1. So much for crashing and burning due to jet lag, this little Pollack (me) was up and about nice and early today. Mind ya, considering I was staying out in the sticks at my parents place, waking up early meant having an extra long day of not really much to do.
2. And so with no real plans and no real options, I did what I do best… workout. Hit the local gym hoping for a hard workout but got more than I anticipated when some random dude asked me for my number. I giggled and gave him my Korean number… hehehe.
3. Getting approached by a second dude while I was training kind of frustrated me. I take it I’ve been in Korea too long cause getting approached by random dudes made me blush and feel ultra shy. Korean guys just aren’t blunt and so forward like these Western dudes, well, at least not the ones I have encountered.
4. Hung out in the backyard for the afternoon with my cat Scrappy-Joe and my parents' cats Samantha and Oreo. Found it rather chilly though. The temperature was 26 today but that doesn’t compare to Korea’s weather. My mom found it super hot today, while I walked around with leggings and a sweater on.
5. A trip to the local grocery store was way too fascinating for me as my eyes scaled the shelves and my nose was bombarded with mounds of smells as I discovered way too many cool new things. Skippy peanut butter smooth, spray on salad dressing, brick cheese, cottage cheese, cartons of egg whites … ohhhh… I could go on and on about the food!!!
6. Realizing just how “super sized” Canada is… wow! The streets here are ultra wide, the houses are huge, even the serving sizes of food are massive, the cars and trucks are quite large,… and the people are big too. It’s funny cause I feel so tiny here now. Walking around in the stores I noticed just how over weight and just how tall most Westerners are… crazy!
7. Did the whole “parade around the neighbourhood”, and by that I meant my parents took me around to several neighbours’ houses for me to say hi. The girl next door who I use to play with now plays with her little son who’s seriously a spinning image of her, button nose and all. My high school friend across the friend married our other high school friend and her little brother isn’t so little anymore, towering above me. One of my neighbours joked, asking me when I'm going to get back on the "bandwagon" with the rest of them. Hmm... so many of my friends here have got married, popped out kids, bought cottages, and whatnot... "I bought a dog" I replied.
8. The “Witches”, as we call them.. OK, so they’re no witches. The term vampire is more appropriate here… they’re an odd couple who despite the long list of strange things this couple does, including cutting the grass with scissors, only coming out at night, and having BBQ parties in their garage, they are quite sweet. They told me to drop by again and maybe we could have coffee and ice cream. Ah ice cream. They’ve been trying to lure me into their house since I was young with ice cream but my parents always refused to let me go into their house. Hmm… I’m 27 and I’m still not allowed to go into their house. I like the Witches though. Rumors still circulate the street about them but I think it only adds character to an ultra boring neighbourhood where the usual highlights include the city repaving the street or someone painting their garage.
9. I rented a roaming phone at the Incheon airport in S.Korea before I left but ended up spending a good chunk of my evening trying to figure out the text messaging. I’ve called Q a couple of times and so hearing his voice was awesome… although I’m sure my phone bill won’t be so awesome. Ended up calling the LG roaming helpline and was told that there’s a few glitches in their system cause they just changed their roaming last week. Great. “Here’s an overly priced phone for you to use while on vacation that doesn’t work”… ya, like that makes sense. So, as it goes, my vacation has been comfortable so far minus the pain in the butt I’m experiencing thanks to LG.
10. Met up with an old high school friend of mine tonight after she got off work. We were reunited via Facebook and so had seen each other's pictures and what not but we hadn't seen each other for almost 10 years! All I can say is WOW! It's crazy how things change... how people change... how WE change. Back in high school she was a friend but not a close friend, but after sitting down with her in a coffee shop and chatting for 5 hours, I really wished we had been closer in high school. Mind ya, as they say, it's never to late to be the person you want to be. And so on that note, we chatted about a ton of things. I had brought her instant coffee from Korea and MyChew candies. Not your typical souvenir but definitely a tasty one! It was so great to meet up with her and so I look forward to seeing her again at my birthday bash.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
They're all so different now, but what about me?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
All is connected ... no one thing can change by itself.
— Paul Hawken
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.
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