First ever conference.

Ok they didn’t teach me how to fly but today was pretty awesome. A lot more overwhelming then i originally thought. We started at 6.30am which means i had to wake up at 5. Yeah it was rough.

The first word I learnt today to fully appreciate was "Keluarga" which is Indonesian for 'family'. The most overwhelming thing was introducing myself to about 100 people, shaking their hands and trying to remember names. We got a little speech about modesty and trying to become humble so I won’t write about some of the weird people that bugged me or scared me. Though the feeling was insane ok there were sooooooooooooo many awkward situations but when the conversation dies people just start sparing, pretty sweet.

Though there was one guy I did admire, and i feel so bad for staring. He only had one arm, he appeared to be in his 20's and he was a charcoal belt (equivalent of a black belt). Most of us have a conscious and we feel sympathy towards someone in that kind of situation but i was impressed with him and greatly admired him for what he was doing, i mean a man with one arm doing knife training.

I think I also have a weakness for women that do martial arts, one of the chicks I saw practicing, ok to be brutally honest because I’m such a gentleman she wasn’t the prettiest girl at the ball, if you get my analogies. Though when she starts kicking above her head and getting into these human pretzel fighting positions such a turn on. Think I have a weakness.

Though today was completely “wow”, grandmasters, little fighting kids, weapons training and just meeting people with unbelievable skill, its time for me to take some of the things on board and ill resume my training, hopefully have a grading in a months time and at next years convention I won’t be a flimsy whitebelt, though as the pendekar told me, “take your time, do not rush” though when I spend an entire day with instructors telling me stuff like, “then you and the weapon become one” how do I not rush?!

Inspiration, Admiration, Enlightenment and a childhood dream fulfilled.

Ok today was breathtaking day for me. I haven’t been this happy in a while, kinda feels like I’m drunk on joy. I finally got to complete my childhood ambition of meeting a grandmaster, what’s even better than that? I GOT TO MEET TWO! Unfortunately they did not teach me how to fly or be all ninja-like, but never have I been more inspired to continue my Silat training.

One of the Pendekar did not speak a word of English, so introducing myself was kinda awkward where as the other one spoke a fair amount. I also got my first taste of free style fighting, which I don’t learn till my green belt but you don’t say no to a grandmaster. Some of the most interesting 10 minutes of the day were spent trying to hit and dodge Kai while commands were being shouted at in Indonesian. I also got those little inspirational riddle-replies to a question. I asked what the best way to practise breathing while moving. It might sound simple enough but standing on one leg, shielding yourself with the other and pretending your hands are beaks then jumping half a meter into a tiger stance requires all your concentration on the movements so you tend to forget to breathe till after you do a few sets of moves. The pendekar replied to me,

"If you promise to me that you train hard for a year, and I mean very hard, next year i will teach you how to breathe." In semi-broken English, so incredibly cool.

I was also incredible impressed at the guys fitness level and his amount of power he had. One of the new guys, he’s like 25 was told to hit one of the pendekar as hard as he could, a man of 68 years just tensed that shoulder muscle to the state where the younger guy hurt himself from the punch.

I look forward to Saturday, i get the honor of spending 12 hours with the two pendekar and all the other people coming to Brisbane for the Perisai Diri conference, 6.30am to 6.30pm like i know ill be so incredibly tired but i can not wait.

Maybe he'll teach me how to fly?....

Ich Bin Dejan.

Hey, Im Dejan.
Most of you already know me.
This is basically for those that don't and are contemplating knowing me.

I'm 17 soon to be 18. Looking forward to it.
Serbian with some old fashioned values.
I like big words, they make me feel better about myself.
I Love to Laugh, its the key to my existance.
Tv and Video games tend to inspire me more than music or people.
I day dream cause it makes life more entertaining.
I change a lot, though i hate change itself.
I tend to be walking contradiction.
I still think, act and dream like a 7 year old.
I overthink everything. Though its who i am.
I will always modern day Peter pan at heart.

I was happy with my narrow-minded attempts to live a simple life, but then Karli Fletcher came along, she opened my eyes to how big the world is, she made me care about things, she introduced me to protesting and alternative ideologies. My passions have not changed, they have not changed since my childhood, though the persuits and ambitions change constantly. I have my theories and conspiricies but life is what you make of it, and im looking forward to making mine an adventure. My friends are incredible and i will blog about them soon enough, but this is the start of a new chapter, myspace blogging wasnt what i expected it to be. So;

I'm Dejan
d_hayabusa@hotmail.com
www.myspace.com/_lifeasweknowit