Moving to Brazil on 05/06/2009

[jscore]

Originally Posted by jerrylundergard

where are you training in copacabana? What streets it on and how much are they charging you? Do you speak any portuguese?

Is it crawling with americans now? Last I was there (dec2004) the place was hopping with black americans looking for some hot mulatress safadhinas. It was just after snoop doogs video. In 2000 it was mostly just euro tourists but i think its changed big time.

Do they still have monchiques rodizio on ns sra and santa clara in copa? Its still about my favorite place ever. Picanha FTW!!!

Santa Clara & Nossa Senhora da Copacabana.

Not many Americans on the streets at all, I see very few here in Copa. In Ipanema there're some backpackers here and there.

Monchiques is the best rodizio. I've been there two times. Last night I went to Carretao in Ipanema and it was more expensive and not as good. Monchiques is the best value for money.

[jerrylundergard]

Originally Posted by Connection Rio

R$150 a month is very reasonable, the light bill does not pay itself, not to mention that it is good to give something back to the Professors who provide the tools for us to build our games.

On another note R$55 a month...you get what you paid for. Brasil is a 3rd World country and there are many dirt cheap options here for housing, academies, etc. Again you get what you pay for.

I agree, 150 reals for a top flight academy filled with killer blacks is good for us.

However, in my situation with no bjj back in 2000 I was perfectly happy paying 55 reals a month and rolling with a room fool of tuff ass blues, purples and my bb instructor, some of the guys were local champs and way more than I could handel. Id be looking to pay 75-100 nowadays.

As far as getting what you pay for, thats not even close to the case in rio or Brasil and if you live there you should know that. The price is never correct there, ever. You eat out much or go to clubs or bars? Cause if you do with a bunch of gringos its highly likely you get a bill thats off a good percent. In the years I lived in Brasil it was always an odd time that we ever got the correct bill for anything. That gets multiplyed by 100 when they see gringos, heck, they even pull those stunts on locals. Its always easily corrected with a smile and simply explaining what the correct bill should be. Its also no different with academies, travel agents, flat rentals, hookers, you name it. Dumbies fresh off the boat are paying 300-400 reals for a lowsy hooker at help, ridiculous. Prices on everything go down drastically if you speak portuguese, even at bjj clubs.

[jerrylundergard]

Originally Posted by jscore

Santa Clara & Nossa Senhora da Copacabana.

Not many Americans on the streets at all, I see very few here in Copa. In Ipanema there're some backpackers here and there.

Monchiques is the best rodizio. I've been there two times. Last night I went to Carretao in Ipanema and it was more expensive and not as good. Monchiques is the best value for money.

Ya I got carretao right there with porcao, both great but too expensive when I weight them against monchique...

Thats great to hear its not overun. I guess theres always the fear factor that keeps many would-be tourists away from rio, our gain! We just gotta hope the dollar holds steady against the real. The days of nearly 3-1 seem long gone.

@ rio connection
Again, I think 150 reis is a fair deal for places like dlr or gordos, att, gracia barra etc...

I just think you can get some damn tootin training in holes in the wall for less, but thats whats nice there, they got bjj for everyone from those on a favela budget to the rich ipanema/international jet set crowd.

[FlameBoy]

Could someone confirm that you mean 150 reals for 1 months unlimited training at an academy - like 30 or 31 days of training!

Is that what you mean?

[ShanghaiBJJ]

Yeah man 150 unlimited at Gordo's is a great price!!!

[ShanghaiBJJ]

Originally Posted by FlameBoy

Could someone confirm that you mean 150 reals for 1 months unlimited training at an academy - like 30 or 31 days of training!

Is that what you mean?

http://www.connectionrio.com/Special_Offers.html

Scroll down the page.... if you stay 3 months or longer, the price is only 120 actually!

[Connection Rio]

Originally Posted by jerrylundergard

I agree, 150 reals for a top flight academy filled with killer blacks is good for us.

However, in my situation with no bjj back in 2000 I was perfectly happy paying 55 reals a month and rolling with a room fool of tuff ass blues, purples and my bb instructor, some of the guys were local champs and way more than I could handel. Id be looking to pay 75-100 nowadays.

As far as getting what you pay for, thats not even close to the case in rio or Brasil and if you live there you should know that. The price is never correct there, ever. You eat out much or go to clubs or bars? Cause if you do with a bunch of gringos its highly likely you get a bill thats off a good percent. In the years I lived in Brasil it was always an odd time that we ever got the correct bill for anything. That gets multiplyed by 100 when they see gringos, heck, they even pull those stunts on locals. Its always easily corrected with a smile and simply explaining what the correct bill should be. Its also no different with academies, travel agents, flat rentals, hookers, you name it. Dumbies fresh off the boat are paying 300-400 reals for a lowsy hooker at help, ridiculous. Prices on everything go down drastically if you speak portuguese, even at bjj clubs.

Getting what you pay for was a reference to the fair market prices, not to what people who don't know Rio and get overcharged pay.

For the scams...Actually I have lived here for years and have learned to deal with attempts to overcharge, at times it really gets annoying. Generally from my experience here if you speak Portuguese and have common sense it isn't a problem. For barganing prices at Help or buying hookers, I have never set foot in there and never bought a hooker...Of course they are going to take advantage of tourists, there are a thousand stories of locals getting ripped off by them in one way or another.

I have also found that the honesty of the establishment is also often associated with the type of place it is. Often one might think going with what appears to be the cheapest option is the best choice but in the end pay equal to or more than what at the time seems to be more expensive.

[Gerbiljiujitsu]

Hello Everyone!

It's been a few days since my last blog post and I have some stuff to blog about. Thankfully I got my computer back! But.....I still dont have any internet. I guess that's how things roll in Brazil and I just count myself lucky to have other gringos around to pirate their internet (much thanks to Donal and Paddy).

I continue to train as muhc as possible but it seems like things are getting harder not easier. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I went from the top of the food chain to the bottom, or the fact that my injuries are adding up and making it difficult to perform at the best of my ability. Either way it is making it hard emotionally and physically to drag myself out of bed and go train.

In addition to my broken toe, my fucked up thumb and my destroyed back...now my arm hurts. It continues to ache while I'm actually rolling and makes it difficult to get the underhook in grappling. I feel like I have decreased power in both arms now and when people start to pass it's increasingly harder to create space and do the right move. I've also decided that I'm done posting about my injuries. As anyone taking the time to read this knows fighters are perpetually hurt and the more that I think about it the more I realize I'm being a whiny little bitch. So unless the injury prevents me from training you will stop hearing about them. I'll keep you guys updated on the back injuries.

Today I trained some more no gi and of course it went about as well as tuesday. Thankfully I didnt get beat like a drum again but I wasnt pulling anything flashy off today either. All of my rolling partners today were blackbelts so I got to play bottom (not becuase I wanted too). These guys are animals...nice animals...but still animals. I wish I could point to someone and say that they were using muscle to overpower me but the truth of the matter is they are just better and I need to accept it, adjust to it and try to gain as much as possible. Like I said...it's wearing on me mentally for sure. I'm not a quitter...I wont quit....but I certianly dont like being a loser, even when the winner has good sportsmanship LoL.

I'm not the only person that is having a hard time about accepting my place in the pecking order. The German guy training here is also getting tooled around a good bit. He's an excellent wrestler and a great boxer. He is undefeated in MMA (4-0) and an awesome athlete. But with that being said it doesnt help that much against the brown and black belts (which is almost exclusevley what train at the no gi classes). Last night the German came home and was in a fowel mood. He doesnt like constantly losing and no matter how much I tried to console him, he didnt seem to feel any better. I only hope that things get easier as the days go on.

Looking at some of the people training here has forced me to wonder about steriod use. For those of you who dont know I have a bachelors degree in physical education and steroid use is a very big issue in my field. There are many different views, and the arguments can get rather heated. I'm not bringing it up in this thread because I want a lot of debate about it, I am just giving you some insight into my thoughts concerning training in Brazil.

A lot of these guys are absolutely jacked and move like machines. I cant help but think that they are on the S-vitamin. I know that I have friends at home that do it, and I dont particularly think that it is more preveleant here but they never seem to have the nagging injuries that I have. I had talked to my doctor at home about steroid use, not to get big, but to survive with this damn back problem. I continually feel like I got my ass kicked before I even step on the mat to train. But when push comes down to shove I cant justify taking anything. I dont even like taking Motron and taking something like steroids would compromise who I am as a person and I cant give away my integrity I'm sorry. In addition there are a lot of side effects to steroid use and I'm already an emotional guy, I like having my penis working properly and I dont want any unexpected growth in my head, heart or what ever other weird body part the steroids also affects. Ok...no steroids for me, moving on.

Another odd/weird thing about Brazil; They have govermental employees that clean the sides of the road. That in itself is not weird...the fact that they wear bright orange jump suits is somewhat offsetting...especially for Americans. These suits look exactly like convict jump suits and honestly I thought they were criminals at first. I would even cross the road and give them a wide birth becuase I didnt want them to talk to me and instantly figure out that I dont speak any portuguese. Thankfully I realized that there were a lot of women doing these street cleanings and they were wearing jewlery. I dont know why, but I didnt think that convicts would be allowed to wear jewlery.

After eating lunch with Gisele (my great portuguese teacher ;) and her coworkers we were walking down the street. I mentioned to her friends that I had thought that these workers were convicts and they had a good laugh...then we got on a discussion about the local jails.

Like many other gringos I've heard many bad things about foreign jails and it was confirmed that prision here is not a place to go for a visit. It is a wide known fact that many of the police down here are courrupt and if I can help it I should avoid them at all costs. After explaining this to me they proceeded to tell me about a practice in the prisions that just made me laugh and instantly think BLOG MATERIAL. Apparently down here, on holidays, they let the criminals go home for a weekend pass. I laughed my ass off...what a crazy idea. I looked back after I got laughing and said "they actually come back?" they laughed and replied "No". Apparently they return rate is less than 70%....why the fuck would they keep this program in place. I have a few speculations on why but it is still amusing. Can you guys imagine if we had this program at home?

Continuing with my assessment of Brazilian people- I finally realized why I like Brazilian people so much more than Americans (sorry guys). The people here are real. Clear and simple, they generally (making no absolute comments guys so calm down) say what they think and act accordingly. It may be that I dont speak the language and I'm reading into peoples actions more, but I'm not the only person to agree with this statement. Back home people sometimes mask their opinions of you, hide them under false smiles, handshakes and lies. Then the first chance they get to double cross you and get ahead they bend you over and have their way with you. The people down here seem just to be more happy, less concerned with the small things and enjoy life. they are happier and for most people it appears that they accept their place in the grand scheme of things and take life for what it is.

This brings me to the Brazilian concept of time. To say that they dont understand punctuality would be a lie. Plainly speaking...they just dont give a fuck. They dont care what time you show up and CERTAINLY dont care what time they show up. If someone tells you that you are going to have something tomrrow at 5am you should plain on having it some time next week. It is more than mildy annoying for someone like me who spent 6 years in the military. It is a pain in the ass that you cant really rely on people to get things done in a timely manner. It's no that they are bad people, or that they are liers...it's just he culture down here. I'm still not adjusted to this and I'm sure that you will continue to hear about this in future blogs.

I have been reading a lot considering that I dont really have any internet nor any good television. I finsihed two of the books I brought and I'm on my last. I mildly started to freak out that I was going to finish this book and not having anything to do so I went to Barra Shopping Mall which is the biggest of mall in South America (it's huge...beyond anythnig that I've seen in US). I was relieved when Gisele asked the woman at the counter for the Engilsh section and then instantly freaked out again when I realized there were only two small book cases to choose from. I really struggled to find something that I would want to read but found 3 books that I thought were mildy interesting. My suggestion is...if you're coming to Brazil bring a lot of books then we can swap when you get here LoL.

I got some patches made here this week and they came out BADASS. As you can imagine they are a Gerbil and everyone got a good laugh out of it. Like a lot of things made down here they are extremely cheap and after seeing the first one I ordered 20 of them. As soon as I get to the house I'll take a picture and then upload it so you guys can see it and get a good laugh yourself. The funny part is that I'm goign to sport it on ALL of my kimonos and I'm dead serious that I'm the Gerbil

Alright guys I'm going to go for now, thanks for continuing to read and I'll keep you guys posted. It'll probably be a day or two.

The Gerbil

[Galahad]

Gerbil don't worry I'm a white belt so when I get there in July you will definitely no longer be the bottom of the food chain.

[jerrylundergard]

good update, gerbil.

First off, brasilians use a ton of juice. I lifted in the gyms and rolled for years there and know they dope up WAY more than what ive experienced anywhere else in the world. Roids of all types are easy to come by, cheap, and usually good quality. My idear is that its not only for performance but they got to be jaked and tanned for the praia! Still, make no mistake, those fellers are on roids big time!!!

If it was me, I would just juice up, following recomended dosing. Following recomended dosing is really the key. Theres actually good combos of test, eq, and such and the brasilians know all about it. If you followed a proper program your cholestoral, bp, hr and everything should stay similar, especially if you eat well and continue to train cardio. Ive never juiced but if/when im in a situation like that where I need to not fall apart like I do these days I wouldnt hesitate to do my homework and get with the program.

Im a Registered Nurse now and studied the subject fairly throughly and proper dosing just wouldnt bother me, from a health standpoint. The moral aspect is a different matter and I dont pass judgment.

Anyhow, Ive got the saudade do brasil going again, theres nothing in the world as exciting as copacabana. I understand you guys are out in barra and that makes sense from a get away from it and stay focused standpoint but I woulda been in posto 5 kickin it at the coconut booth.