New Panda Videos!

Hello All My Pandamaniacs!

I have some cool news to share with you all! I posted earlier about how I wanted to buy a new camera so I could shoot more videos to better document and share my adventures with you, and I even showed off the first walking tour video I made to give you a bit of an idea of what I wanted to start doing. Now I'm happy to day after my last visit to Iasi Romania I have some new videos to show off!

The City Tour Videos

I made another city tour video, this one way more in depth this time. The video is 20 minutes long and I explain some of the sites as I check them out as well as left links for them in the information section in the video on my Youtube Channel. I have posted it below, check it out and let me know what you think, feel free to give me advise on how to make it better, thanks!

These videos are in the new section titled 'Panda's Odyssey City Tours' on my YouTube channel.

The Training Videos

Another new video that I made and want to continue to make, with the club's permissions of course, is training videos. I tapped my training sessions with the club Absoluto BJJ Iasi (you'll have to wait for the blog post on Romania for more about them) and cut them up and mixed clips together in a time sped video. This gives you a taste of training there with them and an idea of mt experiences training with them. I hope to be able to make more of these videos with the clubs I visit and I hope you like the video too!

These videos are in the new section titled 'Panda's Odyssey @' on my YouTube Channel.

Another video type that I want to start doing, and really should have started from the beginning, is getting the instructors to do an technique for the channel, call it 'Panda's Feature Technique' and post videos from different clubs showing off a technique. I haven't shot one yet but the idea is I'll set up a camera on a tripod and the instructor either does technique with me or on another student and once they've explained it I then attempt it myself and they can correct as needed. That way not only do you see the instructional but also any mistakes or problems someone first attempting the technique might have and how to fix them. Once I tape my these videos I'll be sharing them around for sure, so be on the lookout for that added feature on my YouTube channel.

Help Support The Odyssey! 

Like I mentioned in the earlier post with the Moldova City Tour video these new features come with new expenses, I picked up a new camera for better picture and also had to buy an editing program so I had make the videos (YouTube is great so you can only do so much with their tools) So to help out with costs making the new videos I'm promoting my Teespring Strontfront and my Patreon Crowdfund in hopes people will help support the Odyssey and I can make lots more of these videos. 

Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store

As I posted before I have a collection of designs I've made on Teespring to promote the site and the Odyssey and help out a bit with the costs. There's a few different designs on a number of different tops, with more designs on the way (It's a slow process doing all this on my own). Each shirt sold send s few dollars towards my expenses and helping with the Odyssey. Not only do you help me continue to bring you awesome videos and stories of my adventures around the world but you also get an awesome Panda shirt too!   

Head to Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store on Teespring now!

Panda's Patreon Account

Maybe you have all the Panda shirts you want, or maybe those shirts aren't your thing and you'd like to help in other ways, my Patreon account is another great option to help me out on my adventures! Patreon, for those unfamiliar with it, is a crowdfunding site, but it's not like other sites where you just invest a large lump sum to help out, instead Patreon is designed to pay small amounts monthly so that it's easier for you to support your favourite artists and more consistent of a support for them. You can help support with as low as $1 a month, or if you want to sponsor and get your business name/logo on my blogs and videos you can subscribe to much larger amounts. Larger supports brings larger showings of thanks, I'm still adding more features on how to show my gratitude to everyone that supports, I'm open to options for that. For what equals out to pocket change or buying me a coffee once a month you're helping me continue this dream of traveling the world, going on adventures and bring all those stories back to you, now in new video formats!

Head to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Crowdfund now!

Thanks for any support, even if it's just sharing my blogs or videos to your friends, every little bit helps out the Odyssey.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Rome Italy: So Much To See!

Greeting From Rome Italy! (1-7 June 2017)

I made it to Rome on a quick bus trip from Naples, an uneventful ride but full of beautiful open country views. As busy as Rome is the transit is easy to read and the train routes, even being a simple system, hits all the necessary places. I picked up a week pass, which I highly recommend if you go to Rome, it's quite the discount from paying single fares and comes in very handy if you want to see all the sights. I made it to hostel easy enough, settled in and was off to get a start on seeing some of the many, many sights and get my legs moving again after sitting in a bus all day.

Making Friends!

I love seeing new cities, training at new clubs and meeting new Jiu-Jitsueros as I travel the world. Each city is an opportunity for new adventures and making new friends. However I didn't know how many new friends I would be making in Rome, not from the gyms but from staying at the hostel. Usually when I stay at a hostel everyone is busy with their own itinerary, but I had the luck of being in a hostel where everyone seemed very open to hanging out and making plans to see all the sights. With so many places to see it gets quite overwhelming making a plan to see everything on your own, so why not talk with a fellow hosteler, make a plan and go together, right? Quite a few people came and stayed for a day or two and left for another destination during the week I stayed in Rome and pretty much every day or night I would venture out to see some of the sights with someone. There are so many sights in Rome, and most you can see any time day or night, making for lots of opportunities for hostelers to make plans and explore the city. It's great to walk around in the evening either to stretch out after training or just get in more walking around the city and tire myself out for the day. Rome has tons of places to walk around and the sights all look different in the evening with the light on them, almost like seeing all whole new city in the evening. I've stayed in touch with some of the friends I made in Rome and I've enjoyed watching their journeys as I travel on my own, hopefully our paths will cross again.

A new friend, Fen from Paris who was just finishing her trip in Italy.

Another new friend from Germany.

Diana, who's been traveling the world seeing all sorts of sights.  

The Sights, The Many, Many Sights!

There are many, many sights to see in Rome and I took many, many pictures of them all, well all the sights I got to see, which was a lot. I tried to limit the pictures I posted here and let you head over to my Flickr Account to see them all.

Piazza Barberini

Trevi Fountain

This place was always packed, the stores are were expensive too, but they had some good pizza in the area!

Piazza di Spagna: Spanish Steps & Trinita dei Monti

The stairs are always full, it's a popular hangout and tourist spot.

The Vatican City

This was maybe 1/4 of the lineup to get into the Vatican City and museums, so glad I paid extra to skip the line.

One of the many Pope-mobiles on display.

They had many statues on display, and many, many rooms covered in paintings, but you'll have to head over to the Flickr account to see them.

The line up for St. Peter's Bascillica, I didn't go in. 

The Colosseum, Palatine Hill & Roman Forum

The lineup for the Colosseum, surprisingly it went fast. 

I'm not too sure which was the Palatine Hill and which was the Roman Forum but it's a great place to walk though and see some cool old structures. 

Pantheon

Pyramid of Gaius Cestius

Apparently the Pyramid thing tried to catch on in Rome too.

Altare Della Patria

This building is so massive it looks like it was built for giants.

Circus Maximus

Flow Jiu-Jitsu Academy

I will admit that I did more sight seeing than training in Rome but I did manage to make it out to some gyms. The the first was Flow Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which is inside a gym with a pool and tennis court. I actually thought it may be some sort of country club and that I had gone to the wrong place, since everything was closed when I showed up and I couldn't see any signs for the club. Luckily I met someone else who was there for Jiu-Jitsu sitting at a table enjoying the sun "You here for Jiu-Jitsu?" he asked and gestured to pull up a chair. We chatted a bit about about me visiting Rome while more people showed up and finally someone with a key arrived and let us all in. Everyone was friendly and happy to have a visitor, but there wasn't much time for talking as everyone was quite eager to get to training. We did a warm up, which killed me way more than it should have but the heat was getting to me. After warm up we worked some techniques, the class wasn't set up as a traditional class but instead it was more of open mat time to work on whatever technique you want. My partner asked if there was anything I wanted to go over and I realized with traveling around so much I really haven't been focusing on anything specific. He proposed open guard, I agreed and we spent the next half hour going over some open guard passes, helping each other fine tune our techniques.

After the technique drilling session it was time for rolling and these guys were more than ready to get their fix. I rolled with a few of them and I was on the defense, or just tapping, the whole time. The guys weren't malicious in any way but their games are very aggressive and whether I was travel worn or dried up from the sun or not I was not prepared to deal with these guys. As they say some days you're the hammer and other days you're the nail and I was the nail that day. I sat out for a few rounds and watched the class roll, there were some guys who were on fire, one in particular was just having his way with everyone, working on takedowns and guard passing and then seeming to reset. I eventually rolled with this guy, who's name I forget, to see how my game would be to defend his takedowns and try some of my own, it did not go so well. I remember at one point I got tripped and tried to work open guard with him and went to set up a sickle sweep, but he was so tall I couldn't get a foot on his hip and go for the sweep, his stance was so wide I was also missing sweeping the leg by a mile. I realized this sweep was never going to happen and just started laughing. "You're too tall, I can't even post off your hips!" We both stopped and laughed, agreed I had lost that one and reset. I wish there was more time to hang out and get to know the club more but the head coach, who I had been talking to online, was away and I struggled to find an ice breaker with the class. It was still an enjoyable time and I would drop by again if I was in Rome in the future. Thanks for class guys!

Aeterna Jiu-Jitsu

Another gym I made my way to visit was Aeterna Jiu-Jitsu, which is in the south end of Rome and inside a sports hall on top a hill, it's a bit of walking from the nearest train station but I found it without too much problem. Aeterna was my 75th gym visiting during this Odyssey so I was happy to hit the milestone and wish I could have set up a time to do an interview with the coach there, but they were also away when I visited. If I remember right there was a big tournament that had just happened so a lot of the black belts from the surrounding clubs were away for that. Anyways, I showed up to the front desk and asked where the Jiu-Jitsu was, after filling out a waiver the woman gave me some quick instructions I found the club and the change room. The gym hall is pretty big, with a series of rooms and hallways, I walked by the open weights area and navigated my way through the rooms as the front desk woman described and found the club. I'm not too sure what else what going on in the gym hall but it sounded like the place was busy with all kinds of tings going on. Aeterna itself is a big club, there were probably 30 people on the mats that night, and everyone seemed to be close to each other, chatting, joking, helping with techniques, like a close knit club should. I always love seeing everyone looking out for each other, it's a sure sign of the club being a positive environment.

After a good warm up we got in to drill techniques, which was more open guard just as I had been working on at Flow but now adding attacking some submissions as well. A few students asked about my BJJ Globetrotters gi and what I was doing in Rome but it was a pretty quiet class, there wasn't much chatting going with the new guy. When it came to rolling I started to not feel so well after the first roll so I took some time to rest and use the bathroom. My stomach apparently was deciding that this day would not be a good day to roll. I spent the rest of time just sitting on the sidelines watching everyone spar, feeling dejected that I'm spending my milestone 75th visited club on the bench. I felt like this visit was a dud, no good rolling, no interview, no good chatting and friend making. Not that any of this had anything to do with the club, everyone that I talked to and train with was great and I would love to visit the club again, it was just a bad day training for me. As I was leaving one of the club members saw me walking and asked where I was going, being a long walk to the train station he gave me a ride and we talked about my journey on the way. We chatted about a few things like his training and experience in Jiu-Jitsu so far, he was a white belt and hoping for his blue soon. It was a good note to end on, making a connection with a member of the club, making me feel better about the whole night being a less than desired night of training. Another club visited, another club I wished I had more time for and hope to visit again one day!        


After a busy week of sight seeing and experiencing Rome, and getting a little Jiu-Jitsu in, it was time to head out, I had a plane to catch to fly to the land of my ancestors, Switzerland!

The hostel, Roma Tempus, has everyone who stays leave a message on the walls, of course I left my mark.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

New Panda's Odyssey Shirts!

New Features To Come and New Gear To Support The Odyssey!

Whenever I get the chance to I like to work on new shirt designs for my Teespring Storefront. Since I'm very limited in my abilities to transfer my designs to actual products with a Chromebook while using unreliable internet while traveling it's been a slow process. I have a sketch book with a number of drawings I will one day make into shirts so keep and an eye on the storefront, in the meantime I've made a few designs and published them to help with the Odyssey. Before you ask, I'm not just asking you buy a shirt to help me travel and train 'paying for my 'vacation', I'm looking to pick up a Go Pro and make more videos as I travel, train, and check out sights. I made a test video below in what I'm looking to do more of for each stop. The camera I have now is very basic in it's abilities and although it's all I need for making interviews, a Go Pro would be much better for a number of reasons, better picture, more versatile and waterproof to name a few. I know there's probably a few of you reading this right now saying "I told you so!" and yes, I should have bought a Go Pro from the start instead of being cheap, just another case of live and learn. So anyways, Go Pro's aren't cheap and I don't have enough followers on my Patreon Crowdfund to cover an expense like this to add to Panda's Odyssey, so hopefully a few of you out there will buy some shirts to support the Odyssey so I can continue to travel and make more videos like this first test video of Chisinau Moldova.

This is a first try, more playing with effects than adding content. Future videos I'd like to walk around and see the sights with my hosts so I can get more information of the city. I also want to make similar videos for training, my friend T-Son does awesome videos of his club, Leading Edge MMA in Thunder Bay Ontario Canada, training and rolling together. I've been a fan of his video's from the first one I saw and I've always told him that's kind of what I want to add to covering my journey. Now it's time to do just that. But first, let's sell some gear to cover costs, so with that, here's the new designs I made!

PANDA! V2.0 Shirt

I re-designed the PANDA! shirt and added a black top option as well for all those asking for one. This is the first design I made for Panda's Odyssey and I'll always be keeping it around, tweaking it here and there. It features the Panda on the front, 'PANDA!' across the chest and the website address on the back. If you're a fan of the Panda logo then this shirts for you! As it is with every shirt, each one sold helps me on my journey across the world, traveling, training, meeting cool people, seeing awesome sights, making videos, taking photos and telling you all about my experiences so you know where the good, and not so good, places are!

White Panda! Top
Black Panda! Top

Panda's Odyssey Logo Shirt

Here's a new design using a layout that seems to be popular with shirts lately. The website in small print over the left chest and the patch logo design on the back. It's a simple but effective design, I really like seeing clubs with this option in their gear collection. There are three designs for this one, white shirts, black shirts with white background logo (Version 1) and black shirts with black background logo (Version 2).

White Panda's Odyssey Top
Black Panda's Odyssey Top V1 (w/white background)  
Black Panda's Odyssey Top V2 (w/black background)

Meditating Panda Shirt

This is a shirt idea that I really like, it's something that's been stuck in my head and I finally made it real to share with you all. The key to my traveling and being open to experiencing all the adventures that come my way, both the ups and the downs, is keeping a positive mind. The Meditating Panda symbolizes this. I embrace all the adventures and know that what ever I go through will only make me a better person and the greater the adventure the greater the story I will have for all you following me.

But I wasn't always this way, I didn't always have this 'Yes, let's see what adventure awaits for me!' attitude. There was a time where I was closed up and shut in to experiencing new things. When I first started this journey, just the idea of it and the planning out and researching everything, I was quite lost and depressed in my own little world. The original idea was to travel around and end with studying at the Shaolin Temples to find inner peace and belonging in this world. The idea was that this would be my last attempt at finding where I fit in. I would still love to spend some time studying in the Shaolin temples but as I researched and planned out this Odyssey the goal and shifted. I found the online Jiu-Jitsu communities and saw that I was not the only one wanting to travel and train, in fact it was quite a regular thing to do and thought as the 'true Jiu-Jitsu life' On top of this, as I made changes in my life to be more positive I started to come to training more and my club I trained at became my home, my family. The Odyssey switched it's motivation, I already found my belonging and inner peace before even starting my journey, it was on the mats training with everyone. The new goal was to go out and meet everyone, all the cool people just as passionate about the art as I am, who use Jiu-Jitsu to get through the day, week, month. I wanted to meet all the people that started Jiu-Jitsu for any number of reasons and share their stories, and my experiences meeting them as I see the world.

Fast forward to being on the road for several months and starting to reflect on the Odyssey and how much things have changed, how much Jiu-Jitsu pulled me up even before starting the Odyssey and how much my Jiu-Jitsu has changed since I've started traveling. I remember thinking at one point '3 years ago me would lose his shit at this situation' that's when this idea came to me, a play on a famous phrase from a popular anime 'This isn't even my final form..' now to me means I am constantly changing, evolving, growing with every experience and adventure I go on. How we change depends on our reactions to those experiences and although none of us know what our final form will be I for one am looking forward to the ride getting there! This is something that is in a lot of meditation styles and, more pertaining to the physical form, body builders and fitness trainers. Idea that you're not who you were last week and you won't be who you are now in a week from today. I find reminding myself of this keeps my mind open to experiencing the world, keeping the positive energy up and letting go all of all the negative around me. I hope there's many out there that this idea, and this design, speaks to, whether it be in the Jiu-Jitsu clubs, gyms, on the yoga mats, or just sitting on the bus or car in traffic, we're all growing each day.  

Help support Odyssey so I can continue to bring you more stories of my adventures around world where I continue to grow as well as meet people on their own journeys and  bring their stories to you.

White Meditating Panda shirts
Black Meditating Panda shirts

Options, Options, Options!

If you haven't already clicked on the links to check out the shirts you can see by the picture above that it's not just shirts I've put the design on, there's hoodies and tank tops, V-necks, girl's T's and unisex tops, there's options for everyone, or so I hope. Check them all out at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store on Teespring!

Thanks for supporting the Odyssey!

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey