1. Snickers headed off at the crack of dawn to Granny-K’s house out in no-man’s-land but I stayed in on account that I haven’t yet figured out how to control this ‘lovely thing’ called allergies. Maybe it’s not allergies that I have. Maybe it’s just my body naturally reacting to the pollution in the Korean city sky that evidently almost all Koreans are accustomed to, then again maybe not. Maybe it is allergies because it only gets me in the spring, whereas the pollution, it’s year round. (Excuse my sarcasm there – it’s been a long day).
2. No sooner did Snickers arrive home tired and in much need of a shower but then K-Gere called on him and told him to come help him with his mini farm. Snickers slaved away yet again, and I stayed home yet again.
3. It’s Mama Kim’s birthday this coming week but the Kim family decided to celebrate it early and do it differently, so a family dinner out was arranged. When Snickers told me of the plan, I was shocked, really shocked. K-Gere and Mama Kim are now divorced but broke up years upon years ago but it wasn’t exactly a good break-up, it was a rather big situation, and besides Snickers’ boxing fights where they both attend but stand no where close to each other, this dinner would mark the first time the Kim family would do something together in about 12 years.
4. On the way to the restaurant, Snickers asked Mama Kim the question we all wanted to ask, “Don’t you feel uncomfortable?” to which she responded with “No, I don’t care.” And not care was exactly what was shown at the dinner table. It’s not that she didn’t care but that she was so over it and she was more interested in being there with her kids and their kids as supposed to letting the past join us at the table.
5. I’m definitely like my father in that I hate going out but once I’m out I’m out and loving it. Tonight I moaned and groaned about having to go out but once I was out with the fam it was great. We indulged in duck and it was delish!!! Both my sisters-in-law were there, along with my two nephews, Snickers, Mama Kim, and K-Gere.
6. Did you know Korea offers a swimsuit rental service?! Yup, it’s true. Somehow this came up in tonight’s table talk and they all thought my reaction was hilarious. “I’m sorry but that’s just flat out dirty!” I said with a face that looked like I had just sucked on a lemon… hahaha.
7. Snickers and his family love to pull my strings. After they caused quite the commotion with their laughter over the swimsuit rental reaction I gave, they continued on to tell me that Korea also offers a toothbrush rental service. I knew it was bunk but they got a good laugh out of teasing me with their words, just like how K-Gere loves to try to scare me by throwing mean faces and evil glares at me randomly and for no reason.
8. I had arrived to dinner with overly itchy eyes and a sneezing nose. Word of me battling it out with my allergies spread like wild fire through the Kim family line today when they were at Granny-K’s house, so they all arrived at dinner with their own cures and remedies they swore would be my saving grace. One of my sisters-in-law handed me over medicated eye cream to which my other sister-in-law insisted I put it on like such, and Mama Kim insisted I go to a spa house and then rest. I’m not for public bath house, I’d rather walk around naked in my own house thanks, but I accepted the lotion and smiled.
9. K-Gere took it a step further by giving me a big bottle of herbal medicine that he had made himself. He’s occupied an abandoned house nearby and uses it to store, grow and harvest some of the many needed plants and herbs he uses. I’ve only the inside of this house once but it was rather wild to see. There were massive clay pots and plants drying scattered all on the floor.
10. As for the rest of the day, well there really wasn’t much left of it after, I met up with a former coworker of mine to give him the granola bars I bought him at Costco and then Snickers and I relaxed back at Ggum Guum. It’s not technically Mother’s Day until tomorrow, because of the time change, so I held off on calling my mom and hit the sack pretty early.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
If you only had one wish for your birthday, how would you spend that wish?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
-- Jane Howard
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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