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.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Highlights of my Day... Sunday, April 19

1. After whining and dinning me last night with his words and me practically pulling an all-nighter at his office to hear him out, he lost all points possible when he couldn’t even park his car and walk me to the ticket booth at the bus terminal. That’s fine. I’ve never been one to need a guy, or anyone for that matter, to hold my hand and be there for me. I thought it was the least he could do though considering he’s on this whole “I love you” kick.

2. Returned home and was instantly reminded that I don’t need a guy cause I already have the perfect guy… Mi Nam. Ah Mi Nam, a guy who regardless of how stupid I act or how silly I get, always greets me by jumping all over me and with an eagerly wagging tail. He is love… real love.

3. Met up with Buff Boy the Original at Coffee Bean and the topic of discussion today was his current crush. “I have a problem” he said, “I have a crush.” According to his “girlfriend rules” his crush goes against all his rules, his rules being that she can’t be a student in his major, she has to live in Cheonan and she can’t be a “church girl”.

4. Our conversation got me thinking about my own situation. I don’t know what Q’s “girlfriend rules” are but I’m pretty sure I creamed them all… hahaha. So, I started thinking, “I wonder what his rules are” and so this is the list I thought up:

1. Must be Korean.
I’m Polish/Canadian but I speak Korean, studied the culture and have somewhat
Koreanized… does that count?!
2. Has to know how to cook.
The term “cook” needs to be better defined here… hahaha.
3. Must want children.
I have Mi Nam… does he count?
4. Must desire to be a stay-at-home mom.
H-E-double-hockey-sticks N-O is what I say to that. I don’t want to be a mom so who am I going to stay home to watch and it’s quite obvious the pay check I rake in is much sweeter than Q’s; not giving that up!
5. After my first Korean boyfriend here in Korea, I didn’t lose my interest in Korean guys but instead developed my own “boyfriend rules” with regards to Korean guys…. All of which Q doesn’t match up to.

1. Must speak English.
Q spoke “minus English” when I first met him and his English pretty much consists
of strange words he picked up from “Sex and the City”.
2. Must have traveled &/or lived outside of Korea.
Q traveled once to The Philippines but a week vacation doesn’t count.
3. Doesn’t want kids.
Q definitely wants a son… that’s so Korean.
4. Can’t be the oldest or the eldest son.
Q is the oldest son and thus expected to get married soon.
6. Of course there’s other factors at play here but dating a Korean guy in Korea isn’t as easy as dating some Western dude in Canada. It's can't just be as simple as "I like you, you like me". Dating involves more than just you and him and sure as heck involves more than the simple "I like you, you like me" when it gets serious. I found that out the hard way after learning my first boyfriend kept the fact that I was a foreigner secret to his family for so long.

7. Well, it WAS Easter Sunday last week and I missed it!!! In previous years (with my family) Easter always consisted of waking up early to find my fluorescent Easter basket on the main floor of my parents’ house. Of course I haven’t done that for many years now, but the memory is still there. Remembering the actual day however, not quite there and it wasn’t until I browsed Isabelle’s homepage that I found out Easter was today…. Oops.

8. Treated Q out for a beautiful lunch at a local hot spot where they bombard with a massive cooking pot full of veggies and beef. Mind you, our beautiful lunch was rudely interrupted by China… China’s yellow sand that is. Every year the arrival of spring is joined with the yellow sand from China and as the spring breeze enters into Korea, so does the yellow sand. It’s everywhere… including my nose, eyes, throat and lungs, all of which are now sore because of it.

9. By the time the afternoon was done and over with, my eyes were bloodshot from me rubbing them and I was sporting a pink bunny nose from rubbing it excessively, too. Q thought me sneezing like a million times was funny but it was quite annoying to me.


10. Spent my evening studying Korea and preparing my midterm exam stuff. Tomorrow marks the start of midterm week at Dankook and so Q and I dropped by the school to do lots of photocopying and stapling.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why do we always have to complicate things?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If Heaven made him - earth can find some use for him.
-- Chinese Proverb

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

If he doesn't meet your "rules" and you don't meet his, why are you still dating each other?

Anonymous said...

I second that question.

Anonymous said...

Breaking the rules can be fun. My husband broke a bunch of my rules when we met. But...we actually WANT to be together.

Casey said...

Oh give it a break. If that's all you guys can talk about, stirring up drama, then I really question why you read her homepage!
If you haven't figured it out already, when it comes to love, sometimes you just have to expect the unexpected.

Anonymous said...

Who's stirring up drama? Amy's been very open about the fact that she's stayed with him just because it's easy and they're in each other's social circles.

Mrs. Kim said...

WHY is it stirring up drama to ask about something SHE keeps talking about?

Every week on the Amy show it's like this:

"Hey, look at this everybody, I got a huge scratch on my arm! See it??"

so someone asks, "Where'd you get that? That looks like it might be infected."

Oooh, stirring up drama, those troublemakers!

권투선수 에이미 [Amy] said...

Note to all the ANONYMOUS'... please, please, please with a cherry on top, please be so kind as to even make up a name. You make it so hard to respond to comments when I'm bombarded with all these "Anonymous"!!! Thanks.


Hello Anonymous #1,
Great question... of which I have no real answer, or an answer that could possibly fit into the space here... hahaha.
Somethings in life just can't be explained, I think he and I are one of those things.

Hi Anonymous #2,
Fair enough...

Hey Anonymous #3,
I think I do my share plus some of breaking the rules and so this is definitely another situation in which I break the rules.
When did I say I didn't want to be with him?! No ones making me do anything here, don't get me wrong please.

Yo Casey,
Thanks for the attempted back-up but I'm OK. You're still a cutie ;)

Hi Anonymous #?!.. see, this is where a name of any kind would be so much appreciated!!!
Wow.. you TOTALLY read my homepage wrong. Dating Q is definitely NOT easy considering the language barrier, cultural differences, differences in personalities and thinking, and differences in future plans!
But I'll give you props for the fact that you did get ONE thing right, we are in the same social circle, that is, if you consider the odd times I hang out with my boxing teammates and the fact that my social life (and lack there of it) consists of Q and Mi Nam.

Hello Mrs. Kim,
How are you today?
I know... I know....

Anon #4 said...

Anon 4 here. I didn't mean dating him is easy. I meant staying with him is easier than braking up with him because you're in the same social circle, and because you sort of peed where you ate by dating someone from the boxing club, which means if you actually broke up for real you'd have to see him all the time, so it's just easier to stay with him and...

Make sense?

Anon #1 Back again. said...

"Somethings in life just can't be explained, I think he and I are one of those things."

You never struck me before as someone with low enough self esteem to use such ridiculous cop outs and rationalizations to stay in a relationship based purely on convenience and complacency. I guess I was wrong.

#4 said...

Oh yeah, and you wrote:

we are in the same social circle, that is, if you consider the odd times I hang out with my boxing teammates and the fact that my social life (and lack there of it) consists of Q and Mi Nam.

Well, yes, according to YOU, that IS your social circle. To quote YOU:

I'm not into the social scene here beyond my boxing and well, he's in the same social scene. Neither of us are willing to give up our common friends and so we have more or less stayed best buddies despite it meaning that neither one of us will be able to move on.And YOU said it was easier to be in the current state instead of moving on.

We're both not from Cheonan and but have become so accustomed to having each other in our daily lives that to step out of each other's life would really shake things.

Beloved said...

Hey Amy,
I had all the same "requirements" you have except for #3. I think it would be nearly impossible for any Korean guy to meet that one. :) Very cultural.
Does Q really want a stay-at-home wife? That seems to be a stereotype for K husbands, but my husband has never wanted that.
Personally, I think English (or a common language of some sort) is crucial. Communication between partners (spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, etc.) is hard enough without adding an actual language barrier to it. My hubby's English has definitely improved since I met him, but he had a good base to start with. I'm kind of amazed that you & Q get along so well if he speaks such little English. I guess what you have transcends language. Pretty cool!

권투선수 에이미 [Amy] said...

Hi Anon. #4,
Ya... makes sense.

Hello Anonymous #1,
Wow... easy there tiger. Like you've never changed or taken back what you've said... yikes. I didn't realize I was under investigation or under the microscope... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Hey Beloved,
Ya, #3 is a very cultureal thing, I know. I was aiming high. Q seems to think I'm some kind of miracle worker with juggling work and it's demands, the intensity of my boxing and all that it involves, and my Korean studies. I don't know exactly if he'd want me to be a stay-at-home-mom but he definitely wants a kid and I know there's no room in my lifestyle for that so something would have to give. He knows not to ask me to give up my boxing or Korean studies and so the only next option would be my job.

Q's English has definitely improved as well but we still use Korean a lot... A LOT.