1. “What is happiness to you – having or doing?” I asked a particular person today. Lately, happiness to me has been a matter of not, NOT having and NOT doing – not having the stress of working at a place I no longer respect, not having a set schedule to abide to, and being made to deal with the stupidity of certain people like I once had to. Life for me now is a lot simpler and a lot more straight forward.
2. Happiness is wanting what I have and being grateful for what I DON’T have.
3. I’m a pretty basic person now. I do what I want when I want, go where I want with whom I want, and all those other annoying distractions in life that so thoughtlessly took pieces of me away, whether that be people, places or whatnot, have all been pushed out. It’s taken a lot of effort on my behalf though to get to where I now am. Resigning from my position at Dankook was the first active step I took but all the other steps I took, which at first looked like a huge step to take but, in actuality, it was but just a mere baby steps in comparison to other steps I’ve taken recently.
4. One of my language group members asked me to give him a name. I assumed he meant an English name but, as it turns out, he wanted a Polish name. Today I showed up with a great Polish name for him and a bunch of those bulgogi burgers for the whole group. Only 7 more burgers to get rid of.
5. Despite still not having my F2 visa processed, which let me tell you is so beyond annoying and frustrating, I’ve agreed to a part-time substitute teacher position out in Seoul for two weeks in May. I figured my visa would be ready by the time the gig actually started.
6. Today I headed out there for a meeting regarding the substitute position. I must admit, the teacher I am substituting for has a pretty cool teaching position. She teaches at a couple of community centers in Seoul where having fun has been given priority over actually learning English. She works only three days a week and, judging by the pay their offering me, she makes a pretty sweet paycheck. As for her students, the students who attend her classes are from lower income families who can’t afford the hefty private hagwon tuition fees and their parents aren’t curriculum-pushing, high-test-expecting parents. If anything, they’re parents who are grateful for the opportunity to have their son or daughter experience this opportunity that the city has set up for them.
7. Am looking forward to being able to experience it, too.
8. Snickers is now officially an 8-6 working man (actually it’s more like 8:20-6, but whatever). Yup, it’s true. Today was his first day on the job, so I woke up early and made him eat a full breakfast that I had cooked. Throughout the day I texted him and he seemed really happy to be able to further contribute to our ‘nest egg’ that we have at the bank.
9. After a full day of traveling here and there, I returned to Ggum Guum only to have Snickers come home and push me off to boxing.
10. I eat every three hours, six times a day. I had started my day off with a protein-packed oatmeal pancake and had packed my purse full of clean-eating goodies for my trip out to Seoul but in the business of my day I had missed a meal. I blamed it on the fact that I fell asleep on the bus. I was hoping to get in a quick bit before boxing but Snickers insisted we go at our regular time, meaning getting a bite in was a no-go. By the time I finished boxing it was approaching 9:30pm. I hadn’t had anything to eat since 4pm, so I was getting agitated by hunger pains and was getting the ‘feed-me-or-I’ll-eat-you’ look in my eyes. Snickers wanted to stay longer at training but I knew I’d be turning into the Polish-Hulk if I didn’t get home and eat something. Well, I ended up turning into the Polish Hulk. It happened when I arrived to Ggum Guum and one of my neighbor’s had locked the front doors extra early. I only had my apartment key on me, so I resorted to shaking the heck out of the front doors, hoping that this would not only get my neighbor downstairs to unlock it but also help me vent my frustrations. Neither response happened though some local dude did walk on by to stare at me. He gave me a ‘look-at-the-crazy-white-girl’ looks, to which I flashed him a mean grin and he quickly continued on. Thankfully Snickers had noticed my front door key sitting on the table at the club. Ten minutes later he showed up. “How many people did you scare?” he asked me… hahaha…. “You know me too well” I replied.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who knows you 'too well'?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still.
-- Chinese proverb
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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