Karate

My brother and I have been doing karate and it is interesting. Instead of the trainer counting in Albanian in karate he counts in Japanese. Speaking of trainer, he is only about 19 years old or so. He is still in school and is also being taught some karate too. I know one kata and am about to learn another. A kata is techniques put together. I practice every other day but not on weekends usually. The karate place is a Dojo as some people in Orllan call it. Daniel and I walk there and it takes about 5 minutes or less. The girls would change upstairs and the boys down stairs. First we would start out with lots of exercises, then we start doing a little practice, and then we battle. Sometimes at the end of karate we would do katas. Since the trainer speaks only Albanian, my friend Lydia is always beside me to translate. Sometimes when we are practicing the trainer will come by and say good job in English or something like that. Sometimes in battles I will battle against different people but most are my friends. At the end of next month Daniel and I will be getting our yellow belts. We will have to do katas and battle in front of other trainers. We will also get to go to tournaments and compete. Every day is interesting with new things to do and that’s the way I like it. I love to explore the unknown.
--Melanie