, yeah? I have a friend there. He teaches capoeira, too.”

– Mestre Railson, on learning that I’m going to Lausanne

Ya don’t say…

I’m going to study a language that I think is pretty great for a price that I think is pretty great at a university that I think is pretty great in a city that I think is pretty great and train capoeira with a group that I think is pretty great, and also affiliated with mine, and also within striking distance of many other great branches of my group. Yes, there is at least one coincidence in there somewhere. It is not, however, that my mestre happens to have a friend who happens to teach capoeira here.

I remember trying to explain to a friend, way back in 2005, why I was considering taking up capoeira and why I thought it might be a good fit for me, in spite of the way it seems to cater to most of my weaknesses. The gist of the argument was that it seemed like a pretty good way to meet interesting local people when I am living in other countries, which was something I was having trouble doing in Chile. At the time, I had only a vague notion of capoeira, and no way of knowing how true that assessment would turn out to be. But classes seemed a bit pricy, and sure, it’s neat to watch, but you don’t really think I can do it myself, do you? It was another three years before I discovered I could.

Basically, I plan to divide my time between quality language classes and hanging out with receptive native speakers who share a common interest with me (and also staring at the lake). If those aren’t ideal conditions for language learning, I don’t know what are. The only thing that could possibly make for better learnings would be a Swiss boyfriend. Still working on that one.

So even if I didn’t care at all about improving as a capoeirista, I would still want to keep it up here for linguistic and social purposes. Thing is, I do care about improving, a lot, actually, and I’m pretty sure I picked a great place to do just that (more on that later).

I had the foresight to write out directions from my apartment to the academy in case I didn’t have internet access when I first arrived in Lausanne. As it turned out, I had just enough time to unpack a little, shower (I was extra gross because besides the whole transatlantic traveling thing, I hadn’t had the energy to shower in Paris after a double capoeira class), and walk to the academy.

It took about 20 rather difficult minutes (hello, Alps) to get to a place with the same address of the academy, and another 10 to find the academy itself. If I had not seen this video more times than I care to admit, I might not have ever found it. Note, for example, that the blue car at 00:15 is in front of a place which has the same address as the academy, and that the entrance is on a completely different street, up some stairs, down some stairs and around the corner. Getting to my apartment from the train station by taxi was similarly tricky, and the taxi driver was not happy with me that the street numbers went directly from 7 to B21 when we were looking for 9. Whatever reputation the Swiss have for being efficient and organized they did not get from their street addresses.

My main impression after the first day: I have SO much to learn. Of French, but that was a given, and of capoeira – well, that was a given too.

After capoeira, I went to go meet the lake and that was my first day in the land of the Swiss. Pas mal du tout.