Last weekend I visited a very interesting dojo at nearby University of Pittsburgh. It is run by the student of a Sensei I have met at my old (and beloved!) dojo in Mountain View, CA. The dojo is made up of a few Physics grad students, bluebelts and whitebelts, with a blackbelt teaching. Other than the amazing sense of relief I had 1) being taught, 2) working in a structured environment, 3) working in a non-echoe-y space, I learned a wonderful new katita (ok, no spajanglish, they’re actually called tatchikatas) called Oke Waza Tachikata (oooo keh wah zah tah chi kah tah–all Japanese vowel sounds are the same as the ones in Spanish) which I then taught the next day in my class. It was very nice to compare notes with another advanced student on current practices (though I hope he doesn’t think the amount I chatter when I teach came from Shihan–that habit it all me, no fault on my teachers).
Anyway, the great drama of the day was not the class, but getting there. I think I walked 3 miles in the snow that morning. Most of it was because I got lost (I went 2 miles the wrong way down 5th Avenue) and then a little of it was walking up a huge hill once I got off of the bus. Below are the pictures I took of Pittsburgh during a snowfall. Isn’t my city Beautiful?
Inspirational Quote:
“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander” – Aristotle
