When I first came to Rotterdam a few years ago for a World Cup there were banners all over the city proclaiming it "The Architectural City of the Year."

While the buildings and architecture remain just as stunning and unique as I remember, the banners hanging all over the city, on flag poles, across buildings and on every bus proclaim something different.Something that makes my heart simultaneously race with excitement and swell with pride. The banners advertise the fresh spirited faces of the Dutch Judo Team and welcome all to the Judo World Championships.

Myself, Jeff Fong and our team doctor, Robert Nishime, flew from San Francisco  this morning to Chicago where we met up with Katie Sell,Kayla Chapell and Michael Eldred. There we jumped on a seven and a half hour flight to Amsterdam which, for me, wasn't so bad - especially when you sleep for almost half of it. :)

I have managed to maintain my weight very well since moving back down to 57kg and was thrilled to eat and drink while traveling. We arrived and met up with our awesome team manager Chris Skelley and headed to the venue to drop off our gi's for patches.

Then we checked into the Hilton - one of the five host hotels for the event - and then headed to one of the many sports arenas in the city. Coach Pedro led a nice 40-minute workout for us and it felt great to move around and sweat after traveling all day.

The team seems excited to be here and everyone is getting along great.We then headed back to the hotel and met for dinner on the second floor, reserved for athletes and staff. I was only a kilo over after our workout and got to enjoy some awesome salmon,pasta and cauliflower(like any of us need more of that! Ha!) I even ate a piece of what might have been the best chocolate cake ever made.

Then we had a team meeting to go over what to expect for the next week and received some great words of wisdom from Coach Jimmy Pedro about fighting here at the Worlds. It was very motivational for me and, I'm sure, for the others on the team and personally helped me focus even better on the task at hand. We were then issued our newly patched gis, a few T-shirts courtesy of USA Judo and Green Apple Cleaners (both very cool, thank you so much!) and even a Chicago 2016 track baton, which is also very cool and handy for bonking people over the head...ha!

In closing, it seemed like the training and suffering myself, and I know the rest of the team went through all summer in preparation for this event, seemed like it would never end. But now, in the blink of an eye, we have arrived in Rotterdam.

Today we are tired and jet lagged,but tomorrow is another day that will only bring us closer to fighting! WAHOO!