Originally Published February 19, 2011

We just got our internet up in the hotel and sent out a bunch of overdue emails. I will hopefully have a chance to write a good blog tonight but I thought I would get a few things out of the way quickly :-)

The flight was a monster.

Jason and I were up all night (we had one last training session to get in at 10pm before we left) so when we got to LAX Mon morning we were wiped. When we got to JFK we were shocked to see the great Fedor Emelianenko was on our flight. I did not approach him but some young fans did and he was very pleasant and gracious.

The flights were so long and cramped that I found myself thinking things like "Suffering is part of the journey" and "there is no rebirth without death". I know, crazy melodramatic stuff but believe me it was an impressive amount of discomfort spread out over a long period of time, at least for me.

We landed in Vladivostok and we did not even know what day it was or what time it was or what the hell we were gonna do next. We were picked up by the local GS champion...Rudnev just got here to pick us up so I have to run...stay tuned

kettle,