A Good Night´s Sleep
Last night was my first night here that I was able to sleep through the night. I was lucky that one of the guys on the trip brought some ambien that he let me have. I was starting to get worried whether or not my sleep schedule would be regulated by the time I have to wrestle. Today the first group of competitors weigh in. I think that the weights that weigh in today are 55, 66, 84, and 120kg. Then tomorrow the rest of us, 60, 74,and 96kg weigh in and wrestle the day after. My roommates told me that even though I slept through the night last night that I was making a lot of noise. They told me this morning that I was snoring very loudly last night and that I was talking in my sleep. I don´t know if I do that normally, my wife has never really complained about it. Hopefully it won´t be a regular thing for the next couple of days. It is incredible how much a good night´s sleep can affect you. I feel so much better today than I have since I have been here.
Last night when I went out to eat with Brad, I took along my video camera to make a little video of my experience here in Finland. I am planning on videotaping a little bit everyday so that I have a nice little video by the time that I go back home. I wish that I would have been doing this everytime that I visited a country, I think that I have been to at least twenty different countries by now. I mentioned the same thing to my wife, and she thought that that would have been a good idea too. Better late than never. After going to Sweden this year, I am not sure what other trips that I will take that are out of the country. I know that I am going to Turkey in January and China in August, but I don´t know if there is going to be anything in March or April as far as winter tours are involved. I suppose that I should find that out soon.
The reading that I have been doing for my class has been pretty interesting. I have been reading about imperialism and the spanish influence in latin america. The aspects that I have found most interesting about the interaction between the spanish and the native people were that the spanish were received so well at first until they started destroying all of the native people. After that change in their relationship, it is easy to understand why there was so much animosity between the groups of people. The accounts go into pretty great detail about all of the bad things that were done to the natives as well as some of the extreme hardships that some of the early explorers went through. There was one explorer in particular who I think had a great deal of mental toughness and grit to survive everything that he did. I don´t remember his first name, but his last name was Cabeza de Vaca, which in Spanish means cowhead. Anyway the ships that he was traveling in were destroyed in storms, and he as well as his travelling companions had to do whatever they could to survive. They faced extremes of enviroment, thirst, hunger, and fatigue as well as being enslaved by certain indian tribes later to escape and make it home to Spain alive. This all happened over the course of at least 6-9 years. It was also interesting to see how some people fought so hard to survive while others gave in and went to their graves. Reading about all of the hardship that they had to face makes me appreciate even more the luxuries that I get to live with today. Those early pioneers and explorers were tough, really tough. I love to read stories about strong people who survive or excel in life whether it be sports, or business, or really anything. There is nothing quite like a story of an individual who faces adversity and manages to overcome difficulty and be a stronger more determined person because of it. Maybe that is why I like wrestling and sports so much. Everyday someone has to prove themself. I like that.
