Wrestling Blogs - Joe Williamson

I am lying here in bed anxious for what I might do today. Yesterday was a very long day of traveling, I could not sleep on any of the planes and by the time I got to Russia, I could hardly hold my head up. Exiting the plane I knew that I was not going to waste my day asleep so I convinced myself that I was wide awake. Not knowing who I was meeting at the airport made me a little nervous.

My guide for the trip will be Maksim Monolov, but I will not meet him until later today. He had one of his friends meet me at the airport, his name is Balzhir. When I left the customs area (which thankfully I did not get checked because I had two giant bags with 30 pairs of wrestling shoes for Maksim, could have caused a situation) I saw a man with a J. Williamson sign. We shook hands and then it felt like we were off to the races. We were weaving in and out of people making a run for a bus.

Balzhir was keeping a very close eye on me the whole time. Maksim kept calling too, to make sure everything was all right. This made me feel anxious like I was in some kind of trouble. When we exited the bus we took the longest escalator I have ever seen down to a subway. This whole time I am following Balzhir and we have almost no communication (he has been teaching himself English for 5 months and I only know how to say thank you and beer in Russian). A couple of subway rides later we met Balzhir’s friend Peter, who had a car. As we were driving, they were talking to each other and cracking up, I started thinking man what if this is a huge setup and I am being taken to a dark ally and am going to get jacked in the face and robbed. Don’t worry that never happened.

A few minutes later they took me to a restaurant, which was great the airline food tasted worse than it smelled. While I was there, I noticed pictures of wrestlers on the walls, something that I have never seen in the US. Peter dropped us off at a place we are staying at and I was surprised at how nice it is. I was glad to put down all of my stuff and the giant bags of shoes and sit down for a few minutes. I showed Balzhir flowrestling and he loved it. When he saw the names of most of the US wrestlers, he could tell me their weight class, and many of their credentials, it was amazing.

Later, he took me for a short walk. It was kind of fun trying to communicate with him. Even when I though that I did a good job of breaking something down for him he would say “yes” or “ok” and I knew he did not understand. I tried to shoot a short video with him but when I asked him a question, he just starred at the camera for a while so I put it down. Next he took me to McDonalds. I thought that I was crazy for traveling half way around the world and stepping foot in a McDonalds, but whatever. It was different, they had shrimp on the menu and I had an espresso. I got the camera out to get some footage and people were looking at me like I was crazy.

After McDonalds, Balzhir said the beer word. We walked down the street to a small store and he asked me what kind I liked. I told him to surprise me with some Russian beers so he got two different kinds, some orange juice, and some pistachios. We walked back to the apartment and sat outside and tried to communicate. It was enjoyable and the weather was nice. We learned some things about each other. I felt like I was playing charades. He had a lot of good things to say about Maksim who I will meet later. Some really good news is that Maksim has a strong tie to the wrestling community and is close with many Russian wrestlers. A good friend of his is Satiev. I am going to try and spend some good time with him and learn why he is so good. Maksim is the coach of the Russian Federations Woman’s team.

Balzhir told me that Maksim has great English and that is relieving. This will make it a little easier to get some great footage and learn from him. Besides meeting many great wrestler and teams, Maksim is going to take me around to see some culture and history that is in Russia.

I guess it is time for me to get moving. I don’t want to waste any more of the day in bed. I plan on keeping the camera rolling today so you guys can see everything that I get to see.