Emanuels visit 3

   Emanuel came to the beach with me and the rest of our family. He stepped on to the sand. He started kicking  around and then just fell down and breathed in the salty air. He would grabbed handfuls of  sand and let it fall through his fingers. He had the look people get when they open their birthday present times ten. He started laughing and running towards the water. Isaac and I raced after him. When the water got to our ankles Isaac ran back screaming "It's SO COLD!" I kept running. Emanuel was in to his chest and was looking around in awe. We both floated there for a moment. Then we got slammed in the back by a big wave. We came up sputtering with my family laughing on the shore. We swam back and he explained that how after the 2 months in America before he came to stay with my family He didn't see anything that reminded him of home. Until this beach. It still seemed like a pretty extreme reaction. But the more I thought about it. It seemed less extreme and more rational. Not only was he away from home for over 2 months but he was across the world where everything was different. I thought of the feeling when we got home from Morro Bay. That was only a week in the same state, away from home. So it must have been hard for him, two months across the globe where everything is different. But when he saw the beach he felt like he was home. Those few minutes paved the way for a fun day at the beach.

Emanuels visit 2

             I love the Habit. It is one of my favorite restaurants. Emanuel really liked the chocolate milkshake. He couldn't get enough. He didn't like the burger quite as much. Emanuel also enjoyed the ketchup and soda machines(who wouldn't).

Emanuels vist 1

           I  showed Emanuel my martial arts studio www.macomberkarate.com/ . The look on his face was great the moment he stepped inside. My studio doesn't look very fancy or well kept from the outside. The sign is missing a letter and it's all gray. But when you step in the entrance there's a mirror, rocks and trees right in front of the doors. It looks really zen. Then you step to the side and you see through the glass a room with bright red and blue padded floor and pictures on the walls. The big room has a mirror that covers the whole wall so it looks bigger than it is. You see all the kids running, jumping, and playing around. Then the sound hits like a wave. Shouts, yells and laughter all compete mixing into wild frenzy of noise.
         So to say the least he looked rather stunned. I went into class and Emanuel watched. Occasionally I'd look at him through the glass and he would be smiling, watching with interest. Afterward I introduced him to my Sensai who asked Emanuel what he thought. Emanuel said " It was very interesting. I would like to try it sometime."  We left and in the car decided to try the Habit burger grill. I'll write about that later.

                                                            

This is some training I do with a weapon called a Bo. At home I don't train with a real one. I use a palm frond that my brother cut the leaves off of.It works just as well. At my studio I get to use the real ones which are made of smooth hard wood and almost perfectly balanced. I wanted to show Emanuel what I do with it because he didn't see at the studio. Emanuel thought that it was cool I could spin the Bo so fast. The noise is really fun to listen to. It sounds like a bull roarer