1. Tonight I had a language exchange group meeting set for 7pm, which meant I had to go boxing without Snickers, without my teammates, and without any of my other little boxing buddies. I went training at 4pm; even my little high school kiddies don’t train that early.
2. Rushed home from training – even had Snickers drive me home – wolfed down some chicken and veggies and then got ready for a much anticipated first meeting at a newly founded language exchange group here in Cheonan. Mind ya, with the library closed for the day we had to relocate the meeting to Coffee Bean.
3. I was the only one who showed up. The language exchange was a bust.
4. Sure I may not have obligations and a busy schedule like the average Joe but I do have one set thing on my schedule – my boxing. I usually go boxing at either 6 or 7pm because that’s when people like Black Skinny, Panty Boy Jr., my husband, and some others that I favor go training at. It’s just a different feel when I train with them. They inspire me. They push me to do better, go stronger, train longer and I think I in turn also give them somewhat of the same push. They also push me around and give me the occasional shoulder punch but that’s part of the fun of training with them. It just us ‘boys’.
5. I had told Snickers earlier that I hadn’t high hopes with the language group. I kind of anticipated meeting a group of people that’d speak more English than Korean and who would be more into socializing than any kind of studying. That’s all fine and dandy, and I am totally cool with that, but that’s not why I had joined the language exchange group. Call me silly but I joined because I wanted a language exchange. I’ve been addicted to cramming in as much Korean as I can into my little Polish head.
6. The group decided to head over to a restaurant, so I sat at Coffee Bean and studied… alone. I never did meet anyone from the group.
7. Snickers came by to pick me up after boxing. I felt so left out for having not trained with ‘my boys’ tonight at boxing. “Did you have fun?” he asked me. “Fun?! I wanted to study but they went out to have fun, so I sat alone.” “Why didn’t you have fun with them?” he asked me next. “If I wanted fun I would have stayed home, stayed half naked, and had fun with you.” Note here, in addition to being addicted to studying Korean like an animal, I’m also addicted to my no makeup, no combed hair, no clothes except a wife-beater tank and leggings, lounging-around-the-house kind of style so having to put on makeup, sport a bra and decent clothes is quite the annoying chore for me lately.
8. Despite most of the members in the language exchange group (from what I saw on their homepage that is) being Korean, the group consists of mainly males. There are 16 members, of which 10 are Koreans. Out of the 10 that are Koreans, only 2 are female. I was impressed that the group has so many Koreans but considering the fact that there’s only 2 Korean females, the odds of them and I being a perfect match for any kind of language exchange is rather slim, even more slim considering one is so much younger than me.
9. I may venture out one day to join the Cheonan language exchange group because Snickers says I’m such an anti-social. If I join them though, it’ll be for fun and not to really pick up any Korean language tips or whatnot. Maybe I am anti-social but I have my group of close friends here and now I want someone who’ll solely help me out with improving my Korean. Snickers studies a lot with me but because his English is still basic, he can’t exactly explain to me the grammar rules, so it’s frustrating for him, frustrating for me.
10. I’ve pretty much convinced myself that the language exchange group isn’t exactly where I’ll be meeting a new Korean female friend, so I sought out my other options. By 10:40pm not only had I stumbled across a Korean female who had tried before to get in contact with me for language exchange but we had also exchanged text messages on our phone. BINGO! She’s 27, lives in Seoul, works as a nurse, and has already started to call me ‘older sister’ – such a Korean thing to do; very cute!!!
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How do you know what you know?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
You don't need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves.
-- Adam Cooper and Bill Collage
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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