Promotions and Spelunking...

So, I've been going to BJJ a lot recently and whatnot, and on Tuesday night, Carmen announced that one of her friends was going to be running the class.  I see this girl walk in, wearing a judo gi, and got SO excited.  She had been doing judo since she was 8, and had been a black belt for about 8 years, fights on the Australian national team....so...pretty much a badass.  She worked with us a lot on standup, and I learned so much about breaking grips/getting grips, that it was just a really cool class.  I found out that she has trained judo at Yong-In too!  That was so exciting to find another person who has trained there!  And, how convenient, I was wearing my Yong-In t-shirt under my uniform that day :D

After practice, Carmen told everyone to take off their belts and form 2 lines, making a tunnel of people, at the end of which, the black belt (Kit) stood, in front of the crash pad.  Nobody knew what was going on, until suddenly Carmen started calling people to run through the tunnel while getting whipped by belts, only to get thrown by the black belt.  Then at the end, Carmen started tying on new belts.  Suddenly, I hear MY name called!  I got promoted to my next stripe!  So I am currently 2/4 stripes on my white belt, hoping to get my third before I leave :D

As for recent activities, today.....I went spelunking.  Technically they call it caving, but it's not as interesting sounding, so I'm sticking with spelunking.  Now you might think spelunking involves walking through big open spaces in caves?  Not OUR spelunking.  This involves repelling down into the cave with helmets/headlamps, being told by our guides that they weren't going to tell us the way out, and to find it for ourselves......So as we started wandering through, people somehow decided that I should lead the way....

This was freaky, given that I had no idea where I was going, and could only see within the beam of my headlamp, in the otherwise COMPLETE darkness.  The caves also weren't exactly open spaces.  On SEVERAL occasions, the only way to move forward was to squeeze through an opening on your stomach or back or slide down a rock, all of which, were COVERED in mud.  SO needless to say, upon leave the caves....we.....were GROSS.  My pants are completely covered in dirt/mud/cave grime.  And I LOVE it.

41 days, 6 hours, and 52 minutes before the day I leave Melbourne.  Where has the time gone?