Not (yet) the next Venus Williams...Aulas do Tenis!

There's not much to do in Horizontina in terms of outdoor activities. You can walk, run, swim (November to March) and play tennis. That's really about all since the roads are so bad it makes biking very treacherous! (Be careful....those stairs are treacherous....)

For a long time I have wanted to take up tennis at the local " country club"  where I belong. Normally, a country club has tennis, a pool, golf and is quite expensive. It's normally where the "who's who"  of a city hang out, right? Well, in Horizontina, it's a club because you have to pay and it's in the country, but isn't quite a  "country club".  It does have a nice, nice pool so I cannot complain. But, it's only open November until February.  It has some nice tennis courts in clay as well. No golf and it's dirt cheap! They have these choppanas where you can make a barbeque and have a churrasco, a boce ball court and a small hall where people have parties. As a bonus, it is a 1 block walk from my house!

Anyway, I found out there is a tennis professor there and been afraid to call him for months! When I meet new people, sometimes I don't know how they will react to me being an American...usually the experience is good, but sometimes, it's treacherous! A colleague of mine was nice enough to call the professor and arranged an appointment for me for today at 10 am.

His name is Choco (like Shock-o) and a really nice, friendly and patient man! He started playing tennis when he was 35 years old (probably around 50 years old now)! He was so kind to me and even tried a few tennis terms in English! He gave me a 1 hour lesson and I learned the back hand, how to serve and the forward swing. I did this ALL in portuguese!! I was nervous ahead of time about all the new vocabulary, since most of my day is spent talking about forgados, fundidos, chapa and plataformas...technical terms for parts in portuguese!

I hit a lot of balls out of the court, close to his head, close to my head, but in the end, didn't break anything or sprain a single muscle in my body! My arms are sore and I'm tired, but it was great!!! I had a great time learning tennis and new words in portuguese!! We agreed to have another lesson next Saturday...

So, maybe in a few years, I'll be rocking the tennis courts at the US Open alongside Venus or Serena...until then, I'll keep taking my aulas do tenis!

Um abraco.....Mollie