No shirt, no shoes, no fun - first few days in Virgina.

So I finally made it down here to Virgina - Staying in Alexandria, VA at the house of two of the top students/instructors at Ryan Hall's 50/50 academy.  The two guys I'm staying with are - Kenny Savercool and Seph Smith.  Unfortunately, Kenny had surgery the day I arrived and has not been to the academy - at least not the times that I've been there-and will be out for 5-6 months while his shoulder heals up.

Anyhow, my trip started at 12:05am Sunday/Monday, July 17-18.  I drove up on Sunday evening, got dropped off and made my way through the check in and waited.  Caught my flight which was a roughly 3 1/2 hr flight (give or take).  I arrived at about 5am-ish Toronto time and had about a 3hr lay over till my flight left for DC - Ronald Regan Airport.

I made it through the hellishly long line to USA customs.  Got through with a little over an hour till my flight left - decided to get something to eat then sat and waited till my flight was boarding.  Finally boarded and within roughly an Hour and a half I was in DC.  Although, I might add that the flight was late leaving the airport in Toronto.

So here comes the crappy part.  We landed, got off the plan, and we (everyone on the plane who had checked luggage) made our way to pick up our luggage.  Well I waited and waited - for about 15 minutes after everyone else had gotten their luggage.  At this point it dawned on me that my luggage was in all likelihood lost - at very least not in VA.  In the end I found out that my luggage had not cleared customs in Toronto and the plane left without my luggage.  Anyhow, I was assured that it would arrive on the next flight at 5pm and that I would have my luggage later that night or early the next day.  Note to self and anyone reading this; "Do not believe airlines when they say your luggage will be back to you in a timely manner"

Anyhow, While waiting for my luggage and then trying to figure out what was going on with that situation  - Seph, Kenny's roommate called me and left a message; I called back and informed him that my luggage was MIA.  Eventually, he was able to locate the terminal and exit where I was waiting.  As I walked out the doors of the airport the first thing that hit me was the heat and humidity - it was unlike anything I'd ever felt.

After Seph picked me up we headed straight to his place as I was completely beat from being awake since 9am the previous day (Sunday).  So he dropped me off and told me that he had to run off as he was teaching a class at the academy.  I knew that all I was going to do was sleep and sleep I did.  I did not wake up till just before 6pm as I had heard some noise and decided to see what was up.  It was my other host Kenny Savercool back from surgery.  We had some chit chat, I paid my rent for staying here, asked about places to eat and such.  Then made my way out to the 7-11 near by to pick up some water as I was feeling very dehydrated and not much better with the heat.

I ended up finding a great Mexican food place and stuffed myself with steak tacos, nacho chips and salsa, and a guacamole dip. After which I made my way to Target to buy some supplies - washing stuff.  And made my way back to my place.  When I arrived Kenny was out - presumably from medication and just having shoulder surgery.

I spend a bout an hour trying to connect to the internet and finally did.  At this point I did some e-mailing and just mellowing out on the computer.  Eventually, I went up to my room and went to sleep.

Day 2 - still no clothes.  I ended up getting up kind a early but went straight back to bed.  I woke up late in the afternoon and showered and then went for a short walk then came back and waited for my baggage to arrive.  By about 9pm I realized that my stuff was not arriving so i went back up to my room and went to bed; unfortunately I was in one of those states where I was tired but my mind was racing and I could not settle down.  I was up till close to 6am which in turn had me sleeping most of the day on Wednesday.

So thus far my trip has been:

long drive to the airport in Calgary
long, late flight to Toronto
long wait to get through customs in Toronto
Arrive in DC to find that my luggage was not there waiting for me.
extreme heat and humidity once I arrived.
No change of clothes after 2 full days.
lots of sleeping and not training after 2 full days here.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this particular blog.  So to sum up my trip thus far - no luggage no fun!

p.s. I've not had the chance to take much pictures but I will get on that ASAP! 

In the meantime if your looking for some cool music to chill out to listen to this song by Robert Bradley I just rediscovered. This is soul music and I've been listening to it non-stop.  You may ask why music in a jiu jitsu themed blog?  Well music is one of the few things that helps me get through the day and life in general.  My tastes are diverse.  Enjoy!