Dang this hurts!!! I guess I'll have to wait till Snickers returns to get my "medicated kisses".

I Need Some TLC for my boo-boo... Saturday, July 31

Yesterday at 3:50am Snickers left for a bike tour with Wonder Boy. Nice, less than a week till we go to Canada, we have a million and one things to pack, to do, to get, to buy, and he's off having fun.

I can't really complain actually, after all, I was the one who told him to go. He's been wanting to go on a bike tour all summer but with his Philippines fight and all the demanding training that went into that, he really wasn't able to get away and just have fun.

I thought I'd wake up a bit late today and then cook myself my protein-packed blueberry muffin before I started a day packed with cleaning and preparing for our Canada trip. Well, I made the pancake and all was going well until I turned and accidentally knocked the frying pan.

Leave it to me to try to save my pancake from plummeting to it's sad death on the floor by pinning the hot frying pan in between the stove and my naked hip. Now I'm sporting quite the toasted hip which is definitely not fun nor is the fact that the massive burn mark is right where my pants waist band sits.

My high school teacher always told me "There are no mistakes in life, only lessons to be learned." So what did I learn today with this 'lesson'. Hmmm.... frying pans are hot and apparently I'm too attached to my protein if subconsciously I'd risk my own health for my morning pancake... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why did I do that?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
-- James Joyce

After googling Snickers on the web, I came across this wicked picture. If I recall correctly, he knocked out this particular opponent in the first round! I was at this tournament because I had gone to see Panty Boy Jr. and a couple of other UP Boxing members fight.

This tournament marked the first time Snickers and my paths crossed. I even ended up standing beside his buddies on the second floor balcony and took pictures of their tattoos, yet it wasn't our time to meet just yet so I never did meet him face-to-face.

Google Yourself for Yourself... Thursday, July 29

Have you ever googled yourself? Go ahead, try it.

I've been working on making a homepage for Snickers, so I googled hiim to find out any kind of extra links to him on the Internet. And then it got me thinking, if I could find all these excess links to articles, pictures, video, and whatnot on him, I started wondering what I could find on myself.

So I googled myself.

Most of the things that came up were links to my homepage, YouTube channel, BodySdepaced on Bodybuilding.com, and random interviews or references made to me with boxing. Found out that in 2009 I was ranked 39th female flyweight in the world by WBAN (Women's Boxing Association Network), cool.

Googled myself on Naver (Korean Internet homepage) and wow... found a bunch of things, very cool.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Have you ever googled yourself?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Big brother is watching you; little sister is watching back.
-- Author Unknown

Which sky do you prefer?

Sure the blue sky looks pretty but I took that shot while stuck in traffic and baking like a piece of greasy Canadian bacon on a frying pan.
As for this shot, only the white part of the sky in the far, far distance was rain-free and thunder-free. After enjoying this fierce storm while cuddling and dozing off with my main squeeze in the back seat, I'd for sure would have to pick this sky as being my sky of choice.

Gotta keep up... Wednesday, July 28

Took my two favorite Korean guys out to one of my favorite places to chow down at... The Sushi Den. We occupied one of the private rooms and pretty much kept the waitress hostage, making her keep the food coming and keeping our tummies happy.

Snickers birthday came last Friday. He's not one for birthdays but I wanted to do something special, so we went on a little trip to the beach. The inital plan was to sleep over at where ever our car took us but it poured like a mofu.

Despite the in-your-face thunderstorm that we barely were able to see and drive our way through, we had a wicked time and it turned out to be quite romantice. At one point we parked on a side country road, put down the back seats in the car, and cuddled in the storm. It was still raining when we arrived at the beach. Snickers decided to piggy-back me while I held the umbrella so that was quite cute.

He even ran out in the rain to pick me a flower. Ok, ok, enter your "make-me-gag" face here all you want, but girls, eat your heart out, and guys, you could only wish to be as incredibly sweet as my Snickers.

With our trip to Canada quickly approaching, Snickers has been more pro-active about learning English yet he still hasn't grasp many words. Take for example seagull, he insists on calling them chickens.

Then this past week I got my hair dyed and Snickers joined me at the salon. I was his "free entertainment", as he put it.

After a week of 6am runs, morning and afternoon swims, exercise and much needed showers from just hacking the heat, the Philippines left me needing a kind of hair make-over. Got my hair trimmed and dyed... lovin' it!!!

As for other things I've been doing... still doing my early morning language group, tutoring Blue, running every day, and I returned to boxing this past Monday after a week off. Snickers dropped a bit of weight after his inital bounce-back up to over 74kgs. He now weighs in at about the 70kgs mark.

Going from the Philippines' hot, hot weather to Korea's hot weather needed some adjusting for me, oddly enough, and up until late last week I didn't consider Korea's summer weather to be so hot so I had returned to daily runs in the blazing sun with a hooded sweater on. I've finally adjusted however and am back to sweating my brains out during training.

With the big visit to Canada being a week away now, I'm super busy planning things. Turns out one of my brothers will be visiting Canada for two days so I'll be able to celebrate my birthday with him... very cool. Snickers and I will only be in Canada for about two and a half weeks but among the various dinner parties, day trips, mini camping trip, family reunion, our wedding dinner reception party, and all the other numerous things I've got planned, I might have to readjust our schedule so that he'll have some free time to sleep or at least breath. I can't believe our trip is just around the corner. I get all giddy just thinking about it!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Can Canada handle him?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
I feel like a tiny bird with a big song.
-- Jerry Van Amerongen

No, he's not wearing eye shadow but trust me, I teased him a lot about that... hahaha.

An Overdose of Drugs... Tuesday, July 20

I sleep when I’m bored, I clean to distract myself from sleeping through boredom, and I eat when I am stressed. Consequently, my house is super clean, I’ve slept way too much, but it’s Snickers who’s been doing all the eating.

On Friday Snickers weighed-in at exactly 62.5kgs, today he weighed-in at 74.3kgs.

Dang… he gained 11.8kgs (about 23lbs) in FOUR DAYS!!!

And let me tell you, boy does that added weight ever look amazing on him. His eyes no longer look sunk in, his face has filled out, his hips no longer stick out like coat hangers, and his duck bum is back. My husband’s body is back! Hooray for that!!! And get this, he still is sporting abs… makes me sick!

Both Snickers and I are taking this week off boxing but this week off by no means a week away from the boxing club, from Junior Mint, or from running. Ran a 10km run today and we headed into the club today twice, once to talk to Junior Mint and another time to thank teammates for their support with gifts of watermelon. We then spent a good part of our day driving around Cheonan, thanking Snickers’ various sponsors and other supporters for their generous support.

One of Snickers’ sponsors is a natural herbal doctor and as much as I think herbs are natural I don’t see how sending him home with a massive bag of herbal medicine when he’s not even sick is so natural. K-Gere also gives us herbal medicine so along with the stuff he gives, the stuff the Kimchi doctor gives and the stuff this natural herbal doctor gives, we could pretty much start our own pharmacy!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How can you gain so much weight and come out looking so much better?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Pride is a powerful narcotic, but it doesn't do much for the auto-immune system.
-- Stuart Stevens

I grabbed these shots off of Snickers' cellphone. They were taken on Sunday.
I finally scored some sunglasses that I totally love but Snickers insisted I let him borrow them. He said he wanted to hide his purple stitched-up eyes but I think he just wanted to look like a hot super star on the plane... hahaha. He has absolutely no idea how gorgeous he is.

The Day After... Monday, July 19

Arrived back in South Korea at 8am.

Arrived back in Cheonan at 11am.

Arrived back in the arms of Snickers at 11:06am.

K-Gere dropped by Ggum Guum today to see how we were doing and then later we headed over to Mama Kim’s house for dinner.

It felt good to be back at Ggum Guum and it felt good to see Mi Nam and give him a little slap on the bum, but I missed the Philippines more than I wanted to be back in Korea, for sure.

I can’t pin-point why and what exactly it was about the Philippines that had left such a mark on me but everything seems so comfortable there. The people are just more relaxed and more carefree. They’re all about the now and I think that’s what it may come down to. Korea is always planning for the future – what they want to get, where they want to go, what they want to have – so it’s always go-go-go, rush-rush-rush with Koreans. They never seem to just enjoy the moment for what it is, instead they’re too busy planning for the next moment. Moreover, Koreans seem so image obsessed. Whereas what I experienced with the Filipinos, they’re happy with what they have, where they are, and what they are right now. There’s no over concern with the future, hence why they always were late. They took each step at a time and were happy.

And then there were those at the boxing club that I really would love to train with. Let me tell ya, it was so damn hot in the Philippines so any thought of training in such extreme heat and with such intensity at the boxing club seemed like a crazy man’s idea. They continually bust their butt off, all of them, and I didn’t see anyone slacking off. If you came to the boxing club to train then you were expected to train. There was no music playing to keep you motivated, only a coach yelling at you and teammates insisting you continue your intensity so that they don’t have to repeat an exercise because of you slacking off. I want to train at a place like this. I want to train like an animal and be pushed to the point where I have to step aside and puke a bit because it’s so intense.

Seeing them train served as both a slap in the face and as a motivator for us all from UP Boxing Club, South Korea. Snickers and I train hard but dang, these Filipinos training in that brutal heat with not even any kind of fan to rescue them was nothing but completely commendable. You couldn’t but respect them for their efforts and passion for the sport.

I’m already looking into booking tickets back to the Philippines. I’ve agreed to work a three month contract at a local university here in Cheonan but that finishes at the end of November. It’d be nice to pack up my life here, put Korea on hold for a bit, and go back to the Philippines.

The perfect plan would be to live in the Philippines from December till March, doing nothing but boxing. I don’t know if we’ll follow through with this proposed plan but it would be a pretty sweet plan. One thing is for sure though, at this point I can’t NOT go back to the Philippines. It IS a boxer’s paradise.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why did we leave?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
One must not lose desires. They are mighty stimulants to creativeness, to love, and to long life.
-- Alexander A. Bogomoletz

It just wasn't the same without Snickers.

And no matter how beautiful or elaborate it was, Snickers by my side would have made the ugliest of ugly places seem wonderful.

Back to the Land of Kimchi... Sunday, July 18

Woke up early only to jump in the van and race around the Philippines in search of the replacement medicine I had to buy for the hospital. Snickers and Junior Mint were scheduled to go to the airport at 9am and I made it back just in time to say goodbye to the beautiful people at Dao Diamond and join them for the airport drive.

Arriving at the airport, where I had spent over six hours waiting for Snickers earlier on this week, was accompanied by many smiles, waves and words of friendliness and kindness by those I had talked to last time I was here. They had remembered me and wanted to congratulate Snickers on his fight.

“It was a cheap win for Jason” one of the security guards noted. I agreed. “A win is a win though” Snickers added but the security guard added “but we all know it was a lucky win”. I felt as if I could hug this man and thank him over and over again. Our stay in the Philippines had been amazing, better than expected, and the Filipino people had clearly found a spot in our hearts and nestled right in. I will especially miss the staff at Dao Diamond hotel. I loved the fact that it was managed by two women and I think it’s safe to say we all fell in love with them.

Whether it was us asking them to do extra things for us like warm up Snickers’ soup, bring our food to our room, or hang out our laundry to dry, they were more than willing to help accommodate us and they always did so with a huge mile-wide smile.

I stuck around for a bit at the airport to chat with some of the outside security but then it was off to the pier to grab the Super Cat to Cebu.

My plane was scheduled for 1:55am (Monday morning), so I had a whole day to kill. I jumped in a taxi and asked him to take me to a hotel with a beachside view. We toured the city for about an hour and chatted solely about boxing. I was quite flattered to note that he knew of Snickers’ fight and even recalled Snickers’ actual full name.

Although many told me that basketball is the number one sport in the Philippines, it is very clear that boxing takes a close second if not a tied first. Everyone I talked to in the Philippines was aware of last night’s fight though it wouldn’t be aired until 10am and 10pm today.

The driver, a cute pudgy man with the name Mandy, dropped me off at a resort and waved me goodbye. For about $50 CDN I got a one day pass at a five-star resort and that $50 included free use of all their pools, rock-climbing, snorkeling equipment and kyacking, free Internet and towel use, as well as a whack of other free uses and a free lunch buffet.

I headed straight away to the lunch buffet but was quick to note I felt like I had just arrived back in Korea. There were Koreans as far as the eyes could see and besides the Filipino workers, I was one of few non-Koreans. I tried to ignore this fact but when I couldn’t help but overhear a Korean family complaining that there wasn’t enough Korean food on the menu I just about snapped. Them pulling out a bag of $2 kimchi from their bag at a five-star resort was the breaking point for me, so I picked up my bag and called it an end to lunch.

“There’s no escaping!” I thought to myself.

And there definitely was no escaping. Even when I was in the pool I was surrounded by Koreans. I tried my hardest to ignore listening into their Korean conversations.

The resort was stunning, absolutely stunning but I would never go back there even if you paid me for the simple fact that a vacation out of Korea for me includes not being bombarded by Korean things – the people, the manner, the culture, the language. I could have just stayed in Korea if I wanted to experience this. I had just spent so much money to travel to a point that felt exactly like my starting point but with a nicer beach and cleaner sky.

Snickers had asked me earlier on if I wanted to go on a family trip (with my in-laws) later on this year, to which I responded with “I think I’ve traveled enough with Koreans this year.” In their defense however, my in-laws’ defense that is, I’d like to think my Kim side of the family are well beyond being the average Korean family. Though Mama Kim insists on asking me weekly when am I going to have a baby, she respects my need for space and lets me take care of Snickers on my own terms and K-Gere loves the fact that I am a feisty Polack who adores his son. One of my sisters-in-law runs her own private academy and nursery school, so she’s quite successful and is the man in that relationship, a label not worn by many Korean women. As for my other sister-in-law, she works as an English teacher and tutor. Because of her adequate handle on the English language, we’ve been able to bond on a different level and I think I’ve opened her eyes to some things.

Spending the whole day by myself at this over-the-top beautiful five-star resort was interesting at first but that interest quickly died with the realization that Snickers wasn’t with me to enjoy it. He had left the Philippines without seeing the beach. I chose to not enjoy the beach water and instead wait for us to return to the Philippines so that we could enjoy it together.

I really missed him and felt almost guilty for being at such a resort without him.

My mind got the best of me after I had exhausted myself with swimming. I sat down in a nearby hammock and started to ponder yesterday’s turn of events. I still hadn’t found what to say to Snickers about his fight beyond telling him that I was so incredibly proud of him. Over fifteen thousand people had come to watch him fight and though the fight had certainly not gone as planned, those fifteen thousand people saw quite a show and Snickers’ passion and skill had been noted and commented on by so many.

At one point, I actually started to get mad. I got mad at God. Many people had wished Snickers good luck on his fight but I had refused their good luck, telling them that luck is for losers. My husband has skill and heart, two things that cross out his need for luck. I’ve never relied or believed in luck but instead put my faith in preparation and determination, and in God. I had prayed to God repeatedly, not asking him to give Snickers a win but to keep him safe. Snickers’ safety in the ring was the only thing I had been praying for recently so when his game was called on account of an injury I was so disappointed.

This past year my mom not only was stricken with cancer and was given only but limited time to live. God healed her though. If God could take her from her death bed and breath life back into her then asking him to simply keep my husband safe in the ring seemed like a piece of cake.
“Maybe God doesn’t hear me anymore.” I told myself. I ended up getting rather upset about this, knowing that the one thing I had asked for was the one thing that hadn’t happened. It was definitely hard to digest this notion so I decided to wait it out.

I waited four hours. The feeling of disappointment never left but it was time for me to jump in the airport van and head off to catch my flight.

I waited in an overly air conditioned airport packed to the brim with Koreans all heading to Korea. Some people recognized me from the fight that was aired earlier on today on the hotel TVs so I slipped on my sun glasses, flipped on my hood, and sat alone.

I was eager to see Snickers again, overly eager actually, but I didn’t want to go back to Korea. I hadn’t missed Korea since I first left it actually but I never expected to fall in love with the Philippines. Strangely enough, I had to excuse myself and wash my face in the bathroom after I let my thoughts get the best of me. Today’s day at the resort with Koreans being all in my face and every which turn only acted as a rude awaking and harsh reality check that I’d once again be having to deal with Korea. I have mixed feelings about Korea, now more than ever. I love Korea because I now have family there (of which I consider many of my teammates my extended family) but my passion for it desparetely needs to be re-sparked. I felt so unexpectantly comfortable and happy in the Philippines. I was an overly-smiley Polish girl who happily got up at 6am for harsh morning runs and the only thing I really complained about in the Philippines was that one idiot-and-a-half Korean.

The Philippines would have felt like a little piece of Heaven.

The fact that after my trip back to Korea comes my trip to Canada was basically the only thing that got me out of my seat and on to that plane at the last boarding call. They had closed the boarding gate actually, and it wasn’t until a worker there noticed me and questioned if this was my plane or not that I actually got up. I wanted to stay in the Philippines. And, like Big Yoo had expressed at the press conference, as my plane left the airport with me in it, I looked down and said “I love you Philippines!”

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Where is home?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Home is where the heart is.
-- Author Unknown

In the one tent there was us, Team UP with Junior Mint and Snickers (aka the Korean Hulk)

And then in another tent there was Ala Boxing Gym.

Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE... Saturday, July 17

With the fights not starting till 6pm and Snickers not scheduled to fight until about 8pm, the day consisted of a lot of waiting and a lot of silence. Fight day is always intense I understood Snickers’ need to use his day to mentally prepare for the game, so I stuck to swimming and running to preoccupy myself while Snickers sat on the floor of our room doing some serious thinking. We knew the fight would be in a soccer stadium but we all thought it rather strange. Little did we know that the space of the massive soccer stadium wouldn’t in fact be enough to house the crowd that would be coming out.

They opened up the stadium back doors and in we drove like super stars. The driver drove us right on to the soccer field and to a tent they had sent up for us.

I let Junior Mint and Snickers have their private time together in the tent while I went out and roamed about among the crowd. I was the only foreigner there and boy did my blond hair ever turn heads… hahaha. The promoter walked along with me, as a kind of bodyguard, and then I was later joined by Snickers’ opponent’s boxing club manager, Ala. I had told Ala that I wanted to buy a shirt with his boxing club’s name on it for Snickers as a kind of souvenior. He took me over to where they were being sold, by a side entrance gate, but I was quick to buy one and get out of there because of the scene at play.

You had two options for watching the fights, buy a ticket or grab a free seat in the stands. Tickets were easy to come by because they were being sold practically everywhere but seats were limited. People were climbing the walls, pushing each other, and security had to resort to throwing rocks at some to control them. It was intense and honestly I felt rather scared.

While Junior Mint wrapped Snickers’ hands, I had to go and monitor the hand wrapping of his opponent – fight rule they had in place. It was kind of strange sitting beside Snickers’ opponent (Jason Pagara). Jason doesn’t speak English but his teammate did so we chatted while he worked away. Jason’s boxing club is called Ala Boxing and apparently it’s the biggest and most notorious clubs in the Philippines. There’s two of them actually. All week leading up to the fight, everywhere I went it seemed like an Ala Boxing Club member with their professionally designed pants, t-shirts, and track suits were everywhere.

It wasn’t until close to 9pm that they actually called Snickers into the ring. By then the crowd was bursting at the seams, so we had quite a crazy walk up to the ring. People lined the tight path they had marked off for the boxers.

An estimated 15,000 people were in attendance!!!

When we reached the ring, Junior Mint and Snickers stepped into it while I prepared the water bottles, ice pack and whatnot. The ring elevated a good 3-4 feet and though it was late, it was still super hot and bright because of the massive clusters of stage lights they had set up.

ROUND ONE
Snickers stood quite taller than Jason and it was clear that he had regained a lot of the weight he had dropped for weigh-in. My whole body tensed up as I watched from ringside as Snickers dominated Jason and knocked him around the ring.

ROUND TWO
I wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that Jason was shorter than Snickers or if it was done intentionally, but head-butting happened way too much in this round and the ref didn’t seem to care to call it. I’m sure he probably got points docked off because of it but with just under 10 seconds left to the round, everyone in the crowd got loud when the ring doctor stepped in. Snickers stepped back and I was shocked to see so much blood running down his face. Both his eyebrows had been cut but with the added excess sweat it made for quite a bloody sight.

The doctor called the fight. The cuts were too deep.

It didn’t hit us until we arrived back at the tent that the fight we all had anticipating Snickers to clearly dominate and take had just ended. On the way back to the ring I was stopped by numerous people, including an official, the promoter, other professional boxers, and even crowd members, who all wanted to tell me that Snickers would have won had he not been injured. I knew he would have won. He should have won, and he would have won, but he didn’t, and now I was faced with the struggle of trying to find out what exactly to say to him once we got back to our prep tent.

Upon arriving back at the tent, people knew to give us some privacy. Snickers sat down and blurted out, “How can I become a world champion if I lose a game?!” to which I didn’t know what to say but to bury his head in my shirt. He didn’t cry or anything and actually he seemed to take the loss quite well but I was crushed.

This was Snickers’ first fight since his beloved grandfather died, consequently, it marked the first fight without him in the crowd. Snickers had told me earlier that he wanted to use his game win money to buy his grandfather a grave stone.

One of the other Filipino boxing clubs that had a boxer fighting tonight had taken a big liking to Snickers and I. We had joked around with one of them earlier, telling him that his face had a shocking resemblance to Snickers’ best friend. I felt relieved to see him and his crew come by our tent to encourage Snickers and to hang out. Actually, a lot of people came by to give their regards. It was rather overbearing the crowd that bombarded the sides of our tent but you couldn’t help but feel happy at the sight.

Regardless of our heartbreak, the tournament went on. Big Yoo lost his fight, fireworks went off and the so-called “Philiippines vs. South Korea” tournament had finished and the Philippines had won. We then all loaded up into an ambulance and were taken to a local hospital where Snickers then got nine stitches.

I had to buy Snickers’ the prescribed medicine, as expected but, and this was very strange, I also had to go and buy replacement medicine for stuff the doctor had used to patch him up. The driver and I jumped into the van and drove around looking for the stuff but because it was so late we gave up and decided it best we search it out in the morning.

We all arrived back at the hotel just short of midnight but very hungry. Big Yoo’s coach insisted on searching out Korean food again. They had expected me to go with them and I really wanted to go, for Snickers’ sake, but I had clearly had enough of this idiot-and-a-half. I was itching to yell “can’t this for once not be about you?!” but instead only mustarded up saying “I’m tired". I was tired of him but I left that part out, they all knew it and agreed with me on it though.

I sat quietly in the hotel lobby waiting for them to return but before they did Jason and his crew came in. They hadn’t noticed me in the corner but I watched as Jason sat down and put his face in his hands. I gave a little cough to let him know I was there and then he got up and left. “Jason, okay?” I asked. His look said it all, he was in pain.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What is the right thing to say?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
-- Wendell Phillips

I'm loving the ripped body but I much prefer the comfy cozy body of my husband with abs and with more then a CRAZY FIVE PERCENT of body fat -- that's just crazy.

I can't wait till his old body comes back because cuddling with this game weigh-in body is brutal.

Nice Panties Boys... Friday, July 16

Today was weigh-in day so we headed over to City Hall just to double check both Snickers and Big Yoo’s weight before the very publicized weigh-in at the mall.

In Korea, weigh-ins are pretty low key. All the boxers are scheduled to meet at 12noon at the KBC main office in Seoul. Once everyone has arrived, weigh-ins happen and the doctor gives them a quick health check. Here in the Philippines however, things are much different… much different.

Not making weigh-in for one boxer meant he was forced to strip down on stage in front a mall packed with onlookers. His coach and a fellow boxer held a towel while he got buck naked and stepped on the scale. He made it. He made it at the cost of everyone on the second and third floor balconies getting a sneak peak at his family jewels.

Snickers made weigh-in no problem but his opponent missed it by a little bit short of a pound. They called me up on stage to ask me if it was ok if his opponent fought Snickers with that one extra pound. I had to chuckle at their question, knowing full well that Snickers will be well beyond his game weigh-in weight at tomorrow’s fight.

Prior to weigh-in, Snickers and I had taken the liberty of loading up on fresh fruit and a whole whack of milk and other groceries at the store.

Beyond the obvious new I-love-the-Philippines mentality that I’ve dove into, as if I wasn’t in love with the Philippines already but a trip to their grocery store confirmed my new found love for this country! I’m talking about a whole isle full of oatmeal (western oatmeal flavors and kinds I didn’t even know about), stacks of brick cheese, and cottage cheese!!!

Snickers ignored everyone’s advice, sat himself on the floor of our hotel room and ate to his heart’s content. He ate as if he were carrying triplets!!! Him eating to the point of being purely bloated didn’t take much mind ya, considering he spent the last two weeks dehydrating himself and eating very little so he could drop mad weight.

He weighed in today at exactly his required game weigh-in weight, 62.5kgs, and I’m guessing that at the end of today he’d probably weighed in at around 68kgs.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Could you do it?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
-- Baltasar Gracian

A beautiful country with beautiful people

and an added dose of beauty (Snickers), left me seriously wondering why the heck I would ever return to Korea.

I can't even begin to explain to you just how relaxed and cool the Filipino people are. Unlike Korea that's all about go-go-go, image and busting their butts off for more, the Filipinos are all about what they have. With regards to materialistic things, they have so little compared to the Koreans but in terms of happiness and loving life, the Koreans simply can not compete with the Filipinos. They simply love life and you can feel it, so they are such much richer than the Koreans because of it.

Media Hype... Thursday, July 15

Today we attended a press conference. We had arrived early and watched in amazement as the place filled up. Prior to the press conference however, they had each boxer come individually and have a quick photo shoot behind the stage.

I had anticipated filling in as a kind of translator on this trip but little did I know that they’d be pulling me on stage during the much publicized press conference and announcing it – talk about pressure.

Big Yoo, the other boxer from Korea is actually Japanese so translating the reporter’s questions meant translating form English to Korean and then having his Korean coach translate from Korean to Japanese. I thought the whole thing would be rather tedious but then the unexpected happened…

I saw a full-grown Korean man spaz out and have a hissy fit for all to see. Yup, it was none other than Big Yoo’s coach. I had just translated the reporter’s question and still had the mic in hand when he blurted out, in English, “I no question” to which I shook my head and mumbled, “You got to be kidding me, right?!” He refused to answer any question which for a press conference pretty much defeats the purpose of hosting one in the first place.

Big Yoo sensed the crowd’s frustrations and using pretty much the only English he knew, he grabbed the mic and yelled out “I love you Philippine!” It was hilarious and I was overly thankful that he was being a good sport about it all, unlike his coach who left as all wanting to kick in the head.

The press conference was held at their big shopping mall, so it was packed with shoppers, store workers, and buzzing with newspaper reporters. I made sure to introduce Snickers to many of the reporters and willingly answered any questions they may have had regarding him. What I wasn’t expecting however was to be called up on stage by the announcer as we tried to leave the press conference. I had met the announcer earlier on that day and was particularly interested in me when the Filipino dropped word that I was a professional Polish/Canadian boxer. He was loving the fact that I was Polish and stirred my interest by dropping some Polish names. He feasted on my status as a pro boxer too and made it his business to announce it to all at the press conference by calling me on stage and telling him that I’ll be returning to the Philippines to fight – totally new news to me!

Honestly, I’d absolutely love to fight in the Philippines, heck I’d move there in a second if I could. The weather is a killer for training but the wickedly awesome energy of the Filipino people and their huge passion and interest in boxing makes the Philippines a boxer’s paradise!!!

Spent a pretty good chunk of the afternoon pool side where I was reporter-free for a couple of hours. Many of the news reporters had booked into our hotel, so the front lobby was buzzing with them 24/7 as they typed away on their laptops and jotted down notes.

Later in the evening Big Yoo’s coach insisted again on going out in search of Korean food. I had lost all interest in helping translate for him so I opted out. I thought it best to keep my distance not only for his safety but for my sanity. So with them all out cruising the town for Korean food, I thought I’d go on a little adventure by myself.

Well, my adventure wasn’t really a solo one.

While waiting for one of their tricycle taxis to drive by, one of the hotel workers (Amil) scooted up to me on his scooter so we got talking. Next thing I knew it I was agreeing to buy him gas so that he could tote me around the city. For 50 pesos ($1.15 CDN), Amil took me to see the ocean side, a street festival, the stadium where Snickers will be fighting, the downtown core, and the plus some. He even took me to the country side to see some of the more elaborate houses. Yesterday I got to see one of Manny Pacquiao’s houses (famous Filipino boxer) so we dropped by again tonight to see if anyone was home.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who'll be the next Pacquiao?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
I love you Philippine.
-- Big Yoo

Nothing quite gives you a second, or even a third wind, like having boxing enthuasists encouraging you on from the sidelines.

The Philippines, a boxer's paradise!!!