This past week I stayed up in Icheon working at an English camp. The camp was being hosted at the SK Telecom resort that also houses the SK professional basketball camp so I anticipated running into some tall men... hahaha.
The SK Telecom resort was a sports fanatic's heaven... indoor and outdoor soccer fields, an indoor driving range, two swimming pools, a sauna room, weight training gym, yoga meditation room, WII room, ping-pong room, a bowling ally, ballet room, and an indoor jogging track that outlined the basketball court. It was awesome and we basically used every single one of these rooms for the English activities we planned for the English camp kids. I was a huge fan of the large swimming pool and the indoor jogging track.
On a different note, not only did I run into these freakishly tall basketball players but I also got to train with them so that was super cool! One of them showed me a new weight training exercise and I went jogging with two others. With me being away from boxing for the week I had promised Junior Mint that I'd keep up with my own personal training -- jogging, shadow boxing and weight training -- so that's exactly what I did but I did it with the basketball team. My work day from the English camp was basically 9am to 9:30pm everyday but because they turn the main lights off at 10pm I had to depend on waking up early for training. I woke up everyday at 7am and headed down to the basketball gym to run the indoor jogging track, do some HIIT skipping, shadow boxing, ab training and weight training. Then I'd return to my room around 8am, shower and then have breakfast.
I anticipanted not being keen on the food so I had come loaded with tons of food -- tuna, granola bars, nuts, dried fruit, broccoli, and beef jerky. For the most part my breakfasts consisted of mixing some mustard into my tuna and nibbling on broccoli. I was picky with what I ate in the cafeteria for my lunch and dinner but because I had to eat these two meals with the kids I couldn't exactly head up to my room for tuna and broccoli. Powdered donuts and extra sugary juices were the going trend for snack time so I kept things like my beef jerky and granola bars stashed in my pockets for snack time.
The English camp was jam packed with kids and jam packed with lots of activities, ranging from Golden Bell quizzes to swimming and sledding. There was very little time in between activities to breath or catch a moment of silence so when the work day was done I'd retreat up to my room, lay on my bed in silence and then crash around 10pm or so. I had three roommates assigned to my room, all of us foreign ladies and all of us very much craving some peace and quiet after the craziness of our work day.
At the end of the full jam-packed week the sight of Snickers picking me up at the camp was a much anticipated joyous event. It had been a fun week and I had met some awesome people but I was so ready for home. Pyen Chi had joined Snickers for the long ride out to Icheon to pick me up so that was fun parading her around for the kids and my co-teachers to meet.
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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