With my Niagara Falls cup in hand, I clicked my heels and said "there's no place like home".
Unfortunately however, home here at Ggum Guum is no longer as sweet of a deal as it use to be. Well, inside Ggum Guum it is, it's stepping out into the hallway and dealing with the neighbors that is now a sour part.

Held Hostage in My Own House... Monday, January 31

Though no fault of my own, I was unexpectantly held hostage in my own house for the grand total of $1361, however, it was me the money was due.

Let me explain.

Back when Snickers headed off to Japan I was approached by someone for tutoring. They knocked on my door, walked in my house, and I stood talking to them for over an hour about my tutoring fees, books I use, and so forth. They asked me how much it’d be per hour so I asked them, “It depends, how many students and how many hours a week do you want?” I figured I’d cut them a break.

Between the initial conversation and then today’s conversation, there were many conversations in between about tutoring, one of which tied in another family into my tutoring so I then started to tutor their son.

So I started tutoring their kids and have been doing so for the past month. Today I handed up a perfectly translated receipt for the one student to take home to his parent. No sooner had he walked out the door but he was returning with a question on his mother’s behalf.

“Why so expensive?” was the question his mom sent him to ask me.

I knew my calculations weren’t off. I had triple checked my totals so to avoid any kind of embarrassment, so I got Snickers to call the mother. One phone call to the mother then lead to another phone call but to the other mother, a meeting between Snickers and the mothers, a meeting between Snickers and the one father,… and no real conclusion.

I should note here that despite me not being Korean or fluent in Korean, I can say with confidence that my Korean is impressive. For goodness sake, back when I went to get married and the Cheonan city hall rejected my Canadian Embassy papers because they were in English and no one in the building knew a lick of English, it was me who translated the legal documents there on the spot. I study Korean every single damn day and I’ll be damned if they try to play it off like it was a problem because of my Korean.

They told Snickers that I had told them that tutoring was $40 A MONTH… “A month?!” I yelled out when he told me this. “No job in this country only offers $40 a month pay. For goodness sake, even the old man that picks up used cardboard boxes makes more than in a week!!!”

Snickers went on to tell me that they thought $40 a month was strange but what I thought was even stranger was the fact that they had a month of seeing me every single day to mention this but they didn’t. I should note here that both families send their boys to private academies and that the G.G. Prince goes five days a week to two different private academies. Though academies may be costly it's an obvious fact that it is cheaper than sending your child to a private tutor. Private tutoring is by no means a new thing here in Korea.

It was obvious to me, my Korean wasn’t the problem, their head was the problem.
By now, if you haven’t clued into who it is that I am talking about and who it is that I tutor, let me tell you. It’s my landlord’s boy, the G.G. Prince, and his little cousin, the Little Cookie Monster. The Little Cookie Monster and his family live to my left and the G.G.Prince and his family live directly below me. There are only the three of us families in this building because there are only three apartments.

I refused to join Snickers in their numerous meetings that went on tonight. The whole situation inititally started at noon and still late after 11pm Snickers was going back and forth in the other apartments trying to clean this mess up.

I was fuming and Snickers, well… Snickers, heaven help anyone who ever dare touches a hair on my head, it’s off with their head! He was left helpless though cause of the fact that it involved my landlord and we all live under the same roof.

Unlike Snickers who can forgive and forget, I can’t and I know that’s a weakness of mine. I tend to hold on to things. I may accept your forgiveness speech but I don’t necessarily buy it and I sure as heck won’t forget. Still to this day I can list of key sentences that stabbed me in the past, like the exact words my Ex said to me when he finally came back to the hotel at Jeju Island, the one time my father said he was disappointed in me, and the time Snickers threatened to throw Mi Nam out into the street. Sure most of the words I hang on to were said in the heat of the moment and the person saying them didn’t mean what they said but I seem to hold on to words. I just can’t forget.

They say you are to forgive your enemies but I’ve always struggled with the fact that if I can’t forget their words than how can I really forgive? My way of dealing with this is just to forget about the person, push them aside. And though this may not be the most mature way of dealing with things or the best, it’s the way I’ve leaned on.

Tonight I tried to forget about the four people who had done me wrong. They had cheated me and no amount of sorrys could right the wrong they had did me. I’ve done numerous tutoring jobs and not once have I ever been cheated out of money like this. I thought about getting them to sign a written contract but let it slide, after all, it’s not like they could run off on me. We all live in the same building.

After a very long and dragged out evening, Snickers returned and told me that they want a discount. The $1361, which included 31.5 tutoring hours and textbooks for both students, that was due to me was initially $1991 but I had given them a massive discount, cutting down my hour rate to only $40 an hour. I had saved them $990 already so I refused to give them a discount, especially considering the one mother had sent her son to question me about the fee. She couldn’t even be bothered to walk up the stairs to my apartment.

"I'll let them keep their teeth... in their mouth! There, that's my discount" I yelled out in anger.

Both parents put their money together and offered me a total of $600, not even half of what was owed to me. I wanted none of their money. I was so insulted. It was a lose-lose situation for me and a win-win for them as far as I could tell. They had scored free first class tutoring at my expense and played me as a fool. I told Snickers to return them their money but insisted they give me back all my textbooks and CDs. Snickers laid it on thick with the guilt trip, telling them that I had said no to a couple other potential tutoring students, students who would have paid me in advance and at my normal rate, because I had promised them first and I thought it’d make for a tight knit living situation in our apartment.

Two steps forward, twenty million steps back and now not only am I minus the $1361 due to me but also the 31.5 tutoring hours, hours spent preparing flashcards and CDs, all my effort. Moreover, now I’m left tip-toeing it in and out of my apartment so to avoid the uncomfortable running in of the neighbors.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What would you have done?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
-- quote from the movie "Forrest Gump"

Only a face a mother, well in this case a wife, could love though I must admit, him wearing our piggy bank eyes looks rather creepy.
Not too sure what kind of face we were going for in these pics but I think we were trying to look like turtles.

It was all fun and games making animal faces until he said I really looked like a turtle. A turtle?! Oh gosh.

Words Bite Back... Sunday, January 30

Somehow I got blamed for the situation that played out in the GS Super Mart parking lot, though I don't really know why. What had happened was Snickers and I stopped in at the mart to use the bank. He got out of the car then so did I and then, like I always do, I locked the door. The front passanger door lock is a bit messed up so it doesn't always unlock or lock when you do the other doors so I always make sure I lock it.

Anyways, just as I swung the door shut Snickers yells out "AMY NOOOOOOOO!!!"

Turns out he had left the car running with the heat cranked, CD still playing, and the keys in the ignition. Did I mention that the car was STILL RUNNING?! Ya, I did. Oh and I should also mention that this is the THIRD TIME he's done this and the MILLIONTH TIME I've told him to get a spare key made. But with no spare key made yet and his cell phone in the car, phoning the insurance company to come bail us out meant calling all insurance companies he could list off (couldn't remember the company he just recently switched to). We opted out of calling just yet and instead took apart one of the windshield wipers in attempt to break into our own car. I ended up waiting inside the store while he tried to break in.

So there I was, in the store watching people watch my husband try to break into our own car. No one cared to call the cops, which I found rather strange, but they watched on like he was some kind of TV show. But that's when some of these uncalled for attention got directed towards me. At first it was one of the mart store workers who did a double take at me and then asked me, "Are you Russian?" Gee, I hate that question. I know what they're implying. Asking me if I am Russian is basically the equivilant to asking me if I am a prostitute. It's a very frustrating question to be comfronted with but sometimes I tell them yes just to see their reaction. Taxi drivers ask me this all the time but when I say no they then bombard me with numerous questions, many of which tend to be personal, like how old I am, where do I live, and so on. But telling a taxi driver "Yes, I am Russian" is always greeted with a double look in the rear view mirror at me and frowned eyebrows but the questioning then comes to a sudden hault. I answered politely to the store clerk who had asked me if I was Russian. She smiled, I smiled and I thought that was that. But when a family of four walked in the store and the father so obviously nudged against his teenager son and said "Look, a Russian girl", I was disgusted. I happen to have many Russian friends, all of which are stuningly beautiful girls that I could only wish to look as pretty as!

My immediate thought was how the heck does his son, who is probably still sporting baby teeth and sporting a puberty-cracking voice, even know, or care for that matter, what his father is talking about?! Regardless, I tried to shake it off. I continued standing there in the store window for some time and then that particular father and his four-person family walked by again and again he commented. I didn't catch their comment but instead threw out a comment at them just as Snickers was walking into the store to get me.

"Hey honey look!" I yelled to Snickers. "That's that perverted man who didn't pay me last night!!!"

And with that everyone at the front entrance of the store stopped, starred at him and watched him squirm in his own skill. Snickers of course had no clue as to what I was talking about but knew enough by my body language to go along with whatever scene it was I was playing out. It wasn't until we got in the car that I told him what had gone down back at the store. Snickers was ticked. Instantly he spun the car around and headed back in the direction of GS Super Mart. "I'll kill him!" he mumbled. I knew he wouldn't go that far with it but if I didn't stop him he'd surely get out of the car and dish out mad beatings on the man. I convienced him to calm down but for the rest of the night he kept on saying sorry to me. He's seen similar scenes play out before, random people calling me a Russian thus implying I'm a prostitute. Snickers tried to cheer me up by taking me to the traditional market for some window shopping and street food but I couldn't shake tonight's turn of events. I couldn't help but look at random eyes starring at me and wonder just how many other people I'll pass tonight who'll write me off as a Russian prostitute.

"Don't worry about that man" he told me later on as we laid on our floor mat. "You always tell me to leave bad people to God and karma but I think karma already got him"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Did you see how ugly his wife was? No wonder he looked at you!" he added.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Do I really look Russian?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
-- Ralph W. Sockman

Look at what I found... no, not the handsome man but all this money!
Ya, like I'm going to tell ya what it all was found... hahaha.

Finders Keepers... Saturday, January 28

I've never been a fan of banks, or handing my money over to anyone for that matter. Even when I was younger I use to stash my money in an envelop I had pinned to the back of my bedroom curtains. I remember I once gutted one of my dolls of all her stuffing and hid all my loose change in her. No one ever clued into my hidding spot either cause to reach that doll high up on the shelf meant you had to either pull up a chair or step up onto the desk.

Later, when I moved away for university, I stumbled across a head bartending job and my creativitey with hiding my money was really tested cause every night I had to take an hour and a half, two bus ride home, carrying anywhere from $300 to $1000 cash in tips on me. The heels of my shoes were hollowed out and the inside padding was peeled away so that I could secretly hide my money in it. And when I arrived home, I'd place my money in a safe I had bought and bolted to the floor. Now days, however, I use a bank account but I still insist on stashing away some of my cash in this and that corner of the house.

Today Snickers and I did a massive house cleaning of Ggum Guum and found all my hidden cash. I knew I had stashed a lot of our foreign currency that we had collected on our trips together but I didn't realize just how much of it I had actually hid away.

Counting six different forms of currency and, not including the coins, we estimated the worth of this lump sum of discovered cash was over four grand. Plan is to take it to the bank asap!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What is money really worth to you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
-- Dorothy Parker

To say a farewell to the awesome time we had, the English we studied together, and the silly giggles we laughed, my middle school Church class and I made an English video.


For the last week of classes with my Church kids we decided to put together a little video. This video was done by my elementary class. It's originally a Veggie Tales song but we thought we'd change one of the verses.

Too Pooped to Party More... Friday, January 28

Today marked the final day of tutoring my Church Kiddies so we thought we'd go out with a big bang. We finished off making our music videos and then headed over to the church business manager's apartment for a big combined class party. He's a great guy but the feast that he and his wife (and many of my students too for that matter) cooked up in the kitchen was well beyond what we had anticipated. David, one of the manager's sons who is also one of my students, knew I loved chicken so he convinced his father to cook me one of my favorite Korean chicken dishes... very delish!!!

Before we sat down for the massive feast they had cooked us, we sat around and played games. We had games, we had munchies... we even had Snickers! Yup, even Snickers came out to our party. He was kind of like our honorary guest. The kids have only met him a couple of times but they insisted I bring him along. Snickers and some of the girls played the Korean rendition of Monopoly and I posed as the banker. Snickers was no competition for little Sophia so I asked her to help be a banker with me and then I totally ignored her pocketing of cash... hahaha. She still ended up losing but she had fun trying to be all sneaky with me... hahaha.

After much of the food was gobbled up and the games had been played, my students presented me with some gifts they had prepared. One of the gifts that stood out was from two girls, Juliet and Vicky. They had prepared a box with chocolate and Korean yogurt drinks in it, and I had a good laugh at that because of a specific moment we had in class involving these two items. Good times. What was so unique about this gift though was that inside the box they had spent hours folding paper cranes and making paper stars which they then scattered and glued within the box. It was quite pretty!

Our party had started at 4pm, after class, and Snickers and I started to say our goodbyes at 8pm. I didn't know how to properly say goodbye to them so I gave a quick speech, thanked them and then went around the room hugging each and everyone of them.

I felt sad to say goodbye and disappointed that I had to.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's so good about goodbyes?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
-- Alan Kay

He's always just got to be different!

While some guys bring their girl flowers or chocolate, my husband came home and gave me this... one of his back molars!!!

Toothless Thursday... Thursday, January 27

I've never been a big fan of the dentist and though one of my main boxing sponsors is the leading dental surgeon in my city, and I'm good to go for free work on my choppers because of him, I still fear the dentist.

I only to the dentist when I get paid to go, no joke. Stickers use to work when I was a little girl but I'm no longer a child so stickers have no pull on me. I never understood why my dentist use to give me a free toothbrush with his name on it. I use to only brush my teeth in the morning and at night but waking up to his name and seeing his name again as the last thing before I went to sleep always annoyed me.

Stickers no longer work and I never cared for the free toothbrush. Now the pull is money. Visits to the dentist, cause he's my sponsor, are accompanied with an envelop of money or some kind of gift.

Snickers went to the dentist today and I just couldn't bring myself to go with him. I knew that he'd be getting a molar pulled so I'd be having to baby him after. I sure as heck wasn't going to sit there and hold his hand through it.
What I wasn't expecting however was him showing up back at Ggum Guum with the very tooth they had pulled out.

"They let you take it home?" I asked him.
"No... I stole it" he replied.

Yup, when no one was looking he leaned over, picked up his tooth and stashed it into his pocket. My natural reaction was to then ask him "Why" but I stopped myself before I did so, after all, it was Snickers I was talking to and many of the things he does can't be explained. So ya, my husband stole his own tooth today.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's something strange you've done lately?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Youth has no age.
- Pablo Picasso

Look, it's my Church Kiddies making a human alphabet! Who knew playing with the alphabet could be so much fun?! And yes, I know there are TWO K's, it's called not being able to decide on which one we liked best... hahaha

I thought I'd stick to just spelling out my first name as suppose to my hyphenated full name which is TWENTY-FOUR letters long... ouch!!!

"The Working Man is a Sucker"... Wednesday, January 26

I promised my Church Kiddies that I'd make a video with them a while back and with this week being our last week together we figured it was now or never. But with many of my Church Kiddies having siblings in the other class, word spred pretty quickly so now I'v'e agreed to make a video with both classes.

The Beginner Class
They'll be doing a little song and dance to a Veggie Tales song. We've worked out some cute hand gestures, drew a few pictures to be used in the video and we wrote a new verse to replace one of the originals.

The Advance Class
The song they'll be singing and doing a little act-out to is a revised Beetle's song about learning English. Each student has a little solo part, one verse has them singing in two groups, and we made a human alphabet, literally, to incorporate into our little music video.

Today both classes and I started working on the singing aspect of the music video. I was happy to not just how enthusiastic and excited my elementary Church Kiddies were; they spent an hour and a half on just practicing reading and singing the song!!!

My advanced Church Kiddies are kind of getting to that stage where they're too cool to act silly and do any kind of work besides group work so getting anyone to volunteer to do a solo was hard. Put a quick end to that problem by making solo lines within the song for everyone... hahaha. Even I scored a solo line. My line is "All together now".

All my Church Kiddies are excited about making a class video, as am I. Now that I have a video editing program back on my notebook computer I'll be able to pump out more mini videos so stay tuned.

In other news, the job hunting continues... and it continues to not be fun. I'm really trying to stay optimitic and look at it as an adventure, a way to try something new, but I'm coming to the conclusion that being a foreigner in Korea means being an English teacher or... being an English teacher. There's really not that many options out there for us foreigners. I thought that getting my F2 visa would mean a whole new world but all it has led me to run into are bitter E2 visa holders that think the F2 visa is some kind of magic key.

If a F2 is a magic key, what door does it exactly open?!

Sure with a F2 I can take on numerous jobs, part time work, tutoring, and I can easily quit if I want but the pickings out there aren't so great. I almost choked on my coffee when I got a phone call today, a lady offering me a position. Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 7pm with a monthly pay of 2.2 million a month.

Dang... I get paid double that doing what I do now, tutoring. I wouldn't even be looking for a job if someone from the church in Asan would step up to the plate. I'm feeling a bit bitter about it to tell you the truth. There's a total of eight families I tutor for in Asan (my Church Kiddies) and despite all the effort and time I've put forth into offering their children not only a comfortable place to learn and practice English but the special older sister kind of relationship I've created with each of them, I thought at least one parent would try to continue our class. And don't even get me started at how huge of a discount they get for me tutoring them verses a private academy where they'd be easily paying double.

I live in Cheonan, you all know that, and well Cheonan ain't exactly Seoul, so getting any real decent job that pays well usually means heading off to Seoul. One of the jobs I am considering is working at a hospital in Seoul. I'd basically be the private tutor for their CEO and would help any visiting foreign clients. The position interests me in the fact that it doesn't throw me in a classroom but in a working environment where I'd be interacting with people. I'd be hired to speak English but my role wouldn't be to necessarily teach English. The pay is awesome but the hours and the trek into work would kill my other assigned tutoring time that I'm already doing.

Another job I was pondering was being a privator tutor for an up and coming female professional golfer. The salary was good but the bonus of the job is that you'd go everywhere that she'd go, as in different countries! Now that I'm married though, I really don't care to be away from my husband for weeks on end so the thought of traveling without him sounds terribly lonely. I remember when Snickers and I traveled to the Philippines. He headed back to Korea a day earlier so I checked out an incredibly beautiful five star resort. It was stunning and amazing but being there without him left me regretting even going there in the first place.

If I stuck to just tutoring the Little Cookie Monster, the G.G. Prince, and my Samsung VP Blue, as well as continue my my personal training, I'd come out making about 2.4 million won a month. And that's only me working about 13.5 hours a week. Don't know if I'd really call it work though, I quite enjoy my time with my private students and I love personal training my clients.

Not too sure what to do at this point. Tutoring is great when you got it but it's hard to find. Both the Little Cookie Monster and the G.G. Prince live in the other two apartments in my building (which only has three apartments) so it's made our building and my relationship with my neighbors quite cozy. The Little Cookie Monster is always knocking on my door with gifts of choco pies he stole from his mother's kitchen cabinet. I don't have the heart to tell him I don't eat choco pies but hey, if you ever come to my house and want one, be my guest. I've got about 12 choco pies in my freezer... hahaha. As for the G.G. Prince, he's grown on me a bit more and he too randomly comes knocking on my door, asking me for homework advice. I'm hoping that me tutoring both little boys that live in my building will lead to other tutoring but it's hard to tell and I can't depend on that. It sure is awesome though having students come to me for tutoring as suppose to me making the trek out to them like my brutally early 6am drives out to Samsung in Asan.

I really wish I could add a couple of more tutoring students to my schedule not only because the money is great but because I really prefer working one-on-one with students. It really doesn't feel like work. Not only do they learn quicker and have a more appropriately guided lesson but the relationships I've made with my tutoring students is one I really cherish and admire.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Where are all the English-hungry students of Cheonan?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy.
-- Bob Ross

This is me, the wife of Snickers... the wife of ONE YEAR to Snickers ;)

It's been almost two years since I first got with Snickers and though we're growing older together, by the looks of things we don't seem to be growing more mature. We're just growing older, sillier, and growing more attached to each other.

Side note: Please ignore the brutal fact that I wrote the 26th instead of the 25th for our wedding anniversary date. Silly me, my bad, but fixing it would mean me redoing the whole video.

Who Would Have Thunk?!... Tuesday, January 25

Look at us now my fine-feathered friends!!!

Less than two years ago today, who in their wildest dreams would have imagined that today I'd be writing about my first year wedding anniversary... my first year wedding anniversary with Snickers.

It was less than two years ago today that I was writing on my homepage about a certain badboy at my boxing club who made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy, but not in a good way. In a way that left me looking over my shoulders and leaving my wallet at home. Now days though he still leaves me uncomfortable and uneasy, but in a good way. In a way that gives me butterflies in my stomach and a smile from ear to ear that I just can't not wear even when it's too cold to even smile.

Today marked our first year wedding anniversary so I let this this so-called badboy of mine take me to Seoul where we had an eleven hour date.
First it was off to Lotte World for indoor skating. The last time we went here we were just but only boyfriend and girlfriend... "lovers", as Koreans say.

I may be Polish but I am no Polish princess... I'm the queen, hahaha. Snickers may be a badboy but I let him get away with it as long as he's a prince charming for me. Notice he's the one doing up my skates, yup, he's a sweetheart!!!

He's not one really for skating though he has a lot of fun trying. Don't quit your day job baby, stick to boxing.

After tiring our ankles out on the ice rink we got out of our skates and headed to the arcade room. Snickers loves the arcades.
I've never really been one for video games but instead amuse myself by pretending to surprise shoot random people walking by me... hahaha.
Later in the evening we headed over to a massive fish market where there was fish as far as the eyes could see... too much fish if you ask me!!! I quite enjoy fish but don't care to meet and greet my fish prior to swallowing it. Just kill it and grill it, I'll do the eating. Actually, I'd prefer if you just kill it and chop it for me instead.

After picking out what exactly we'd be feasting on, we left the market workers and followed a lady downstairs to a restaurant where our diced up fish then followed shortly after. We had noted to the seller that it was our anniversary. He was excited to hear the news so he surprised us by sending down a massive plate of osters to us at our table... thank you Mr. Smelly Market Man ;)

Can't say I ever cared for osters before but through some red pepper paste with some mashed up garlic on it and dang... that's delish!!!

As for the fish that I had personally picked out -- who I should note I had nicknamed him Sunny -- after the osters he joined us at the table.

He had been sliced and diced in a multitude of pieces.

Yup, Sunny had definitely seen better days but tonight he saw his last. So a big thanks to Sunny who literally gave his life for us. It made for a sunny evening... note the bad pun there, hahaha. You were a delicious buddy to meet and eat... hahaha.

Snickers and I never did exchange gifts, just like with Christmas, but instead spent the whole day and evening (and night for that matter) totally consumed and focused on each other, and it made for a beautiful first year wedding anniversary.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How do you spend your special days?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
-- David Viscott

With my Church Kiddies tutoring coming to a sudden hault this upcoming Friday, I'm searching out new jobs and new possibilities. Not too sure where my search will take me but there's a couple of positions that I've got my eye on, one of which is a early childhood fitness instructor.

Monday Blahness... Monday, January 24

Today's Turn of Events:

4:50am -- woke up, ate, and took Mi Nam out for a walk
6:20am -- was supposed to tutor but my Samsung VP canceled class last minute
9:30am -- woke up again and started job hunting online
10:30am -- tutored the G.G. Prince for an hour and a half at my home
1pm -- headed off to Asan to tutor my Church Kiddies (till 4pm)
5pm -- tutored the Little Cookie Monster at my home
7pm -- attempted to do some English studying with Snickers but ended up wrestling
7:40pm -- studied Korean
9pm -- headed out for a 11km run
11pm -- did some more job hunting online
11:50pm -- fell asleep for the night

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What are you doing with your life?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
-- Barbara Hall

Ok, who ordered this?

Now I know I asked God for the Korean hottie standing outside my window (that's my husband standing there if you didn't already assume that)

but who the heck ordered the supersized delievery of Canadian weather?! I tell ya, this isn't want I ordered when I bought my plane ticket to Korea. I want my money back!!!

Unstoppable Sunday... Sunday, January 23

Woke up at the crack of dawn. I had two personal training clients to meet -- one to do a timed run with and another to do a 11km run with.

My first client wasn't able to show up at last minute but I met up with my second client, a funny Korean-American guy who has been busing it in from Seoul so that I can train him. Today was weigh-in day for him so he had to face up to the scale and the measuring tape today. He nervously stepped on the scale, giving me a thousand and one reasons why he thinks the number that will pop up won't be a good one.

"Trust me" I told him, "I've been there, done that. It's called having a boxing match and having your coach weigh you twice a day, every day, for a month."

So there he stood, clinching his fists and bitting his upper lip when all of a sudden he let out a huge yell. He's now in month four now only weigh him on the last week of every month but with it being Christmas last month he ended December on a sour note. Since December however, I've kicked his training up a notch and have been pretty anal with getting him to record all that he eats. He's get a high school reunion to attend to in the summer so that's his due date.

"So how are you going to dress to impress?" I asked him.
"I'm going to go naked" he joked.

Surely going naked will drop jaws but he's planning to drop jaws by showing up after dropping some 60lbs. You see this high school reunion will mark the first time in eight years that he's seen his first love; his high school sweetheart who broke his heart and left him high and dry at prom.

Beyond the perfect revenge, he's also paying me too kick his butt back into shape for the very fact that he's never really been in great shape to start off with but now he's hit an all time low, according to him that is. Plan is to shed 60lbs... he's lost 20lbs already!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What motivates you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going.
-- Author Unknown

Shopping with the brown-eyed, purple-wearing, mandu-eating, taste-testing people annoying Snickers.

The Last Laugh... Saturday, January 22

I used to joke with Snickers, asking him “What’s wrong with you?” but now that I know him – the good, the bad, and the ugly – I often ask him “What’s right with you?” Up until today he’s never answered either of these two questions beyond giving me a little giggle, a smile and an occassional poke to the tush.

Today he answered my question.

We were at Lotte Mart when it happened. The store was flooded with busy Saturday shoppers and the taste-testing stations were littered around the perimeter. Snickers always goes in for more than his fair share of free food samples, picking up one sample with his right thumb and index finger, and then ever so cleverly sneaking a few extra in the palm of his hand. He’s mastered clearing the free sample plate with a quick swift move of his hand and it’s rather humorous to watch. I know I really shouldn’t encourage it with my sideline giggles and asking him to get me some too but the way I look at it is we spend an arm and a leg at Lotte Mart on groceries. With Snickers now training for his fight and me getting ready to jump back into my boxing next week, our grocery bill is about to more than double. We already go through about 60 eggs a week as it is. I fill the cart with tons of veggies that are apparently so overly priced these days in Korea and Snickers loads up on fresh meat, spending anywhere from $20 to $50 a week on meat alone (and he’s the only one that eats it at our house too).

Anyways, so back to my “What’s right with you?” question.

So one of the service ladies working one of the many taste-testing counters caught Snickers in the act of going in for a second handful of free mandu and she greeted him with her version of the death stare. Taste-tester workers, as far as I know, will never care too much to comment about someone behaving like Snickers, after all it’s not like it’s their food, but they will give out the odd dirty look.

Then Snickers did the expected Snickers thing to do… he went in for a third handful. Again he was greeted with the death stare from hell but this time she included a little tap on the back of Snickers’ hand. He totally wasn’t expecting it so he stepped back in shock, backing-up into a stroller and almost crashing down on the kid inside the stroller.

She stood there laughing at him.

“You think that’s funny?” I asked her. “You’re the one who is so funny… funny looking” I told her (in Korean) and with that I stood there and finished off the plate of mandu. I don’t even care for mandu either.

Snickers had a good laugh at the situation but I was ticked. He almost crushed some kid half to death and that chick thought it was so funny and that’s when I asked him my constantly asked but never answered question, “What’s right with you?”

“You” he answered.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's right with you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
He who laughs, lasts!
-- Mary Pettibone Poole

Who is this Korean cutie shying away from the camera?! Oh, it's the ever-so-cute Sophia!
Introducing the perfect child situation.

Not only does someone else feed and clothe her but she does her own hair. I get her for a limited time each week of 4.5 hours, during which she's happy and wide awake. Someone else picks up the tab for her life expenses and even throws me some cash to play games with her. Oh, and here's the best part, someone else endured the 9 months of monster cravings, tummy stretching, and mood swinging pains, and then painfully popped this little one out. The only pain I endure her is the possible thought of not seeing her after next week.

(Side note here, notice how she's trying to look all cute and studious for the picture but her notebook is upside down... I think that just upped her cuteness!!!)

If It's Not Broken Don't Fix It... Friday, January 21

It was just me and my two elementary girls today in my elementary class, Ben was away, so it was nice to sit around and play a game, just us girls.
It was just Sophia, Chloe and I. I tried to capture their cuteness in a couple of pictures but these girls are quick. Chloe isn't one for the camera though with her beautiful new hair style she's quite the good-looking little lady. As for Sophia, well, she's just flat out adorable and I want to pinch the heck out of her cute cheeks!

Today we played a crossword game. They didn't quite get the rules of the game but we continued on anyways. We made our own version of the game, I guess... hahaha.

I continued on with my games day with my Church Kiddies by playing The Game of Life with my middle school Church Kiddies. I acted as a kind of boardgame translator, translating the board pieces, and banker. The students paired up to make four teams of two and then it was game on.

The kids had a lot of fun teasing each other about getting married, having babies and the random backwards driving of their little plastic game cars. And like the elementary class, they too made new rules for the game.

Passing another player on the board was signaled with a car crash, meaning you had over cash to the other player. Players with extra people in the car scored more cash to cover the hospital bills of these extra family members.

We never did end up finishing the game though, so the plan is to continue it on Monday afternoon when we meet again.

After a fun-filled three hours of tutoring my Church Kiddies it was sad to note the sour ending that came to our time together. The business manager of the church, the man who is basically the link that ties me and my students' parents to my paycheck, informed me today that next week my class will be ending unless someone else steps in to take over his position. He and his family are suddenly moving to Seoul. He didn't go into detail about his situation, regardless, with him leaving means that two of my students, Ben and David (the only two boys I teach here), will also be leaving and my job will be leaving too.

I felt terrible when I heard the news because I've been tutoring my Church Kiddies -- a group of 11 students who I think are just flat out awesome -- for about 4 months now. We've built such a comfortable and awesome environment among us and to have it just come to an end is kind of heartbreaking.

The business manager is trying to encourage parents to individually hire me as a private in-house tutor but I doubt they'll hire me because I don't come cheap and that's the honest truth. The church pays me well but to hire me as private tutor is quite expensive considering the discounted rate that the church charges the parents. The church charges them an incredibly low fee of $100 a month for 18 hours of group tutoring with me and then the church throws in a big chunk of money to match my hourly fee. My hourly rates start at $40 an hour and go up from there depending on various factors, like how many students, English level and whatnot.

Things always have a way of working out, I know that, but no sooner did I start to really feel comfortable with the schedule I've set up that it then had to go and change... again. I don't regret taking on a regular year-contract full time job but it's a bit uncomfortable not knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from. Last year both Snickers and I survived on solely our boxing for ten months. We went to Bali for a two week 5-star honeymoon where we spared no expense, traveled to the Philippines and then to Canada, and we lived more than comfortably here in Korea. We even bought Gotti, my scooter. And though we could do that again I was hoping that we'd save a load of cash this year for our anticipated move to Canada.

Unless someone at the church steps up or the parents hire me as a private tutor, it looks like I'll be job hunting this weekend. I'm not too concerned but am rather disappointed. Disappointed that a really good thing may very well be coming to an end. An unexpected and unwanted end.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why do things always have to change?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
-- Real Live Preacher

This was the scene that played out ALL morning, ALL afternoon, and ALL evening. Snickers and I were MIA from the rest of the world with the exception of about twenty minutes when he took Mi Nam outside for a bathroom break.

Love Beats... Thursday, January 20

Not much to write about today. My student cancelled my early morning tutoring no sooner had I woke up and lifted my eyelids to notice that I had slept through my alarm clock, so I had nothing on my schedule today except taking it easy and nursing myself back to health.

Today marked day two of sporting one annoyingly painful neck and today marked two of Snickers sporting one bad cold. I’d like to write that we laid in bed all day but we don’t have a bed, we have a floor mat. We laid on the floor all day. Still not sure as how exactly I pulled a muscle in my neck but I think it goes hand in hand with the scratches on my shoulder and the bruised knee I have – wrestling with Snickers.

Whenever we tell people that both Snickers and I are professional boxers we are always asked the same question, “when you two argue do you fight?” The answer to that is no, when we argue we don’t fight (as in punch each other), instead however we fight for fun.

Yes, it’s true. We are in a physically abusive relationship and we like it… we LOVE it… hahaha.

Snickers and I play wrestle pretty much on a daily bases. It usually starts off with a tickle here, a tickle there, but soon it sparks a full-fledge wrestling match with he trying to pin me down. His notorious move that he leans on is a heel-kick to my legs whereas I go for the more vicious knuckle-stab to the shoulder blade or head. Occasionally I’ll pull a “Tyson” and bite his ear… hahaha.

I must admit, I’ve pulled the dirty “I’m-hurt” girly move before, tricking him into believing that I’m hurt when I’m not, and then go in for a brutal low blow jab to the gut when he’s stopped with looks of concern. It’s a cheap move, I know, but we play with no rules except the one rule being that we aren’t to seriously hurt the other person, well that and no using your nails!

I would never want to hurt Snickers but it sure is fun trying to.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's the point of growing up if I'm having this much fun being young?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you.
-- Larry Gelbart

Me, the frozen Polack,

and my beautiful sidekick, Snickers, headed out tonight in search of some good old bring-me-back-to-life food to cure our broken down bodies.