A private party for two.

Just you...

... and me = perfect.

Highlights of my Day... Thursday, July 9

1. Did running and weight training at La Sya in the morning and ran into No-Neck and his no-people-skills manner.
2. It rained like a mofo and so because of it Junior Mint insisted we keep all the windows closed. So while the massive downpour brought a chill to downtown Cheonan, it was like a sauna in the boxing club. Junior Mint made me wear my sweat suit and so it plus the hot stale air of the club meant I seriously thought I was going to pass out… well, either that or drown in my own sweat!

3. While I was at boxing Snickers thought he’d take it upon himself to literally deface one of my walls in my apartment. When I arrived home, I opened the door and was completely bombarded by a nasty smell. It was wallpaper paste mixed with the smell of pee. Apparently Mi Nam couldn’t take the excitement of Snickers’ mess and had peed on his bed, on his sweater, and on the floor…. Nice.

4. As for the wall, it looks, well… it looks like I’ll have to get use to it. Snickers was laying on the couch when I arrived home and by the look on his face, I could tell he didn’t look too happy. He said the wall looked ugly but honestly, it doesn’t look so bad. I mean, now I have a small wall of massive red flowers that are rather pretty, minus the minor bubbles in the paper that is. He had also tried to fix the two steps that Mi Nam had once chewed away. Leave it to Snickers to do something totally sweet like this. I could have cared less whether the wall looked beautiful or had been splattered with ugliness because the fact of the matter was I’ve never had someone done so many sweet things for me and tried so hard to make me happy. He makes me happy… continually.

5. Tonight Snickers and I had a little date planned. It was a dinner and movie date that I had planned. We were to start off with dinner at Mainz (my favorite restaurant) and then we were going to catch a flick at the local theater.

6. Dinner was a huge success and Snickers ate enough to surely feed a small country… hahaha. He kept his “A.D.D.-wanna-be” manners to a minimum and I had wore a dress for the occasion.

7. Snickers loves learning things about Western culture and so tonight I tried to teach him the correlation between the game of baseball and dating. “First base is holding hands…” I started to tell him. Turns out Snickers is well aware of baseball and so he was quick to blurt out “I want a grand slam!”… hahaha. I’m not sure how that works out though, considering a grand slam involves players on each base, thus 4 home runs, if I’m correct on that. I joked and told him that I was just hoping for a kiss at the end of the date but wow, way to aim high… hahaha.

8. Our movie portion of the date wasn’t as successful as dinner. No good movies were playing and we ended up changing our tickets at last minute when we realized we had bought tickets for a French flick. It’s been such a long time since I’ve ever walked out on a movie but tonight that’s how the movie portion of our date ended, with us walking out. Julianne Moore starred in the movie, “Savage Grace”, and so I was quite disappointed considering I’ve always liked her movies and considered her a great actress. But this movie, oh gosh. I can’t stand these wanna-be artsy movies that turn out to be nothing but silly rubbish and a waste of both my time and money. And as a result, Snickers now holds the reins for picking the next movie we get to see cause I totally killed it by picking this pathetic perverted flick.

9. After skipping out on the movie, we then did some window shopping. We walked around downtown hand-in-hand and then headed back to my house where I then scored the goodnight kiss I had anticipated for.

10. Somehow our goodnight kiss lead into a discussion about weddings. Personally, I can’t stand modern day Korean weddings that are all show and no feeling. Weddings here aren’t like weddings in Western culture where you get married in a church and have the big reception. Instead, weddings here tend to be all for show, with the wedding happening either at a wedding hall or outside at some traditional place like a palace, both of which have no real connection to the groom or bride. Moreover, the reception usually consists of people eating while the ceremony is in motion. Snickers and I talked about it tonight and we both decided that we both really don’t care about a big wedding ceremony, not just because it’ll suck up our cash but because we really don’t care to impress a bunch of people who, in couple of years, if that, down the road will probably not even remember our wedding. We’re both beyond trying to impress others and are much more interested in taking that massive lump of cash and investing it in a beautiful apartment. And so, as we laid on my floor chatting about wedding talk, we came up with a cool idea. Why not get married on the mountain beside Snickers’ house?! We’d have it in the fall when the tree leaves have changed colour. Our evening reception would be beautifully lined with candles and it’d be more like a fusion reception. We’d have Korean food for dinner but dinner would be followed with dancing under the stars. It’d be a small but beautifully intimate wedding, consisting of only those we truly love.

QUESTION OF THE DAY…
Are we not like two volumes of one book?

QUOTE OF THE DAY…
Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Beyond exhausted...

... but still training hard

because the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra... and I'll be damned if I let my opponent get that extra over me.

Highlights of my Day... Wednesday, July 8

1. I am the Protein Pancake Master super hero… apparently… and my weapon is my blender. I'm a blender-maniac, or so Snickers called me... hahaha.

2. Spent a good chunk of my day trying to catch up on my Korean diary writing. It’s been somewhat neglected because of training for my previous fight.

3. Junior Mint seems to have it in his mind to give me the hardest time possible at training and so today I had a hell of a training with him. He was continually up in my face, yelling at me and threatening to hit me with that dang metal stick. I caught on a while back not to ever complain at training cause it only brings upon more training and possible beats, but today when he insisted I lied about how many rounds I went on the heavy bag, I wanted nothing more to crack him one . I had done six full rounds on the heavy bag but he was convinced I had only done four and so instead of questioning me more, he told me to start my heavy bag work all over again. So I did six additional rounds but for these rounds he held the bag and got all up in my face. I could feel my blood boiling in my blood and so I purposely aimed my punches super close to where he gripped the sand bag and with many of those punches I did actually hit his fingers.

4. Training lasted a good two and a half hours and left me dragging my heels as I walked home in pure exhaustion. I walk the same path to and from boxing everyday and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve dropped into Lotte Super after training and was greeted by strange stares when I walk in drenched in sweat. I usually throw on a sweater after training, despite the crazy hot Korean summer weather, but with my dripping pants, it looks like I either fell in a pool or peed myself… hahaha.

5. Headed off with Snickers’ for dinner with K-Gere. Snickers and his overuse of sarcasm and jokes makes it easy to pin the two as father and son. Tonight they tried to convince me that it’s “Korean manner” to sit like Buddha when watching TV and when laying down and watching TV, it’s “Korean manner” to cross both your legs and hands… hahaha.

6. Jokes of the night centered around my hate of bugs and the fact that I was overly excited to stumble across all the English channels they had on their TV. I got to watch Oprah… I haven’t watched Oprah in years, let alone any real English channel. I have about 7 channels on my TV because I don’t care to pay for more channels. I’m not a TV-watcher. I do however have 2 Japanese channels and sometimes they play really old, really cheesy English movies.

7. After dinner, K-Gere goggled a map of Canada and asked me numerous questions about where I live and just how big Canada is. He’s so fascinated about Canada and it’s interesting to note how in his eyes Canada represents the land of freedom and opportunity.

8. Dinner and chats about Canada and “Korean manner” were followed by K-Gere driving us back to downtown so that we could do some late night weight training and running. K-Gere sent me home with a bag of massive tomatoes and spicy dried squid.

9. Both Snickers and I were running on low energy today and so late night training consisted of running on the treadmill and then doing ab work.

10. Late night training, and training for that matter, is always, always, always followed by eating. I think it’s the notion of eating after training that helps motivate me to train hard and get my butt back home. Tonight’s eating consisted of me making Snickers and I a mocha latte, banana split slushy… delish.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What drives you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Follow your passion, and success will follow you.
-- Arthur Buddhold

July 25, 2009... it'll be the only chic fight but we definitely won't be fighting like typical "chicks"!

The new UP Boxing Club shirts finally arrived today... and I've already defaced mine by cutting off the sleeves.

The oatmeal keeps on coming so I'll keep on smiling.

Highlights of my Day... Tuesday, July 7

1. Via the beauty of the Internet, I made my own peanut butter

2. … and almond butter

3. … AND protein ice cream!!! Although, I must admit that my butter wasn’t so great and my mocha latte protein ice cream was missing the recipe required coconut extract that but at 70 grams of protein, 16 grams of carbs, 12 grams of fat, and only 300 calories per serving, the heck with that coconut extract; it was delish!

4. As of 1:10pm I became officially student-mark-free… cool! And for the record, no I definitely didn’t give into that stalkerish-mother and her stalkerish-son (now I see where he learned his stalker skills from) and no, I also didn’t give into that graduate student. I did however end up changing one student’s mark and it was only because I had made a simple mistake. I had forgotten to add in his final exam mark, no biggie though.

5. Gave myself a nasty “self-panda” at training today, well, Junior Mint kind of helped there. Ever since Panty Boy Jr.’s last fight where he went the full ten rounds and ended up with quite the swollen face (hence where the panda reference came from) Junior Mint and I have created this ongoing joke about pandas, as in panda bears and swollen boxer faces resembling them. Anyways, while doing pad work today, Junior Mint called out a new combo and I didn’t quite catch on and so his pad, my face, and me throwing a strong upper cut all made contact at once. Smack went the pad and the glove on my face and down I went. Junior Mint was practically in tears laughing as I laid on the boxing ring floor with my face growing red by the second. I had smack my left eye pretty hard and was seeing stars.

6. Tea time with Kitty Cat always seems eventful as Tom N’ Toms overlooks downtown Cheonan where action never seems to stop. Last time it was the multi-tasking walking-puking man but today’s entertainment came in the form of a fight. We weren’t really sure what started the fight but it was between two grown men, one of which who’s son tried to break up the fight and the other of which who’s wife thought she’d return to the scene of the crime with her husband in the car. The end result, the one dude chased after the car and then left with the other guy’s bike. Come on guys, can’t we just settle things like real men… rock-paper-scissors?!

7. Scored oatmeal from Kitty Cat and then Snickers showed up with a container full of pickled onions and garlic from K-Gere… wicked!!! Now if only I could some how integrate the two in a recipe… hahaha.

8. Oh gosh, the things that Snickers is learning from me would shock most people… hahaha. Beyond the random English vocabulary we’re making up and the funny tid bits I’m teaching him about Western culture, he’s been coming up with the strangest of strange questions… hahaha. I had told him once about my male bodybuilding Canadian buddies who shave their entire bodies because it helps show the muscle and definition more. Well, tonight after weight training, he rushed out of the guy’s change room, all eager to tell me that he saw some foreign dude naked. I think he's Ukrainan, or something; definitely European and he doesn't speak English. Anyways, Snickers had connected the story of the “personal grooming” habits of my buddies with what he saw during shower time and so he blurted out “You’re wrong Amy… he MUST be a Canadian!” Leave it to Snickers to tell me some strange and deranged story like that… hahaha.

9. After training we went for a late, late dinner. It was midnight but the restaurant beside Sambu is open 24 hours and so we headed there for a quick bite. Snickers loves making a fool out of himself for the sake of getting a good giggle out of me and tonight he definitely succeeded with getting quite the giggle out of me.

10. … he got more than just a giggle out of me though, he also got my soup. The last time anything strange came out my nose was a bloody nose I scored while playing field hockey in high school, some ten years ago or so but tonight the strangest of strange came out my nose… my soup. Yup, that’s right. Snickers thought it’d be funny to spit out his rice at the dinner table with his A.D.D. impersonation and so I had but a split second to grab my hand towel to stop the flow of soup that was coming out my nose… oh my gosh!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's the strangest thing that's ever come out of your nose?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Humor is a reminder that no matter how high the throne one sits on, one sits on one's bottom.
-- Taki

Hung out at Snickers' new boxing club... am lovin' the cozy leather couches!!!

And I'm definitely lovin' the "view"... hahaha.

Eat your heart out girls. My man's sporting some sick, sick abs!

Everyone seems to want a piece of him lately, whether it's Dynamic Boxing with his human documentary or today's newspaper reporter that came out, it's good to see that he's getting due attention.

If you missed tonight's human documentary special on him, don't worry, it'll be airing again.
Friday, July 10th at 10am, on MBC ESPN.

Highlights of my Day... Monday, July 6

1. On account that Bella Punch is now injured, my training schedule has yet again been revised.

2. Trained today besides one of my favorite High School Kiddies, Sunny-Boy. I’ve known him for about 2 years now and it’s been pretty cool to see him evolve from plump to pumped, but he’s still just as shy.

3. My friend, and I’m using that term loosely here cause the girl works at a local store I visit so I don’t really know her at all besides the couple advice and training questions she poses for me, anyways… my friend gave Snickers and me “couple sandals” today… hahaha. So cute. She’s been married for some years now but she’s got it in her mind that she’ll be attending my wedding soon. “You’re going to get married next year, I just know it!” she told me today. I don’t know about that but she’s not the only one who’s pushing the issue of marriage in my court. Some of the guys at the boxing club reminded me today that they still haven’t got their invite. Invite?! I still haven’t even got the question… hahaha. No rush kids… relax.

4. Spent my afternoon hanging out at Snickers’ boxing club working on my homework while some newspaper reporter interviewed him and then did a photo shoot with him. He worked up quite the sweat in the new Adidas boxing shorts that were sent to me and he looked so handsome. I joked with him about only training in boxing trunks and he laughed it off but when I told him I’d be wearing my naked-pants (my Adidas cycling pants that hug every nook and cranny on your body) to weight-training tonight, he responded with a frown… hahaha. I love it how he’s all about getting a reaction out of me but he doesn’t quite like it when I do it to him… hahaha. In so many ways he’s such a typical Korean boyfriend but I think that’s part of the attraction I have to him as a Korean man. He doesn’t seem to care if his buddy’s girlfriends wear short skirts or revealing clothes, but put me in a short skirt or a low top and you’ll be quick to spot us out in a crowd. He’ll be the one tugging at my skirt to somehow mysteriously make it longer and he’ll be the one picking up or doing things for me so that I don’t have to bend over and risk revealing anything… hahaha.

5. He snuck winks and kisses when the reporter wasn’t looking and when I looked seriously engaged in my studying, he’d whistle at me to distract me. That boy totally adores me, I know this. He knows I adore him, too. Snickers has it in his mind that I’m some kind of Polish Princess and on many days he ups my status and calls me Queen. I think it’s rather cute but sometimes I feel nervous about this pedestal that he’s placed me on. It wasn’t until just recently that I even dared to let him see me without my make-up on. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wear a lot of make-up but I don’t dare leave the house with at least blush and mascara on. I have clear skin but make-up has always been somewhat of a security blanket I’ve always leaned on. Snickers insisted I step away from my “blanket” and so now, after we return from training together, I let him see me without make-up on. He knows No-Neck's "you're fat" comment has bothered me the past couple of days and so he teases me by pinching my side. "I'm phat baby... not fat, and if you don't like how my body looks then don't look at it" I tell him but who am I kidding. Snickers is always trying to be all over me like a fat kid on a cookie... hahaha. I know my body is no where close to where I want it to be but that's okay because everyday I'm getting close and closer. I'm not sitting around complaining about my body but instead am doing something about it. Snickers, on the other hand, I'm convinced he's not human. He's a machine. It's the only way I can accept the fact that he can sit and eat ice cream everyday and still sport a disqustingly gorgeous 6-pack and solid body.

6. Snickers’ coach took us all out for dinner tonight at the restaurant that’s in the same building as their new club. Snickers was proud to tell all the workers there that I was his girlfriend and Snicker’s coach, Homeboy-C, seemed proud too and so he told the waitresses about how I have an upcoming fight and how I’ll be Korea’s next female flyweight champion. Having the approval of Homeboy-C means a lot to me, as I know it does to Snickers too. Initially we were worried that the notion of “us” would be greeted with frowns and disapproval by both our coaches, especially from Homeboy-C, but he’s been very supportive of us. And him asking me to swing by the club so that later we could go for dinner was really something special to me.

7. Snickers’ TV human documentary aired tonight at 9pm and so I texted the boys at the boxing club, along with many of my friends, and off to Snickers’ house he and I went to watch it. With the exception of part of my interview, it was all in Korean and so I think I understood about 60% of it. They showed Snickers’ one-lost fight, a brutal fight in which he was knocked out. It was my second time seeing the footage of this particular fight but I cringed when I saw it, just like I did the first time I watched it. It didn’t seem to phase Snickers but I knew watching it must have bothered him. I still to this day can’t bring myself to watch my first fight over again and so I still haven’t seen the replay of it. Besides that though, Snickers looked gorgeous on the screen and I felt so proud watching him, knowing that a bunch of my buddies, the boys at the club, my Korean teacher, and many others around Korea had tuned in to watch my beautiful and talented boyfriend.

8. Upon seeing me on TV with Snickers’ sister, I immediately started giggling…. hahaha. Upon seeing the fact that they hadn’t edited out Snickers kissing me on the cheek and me giving a long silly cheek kiss to him, we both burst out into laugh laughter. Later on Snickers’ father called us and told us that Snickers’ grandfather is even more eager to meet this “silly-foreign-kisser”… hahaha. Now everyone in Korea knows Snickers and I are a couple and now they know we’ve got future plans, too.

9. No sooner did the show end but Snickers and I then jumped into a cab, swung by my house to get my running shoes and then we headed off to weight training at La Sya. We started our training off like usual, a fast-paced run on the treadmill and then we went about our separate ways for our own routines. Snickers trained legs and I worked on back and biceps.

10. When Snickers headed off to shower I continued training. I usually end my weight training with some pull-ups but just as I was about to jump up and grab the pull-up bar a man yelled out my name. I turned and there approaching me was an older man wearing a huge smile. We chatted for awhile before I asked him “Sorry… who are you?” Turns out it was the club’s manager. He had heard all about Snickers and I from the trainers and so he wanted to welcome us to his club and extend some kind of friendship by offering us a discount on our membership. “Professional athletes get a discount” he said. “Professional athletes…. Like who?! Snickers and I only bring the pro count to two here!!!” I thought to myself. Regardless, I appreciate his generosity but was rather humoured by it. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that next month we’ll be returning to Hongik where I can get a free membership because my buddy owns the gym and where the trainers aren’t so superficial or in love with themselves.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who, being loved, is poor?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Without love, the rich and poor live in the same house.
-- Author Unknown

My beautiful man.

Tune into MBC ESPN on Monday, July 6th at 9pm to catch his human documentary.

Here's a previous TV special he did. I'm not too sure of the date of it but he filmed it at my boxing club... yet another time our life paths could have crossed... wild!

Highlights of my Day... Sunday, July 5

1. Going to bed around 4am high as a kite from the adrenaline of riding meant waking up for boxing at 12:30pm was pushing it.

2. Showed up for boxing with puffy eyes and mad bed head but with a simple turn of the volume knob I easily clicked into training mode and so off I trained for the next hour and a half.

3. Had an appointment with a cardiologist today, how scary was I going into that appointment?! Ya… not fun. This upcoming September will mark a particularly uncomfortable two-year anniversary for me that originally stemmed from my previous years of depending on ephedrine take me from working full time at the club to sitting through hours of lectures at university. I’ve taken the required precautions, with the exception of staying away from my boxing, and have been attending my cardiologist appointments.

4. Did the usual tests, like previous appointments. A stress exercise test, an echo cardiogram, an electrocardiogram (I think that's what they called them), some x-rays, blood work, and whatnot.

5. Snickers was off on an overnight fishing trip with his boys and so I went to my appointment by myself. It was rather nerve racking, to say the very least, but then something so sweet happened. I got a text message from Snickers’ father, K-Gere. It was the first text message I had ever got from him and I was impressed with his attempt at English. I'm sure it must had taken him a while to type that message and he must have used the Internet, regardless, it definitely helped cheer me up. K-Gere is awesome!!!

6. I attend bi-monthly appointments with my cardiologist but this is the first time I’ve ever written about it. Tonight was the first time I told Snickers about it.

7. Snickers insisted I stop boxing but tomorrow I have another appointment with my cardiologist and so I’m hoping he’ll have some news to put Snickers’ and my nerves at rest.

8. If I stop boxing, I may as well just pull the plug on my heart. It’d be pointless to stop at this point. My life in Korea centers around my boxing. Snickers, as you can imagine, was super nervous listening to me as I started the story from when it all started, back in 2001 when I first started bartending.

9. Despite the intense conversation topic of the evening, I ended up introducing Snickers to the wonderful world of Reese Peanut Butter Cups… he’s not impressed and had I not literally let him eat the pieces I had already bite off and half chewed (yes, I think it’s nasty too but he seems to think it’s adorable… like a baby bird or something… hahaha) then he wouldn’t have eaten any more than the first piece. No worries, more for me!!!

10. Tomorrow Snickers’ human documentary hits the TV and so if you’re in Korea, be sure to check it out. MBC ESPN at 9pm. It’s a one hour special and I’ll be in it for about five minutes, if that… hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What makes your heart beat?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If you want to be happy, be.
-- Leo Tolstoy

They never did let us play in the kiddie park but we were probably the two biggest kids there.

Oh gosh... and to think they put this dude in the "Kids Zone"... hahaha.

Scary looking but super talented.

Nice legs guys... hahaha.

Gotta love an independently strong and super power chick!

Highlights of my Day... Saturday, July 4

1. Despite being a proud member of UP Boxing Club here in Cheonan, today I headed out and worked for our competitor, Snickers’ boxing club. Together Snickers and I marched out to his old stomping grounds, his former high school, and handed out fliers to the students. Between the two of us, in less than an hour we had handed out over 300 club fliers.

2. Snickers had fun watching me run up to students and randomly chat up the club. Some of the girls gave me strange looks, as if to say “girls don’t box” and so I’d blurt out “do you like my s-line? I got it at boxing… come on, let’s go together!”… hahaha. For the most part students were a bit thrown off by me, a total white chick, approaching them in the street and trying to talk to them in Korean. I had a lot of fun with it, minus the crazy old male teacher that yelled at me that is. I saw him coming in the distance. He was ripping the fliers out of the students hands and then when he approached me he tried to tell me that he found those fliers on the ground. Snickers told me to forget about him but I spoke up and asked him “Do you teach your students to lie, too?” And with that he turned away and didn’t bother us again.

3. Another boxer at my club is scheduled to fight at the same tournament I’ll be fighting at and so today we trained together. We cranked up the tunes and left the windows all closed, making it quite the rockin’ sauna to train in.

4. Headed off to Little America to meet up with Pro Star. He’s heading off to the Korean army soon and so today was our last chance to kick up our feet and have fun before he leaves. Mind ya, him showing up with one of his golf students (who’s 13 and never left our side I should note), meant we really couldn’t relax, or at least I couldn’t. He was a cool kid but he was experiencing diarrhea of the mouth and so it was non-stop talking… talking about everything and anything. I had come hoping that it'd just be the two of us. He's been having issues with his girlfriend lately and I haven't seen him in awhile and so I was hoping we could just talk. Totally didn't happen.

5. No sooner did we arrive at the festival but then Pro Star’s father made yet another one of Pro Star’s students to tag along with us. He didn’t speak a word of English and so I liked being able to practice my Korean but considering he was spooked when I flexed for him, meant that he didn’t really talk to me. He more or less was afraid of me for a good couple of hours and so he tried to stay away from me. For the most part my afternoon consisted of listening to the one kid ramble on, the other kid repeatedly call me a man, and then Pro Star started up complaining about his girlfriend. It was now 5pm and she was somewhere in Seoul dazed, confused, and drunk. Great, I thought, just great. Why did I come here again?... all for the sake of what???… protein shake mix?!

6. The festival was cool. I got to watch a B-Boy team break-out their dance moves, I scored some free white chocolate dipped strawberries from some random dude, and I got into quite an interesting conversation with this guy about weight training. The place was buzzing with super-sized Americas and lots of English… hahaha.

7. Going on base meant scoring some western goodies. That’s where the 13 year old kid came in handy. Pro Star couldn’t buy anything on base because he’s Korean but the one kid leaves there and is Korean/American. He was my ticket to protein shake mix, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, and an issue of Oxygen Fitness magazine.

8. I lasted longer than I thought I could in Little America but I had reached a point where I seriously turned to Pro Star and blurted out, “If you say one more complaint about your girlfriend, I’ll definitely give you something else to complain about… stop it!” Seriously, nothing is more of a downer than listening to someone go on and on about their sour relationship or sour anything. Sure you can chose who you date but you can’t chose who you fall in love with, but I what these two share is short of love; it’s just whacked.

9. I had briefly met up with D-Boy and had planned to stay the night so that we could hangout downtown in Little America, but after hours of the nonsense that I had tried hard to digest, I wanted nothing more to get my Polish butt back to Cheonan.

10. Panty Boy was cruising around Cheonan when I arrived back and so no sooner did I get home but I was once again stepping out the door. Broke some rules and had some fun.... and thankfully didn't crash either... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who invited the kiddies?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won't have time to make them all yourself.
-- Alfred Sheinwold

How come it's always me kissing him in photos?! In real life this guy is always trying to steal my Polish kisses left, right and center!

Looking all calm, cool and collective.

But don't be decieved, we a couple of nuts... and we're not about to change!

Highlights of my Day... Friday, June 3

1. So much for Wonder Bread’s dropped jaw constipated look I left him stuck in at the Gangnam Bus Terminal yesterday. Apparently it was only temporally because today I woke up to him texting me, “Are you coming to Seoul tomorrow?” Does this boy not stop, seriously?!

2. Last night I talked to Junior Mint about my training schedule and urged him to seriously reconsider having me come in two times and then having to do weight training and jogging. I rather just head into boxing and go hardcore at it once than come in for two mini training sessions and so that’s what we finally agreed upon, although he didn’t really seem a fan of it. So now I’ll be heading into training everyday at 10:30am. My sparring partner will be coming in too and so we’ll be doing “match-boxing” (don’t quote me on that term there). Match-boxing is like shadow boxing but with an opponent and so you don’t really hit your opponent.

3. Training today was good… real good and I was quite pleased. I had gone hardcore with match-boxing for a good 6 rounds after doing 30 minutes of skipping and 8 rounds of shadow boxing. Match-boxing was followed by 6 rounds on the heavy bag, 4 more rounds of shadow boxing, 15 minutes of ab work and push-ups.

4. Got a good chunk of hair ripped out of my head today at practice when a piece of Junior Mint’s boxing pad got caught on my hair elastic. I felt the pull but when he instantly pulled the pad away, we all heard the noise. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!!! Dang. So not only am I scoring mad body bruises from head to toe but now my hair is being pulled out, great.

5. Got somewhat caught up on my Korean language studies homework while Snickers worked away at his boxing club. It was nice to finally have some time to digest all the grammar rules and vocabulary that’s being thrown at me via tutoring and homework.

6. In between trying to do my Korean diary writing and actual workbook homework, I was repeatedly interrupted by the Dankook assistant. The poor girl has been being harassed for the past couple of days by one of my students who I failed. Today that very same student arrived at Dankook with his mother… yes, you read that right… HIS MOTHER!!! His mother insisted the assistant call me up, hand over all his homework, quizzes, exams, and dissect his mark for her. Hmmm… let me think about that.. how about “NO”, or better yet “HELL NO!” The student failed due to his poor attendance and so no quiz mark or what not was going to save him. Moreover, no mother who insists that he was present in all my classes will ever win my attention and so when they texted my phone repeatedly, I didn’t even bother to respond in Korean but instead kept on writing the same message; “I will not change your mark”. I figured my text was short, simple and easy enough for both of them to understand, apparently not however, and so my phone was flooded with numerous messages from them. I refuse to change marks, I’m not a lying teacher, but even if I was going to go in to talk to them about the matter, the fact that the kid showed up with his yelling mother is where I draw the line. I would NEVER think of getting my mother to fight my battles. Has he no pride?! He should be embarrassed. Being a 20-some-year-old university student and running off to cry to my mom and get her to fight your battles is no way to take responsibility for your actions and is not the way to earn the respect of others.

7. Still have no official nickname for a particular coworker of mine whom I occasionally have coffee with but I’m thinking that Kitty Cat is somewhat appropriate… hahaha. Tonight I finally got a chance to meet up with her again at Tom N’ Toms for girl chat time. My high energy bars proved to be yet another big hit… sweet!!!

8. Talk about multi-tasking, while sipping on my tea I saw some older man literally walk by, puke and continue on. He didn’t even stop or even so much skip a step in his walk. It was the most bizarre thing I saw today, for sure!!!
9. Someone once told me that 50% of what you joke about is true and I continually tell this to Snickers because he seems to find joking about “girl-hunting” and whatnot funny. I think he’s more interested in my reaction than anything. He made a joke about “girl-hunting” and so I told him “I don’t need to do any hunting, I’m the hunted”… hahaha. Tonight my comment was all too true when we headed over for weight training and running at La Sya. We usually go early in the morning but today we headed in after 10pm. Word about two pro boxers now training at La Sya apparently hit the social gossip grape line and so upon walking into the gym we were literally swarmed by all the trainers and various members who had lots of questions to ask us. Snickers ate up the attention but I slapped on my baseball cap, turned up my iPod and made my way through the crowd of onlookers. The only question they ended up getting me to answer was “Where are you from?” upon with I responded with, “Cheonan”… hahaha.


10. Originally Snickers had told me to stick to only speaking English at La Sya, hoping that they wouldn’t understand and so thus they’d be discouraged from continually talking to me. So much for that plan because apparently a couple of the trainers speak a bit of English and while I waited for Snickers to finish showering, a couple of the male trainers tried yet again to bombard me with questions. They spoke English and I answered in Korean, later I had a good chuckle at that. “You have a great body!” one noted. “Thanks, tell that to Arnold [aka No-Neck] who called me fat the other day!” I blurted out.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who fights your battles?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
-- Confucius

Much love to my Polish Mama and Adidas France!!!

(... and yes, to you too Mi Nam... lol)

Can you say "holy oatmeal"?!

... and do you think they sent me enough hand wraps?!

Highlights of my Day... Thursday, July 2

1. Despite initially wanting to hit the gym with early morning jogging and weight training, I woke up with just enough time to cook my oatmeal pancake and scurry my Polish butt off to catch my bus to Seoul.

2. Yes… can’t skip my breakfast. One of the joys with having to only weigh-in at 51kgs means that I don’t really have to go all hardcore with my dieting… yah for that!!! So instead of having my no-carb days and low-carb days, I back to utilizing my three day plan (high-carb days, low-carb days, and no-carb days mix).

3. My high energy bars were a big hit with my Korean teacher and surprisingly enough she was quite understanding when I showed up with half my homework completed. “I’m becoming the very student I want to kick” I blurted out.

4. Wonder Bread thought he’d spice up my day by doing one of his occasionally surprise attacks at the bus terminal in Seoul. Today marks the third time he’s randomly showed up and made an embarrassing situation. “But I love you.. .how can you love him?” he asked. “Simple” I answered, “… because I don’t love you… never have, never will and unless you want to pick up your teeth I suggest you let go of my arm!” I thought that simple threat would end the embarrassing bus terminal situation that was now attracting the attention of those around but it didn’t. And so, in hopes of ending this conversation that shouldn’t have even started in the first place, I looked at him straight in the eye and said, “We’re getting married… wanna come to my wedding?” And with that he let go of my arm and instantly switched into sad-puppy mode with the speechless dropped jaw. I turned, boarded my bus and didn’t look back until the bus pulled away. He was still standing exactly where I had left him and was still standing with that stupid puppy-dog look and slumped over shoulders.

5. Either Christmas came half a year early or my birthday arrived more than a month early because upon arriving back in Cheonan there was a delivery notice on my apartment door. Instantly I knew it was my stuff from Adidas but when went down to the basement to retrieve my package, the security guard told me I had two packages. Turns out it was FOUR packages… one massive box from Adidas and three stuffed packages from my mom!!! I was ecstatic!

6. My mom had sent me three packages and despite me desperately needing a shower because of boxing, I couldn’t wait to rip open my special delivery. No sooner did I swing open my door but I was already ripping the bags open. Inside they were packed with tons of goodies. I was in oatmeal heaven… hahaha. Oatmeal galore, chicken noodle soup, broccoli soup, tons of gum, toothpaste, deodorant, and so many more things sprung from the bags when I ripped them open. My favourite among all the things my mom had sent me was the Shake’N Bake and the XXL Extensions Mascara by Maybelline New York. I’m all about MAC Cosmetics but Maybelline makes this particular mascara that I am all eyes for, literally and as for the Shake’N Bake, I had totally forgot about that stuff. It’s golden!!!

7. As for what Adidas sent me… holy cow Batman!!! When I told Adidas that I needed some more hand wraps and gloves, I had no idea that they’d be sending me 20 hand wraps and 6 pairs of new gloves! In addition, they sent me new boxing boots, two pairs of boxing shorts, a couple of Adidas t-shirts, and three pairs of their new quick-wrap hand wraps. A HUGE thank you is definitely in order to Double D at Adidas in France for continually supporting me and my boxing with his generosity.

8. So much for weight training and jogging in the evening. I totally crashed after opening my gifts and woke up at 8:30pm. I had slept for almost 4 hours and had but only thirty minutes to shower and get all dolled up for my dinner date with Snickers. Our dinner date consisted of us heading out for cheese tak galbi (chicken), ice cream, window shopping, and me wearing a borderline too-short dress that kept Snickers eyes pasted on me… hahaha. The manager at the cheese tak galbi restaurant whispered to me “keep this guy” after he caught glimpse of Snickers trying to pull my dress lower when I stood up… hahaha.

9. One of the big bonuses with dating a Korean man is that they tend to be rather sensitive, or so I’ve experienced. And so despite Snickers being able to brutally dish out mad beatings in the ring without a conscious, he instantly gets all cuddly and mushy with me. Tonight after we had our little dinner date we headed back to my house, just laid on the floor listening to music and talked. I had written him a letter on my bus ride home from Seoul and so I gave it to him to read, it explained why I have trust issues. “I don’t trust anyone” I had wrote. I’d hate to pin it on my notorious ex of three years ago who clearly left his mark on me but it’s true. With the exception of Yanky, after my first real love I dated “Yes-Men” who were clearly “one-sided loves” because it was safe and I felt I could trust them because they were obviously more into me than me into them. But with Snickers things are different and sometimes I find myself backing away from him because I’m afraid one day he’ll leave me. Snickers and I talked about this tonight and made a pinky-swear promise that we’ll always be open and honest regardless of whether or not we think our words will hurt the other person and then we made another pinky-swear promise that if we ever get into an argument that we’ll follow our new 3-step procedure.

Our Get-out-of-Being-Angry Three-Steps
Step One: Stop talking and hug.
Step Two: Give it some time (to gather our thoughts or calm down)
Step Three: Talk it out.

I know it sounds kind of silly but I think it’ll work. I refuse to go to sleep agree and Snickers is all about giving space, space in which only makes my feelings and emotions bubble over like a grade eight volcano science experiment. Snickers and I have only had a couple of arguments but they were simply a matter of miscommunication and so they were nothing at all, really.

10. Tomorrow I’ll have the “joy” of convincing Junior Mint of letting me change my boxing training schedule as tonight I promised Snickers I’d go with him to hand out flyers for his new boxing club. His new club is quite the competition for my boxing club and so it’s kind of a conflict of interest but considering who he is in my life, I’m all for supporting him in all that he does, after all, he is the owner of my “last first kiss”.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who holds your heart?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.
-- Mark Overby

Snickers doing a quick commercial to advertise the opening of his boxing club.

It officially opens this Sunday!!!

Dang... my school's scenery looks beautiful here... not as beautiful as him, though [feel free to allow your gag reflexes to react here... hahaha].

This was as close as I got to a "normal" picture with him. I'd show you the others but I don't think you care to see the length of his tongue or his tonsils.... lol... always joking around!!!

Highlights of my Day... Wednesday, July 1

1. Listening to Snickers and Junior Mint’s opposing opinions on how I should be training for my fight is rather frustrated. I have to admit that I definitely agree with Snickers and not because he’s my boyfriend but because I don’t see why training like a work horse and leaving my body very little time in between training to recover and rejuvenate is a good thing. Having said this though, Junior Mint is my coach/manager and so I can’t exactly go overriding his authority.

2. Dropped the notion of jogging today and instead Snickers and I trained chest, triceps and abs at morning weight training. For most guys, a girl with long legs and in a short skirt drops their jaw, but for Snickers it’s apparently seeing me struggling to push out one more rep at weight training… hahaha.

3. We had worked chest hard today and so while Snickers was doing his last set I looked in the mirror, flexed my chest and then put my hand on it to feel the muscle. Unknown to me there was some older dude standing beside me watching me and so when I finally noticed him it was too late. There I stood fully cupping my chest with buddy-boy looking at me like I was the biggest pervert walking on the planet. Great.

4. Yesterday I did a health check at La Sya with No-Neck-Boy and so today I brought along the results to show Junior Mint. I thought my health check was quite impressive. Not only was body fat mass way below normal and my skeletal muscle mass above average, but my body fat percentage has lowered. Leave it to Junior Mint though to give me a rude reality check and hit me on the head for my results, telling me that I’m a professional boxer and so my results should be better. I only scored a 84/100 and I blame that on my waist-hip ratio that labeled me as “fat” by No-Neck-Boy… it’s true. Upon printing out my results No-Neck-Boy looked at me and called me fat. Snickers told me to forget about No-Neck-Boy’s “you’re fat” comment. The only fat I want to sport is phat and so ya, his comment bothered me, that is until Snickers blurted out “What does he know about the body?! He doesn’t even have a neck!” he told me… hahaha. So true.

5. The video of my previous fight arrived at the boxing club today and so Junior Mint called me in early to watch it with him. He dissected every one of my moves and so the same feeling of disappointment I felt on game day returned today. It seems like the harder the try, the more I fail at making him proud of me, like I repeatedly fall short of his expectations and so it’s so completely frustrating. Ironically however, I continually return to the club for more.

6. Around 5pm I had to get all dolled up for a TV interview for the human documentary piece they’re doing on Snickers. He was totally himself for the interview, joking around and acting like the runaway A.D.D. patient I’m convinced he is but a wave of nerves hit me suddenly. Snickers is going places and I hope he goes far but with his face being splattered on TV, camera people following him around and now with all the advertising they’re doing for his new boxing club, I can’t help but wonder if he’ll be taking me where ever he’s headed to. My plan is to take Korea by storm with my boxing but Snickers’ focus is set on taking things on internationally and if he does, we’ll totally be in two different leagues. We're already in two different leagues but at least we're in the same country. See… I told you I think to much. I really gotta learn just to sit back and enjoy the ride instead of always trying to foresee some kind of map or being the one behind the wheel.

7. Got to finally see Snickers’ new boxing club. It’ll be officially opening up this Sunday and it’s quite nice. Upon entering the club his coach greeted me, told me he missed me and repeatedly tried to encourage me to come train at their new club. It’s not really close to my house, it’s more like a bus ride away, but I’ll be sure to drop by some times to train.

8. In between what seemed like endless hours of training, I did manage to cook my energy bars and damn, if I do say so myself, they are super delish!!! Besides the Polish lovin’ I put into them, they’re packed with peanut butter, oatmeal, nuts, some apricots, and some other goodies but we quite expensive to make considering the organic peanut butter ($19) I used and the dried apricots ($13) I added.

9. No sooner did my laundry finish but then I had to get all geared up for boxing again. Boxing has definitely become a huge, huge chunk of my life and besides my endless rambling on the topic, numerous visits to the boxing club I make on a daily bases, the fact that my coach almost calls me as much as Snickers, and then there’s the fact that my house is littered with countless boxing things. Whether it’s the game posters that are plastered on my walls, the gloves hanging from everything from my fridge handles to my plants, or boxing pictures of memories past, my house is starting to look like a boxing gym is taking over. My cute little polar bear hat now wears sparring head gear and my need of new wallpaper has been replaced with the addition of a massive boxing tournament banner… hahaha.

10. With my days lately being loaded down with tons of eating, random napping and even more training, it’s been hard to sit down and focus on my Korean language studies. My homework has been neglected this week and so today I sat down after training, which meant it was about 11:30pm and half my brain was already asleep, and tried to study. That only lasted so long until I totally crashed. Did a face plant into my books and there I slept, sitting up and uncomfortable for a good couple of hours.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What will this take "us"?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Once you choose hope, anything's possible.
-- Christopher Reeve

I like it how he acts all innocent, like "I don't know how all these candies got in my pocket!"

But truthfully, he was kind of proud of it... hahaha.

Highlights of my Day... Tuesday, June 30

1. Snickers and I did our morning jogging and weight training together, as planned. Yesterday he impressed the socks off me by training his legs, a body part so often and so many guys fail to train. “Bobble bodies” I call them. I’m sure you know what a bobble head is, well, guys who don’t train legs are bobble bodies; heavy on top but peg legs on the bottom. Anyways, so Snickers trained legs yesterday and so today he was feeling it… and walking like he felt it, too… hahaha.

2. Like the cliché goes, “When the cat is away the mouse come out to play” and so with K-Gere off at Grandpa’s house, Snickers and I hung out all day. Our day basically revolved around food. Whether it was me banging around in the kitchen, making random combinations of whatnot to eat, or us eating chicken fitas in the park, we definitely got in our protein and veggies for the day!

3. Snickers wasn’t impressed that my lovely fingernails are once again stumpy nails and so he took it upon himself to punish me by squeezing my head… oh gosh, that hurt!!! Ironically I laughed so hard but it hurt so much. Ahhhh... Snickers and me, such an overly sarcastic, flirtatious, somewhat violent couple. He squeezes the heck out of my head and then the next minute he's opening the door for and calling me "queen". He thinks it's hilarious when I call him "Sweetie" and despite my hard bite, he thinks it's the funniest thing when I randomly bite his shoulder when we're out walking. Today I introduced him to the "wonderful" world of Charlie-horse and left him limping as we walked down the street... hahaha!!!

4. The other day I mysteriously broke my camera, I seem to go through a camera a year, and so today Snickers and I headed out in search of a new one. Scored a sweet 60% discount at Samsung with buying the display model. It’s 8.2 mega pixels, is loaded with some pretty cool features, and is blue.

5. Apparently I’ve got a fan at Samsung… cool. No sooner did I enter the Samsung store but one of the workers interrupted me and asked me when my next game is. He caught me off guard and so I didn’t know what he was talking about at first but then he repeated his question. Snickers looked impressed but I felt kind of bad, knowing full well that Snickers is so beyond my level and yet I seem to be the one to always get recognized in the crowd.

6. Leave it to Snickers to try to make me smile by stealing the plate full of coffee candies from the Samsung store… hahaha. He’s such a little prankster and so I had seen him hide the store’s cordless phone and I even caught him in the act of stashing empty candy rappers under the business card displays but I was clueless to the candies. When we returned home I reached in my bag for my cell phone and it was buried in candies… hahaha.

7. Finally around 9pm Snickers and I parted our separate ways. He walked me to the boxing club and no sooner did I step foot into the club but Junior Mint was calling me over. The original plan was for me to weight train and jog in the morning and then do my boxing training twice a day but today I had decided to only box once. At first I thought Junior Mint was joking when he asked me why I missed my afternoon training but when he raised his voice I definitely clicked in that he wasn’t joking. I felt so embarrassed at the realization and so I was forced to stand there while he lectured me and everyone watched.

8. … and when he hit me I definitely clued in that skipping training isn’t something I’ll be doing again. Dang. He has no mercy on me. Mind ya I must admit, I don’t regret skipping training today considering the overdose of leisurely lounging around the house and the giggles Snickers and I shared but I don’t think I can take too many more of Junior Mint’s beats. He’s got a new beating stick, it’s about 3 feet in length, has a handle on it and is metal.

9. As a result of missing training earlier on today, Junior Mint got even by leaving me till last to do pad work with him in the ring, bringing my shadow boxing count to 35 minutes after I had already been skipping for 40. After training I then had to hang up the laundry and help clean up. Sure Junior Mint drove me home but on the drive home I once again got lectured. Got home around 11:30pm.

10. Got a call from Q today. I had texted him, asking him how his father is. His father’s been living in a hospital for the past month or so and so Q’s taken a lot of time off work to be by his side. I wish I could be by Q’s side as a means of moral support and plus I know the weight of being his father’s father for the past years has started to really burden him, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to do so, considering. He sounded somewhat lonely on the phone and so after our call ended, I texted him “Just because we’re a couple doesn’t mean that you’re not important to me”. I hope he understands.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why are you with the person you're with?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.
-- Woody Allen

... so true!!!

Highlights of my Day... Monday, June 29

1. Today Snickers and I started training at La Sya together and so at 9am we met and headed off to the gym. He met the notorious “No-Neck” and instantly broke out into a huge laugh when he spotted him, knowing full well why I had labeled him No-Neck. Turns out No-Neck’s English name is Arnold, “like Arnold Schwarzenegger” he noted. Oh please. First and foremost, don’t be go ranking yourself as high as Arnold, secondly, the comparison is impossible in that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the cream of the crop of muscle men and lastly, you’re forgetting one major point… ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER HAS A NECK, unlike you buddy-boy… hahaha.

2. My upcoming opponent comes with quite the experience in the field of amateur boxing but has since gone pro. Regardless, she’s going to be stepping into the ring with a huge advantage over me and so today I started Junior Mint’s time-consuming, energy-killing training schedule set out for me. I don't agree with the training he's making me do in that it's a whole whack of unnecessary cardio work that's only bound to make me lose too much weight and I sense this training schedule to either burn me out quickly or start to stamp out my passion for boxing, both of which I definitely don't want to happen!!!

Today’s Training Schedule:
9:00am to 10:20am: jogging on the treadmill, followed by weight training
3:00pm to 4:30pm: boxing
9:30pm to 11:00pm: boxing... again

3. Me and my left-foot-nail-less-toe are in pain. I went a little too hardcore on the treadmill and so by the time I finished my weight training my toe was swollen. Ah the joys of being a professional athlete; it’s one injury after another.

4. Despite having about a million and one tank tops to train in, with only three sports bras and one sweat jacket [a sweat jacket is like a plastic shirt you wear that traps in your body heat and makes you sweat like a mofo; like an animal], laundry has become a required daily routine not only because I need to wear a sports bra and my sweat jacket but have you ever smelt what a lump of clothes smells like after an hour and a half of boxing training?!... exactly. Trust me, you don’t want to smell that!!!

5. Students continue to bother me about their marks, correction, only two of them are bothersome to me, stalker-wanna-be student from Friday and a graduate student who won’t be graduating now because I failed him. I’d love to say sorry but I’m not sorry.

6. The graduate student had informed me just before the midterm that he got a job during the semester and so I repeatedly told him via text messages and emails that he’d have to follow the class homepage I update weekly. He’d be required to do my lecture notes as a kind of self-study and then at the final exam he’d be required to bring in his homework and do the final. Well, he showed up for the final totally clueless not only about the requirements for the exam but also clueless about what my homepage address even is. I can’t help students who don’t try to at least help them selves and so no, I don’t feel sorry for one moment that this student will not graduate. I don’t get paid to be someone’s mother but so often that’s what my students seem to expect me to be. His 23% was me being generous to him.

7. Sat down today and started to make a cookbook of all the health-conscious recipes I’ve collected and made.

My Health-Conscious Cookbook:
Cinnamon Peanut Butter Protein-Packed Pancakes
Protein Smoothie Pops
Post-Workout Pizza Pizzazz
Cinnamon and Vanilla Oats
High Energy Trail Mix
High Energy Energy Bars
Protein Apple Wraps
Tuna Pasta Salad
Smoked Salmon Spinach Omelet
Curried Chicken Lentil Stew
Shell Pesto Pasta
Apple Curry Tuna Pitas
Protein Ice Cream
High-Protein Quesadillas
The Ricardo
Pineapple, Banana and Berry Pops
Spaghetti Squash Pasta
Dr. John’s Chilli
Chicken Pesto Pizza
Banana-Split Proteinious Slushies

8. Before I headed off to boxing again, for the second time today, Snickers’ father K-Gere invited me over to the house and surprisingly showed up at my building to pick me up… very nice of him. We sat around the house chatting while Snickers fed his ongoing hobby of eating. I swear sometimes that boy never stops… hahaha. And while K-Gere was cleaning up, I caught a glimpse of a massive bag of garlic in the corner of the kitchen. K-Gere was quick to learn that I loved the pickled onion and garlic he served as a side dish the other day and so apparently he spent a good chunk of his day peeling garlic. How sweet is he?! Like really!!!

9. Hitting the boxing club for the second time today felt a bit off and I didn’t have much energy left after already have had trained for about 3 hours earlier on today. Junior Mint was brutal with me during pad work and I let it be known to him when he allowed me to practice my body shots on him.

10. By the time I came home, showered and quickly ate something, it was already creeping up to 11:30pm and I still had to take Mi Nam for a walk. Mi Nam practically dragged my sorry butt around the block and then I crashed upon returning home.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
When is too much too much?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
-- Jack Handey

Gotta show some love to my little man.

He's been having to share me the past month or so and so I've been trying hard to give him extra hugs and kisses when Snickers isn't around. The two of them get along but it's fair to say that Snickers gets my undivided attention when he's here. No one could ever replace Mi Nam though, he's awesome.

Highlights of my Day... Sunday, June 28

1. My shoes showed up at this morning around the 10am mark.

2. Originally Snickers and his father wanted me to head out with them to Snickers’ grandfather’s house out in the country but I cancelled once I found out it was a sleepover. Meeting his grandfather is one thing but it’s a whole different story to be told I’ll be sharing a room with Snickers when we stay over. I’m not all old-school traditional but I just didn’t feel comfortable and I didn’t think it’d be in good manner to do so.

3. Snickers’ family practically has it set in their mind that he and I will get married. I won’t lie and say I don’t think about it too but Snickers has it in his mind that we’ll get married when he makes world champion status. And not to be the pessimist here but what happens if he never makes status?! Then what? I know it’s mean of me to think this despite me being his biggest fan and not wanting to become like one of those many who questioned my dreams but lately I’ve been thinking a lot. That's my problem... I often think too much, dissect things and think of the "what if's". He could become anything and anything he puts his heart and mind to but what if... what if... what if it takes longer than we both anticipate it to?! I blame my overthinking on the fact that I’m on holidays now. My brain is desperately wondering, looking for something to preoccupy its’ self with. I love Snickers, I love him a lot, but he has this preconceived idea that in order to get married you have to be loaded down with cash. He talks about wanting to shower me with gifts of luxurious dresses and dinners out to fine dining restaurants but I already have way too many clothes and I prefer my peanut butter protein pancakes over some overly expensive meal I can’t even pronounced, served by some stuck up waiter. When my parents got married they had no money. My mom made her own wedding dress and the women at their church cooked for the wedding reception but what they lacked in finances they definitely made up for it in love. Sounds kind of cheesy to say that but it’s true. Together they built upon their dreams and now they’ve got the three kids, the beautiful house, and trips around the world. They made their own Cinderella story, together and I rather do that with Snickers than wait around.

4. I’m finally completely finished filming with Arirang TV but today I got word that Snickers will now be focused for a human documentary hosted by another TV company. They called him a couple of times today, with the last phone call ringing around 10pm. Word has it they’re going to start filming on Wednesday… great (note, that’s sarcasm there).

5. Grocery shopping with Snickers at Home Plus meant test-tasting about a million different things from ice coffee to cream cheese bread. We loaded our cart with tons of veggies, chicken and fruit and then headed back home.

6. I’ve lived in Korea now for almost five years and up until today I’ve been able to avoid eating anything from Lotteria. For those of you who don’t live in Korea, Lotteria is a fast food chain that’s one step, if not more, below McDonalds. Today Snickers insisted I try it out. One word, “nasty”.

7. It was a beautiful rainy Sunday today… exactly the type of Sundays I adore.

8. Trained at the boxing club today by myself and so I cranked up my tunes and went hardcore.

9. I am now officially the 9-nailed boxer… hahaha. Due to all the skipping and running I’ve been doing, well, that and the fact that Junior Mint accidentally slammed the stick down on my toe once, the nail on my left big toe went black and today Snickers pulled it completely off my foot. Ouch!!!

10. Later in the evening I met up with one of my coworkers… not too sure on what nickname to give her yet. Anyways, we met at Tom N’ Toms Coffee Shop and giggled the evening away. She’s a sarcastic gal and so we click. Mind ya, for the most part I don’t socialize with my coworkers, with the exception of the Korean assistants. I try to keep business and pleasure separate, well, that and the fact that honestly, I probably wouldn’t be all buddy-buddy with them if we were to meet in Canada. So… we met up for coffee and the rain returned so we huddled under the patio umbrella and thought we’d wait it out. No such luck and boy did we get soaked despite our apartment being just a stone-throw away… hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What if?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
-- T.S. Eliot

Lots of love...

... for the big guy and for the little things in life.

A video I made a while back about how to make my chicken surpreme.

Highlights of my Day... Saturday, June 27

1. Headed out to Seoul for my Korean tutoring and no sooner did I just barely catch my bus but Wonder Bread called me. That boy reeks of drama and I can smell his drama all the way in Cheonan despite him living an hour away. He keeps on insisting that I meet him, insisting that I give him “closure”. Closure?!... closure for what. You are an idiotic playboy and I’m too smart to stick around and feed your drowned in drama ways… it’s as simple as that, way the need for closure? We were never a couple and despite his repetitious “I’m in love with you” messages that he sends my cell phone, the only thing he needs to do is get his head out of the sand, jump into reality and stop watching those silly Korean dramas.

2. Did I meet up with him, you ask… no. I’m a happily-taken woman and even if I wasn’t, I learned a while back that he’s a one-track mind man and I’m not interested. Never have, never will be.

3. I haven’t had Korean lessons for two weeks now and so I had to get my teacher to review the previous lesson. Sometimes I think my Korean is really improving, other times I feel like I’m walking backwards with it. It’s quite frustrating. I wish there were some kind of pill I could take or some other easy way to get those Korean words flowing through my brain.

4. In anticipation of getting down to business in the kitchen with some good old Korean cooking this summer, I bought myself my first Korean cookbook and it’s loaded with 136 recipes. I’m not much of a cooker and my specialities, if you’d even call them that, are quite “special”, as in short-yellow-bus special.

My list of specialities:
Protein-packed peanut butter pancakes
Banana-split yogurt protein shakes
Chicken supreme
Zip-lock bag omelets
Chicken oatmeal
Stuffed tomato chicken “bombs”

5. Yesterday I got invited to a wedding, a wedding that I then attended today. How’s that for notice?! Ya. Anyways, as it happened I headed out to this wedding, my camera broke and as a result of the wedding I had to skip out on my KBC meeting.

6. Upon arriving back in Cheonan I headed over to Park Jun’s Hair Studio to see if they could transform my desperately sad and lacking locks into beautiful locks of shine and posh style. Okay, so I wasn’t really wishing for that but I can armed with a translated letter from my Korean language teacher, asking them if they could return my hair back to it’s natural colour, light brown. After a couple of tests, the verdict was in. Going light brown was out of the question and they urged me to let the black grow out before I even considered it. Dang.

7. So, with no real options but to keep my hair dark, I got them to dye my hair dark brown and I went for a chop. My hair colour is questionable, it looks black, but I got my Japanese shaggy style hair back and so I’m happy with the cut. Personally, I love dark hair but because of my training I end up having to shower 2-3 times a day and so dying my hair has become a kind of by-weekly routine that’s rather annoying.

8. Training at La Sya tonight was rather annoying. It started off with me trying to sign Snickers up for a membership card and the new front desk chick trying to push me aside because she didn’t speak English when all I spoke to her was Korean. I leaned towards her and then asked, in Korean, “Do you know who I am?” I really had no answer in mind but I thought I’d flex some intimidation and get her thinking. “I know” came a voice behind me. It was the voice of one of the personal trainers. I hadn’t met him before but apparently he knows of me because of TV and so he assisted me with getting Snickers a membership card. Starting Monday Snickers and I will be weight training in the mornings together and so I thought I’d kick off our game prep training with a present for him, a gym membership at La Sya. It’s only for a month though cause after which I plan on returning to Hongik. La Sya is a nice club but the vibe here is a bit off. People stare at me, girls whisper when I walk by, the front desk girl punked me off, and so far the only people who have been nice to me is No-Neck and Orange Boy, both of which are personal trainers and so they kind of have to extend some kind of friendship to me, it’s in their job duties to do so.

9. Evening boredom got the best of me and so off I headed with Panty Boy downtown. I knew full well that this would be a bad idea and, without getting too much into the details of tonight’s strange situation, I’ll keep it short and tell you that it involved a splash of Chinese, a dash of giggles, me ending up at home minus my shoes, my camera mysteriously breaking, and Snickers searching downtown for me. He had a good laugh when he found me at home but then lectured me about resorting to “silly” things when I get bored. Snickers, just like Junior Mint, aren’t fans of Panty Boy. Dang panty-model Panty Boy and his devilish ways… getting me in trouble and stirring up the night.

10. Overheard a conversation, correction, a wickedly anger-filled Korean conversation that I really wasn’t supposed to hear. Not too sure if I was made out to be the villain or the hero in this conversation that quickly attached me to the main topic. Regardless, by the tone, the swear words and numerous other words that were being shouted through the phone, at 3:30am in the morning, it was certainly not the conversation that I wanted to hear, nor could I really stomach it at that point.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's your speciality?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
My favorite animal is steak.
-- Fran Lebowitz

I love you...

... and all your freakish A.D.D. wanna-be ways... hahahaha!!!!

I don't quite make the milkshake look as sexy as you do though.

And I prefer to hide behind my coffee cup than play with the camera.

Highlights of my Day... Friday, 26

1. Two things that frustrate the heck out of me with reference to students: 1. Students who wait all semester till the absolute last minute to try to make a decent grade. 2. Students who don’t deserve the mark they’re arguing for. I guess I should add being heckled by students who fulfill BOTH one and two of my things that frustrate me about students.

2. Text messages from a particular student who fulfilled both one and two started around 3pm and ended late in the evening, just before 10pm. Twenty text messages of this particular student practically begging in Korean and three calls I refused to answer later, if I was going to help him I will not anymore. Time is up and I found it extremely rude of him to harass me all day and late into the evening. I gave him 16 weeks and he chose to not come to my class, that’s not my problem. I baby my students, I know. I made them a homepage for both courses I teach, I let them talk to me in Korean, and I even handed out my personal cell phone number to them all, of which many have used. I made it very clear to them that I am here to help them but there are rules to be followed and I made those rules very clear from day one when they first stepped in my classroom. This particular student failed because of attendance, a silly way to fail, I agree, but Dankook rules are rules and I am simply the messenger of these rules. Whether he wants to follow them or not was his choice and with every action there’s a reaction and a consequence. He doesn’t like the consequences of his actions but that’s not my problem. It was his choice and now these are his consequences.

3. And no, I don’t believe marks are everything to everyone Bman. If they were, he would have been in class making those marks instead of out playing with his buddies and skipping my class. But enough about that… I don’t want to end my semester on a sour note like this.

4. My morning consisted of jogging in the wee hours and then heading over to boxing around 11am.

5. Snickers’ hair designer buddy ended up not working today and so my big plans to drastically changed my hair got instantly stamped out.

6. Ended up jumping on the Cheonan subway and heading out to Little America by myself… bit of a long story behind that, but anyways. No sooner did I get on the subway but Snickers texted me, telling me that he was on the subway behind me. Ended up in Little America with Snickers.

7. As we stepped onto Little America territory, who should I run into but D-Boy. I ran up to him and hugged him. I was so happy to see him. The last time I saw him was in the summer of 2006. He did his year in the Air Force here in Korea and then he left. His time here ended on a bit of a sour note with our friendship and so we lost touch of each other. Turns out he’s been back in Korea for a couple of weeks now and so I was so shocked to see him.

8. Took Snickers to a wicked Thai restaurant where although I’m convinced their so-called 5-star spicy rating should be re-evaluated, the food is awesome and super addicting. Snickers ate sweet and sour chicken and I had the cashew chicken.

9. There’s two restaurants I really like in Little America, the Thai second-floor restaurant and Puffin’s Restaurant. Puffin’s was a house that was turned into a romantic little dinner. It serves pasta, pizza and various other Western style dishes. Dinner was at the Thai place but then we headed over to Puffin’s for a light desert, a coffee and a milk shake, and lots of flirting, winking and make-you-gag couple stuff… hahaha.

10. Today marked Snickers first visit to Little America and it was funny to here him fascinate over the size of the Americans walking down the street. Snickers’ new word of the day “super-sized”… hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What made you smile today?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks.
-- Charles Gordy

Me and my beautiful man.

Temple guards who supposedly are our "friends" but they freaked me out.

"I do!"... but what's the question?!

Treking around the temple grounds.

... with the Arirang TV crew just feet away.

I commented about the white lanterns, saying that I thought they looked beautiful. Turns out these lanterns represent those whom have died.

Visiting Buddha.

Learning the meaning behind the temple paintings.

Attempting to do some painting... not so easy!

I'll leave the painting to the monks and stick to cuddling with my baby boy... I'm a pro at it by now!

Highlights of my Day... Thursday, June 25

1. Today marked the last day of filming with Arirang TV and so I had to wake up super early to get in my morning run and boxing before 1pm.

2. Snickers joked about me only speaking English to the guys at the new gym I joined where I now weight train. I love Hongik Fitness club but getting a good workout in has proven to be harder than I thought with all the ajjumas trying to touch me (laugh as you may, it's true) and with my buddies (the personal assistants) trying to talk to me. So now I'm at La Sya, a downtown fitness gym that costs me an arm and a leg and where apparently all the personal trainers have no necks... hahaha. Anyways, back to the point I was trying to make. So.... Snickers joked about me only speaking English to the guys at my new gym but I don't think he was joking. Could it be that Snickers, the dangerously delish, insanely beautiful both inside and out, is experiencing a bit of jealous?! Oh gosh... I hope not. "You have something they could only wish to have!" I reassured him. "What... a neck?!" was his response. I was thinking more along the lines as me but ya, a neck is something they'll never have, too.... hahaha.

3. Today was the big temple stay with Arirang TV but with me having Korean class and practically already going mental with all the excessive filming, "say this... do that", I urged them to only make it a day thing. And so that's what the planned turned into, a day at the temple.

4. After the long drive out to the temple, we arrived and were greeted by a charming female monk who had flawless skin and the most delicate of hands. She was the only female monk among the 50 that lived at the temple so I found her to be particularly interesting and I eagerly tried to follow her Korean. We followed her to this little house where she then showed us how to properly pour tea. I let Snickers participate and I instead just watched... and drank LOTS of tea!

5. Of the places we visited, the old temple perched on the mountain was the most interesting to me. Inside it there was a male monk doing his daily bowing and so I watched as he must have bowed a good hundred times. Our tour guide, the Flawless monk, showed us how to properly bow and so I followed her lead. I'm Christain and I know that according to my faith I am not supposed to bow to any other idiols but if I don't believe in Buddha in the first place and there's no emotion in my heart attached to the situation, isn't it ok? I mean, I just did it for the TV show and so my concentration was more so on am I standing in the camera's view and should I adjust my hair. I mean, bowing to some gold-dipped Buddha felt no differently than bowing to K-Gere or to other Koreans when I greet them.

6. Anyways, next on the list of things to do and experience was some traditional painting. First we had to outline a pre-drawn flower by poking some holes into the piece of paper and then we had to paint it. I crouched down as close as I could to the floor but by the end of it sure my flower looked pretty but my legs were dead asleep and my eyes hurt. Next, was some meditation, of which because of my sleeping legs, I almost fell asleep. I secretly peeked occasionally at Snickers to make sure I was following the Flawless Monk's directions.

7. Last but not least on my list of things to do today with Arirang TV was to film a couple of shots at my house. I had met with Arirang TV at 1pm and it wasn't till about 8:30pm when I we were finally done.

8. Finally freedom... or so I thought. Got word that my nicely typed out computer marks wouldn't be sufficient enough to hand in tomorrow and so late in the evening I headed over to Dankook University to write out all 310 students of mine marks by hand!!!

9. Snickers surprised me by showing up at my office to act as a kind of moral support, I guess. What he ended up doing however was help me clean out my desk but eating a stash of choco pies I had for when students come to visit me.

10. Had my first piggy-back bike ride, yup, that's right. Snickers literally put me on his back and piggy-backed me while riding his bike... talk about talent... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
God made so many different kinds of people. Why would he allow only one way to serve him?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.
-- Author Unknown

Hey good looking...

Hey funny looking...

What are you all smiley about?!

Highlights of my Day... Wednesday, June 24

1. I had told all my students in advance that today would be the one day they’d have to fight for their marks if they felt I had made an error with my calculations. I knew full well that for the most part I’d be dealing with students who would be fighting for marks that they clearly didn’t deserve. I say “clearly” because as far as I’m concerned, if you’re honestly going to argue with me about your English mark in Korean than you should really reconsider you’re argument and I should really reconsider your mark… as in reconsider lowering it.

2. There were of course those students who came with physical bribes; coffee and bread… both of which clearly don’t work with me. Others, who came with English-speaking friends. A couple came and almost broke down in tears but the most interesting of the day were these two students who practically hunted me down and stalked me today. At 7am I got a text message from the one, asking me when I’d be showing up for work. Text messages continued and then around 8:30am when I eventually stepped out of my house, one student was sitting outside waiting for me. The other “stalkerish-student-of-the-day” continued to bombard my cell phone with texts. They then emailed me three times today and called the office three times for me. It wasn’t until mid-morning that this particular student showed up. She gave me a big long song and dance, demanding I give her an A+, but when I refused to give her an extra 3 percent to make her mark an A+ she got all sour faced on me and almost cried.

3. I may not be a strict teacher or a hardcore tough teacher, but one thing I definitely am is an honest teacher and so it drives me mental when students have the nerve to ask me to push their mark up. “Push your mark up?” I ask. “I gave you 16 weeks to earn that mark and you come here and think you can get it in a day… no such luck” is always my answer.

4. With all the students coming in and out of my office, I never did get to finish my marks or my professional portfolio. Nor did I get the chance to post my grades on the university website and so this meant that I’ll have to pencil in another day to come work on my holidays… dang!

5. Snickers showed up around 1pm to help me with my stuff and he couldn’t have come at a better time. I had just had an “interesting” argument with a particular person and so I was ready to quit for the day… for the year actually, so him wrapping his arms around me and telling me its’ okay was a much needed escape from the stress that had hit me. He had come dressed up in anticipation of possibly running into my students and coworkers and so it seemed like such a waste for us both to be so dressed up with no place to go after work. Word had it that the new Transformers movie hit the theaters today and so off we headed to go check that out.

6. Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen was pretty cool!!!

7. Got invite number two for dinner at Snicker’s house by his father K-Gere and so that was cool. He called to ask what I wanted to eat and then we headed over for a quick dinner before boxing.

8. Nothing particularly interesting happened at boxing besides the fact that Snickers and I probably picked the worst time of the day to go train. The club was packed and I got stuck waiting it out for pad work, which meant I did about an hour of training (skipping and shadow boxing) before I got to step in the ring with Junior Mint and when I finally did, he complained about me not giving strong punches. He really knows how to push my buttons and telling me that I’m weak definitely pushes a button with me.

9. After late night training, Snickers and flopped down on the couch and chatted. We talked about his “5-year-plan”. Snickers has this plan that he’s been planning and up until a couple of months ago, prior to me that it, it only involved taking his boxing international. Truth be known, Snickers and I talk about marriage; we talk about it a lot.

10. Both of us were exhausted from boxing and so we ended up dozing off beside each other. Snickers was way off in la-la land and apparently was dreaming of boxing because no sooner did we drift off but then I woke up to him punching me!!! He squared me right in the side of the shoulder and so I popped up like a pop tart in the toaster. Dang, that hurt!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY…
What does time have anything to do with it?

QUOTE OF THE DAY…
To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.
Reba McEntire

I wonder what he wished for.

I know what I wished for.

Let's see if our wishes come true!

Highlights of my Day... Tuesday, June 23

1. Second last day of filming with Arirang TV and so today we headed out to buy a gift for my father and to do some filming at my house.

2. This past Sunday was Father’s Day and I totally forgot about it. I don’t remember most Western holidays, to tell you the truth. Actually, I don’t even remember most of my friend’s birthdays and I’m brutal at remembering names. But whatever, that’s beside the point. The crew had asked me to think of a gift for my father and so I had been contemplating it for a couple of days now. Yesterday I woke up with a great idea and so today we headed out on the town in search of it.

3. Cooked up some of my newly adored oatmeal-cinnamon high protein pancakes for the Arirang TV crew… hahaha. They were quick to gobble those bad boys up, dang!

4. Snickers and I headed off to boxing together. Sometimes I’m convinced he tries to get a reaction out of me cause tonight he joked about having the pleasure of training among six women. Now the fact that each one of them equaled about two of me, and in some cases three, was irrelevant. I’m not a jealous person and so he could be training besides Megan Fox for all I care. I use to be the jealous girlfriend back in the day and what I found was the harder you tried to pull someone towards you the more you in actuality pushed them awa. Jealousy just eats you up. Mind ya, a little bit of jealousy is healthy… all in moderation, just like peanut butter… hahaha.

5. After a long weekend of sinfully-delicious, purely-evil eating, I weighed-in at 51.5kgs.

6. At the end of training Snickers’ father called and upon hearing my voice in the background, I instantly was invited to come over for dinner. It was past 10pm but his father insisted I come over and so that’s what I did.

7. Tonight marked the first time I’ve sat down and had an actual conversation with Snickers’ father and it marked the first time I visited their home. The two of them live in a small house on the opposite side of town. Snickers had rode his bike home but I took a taxi cause I had to shower. Upon getting out of the taxi, I heard someone call out my name. It was Snickers’ father, K-Gere, waiting for me with a massive smile. We had a bit of an uncomfortable greeting as he reached out his arms and I mistook his actions as an attempt to give me a hug. We kind of had one of those arm-extended hugs with about half a meter in between us. I laughed so hard at the awkwardness.

8. While dinner was being prepared, K-Gere handed me a photo album and so I eagerly reached out and opened up it’s cover. I love photos, they say so much. Koreans seem to have this thing with children/baby nudity and so flipping the pages and seeing my boyfriend starring back at me in the total buck in his early years threw me off guard and I giggled like an immature child discovering that boys are different than girls.

9. After dinner K-Gere’s girlfriend came over to join us on a kind of double-date stroll up the mountain. K-Gere brought along some badminton rackets and so Snickers and I entertained them by playing a good game of badminton. Every time I scored a point I’d break out into this ultra-silly “happy dance”, as I called it, and Snickers would laugh his head off. I kicked his butt royally at badminton but I think he let me cause it meant he got to see me exhaust myself with my happy dance… hahaha.

10. At the end of our double-date evening, when we reached the bottom of the mountain, I noticed some wild flowers that I use to always pick and make wishes upon. I picked one for Snickers and one for me and then I told him that he had to make a wish and then blow off all the wishes off the wishing flower in one big breath. He looked at me, closed his eyes, and just as we were both about to blow out our wishing flowers his father blurted out, “wish to get married!” I wasn’t too sure on who exactly he was directing that comment too but I almost ended up inhaling my wishing flower as a result… hahaha. We made our wishes and then K-Gere’s girlfriend drove me home. I was all smiles and full of pride on the car ride home. Tonight’s mini dinner party had come so unexpectedly and it was a lot of fun. The dinner was delish, the walk down memory lane with them via the photo album was hilarious, and checking out their second house where K-Gere makes traditional Korean medicine was really interesting. Badminton was fun, the midnight mountain stroll was beautiful, and there’s nothing I would have changed about tonight. It was perfect. Snickers tried to sneak kisses from me every second he could and K-Gere covered his eyes to tease us. K-Gere is a great dad to Snickers and I really hope my relationship with him (K-Gere) continues to bloom. He always smiles when he talks to me and he calls me beautiful, just like Snickers. I don’t know how to explain what I really want to say here except for the thought that I’m sure my mom is smiling as she is reading this now, knowing that despite her and my father not being able to be here to look after me, that someone else’s family is. Snickers’ family has really taken me in. I feel so grateful for them in my life and it feels so awesome to be part of something so much bigger than just a couple.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who's in your "second" family?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.
-- Michael Leunig

Me sporting my purple eye... hahaha.

Snickers sporting his "teddy bear" hair... hahaha.
Notice who's in the background in this shot?! Here's a hint, look at the far right.

Highlights of my Day... Monday, June 22

1. Snickers is all about these random “surprise secrets”, as I call them, and so today I woke up at the crack of dawn to Snickers looking at me. He had gone cycling in the morning and ended his ride at my house. We talked a bit about last night’s turn of events and agreed to put it aside, noting that it was just a matter of miscommunication.

2. Me biting my nails drives Snickers bonkers and so I’ve been trying my hardest not to randomly nibble away on them. As a result, today Snickers thought it’d be cute to bring a manicure set to my house and do my nails. I’m a chic and even I don’t know how to do my nails. I giggled away when Snickers pulled out a manicure set, opened it up and there before my eyes laid a dozen or so shiny nail tools. “You’re my queen” he noted and yes, that’s exactly how I felt.

3. This summer my plan is to go hardcore with my training and studying Korean but I’ve also convinced myself to take up cooking. I’m not a big fan of cooking in that I find it rather lonely to cook for just myself but with Snickers repeatedly visiting my house on a daily bases, he eats most of his meals at my house and so I figure it’s the very least I can do for the guy who walks 40 minutes to my house, does my nails, and whatnot.

4. I suppose I should use a different word than “cook” because, for the most part, my meals required limited cooking and what I consider to be a meal wouldn’t necessarily be labeled a meal by the average person. Whatever word you may chose to use, I’ve created some pretty cool things so far. Snickers is obsessed with ice cream and Popsicles and so today I made sugar free coffee Popsicles and banana split yogurt slushies. My friend Italiano in Canada bought me an ice cream receipt book and so I’m hoping to attack some of those more diet-friendly recipes this summer.

5. But the best thing I’ve made so far was a massive peanut butter, cinnamon oatmeal pancake the size of my head! I made that yesterday after I discovered the recipe in an Oxygen Fitness magazine. Don’t worry, I plan on making a video about it sometime next week. The pancake was pure delish and with only 11g carbs and a whopping 36g of protein it was a sure hit!!!

6. Slaving away at student final marks so that I could post them on my two student-oriented homepages was going smooth up until the point when Mi Nam decided to randomly attack my computer cord, causing a black screen to pop up and my eyes to almost literally pop out of my head. Three hours worth of typing and calculations gone.. dang.

7. Do you believe in destiny? Snickers does. I’m not too sure if I do but I’m a strong believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason. I don’t know if I’d give destiny credit for it but instead believe it’s God who’s at play here. I ask because today Snickers randomly showed up at my house today overly giggly and super hyper. He passed me a stack of photos and so I went through them while he eagerly waited some kind of reaction from me. They were photos of his previous fights and his friends’ fights. That’s when I saw why he was so overly hyper. It was a picture that was taken over a year ago and in the picture stood Snickers and two of his friends. His friend was fighting that day but in the background stood me. I too was fighting that day. It was February 23rd, 2008. We initially thought our paths first crossed up in Incheon when I went to watch Panty Boy Jr. and two other of my teammates fight in July of 2008. Snickers also had a fight that day. In both situations when our paths crossed, I was happy… happily involved with Q that is. Meeting Snickers at that point would have automatically thrown him in the friend category and he and I would never have become an “us”.

8. Arriving at the boxing club I did a quick mental note and reminded myself to change my thinking. I didn’t want to step into the boxing club tasting the same bitterness on my tongue that I tasted the other day. When I stepped into the club I was greeted by Black Skinny. He got all up in my face and that was exactly what I needed. He liked the purple eye I was sporting and called me “gangster”… hahaha. Junior Mint, on the other hand, was equally as quick with getting up in my face and pointing out where I had gone wrong in my fight.

9. I only have to weigh-in at 51kgs for my next fight by my opponent is stepping into the ring with a load of experience. I’m not familiar with her professional boxing record but she’s stacked up quite the number of amateur games prior to turning pro and so my game prep training for this upcoming fight will have me boxing two times a day, or so Junior Mint insists. I know I bring a lot of strength into the ring and I’m much more comfortable stepping into the ring for a fight but my sense is still not up to par with where it should be.

10. After training I was pleasantly surprised to look up and see Snickers. He thought it be sweet to come walk me home from boxing, which of course it was. Today marked start day for Snickers next game prep work and so today he went cycling, boxing and then did evening weight training. I, on the other hand, still have school stuff and Arirang filming splattered on this week’s schedule but I’m anticipating this upcoming Wednesday to be my official game prep start day. Junior Mint wants me to do morning running, followed by mid-morning boxing and then boxing in the evening.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Do you believe in destiny?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
-- Jawaharlal Nehru

Ok, so it's not exactly the best breakfast of champions but knowing full well that next week our game diets will start up again, he's definitely going all out while he still can. What he's eating here is half a box of cereal... nasty!!!

Snickers trying to be romantic but being stalked by the camera man at the same time.

Interview time... again.

Striking a pose for the cameras.

My favourite ring... my black rose.

Indulging in some ice cream and trying to make it look sexy but coming out looking silly.

The beautiful owner of my "first-last kiss"

Silly s-lines... hahaha.

I spy with my Pollack eye, a cute tummy!!!

Trying to do an action shot.

Caught in a very sweet thought.

Highlights of my Day... Sunday, June 21

1. Arirang TV keeps on changing their schedule and telling me as I arrive what the heck we’re suppose to do that day and so when I arrived at the boxing club today and was told we were heading out to the beach as supposed to the temple, I wasn’t surprised. What I wasn’t impressed with though was how they had gathered some of the UP Boxing club members to take us with us. Let it be known, I train with them, I don’t hang out with them outside of the occasional boxing dinner party or attending a wedding or a game of theirs. It wouldn’t bother me if this weren’t the third TV show I’ve been focused on where they’ve totally left out my real friends here in Korea, like Buff Boy the Original and Pro Star.

2. Word got out pretty easily among my friends that they hadn’t been invited out to this “friend-beach trip” and so on route the beach I ended up having to do damage-control with text messaging my friends and apologizing on behalf of Arirang. I know it’s for a TV show but the key word in this TV show is “documentary” so it’d be nice to not have to change my answer to suit their desires and have nonsense play dates with people who I don’t even hang out with. I know Arirang TV means well, I know they do but having them constantly film me feels so unnatural and the timing for this filming is so hard. I swear, if someone else dares asks me “Amy, how’s your condition now?”, I’m going to go buck-style and give them a good old one-two-hook! I'm trying to stay positive about it, after all, I do think the translator they've hired is pretty cool and the camera man is funny, but they're quite demanding of my time and I just wish it could be more "real".

3. I don’t get homesick or miss Canada unless you bombard me with tons of questions about Canada or continually treat me like I’m so foreign… both of which occurred today and so by noon I had turned into Miss Grumpy-Pants and wanted nothing more than to walk along the beach and run into my friends from Canada. Of course that never did happen but I did walk along the beach, Snickers joined me… and so did the Arirang TV crew. Snickers wrote my name in the sand and then humoured the camera crew with trying to dig up this massive rock as a gift for me… hahaha.

4. I knew the bad vibe for the day was courticy of me but these past couple of weeks the best word to describe what I’ve been feeling like is a trained circus monkey. So when we loaded up the van to head back to Cheonan, I was incredibly pleasantly surprised when they stopped the van and Snickers told me to get out with him. “What?! Where are we going?” I asked him. “They’re going to Cheonan but we’re going to have a date here… now” he responded with. Leave it to Snickers to be the hero of my day, God this guy is awesome!!!

5. So that’s what we did, we had a date. It was definitely nice to part from the crew and be allowed to breath. Our date started off with us finding an empty restaurant where we got overly flirty over some cooked octopus. Ice cream and a walk on the beach followed. It had rained last night and the rainy weather was returning, so the beach quickly filled up with fog. Snickers thought it funny to run through the fog with me on his back… hahaha.

6. I was quite apologetic to Snickers about my manner earlier, and lack there of it. I’m just not cool with pretending to be something I’m not and I really wished they had let me bring my friends out today as supposed to making this picture-perfect scene for the camera that turned out to be quite sour and uncomfortable.

7. Later in the evening we took the train back to Cheonan. It was an hour and a half ride but the train seats had sold out and so we were stuck sitting on the dirty seats. Snickers is quite the romantic gentleman in that he treats me like a queen and so instead of allowing me to simply sit on the floor, he insisted on standing and let me sit on his knee.

8. Snickers’ and his newly acquired English slang came to be quite useful tonight when we met probably the ugliest couple on the train. I know that sounds mean but trust me, they were so beyond fugly it was scary. I didn’t see them at first but had noticed that two people had gone into the train bathroom unit together. My curiosity got the best of me and so I stood by to see them exit. That’s when both Snickers and I caught sight of them… dang!!! Snickers yelled out “Fugly!” and I just about peed my pants. I would have peed my pants had I not feared Mrs. Fugly joining me in the bathroom… hahaha. This situation stirred up quite the sarcastic conversation between Snickers and I. We imagined them having kids. I argued that two fuglies don’t always make a fugly baby. Some of the cutest babies I’ve seen have come from ugly parents actually. Anyways, Snickers thought it funny to gave Mrs and Mr Fugly’s children quite the “colourful” names… hahaha.

9. Upon returning to Cheonan we then headed out to dinner… pasta! It would mark the last massive quantity of carbs I’d be eating for awhile. No sooner did we head out to dinner but we ran into Jae Min and boy did that situation ever kill the evening!!! You see, Jae Min isn’t exactly known for his good manners and he overly works his strange charm but he’s one of the first people I met when I came to Korea and so he’s kind of got a special place in my books. Anyways, I ran into him downtown and no sooner did I run into him but then I noticed Snickers’ manner totally change. It’s like he went into fight-mode and so I excused us from the conversation and off we went.

10. Snickers was so not impressed with Jae Min’s manner toward me that he couldn’t even stomach his food and instead he let the plate get cold. I didn’t really know how to explain Jae Min to Snickers and I understood Snickers’ point but I didn’t think I should have to pick sides. Snickers never did come out and say “It’s him or me” but instead he called up his sister to help with translating what he was struggling to say. Me, being the overly proud Polska, mistook his phone call as him inviting someone into our business and so I got all embarrassed, insulted and then let my plate go cold, too. So while Jae Min walked around downtown with not a care in the world, there I sat with frustrations eating me from the inside out and then I brought those frustrations home with me. Snickers followed me home, hoping to talk it over with me but we both were taking two different angles on the story and I was in no mood to talk. So when he stepped into my building, I pulled a childish move and hid behind a parked car. Ended up sitting outside for the next couple of hours, hoping it’d just pass. I knew Snickers wasn’t in the wrong but I also knew he didn’t know the whole picture… nor did I really know how to explain it to him. It wasn’t a simple situation and of course I know I made it all that more worse by playing the fool and not addressing the situation like I should have. It’ll cool off by tomorrow. By tomorrow we’ll both see this was all a stupid misunderstanding, or so I told myself. I hate going to bed angry and I'm usually the person who insists on talking things out but partly because of my last relationship, I've become very use to keeping things bottled up and dealing with them in my own head. I'm really trying to change this. I struggled to go to sleep tonight, knowing that I had upset him and acted quite childish with hiding. He had tried so hard to change my sour day and then here I went and made it a sour evening… dang.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who's the owner of your "first-last kiss"?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Kisses are like tears, the only real ones are the ones you can't hold back.
-- Author Unknown

He's trying to pretend for the camera that he's naked here... hahaha.

Apparently we are the "limited clothes" couple... tank tops all day, every where and anywhere.

And no, we're not naked here. He's wearing Adidas boxing game shorts, I'm wearing a tank top and I've topped my cute "I love pink" pants off with a gangster purple left eye and a freakish Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers forehead bump... lol.

He doesn't seem impressed with my newly acquired look though.

Highlights of my Day... Saturday, June 20

1. Woke up and bitterness from yesterday’s game lingered in my mouth. “Why bitter?” you ask, well to put it in a simple sentence, I was anticipating a bunch of my teammates to come out to my game and then have us all head out for a celebration dinner. But none of them showed up and I didn’t even so much get a text message from any of them despite the countless games and hours of traveling and training I’ve spent with them and because of them. I wasn’t expecting anything huge or whatnot from them or anyone else for that matter but my game came, my game went, I pushed myself way too far mentally and physically with training but won my match and it honestly felt that those that should have taken notice (close friends, family and teammates) totally forgot all about it and their words of congratulations were replaced by strangers, like the Park Jun hair shop crew and a couple of the local fruit street sellers.

2. “I don’t need anyone to validate my existence” was a quote a friend once told me and that’s what got me through my bitterness today. Bitterness is not my cup of tea and I don’t want it to become a habit of mine, nor a friend.

3. It was nice to finally have a day off training but I know it won’t be long before I start my prep work for my next fight. I’m assuming this upcoming Monday my game diet and prep work will again start up.

4. Knowing full well that this may be the first and last weekend of freedom, Snickers and I got down to some serious sinfully-delicious eating and we kicked off our sinfest-feast with a trip out to Home Plus to load up on groceries… hahaha.

5. Apparently not everyone thinks it’s funny when I respond “my boyfriend gave it as a gift” when asked “How did you get a black eye?”… hahaha. Oh gosh. I thought it was funny to make up random silly stories about the shiner I’m sporting but apparently either people are too tightly wound up, have no sense of humor, or are gullible enough to actually believe my story. You should have see the dirty look Snickers got though… hahaha.

6. So ya, I’m sporting a black eye, well, it’s actually a collage of shades of purple at the moment and I’ve got quite the goose egg on my forehead. The bump on my head is kind of freakish looking but I’m proudly wearing my “black” eye.

7. But before we headed out to do some grocery shopping, we headed out for lunch. “Would you like rice with that?” the waitress asked me and with that, Snickers and I looked at each other, giggled and asked for extra rice… hahaha. I haven’t had rice in about a month and a half and I think I’m seriously part Korean sometimes because I’ve been craving it like a pregnant woman… hahaha.

8. Rainy weather, Snickers’ and my favourite. I especially love rainy weekend weather, it feels romantic to me for some reason. Mind ya, I guess sitting in the window all cuddly with my disgustingly beautiful boyfriend has something to do with that... hahaha.

9. Next on our list of things-to-do-before-our-freedom-is-cut-again included heading out for cheese tak galbi (chicken) and then topping it off with a trip to Baskin Robins. We flopped on the floor in my house like two beached whales. With our bloated bellies poking out of our t-shirts and an inability to move because of being so stuffed, we laid on the floor for some time, savoring the freedom, knowing full well that it’ll all end next week.

10. Plans to attend a girls-only party filled with gossip and boy-talk got canceled when I got word that a close friend of mine back in Canada was involved in a car crash. They found the car but they don’t know where he is. As if I wasn’t already having a hard enough time holding down all that chicken and ice cream, now this?! So for the rest of the evening Snickers and stayed in, anticipating a phone call that never did come.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What is your cup of tea?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
-- Anthony J. D'Angelo