Hello Brasil!

I'm here, I made it down in one piece!  That was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life, but from the looks of things down here well worth it.  Between the two layovers and long plane rides I spent  just about a total of 15 hours on  trave l down here.  Brasil is what I expected it to be, as well as so much more.  The people and the bit of the city that I have seen so far are very different than back home. 

First Impressions

The first thing that really hit me was how nice and open the Brazilians are.  The longest flight that I had was from DC to Sao Paulo.  It was just over nine and a half hours of total flight time in the middle of the night.  I had an isle seat which was awesome and sitting next to me was a young Brazilian couple.  Those two have really set the tone for how Brazilians act and interact.  Right off the bat they were extremely friendly and were having fun talking to me in english.  Within the first thirty minutes they had invited me to come and stay in Sao Paulo with them at their house and they would take me out.  They admitted that Sao Paulo doesn't have the beaches that Rio has to offer, but that they knew many places to dance.  Like EVERYWHERE.  From what I gather about Sao Paulo after talking with them is that it's just basically one big club, everyone dancing all the time...like MTV's the grind or something.  As we landed and they prepared to leave they forced their telephone number onto me and insisted that I call them to go dancing.  

My little slice of JiuJitsu History

I probably should have made this my first post, but I just got a little ahead of myself explaining how I am going to Rio.  Anyhow, as it currently stands I am ranked as a third strip blue belt at Jamel McCurry's academy in Detroit, MI.
 

How This Addiction Began

I graduated high school as a small little surfer kid from Southern Cali, I was 5'9" and weighed a hefty 140lbs.  Not very intimidating, but of course I thought I was.  Once I started college I got really into weight lifting.  Sick of being a little guy, and convinced that my size determined how much of a bad ass I was (I know I know but I was like 18/19 then) I started eating everything I could taking supplements and lifting like a madman.  Over the next few years I my weight went up to a pretty solid 175lbs and I was feeling much better about myself.

A Week Away

Well, now I'm less than a week away from my trip to Rio de Janiero, Brazil to go train at Gordo's Jiu Jitsu Academy. I can't believe that it is right around the corner. I have started this blog to share my trip and also help answer questions if others may be wanting to do the same thing. All the planning and double checking are pretty much done and now it's just time to pack up and get ready to go.
 

The Process

This whole trip started as a treat for my service in the Coast Guard. I was really unsure whether or not to go for it in the first place, but Brooke was very supportive and encouraging. For me, the first step was to figure out the cost of such an endeavor so I could plan how long I could be down there. Once I started looking into it and researching rentals and hostels I was pretty overwhelmed. I was reading other blogs and lots of posts on Sherdog.com about people who want to or have gone to Brazil to train. I originally was trying to train at Demian Maia's Academy in Sao Paulo, however I found out that during the time frame I was looking to be down there he would not be. So one thing led to another and I got hooked up with Dennis from ConnectionRio.com. Form there things started going pretty smoothly. I told Dennis, via email as he lives in Rio, what I was hoping to do and he put together a whole little package for me which basically included everything but food and airfare. It is: