Belt Ceremony

To me, the belt ceremonies have always been times of celebration and fellowship. This one felt especially celebratory--maybe because of the many black belts (about 6 or 7, I think, all children) or maybe because I'm beginning to feel like I'm really a part of this place.

We all begin with the usual bows, this time lined up according to rank.



We're called up in reverse order of rank. Here are the green belts up at the front.



Since we're going from low to high green, we get stripes of tape on our belts instead of new belts.



Here are the new blackbelts! They were so proud of themselves. It's a big accomplishment.



And the new high greens!



I love this picture of me and Master Hughes. It looks like a prom picture! I'm more of a dance girl than a fight girl.



There was blackbelt cake for celebration afterwards . . .



But I continued my celebration with dancing! I met friends from the college at an outdoor concert in the New Bohemia section of town (3rd St. and 9th Ave. SE) by an awesome latin/cumbia/dance band called Yerba Buena. They boast that their music will "make you dance." (Listen to the clip of "Bilingual Girl"--doesn't it make your feet start moving?)

It worked. We got up to dance when the music started at 7:30 and didn't stop until the concert was over at 9:15!

No pictures from that-- sorry!