I chose fencing as my PE this semester.

It looks so graceful and subtle. The uniform looks immaculately white and adorable. The swords are gallant and perfect. Fencing is a dance of masculinity and femininity. An anima and animus who found each other. But most important of all? No need to shed buckets of sweat like what happened last sem with my Tae-Bo class! Yipee!

Wrong choice.

First day of class: I can’t barely walk after two hours. Damn the en garde position! Squatting for two straight hours is one hell of a torture.

Then we had to do other footwork drills: advance, retreat, double advance, double retreat, and jump while maintaining the en garde position. How much pain can my poor footsies take?

All the way to the next session I was silently cursing my head-over-heels infatuation with fencing. So much for the dance of anima and animus. All I wanted was to stop their Boogie number and let my abused feet recuperate at the Philippine Orthopedic Center.

After two sessions we had our first practical exam. Yes, our first practical exam. Ma’am Leni could pass for a torture queen;)

After the lunge and fleche, I honestly think that en garde is just the purgatory. I haven’t really journeyed down to the abyss of fencing evildom. I wouldn’t dare know how deep will I’ll be in hell if we reach the hand positions, defensive and offensive strategies, and other gruesome fencing realities.

We are just starting and I already want to give up. Dropping is a well-meditated option. Then the image of the suit and the saber comes into mind. Just like that and they provide antidote to my pains. Just temporarily though. After the next session and my feet wandering aimlessly around without my body and I bet I’ll be cursing my decision of choosing fencing… again!

I chose this and I have to stand by this all through out the sem. Anyway, it is not everyday that I can experience fencing, sport of the nobility. Hehe.

By the way, does it help that our instructor is a member of the Philippine Fencing Team? A gold medallist at SEA games. No less. Not bad for a beginner eh?

So until October:

* I’d be pleading my feet to cooperate for the rest of the week. Heck! I would even have to bribe them.
* I’d be hearing a lot of en garde! pre! alle!
* I’d be making a lot of fencer positions and salutes.
* I’d be buying a lot of Ponstan and Salonpas.
* I’d be drinking buckets of water and then shed them after 2 minutes.
* And of course, keep falling in and out of love with fencing.
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I made some minor revisions while rereading this. It is a Friday and not much to do, so I’m taking a trip down memory lane.This post made me laugh:) The fencing horrors I faced just months ago. Well, I’m proud to annouce *ehem* that I passed fencing! Yehyehyeh! I got a 1.25 too. The highest ever PE score in my entire life! Ma’am Leni is such an angel (what happened to the torture queen?) I’ll not enumerate here the other terms we have learned and practiced. They still give me goosebumps and my two footsies are still not fully-recovered from the trauma. And oooh, they make my nose bleed. I can’t even pronounce them:)