1. Had my dance students in tears (good tears) as I presented to them the video I made last week of their classmate... the begging cell phone user. It was so funny. The poor girl sat there sporting one beat red face but she was laughing hysterically and so it was soooo funny.
2. My students have presentations next week, all 292 students, some how I got caught being the partner for many of them. I think I've got about 10 presentations to participate in... oh gosh! Now one of the rules for their presentations is that it must be memorized. I'm going to try hard to memorize it but I doubt I'll be able to do it considering the grammar errors in the scripts they've given me so far... talk about pressure though.
3. Headed off to boxing. Junior Mint is still nursing his injured knee and so I did my own training routine solo today. He kept on shouting things at me from the side lines and so regardless of the fact that he didn't work hands on with me, he definitely drilled me.
4. After a long day of training and mind boggling Konglish, which turned out to be more Korean than English, I was so looking forward to sitting down with Q for a good satisfying meal at Mainz. I wanted nothing more than to kick up my heels with my guy by my side and just relax.... no such luck.
5. I got all dolled for nothing cause when I met up with Q, he surprised me by telling me we're going to this one restaurant. At first I thought, oh how sweet, he's taking me back to where we had our first date... nope. Despite it being the place we did in fact have our first date, the reason why we went there was cause his two friends were there. Now it's one thing that we meet up with his friends, it's another thing when he doesn't mention it and I don't know the dudes. I wasn't impressed.
6. So there I was, wanting to relax but, for starters I couldn't cause of having to sit on the floor isn't exactly comfortable in a skirt, and I was being drilled a million questions in quite possibly the fastest Korean I've ever heard in my life. No sooner did his one friend open his mouth to ask something but out flew like a million and one questions. My ears were trying to catch the words as they jetted by my ears and myy brain was trying to catch up with it all but he then he'd throw out another question... ahhh... STOP!!! He kept on asking Q if I spoke Korean and Q said yes. I do speak Korean but it isn't exactly easy, nor is it relaxing.. nor is it what I want to do after a long week of marking and studying. I felt like I was back in school, being drilled by my students.
7. Honestly, I really don't like meeting new people. I like hanging with my own crew. I like not having to explain myself and who I am. My crew knows me and I'm able to relax. More importantly though, I don't like meeting new people for the very fact that it ends up being the same conversation. I've met my share of Koreans in Korea and I'm getting really sick of the "What's your name, where are you from.." conversation. I've been having this SAME conversation for the past three years and it got old a long time ago. Why have that conversation when in reality, probably in about a week, we're going to forget all about this conversation and may never meet again. It's a waste of my time. If I never meet another person in my life, that's cool with me. God has blessed me with enough people and I much rather focus on these relations than making new ones.
8. I somehow convinced myself to stick around for about 30 minutes before I turned to Q and said I had to go home. I made up some lame excuse about having to have homework and then he walked me home. He kept on asking me if I was ok and, like always, my response is "Even when I'm not ok, I'm ok." .. and it's true. I was so tempted to turn to him and just totally spill my beans, as much and as fast as I could, just to confuse him. Maybe then he'd understand what I felt like with his buddies talking to me. But I didn't. Instead, I went home and poured my beans to Mi Nam. I thought about who I could call but honestly, no name came to my mind.. that's rough. I'm not close enough with my coworkers to talk to them about sensitive issues, obviously my boyfriend doesn't understand, and the fact that all my friends here are Korean poses language problems and so viola... Mi Nam.
9. Q called me like crazy but I didn't pick up. I didn't know what to say. I just wanted to be left alone. I'm so done with explaining who I am and what I do. I just want to be understood. Maybe he will never understand me.
10. Kim Tae (also called "Tytus") was on msn and so I decided to message him. It was kind of ironic asking for relationship advice from him but, whatever. He's a friend. No sooner had we started talking and I had calmed down, but then he asked me, "What's the difference between 'it' and 'there'?" ... and with that, I turned off the computer. I was so done with Friday. Up until 6pm, my day was awesome. It was only 7:30pm but already my evening was killed. I didn't know if it could possibly get worse but I didn't want to risk it and so at 7:30pm I went to sleep. I turned the lights off, the music off, locked the door, turned my phone off, and curled up with Mi Nam on the couch.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Are we ever really understood?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Let your loss be your lesson.
-- Song title by Robert Plant
As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).
After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.
Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.
7 comments:
Hey Amy......long time no comment
awww that's too bad. I think you two just had a misunderstanding. It's bound to happen......A LOT. Sung Hyun and I have incidents like this often.
Really I think he likes you a lot so he wants to show you off to his friends, which is good. Maybe if you weren't so exhasted and wanted to relax if would have been just fine. Unfortunately you were just wanting to chill with your man......understandable!!!!
I suggest telling him why you weren't happy b/c I'm not one for games (and yes I think telling him you're okay when you clearly are not is a GAME). I just think that it would be easier than lying (or lame excuse as you call it). There is a whole culture to work against and the standard game rules don't apply. And I'm sure you weren't intentionally trying to play a game but that's what happens when you do things like that.
Not answering his phone call, well that's just darn right rude!!! I know it's your perogative to do as you wish and if you wanted to be left alone then that's understanable, but for goodness sake tell the poor man, he's your boyfriend. "Hey I didn't have a good time and I just want to be left alone, so I'll call you tomorrow when I feel better, when I'm not so grumpy"
That works for me AMY. We are not perfect so he will understand if you are having an off day. And just tell him how you feel it will make your life a lot easier (because how can you expect someone to understand you if you don't tell them, it's that simple). AS MUCH AS WE WOULD LIKE MEN TO READ OUR MIND THEY WON'T AND NEVER WILL!!! But there's a happy medium and when you find that balance all those headaches that men give you will all be worth it.
Trust me (because i've been there BUT also had to work against the LANGUAGE BARRIER)...........
I hope one day you can find a little Sung Hyun
We're still happy in love and enjoying every minute of it (and that's the way life should be)
From your CUTE COREAN COUPLE!!!
Hey Amy,
Totally understand about having no-one to call/talk to with problems. Most of my friends in Korea are Korean (and I feel the same with making new friends, and explaining all the same shit again and again and again), and sometimes there is the language barrier, so i keep it to myself. Also, if i tell (most of my) Korean friends my problems, i get the "Take a rest/Don't worry" comment, rather than then just listening.
I've got 1 week until I'm back in Korea. Kinda looking forward to it. I miss speaking Korean.
Men, bless them, can't read women's minds. Women, bless us, can't read men's minds. As much as it seems to romantic to have someone know your every thought, it's not possible. (Or desirable...I mean, do you REALLY want to know what someone else is thinking. ALL of the time? Ewww.)
Why not just say, "I wanted to be with you alone tonight. I didn't know I'd be meeting friends and I wanted to spend time with you." He probably thought he was being sweet.
As for your boyfriend "obviously" not understanding you, how can he? You're lying to him! It's not fair to expect him to understand when you're not telling the truth!
And not answering the phone? Seriously? Put yourself in his shoes. Would you really want to be treated like that? I KNOW I am worth more than that, and I wouldn't put up with such childish behavior, frankly.
I agree that turning off the phone was childish. That's NOT what you do to a boyfriend who did NOTHING to purposely upset you. He took you out over the weekend to meet his friends and you loved the whole thing. Now he does it again and you're upset. He can't guess what's on your mind! Keeping your thoughts and feelings to yourself only hurts any chance of a real relationship with this guy. It's not that he doesn't understand what you're thinking because he's Korean. It's just that no guy is a mind reader! How can he know you had a bad day if you don't tell him?! There's no reason to be rude.
Sometimes the degree with which I can relate to you is scary. Maybe it is just because we're both
에이미s. :)
For what it's worth, I would have reacted exactly as you did to having to spend time with two new people when I wanted to be alone with my boyfriend. The only thing that possibly could have irritated me more would be if they were trying to "practice their English." But then, I totally get why Q wanted to introduce you and why this was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to do considering the culture. So communication is the key here (as I'm sure you realize), but I would have shut down just like you did. Because frankly, I've never been that great of a communicator and when I get to a certain point of irritation, I just shut down. I'm not justifying that kind of behavior; that's just the way I am.
Hey Everyone,
Wow... where the heck do I begin to respond to these comments. Now I'm really sorry for holding off commenting. The comments are adding up.
Thanks for all your comments though.
A special thanks to my Beloved for being in my corner on the whole keeping things to myself bit.
Hugs to ya Beloved! ;)
As for the rest of ya... hehehe. I hear what you're saying and as much as I respect your opinion, I do think it's awesome that you all comment on my page, just please understand that we're all different.
I'm really not into games and me not answering the phone had nothing to do with playing any kind of game. It wasn't like that at all. If anything, I just really didn't know what to say to him. I figured that saying nothing to him at all was best. Q is a super easy going guy and so I knew he wouldn't get all hyper over it all.
Sure I could have told him to just call me tomorrow, but I didn't. I didn't want to get into a lengthy discussion which would probably only lead to me getting more upset with having to explain myself and translate all my words and thoughts to him. I didn't think it was worth it.
When it comes to spilling my beans, I much rather keep it to my homepage. In person, when it comes to personal matters I'm becoming more and more a woman of few words.
I use to be quite the chatty cathy in Canada but this ain't Canada. Things are different here... definitely. And the more and more I open my mouth to speak, the more and more I find my words lost in translation or having to be further explained with more words. Sometimes it's down right annoying and so I now keep a lot of things to myself.
How ironic though... on my homepage, I find it means I'm writing more and more.
Sorry about the rambling... hehehe
You're welcome, Amy. I've got to be in your corner, though 'cause if I'm in the other corner, well. . .need I remind you that you are a professional boxer? Haha.
It's all good; I was just airing my views. Those are them and now you know. :)
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