Shotokan Karate

I had my first belt test today in the campus center ballroom at UMass. A handful of diehard fans (read: family!) came to watch 30 or so of us take our respective tests, do alot of lunging about, and generally do alot of yelling. What was frustrating was that Sensei Grimes is a softspoken woman, and the room was very large and there were welcome, yet loud fans in the corners making almost everything impossible to hear.

Four hours later and it was done. My portion of the test only took about 3 minutes top, but there was practice beforehand and much watching of the higher belts doing their thing. Much of it looked really really cool. Afterwards we invited the folks from Brown and UMaine-Orono for dinner at ABCs. The camaraderie was high, everyone was in good spirits on this sunny spring day, and we all enjoyed a beer and a turkey burger. :) Hopefully this week there is a yellow belt in my future, and a whole summer to practice heian nidan and heian shodan.

I'm really hoping Christina will send me photos that Trina took during our test! (*hint hint*!)