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
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:
YUM. Choco pies! I'd kill a small dragon for some choco pies right about now (but only the Orion brand for me).
2. Well, he was super jealous when he met that other guy-friend of yours. It looks like he's the jealous type.
5. I think you're a little uptight with religion if bowing to a statue bothers you. Also, you mean to say to don't believe in what Buddha teaches, not IN him. He actually existed.
9. Did that piss you off that Snicker did that?
-Bman
Hi White Rice,
Hahahaha... I could mail you some if you'd like! Seriously! But why the Orion brand? That's not the original brand of choco pies, as far as I know.
Yo Bman,
What other guy friend of mine?! Snickers isn't the jealous type but he is Korean. Koreans, for the most part, are all about girls being friends with girls and guys being friends with guys. Sure they have friends that are members of the other sex but their main close friends are of the same sex.
As for being uptight... I don't think so. The Arirang TV crew were the ones who asked me if I was allowed to bow to the Buddha and up until they asking me it honestly didn't cross my mind.
Buddha, like many religions or ways of thinking basically stem around the same notion of being a good person and maintaining a sound, clean, clear mind. I believe in what he teaches and what he stands for but I don't consider myself a Buddhist. I am a Christian.
As for Snickers showing up.. piss me off?! Gosh no! I was so flattered that he came out to help me out, he's awesome like that.
I was talking about your Jae Min friend, and when Snicker's was upset with him. I figured it was jealousy.
And I meant were you mad when he came over to help, but ended up just eating something you had saved up.
-bman
Yo Bman,
Oh... no, he wasn't jealous about Jae Min, he just didn't care for Jae Min's lack of manners. In the Korean language there's certain rules with language and how you speak to someone, and well, Jae Min talks with low manners to everyone and so Snickers was rather shocked that I'd associate myself with someone like that.
As for Snickers eating the choco pies, oh I was MORE than happy about that. They're pure temptation to me.
Oh ok haha. I read that wrong. Sometimes it's hard to see how you feel about things, if you're being sarcastic, etc. I'm guessing Jae Min is Korean...so is he just rude? Like how people from the West can be considered rude to Western standards?
-Bman
Post a Comment