Hello everyone!
Just an update on planning my journey so far. It's been a month since I started acting on this dream and getting together a plan of attack and I must say that the outpouring support and help has been overwhelming! It's quickly gone from 'could I actually do this?' and 'how can I set this up?' to 'this looks very much possible!'
With the help from friends and family I've been given some great advice as well as found great connections online. Really talking to my training partners has been paying off. Everyone is supportive and anyone who has traveled or lived abroad sharing their information has helped, after all, if we share a love for martial arts we probably have more in common as well, like wanting to travel and train. Perhaps they hit up a place while vacationing, or traveling for work, as the saying goes 'Have gi, will travel!' I know for a fact I'm not the only one looking up places to train at any chance I get while going to a new place. Or perhaps they have lived over in Europe or other parts of the world and know of training areas, or just know how to cut costs living and getting around there, any and all information is valuable. You can always learn from someone else's experiences. It's also through them that I've found the helpful sites online and gained some valuable tips so far.
Facebook is a great source for starting and finding groups with similar interests and connecting with people from all over the world. So is Reddit, reading all the posts, and leaving some, about other people's experiences has helped, of course now I'm a Reddit junky looking up all sorts of tips for my game, but that's another story all together. One thing I have found through connecting with everyone online is a website, and their Facebook group, that is pretty much all about what I want to do, The BJJ Globetrotters http://www.bjjglobetrotters.com/ if anyone is reading this and also thinking of the doing the same thing this group is an invaluable asset! I am a member of their Facebook group and every day people are posting looking for, and getting help finding places to go train at, travel to, or where to stay. Amazing! The very network of global connections to travel and train between that I thought would take forever to find and make it already established! Of course it's not my network and until I start traveling and meeting people, making friends on the way I really wont have my network established, and it'll always be growing but this is an amazing start off point.
So there you have it, one month in and 23 more to go and it's already gone from an 'is this even possible?' to 'when can I start this?!' feeling. Awesome.
