Whacked Formating...

Sorry, in trying to do a posting with so many pictures and writing, Blogger had a kind of freak-out, publishing my entry with strange spacing and whatnot. Please ignore the ugliness and strangeness of Thursday's entry. Am too tired to try to fix it... for the 4th attempt. Thanks. -- Amy

It's Thursday and I'm just now getting a chance to lay back and relax with my man. Mind ya, with a house full of workers pounding and drilling away in the background, getting in a good afternoon nap with him was out of the question but much needed.

Where Did the Week Go?!... Thursday, March 31

It's been an ultra super busy week, so when I woke up today and noted that it's been a full week since I've updated my homepage, I couldn't help but scratch my head and wonder. WHERE THE HECK DID THE WEEK GO?! So here's a quick recap to catch you up to speed with what's been going on lately. Not really important but it got me stoked on a Sunday... I scored new Adidas shoes. My daycare kids love the silver Adidas shoes I've been sporting this week, they call them "Amy's rocket shoes"... hahaha. As for the pair of white Adidas one's I also scored, definitely sweet for running in. It's been hard and definitely time-management-demanding of me to fit in my running and boxing with my hectic new work schedule but I think I've figured it out. I go boxing 5 times a week (4 times during the weekday and once on the weekend when I've got the club to myself) and I go running 4 times a week.

Honestly, it's been a lot to handle and the only thing that keeps me from totally crashing is continually being go-go-go cause if I stop... well... it's lights out. Once a week I crash, and I crash hard. This past week it was Monday night when my body started to crash but I ended up having to push myself through it cause I kind of got stuck in Bundang.

What happened was I picked up an extra tutoring gig but, as it turns out, the last bus from Bundang to Cheonan is at 9pm. I found this out the hard way when I showed up at the terminal at 9:45pm. I should note too that I only had $7 in my pocket so I was definitely limited with what I could do cause of lack of on-hand cash. Ended up taking a bus to Pyoungtaek, a subway then to Cheonan, and then Snickers snuck over to drive me home while he was working. My "Crash Night" came yesterday. I arrived home and despite wanting to head off to boxing, I fell asleep. And I should note that I didn't fall asleep in my bedding. I fell asleep wearing my jacket and still with my bag around my shoulders.

Yup, it's true. I came home from work and sat down to relax. Snickers ended up finding me sleeping in the middle of the kitchen floor when he arrived home from work at 4am. As for other things that went down this week, this past weekend Snickers and I got all dolled up for a special family dinner. K-Gere showed up for the lunch after a 3 hour drive, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were in attendance too. We entered a beautiful restaurant and sat all together on one side of the table because on the other side sat the family of one of my sisters-in-laws' boyfriend. It was the first meeting of the two families. They had met to pick the wedding date of my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. K-Gere stated that he wanted his daughter to be allowed to pick the date as supposed to both sets of parents picking it.

"They do know that he hasn't proposed yet, right?" I asked Snickers.

I found the whole situation rather strange, actually it was beyond strange. "How can they pick a wedding date if they're not even an engaged couple?" I asked Snickers. It was a long lunch, two hours. Two hours of uncomfortable giggling from my sister-in-law, two hours of a lot of silence and uncomfortable faces on all at the table, two hours of sitting on my knees in a skirt that's practically painted on me, and two hours of a lot more things. The more and more I learn about Korean culture, the more I find I don't understand. Sometimes I'm convinced even they don't understand. Picking a wedding date for a couple that isn't even engaged... ya, makes sense to me, NOT. Anyways... my landlord's apartment is close to being completed. They've knocked down all the walls and pretty much took down and out anything they could. Just recently they started rebuilding the inside walls of the apartment and Snickers couldn't be more eager for that. He comes home from work usually around 4am but the builders come around 8am... yikes! My landlord's apartment isn't the only construction going on. The building next to our little apartment building is also getting a full face lift and a new interior.

Returning home from work today I learned that my apartment has joined in on the construction scene. I walked in and was greeted by five workers ripping up my floor, tearing down my wall, and moving things around in my apartment. It's about time too. I've been getting on Snickers about talking to the landlord about the water problem we've been getting. It's not a new thing and it's definitely not a new issue to my landlord; he's well aware of it. I tell ya, the issue we're having here at Ggum Guum, well if this were Canada, Health Canada would be pounding on my landlord's door and we'd be told to leave the apartment.

Get this, we have a window in our clothes room that the previous whom-ever decided to board up and slap up some drywall. When I came home today two workers were dealing with this window. They ripped off the drywall but when they went to go put up new drywall I spoke up, asking them why they'd do such a thing.

Condensation forms on the window glass and seeps through the drywall, making for a soft wall that you can physically see and feel the water coming through. The window wasn't sealed properly in the first place so I have no idea what slapping up drywall to cover it up does beyond buy them extra time. In the long run it makes means they more work for themself though cause this is now the second time we've had to have workers come and deal with this issue.

Snickers argued with me, telling me to leave the workers alone and let them do their job. "They know what they're doing... they're professionals" he told me. "Ya, they're professionals just like the so-called professionals that originally built this place -- such amateurs!"

So for the next anticipated four days or so my house is littered with clothes and things out of place. It's such a mess and it'd be one thing if this were the end of the problem but I doubt it's not. I'm not a pestimist, I'm a realistic and the reality of the fact is this is now the second time we've had to turn our apartment upside down for the same problem. It's annoying, it's nonscense and it's unhealthy. If they had taken the extra time to build it correctly in the first place then they would have avoided having to come fix it... TWICE!!!

I should have taken my father's advice, left Ggum Guum when this first became a problem and found a new pad to call home, but I love the location of Ggum Guum and it is quite the cozy, cool pad -- when it's not literally dripping with water that is.

And with all these workers coming in and out of Ggum Guum, Mi Nam's been restricted to his little bedding area when Snickers isn't totally saving him by taking him outside. Mi Nam is not liking all the construction action going on, neither am I. And as for Mi Nam's health, well you'll be happy to note that he's been steadily putting on weight. He's gained a lot of weight actually, almost 2lbs to be more specific.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...

Does Korea have any kind of health and safety board to protect homeowners from poorly-built buildings?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...

God must love stupid people. He made so many of them.

-- Author Unknown

Nursing my baby back to health.

Beefening Up my Baby... Thursday, March 24

After much poking, prying and testing, I finally got answers regarding what the heck is going on inside my little Mi Nam's troubled body. Thankfully the worst is over and Mi Nam is definitely on the road of recovery, though it certainly wasn't an easy road to travel and I'm now convinced all the vets in Cheonan know me. I don't think I'll return to the one vet though cause I think I scared him by slamming down my fist and insisting he show me his veterinarian degree.

On a scale from 1 to 5, Mi Nam scored a 1.5 at the vet, meaning that he's underweight and has to put on weight and up his body fat. He's been put on a high carb, high protein diet to help him beefen up. Thankfully spring is here, well kind of, so this means he won't be uncomfortablely cold for much longer. I've set up an extra heater to heat up his little bed and when Snickers is out of the house I let him snuggle on the floor mat with me. It's obviously not cool that Mi Nam's been sick for the past little while but it's been great to see just how much Snickers has been going out of his way to make Mi Nam more comfortable. Just the other day, while I was at work, Snickers sent me a picture text message on my phone. He's been taking Mi Nam along with him in the car for his errands and sent me a pictre of Mi Nam in the car... hahaha. I didn't think anyone would ever be able to get Mi Nam in a car again ever since his first couple of car rides when he practicially puked his brain out in it.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What are you worried about?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Worrying works! 90% of the things I worry about never happen.
-- Author Unknown

And just when I thought this article was a thing of the past... today I met one of its' editors.

Letter from Your Dad?... Wednesday, March 23

Though I still get random people approaching me about my boxing or reconizing me from TV, it was pretty cool to have one of my students' parents write to me about it.

My elementary students at the academy and my daycare children all know that my husband and I are professional boxers. Everyday I have some random child at the daycare testing out some kind of punching combo on me or randomly trying to punch me in the bum. But whether it's the daycare children insisting on testing my strength by seeing how many kids can climb into my arms and on my back while I try to stand up or my academy kids asking me to flex, they make me feel like Wonder Woman and it's hilarious.

My academy students seem to be overly fasinated with asking me strange questions like, "Do people really punch you in the face?" and "Do you cry when they punch you?" To them, I'm sure the thought of me a girl stepping in the ring whether it's for training, sparring or fighting seems so strange and foreign to them.

Turns out one of my students' parent is a huge boxing fan. This particular student came to school today with a note. Apparently my student's father had a part to play in the publishing of the big half-pager newspaper story that was written about Snickers and I a year an a half ago. The note also asked me if I'd be attending the championship round of the recent boxing tournament -- the tournament that both the Cheonan Bulldog and the Heavy Hitter were/are in -- because he was hoping to officially meet me.

[Side note -- the Heavy Hitter won't be fighting as anticipated due to his opponent. I'm not too sure if his opponent forfeited or got injured during sparring, regardless, the fight's been canceled.]

I actually am not able to attend the tournament this Sunday. Snickers' sister is having this massive family lunch to introduce her boyfriend's family to her family, a typical Korean thing to do if you're engaged, which they're not... don't even get me started on that. So ya, no tournament for me but I will be there for Black Skinny's fight on April 16th!!!

CLICK HERE to see the English version of the article.

[Another side note -- my name is NOT Amy Mitchell Wierizoski. Yes, my first name is Amy but my middle name is Michelle, and as for my last name, they pretty much killed my Polish name though they did get the "ski" part right.]

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What happened to the Heavy Hitter's opponent?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
-- Author Unknown

While many start their work day off with a cup of coffee, others with catching up on emailing or whatnot, my work day starts off with a daily dose of play time with this little guy.

Skipped a Couple of Days to Catch Up... Tuesday, March 22

So... the secret's out.

I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, at the daycare today... the secret being that I speak Korean. It wasn't a secret to anyone but the children whom I see everyday at the daycare where I work. I don't directly teach English to the children, instead I incorporate it into daily activities we do, like washing our hands and eating lunch, and in our daily play. But the key to them learning English via play is for them to believe they're just playing, not learning, and getting them to try to interpret for themself what it is I am conveying to them.

I get paid to play. Yup, it's true.

I make more money playing with children than I did teaching at the university. Mind ya, refraining from speaking Korean within the classroom is the hardest part of my job and let me tell you, it's really hard to do so. It'd be so much easier to use Korean to teach English, like when they looked at me with puzzled faces when I asked where the bathroom was. I ended up pretending like I was pooping but they still didn't get it. Moreover, the children are always trying to teach me Korean though they have absolutely no idea that I totally understand what they're saying amongst themselves.

But today I let the secret out.

It all went down while we were out taking a walk to a nereby art center. I work with two co-teachers and one of them lead the line of 19 children while the other walked at the half point of the line. I ended up managing the back of the line, a task that proved quite stressful.
So there we all were, 19 children, 2 Korean teachers and me. We were returning to the daycare, crossing a small part of road when an older Korean man stepped in front of our line and started to direct a Korean lady backing up her car. Most of the children had crossed already, there was only 5 children and me.

The Korean man quickly looked up at us but continued directing the moving car, the car contiued to move backwards, and the children continued to move towards the rest of the line. I yelled out in English to the children but because they're English understanding basically consists of only numbers, colors and other random words, my words were just as useful as if I hadn't said anything at all.

So I yelled out in Korean and they stopped dead in their tracks. I scooped up two of the kids in my arms and the other three came to me immediately, as I had told them to. I guess I should have shut up there but after I made sure the children were safe on the other side of the street I approached the older Korean man and told him he has to be more careful.

I felt so sick from the whole situation. We only had five more minutes till we were back at the daycare but I tell ya, it felt like forever and I was so glad to be back. I've never really been a fan of children but these children are my responsibility, so it's my duty to keep them safe in addition to other things I am responsible fufilling.

A couple of those in the 5 involved today I've got a keen liking for, like a particular little guy who is by far the strangest little one I've ever met. He clearly sticks out among the others. Initially, he smart-mouthed me in Korean the first day I met him and threw a bit of a spaz when I spoke English. Now however, he climbs all over me and every workday at the daycare starts with him insisting I play a game he's made. My co-teachers are convinced he's in love with me and I think he's pretty cool. I can't even begin to explain just how off the wall he thinks. He's the kid that colors outside of the lines on the paper and uses every color in the box... at once!

Anyways, I honestly felt like I was a mother reacting to the situation that played out today, a role I have no interest in playing. I much rather remain the teacher.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
If feeling sick to your stomach about your kid's safety is a part of what it means to be a mom, then why do so many women eagerly enter motherhood?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.
-- Leo J. Burke

My heart with four legs... Jo Mi Nam.

Dinner for Two... Saturday, March 19

The flat out truth of the matter is I like my dog a whole lot more than many people whom I've met. It's true. My dog, Jo Mi Nam, is a drama-free little mini Korean who doesn't ask anything more from me than a daily walk and food. He's a very laid back dude but telling him we're going for a walk gets a reaction similar to telling a kid tomorrow is Christmas -- pure excitement and lots of jumping.

Recently Mi Nam has been sick, really sick, and despite continual visits to the vet, the vet continues to tell me that Mi Nam is alright. Excuses to explain the blood in his poop, his loss in weight, and the nastinest of it all came this past week with his uncontrollable diahrea, range from blaming it on something he must have ate outside to claiming that Purina Dog Food is to blame.
Mi Nam's been to other vets but I don't like the idea of being so unconsistant, plus a couple of the other vets clearly seem to be product-pushing vets, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, tonight as I got ready to do some private training at the closed boxing club, Mi Nam dropped a bomb on the floor. Ok, so it wasn't exactly a bomb, it was a "number 3". So I scooped him up and jetted it down the street to the vet.

The vet was closed.

Mi Nam dropped another bomb... right there on the vet's doorstep. That's karma for you!!!

I did some rearching online and questioned a couple of my friends about it. Oh... and thanks to many of you here too on my homepage who contacted me with your concern and advice -- much appreciated. I got a bunch of advice from friends and many of them added to an article I had read about upping Mi Nam's protein and starchy carbs intake. I had read an article and it suggested feeding Mi Nam chicken and sweet potatoes, but with both MIA in my house, I resorted to cooking up some eggs and brown rice for him.

Couldn't help but laugh at the sight before me. There I sat, on a floor with my small Korean knee-high table, with two plates of fried eggs and brown rice. One plate for Mi Nam and one for me... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Are you a dog person?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
A dog owns nothing, yet is seldom dissatisfied.
-- Irish Proverb

"Not just a pretty face" an Internet news piece wrote about Lee Si Young, a South Korean actress who just competted and won the Korean national women's amateur boxing championship in the 48-kilogram division.

The Return of Hype?!... Friday, March 18

Today the newspapers were buzzing with news of Lee Si Young, a South Korean actress who stepped in the ring yesterday to win the Korean national amateur championship. As it turns out, she started boxing last year when she was casted as a female boxer for a Korean TV drama. She did it as a means of learning the role and she trained with Hong Soo Hwan, a former world champion boxer. Despite the TV show never taking on life, it never even made it to air, Si young continued to box because she enjoyed it so much.

Now that's my kind of girl, a girl that loves the ring.

Her agency, GnG Production, told reporters "Acting is her day job, and boxing is a hobby... We've agreed that she can keep boxing as long as it doesn't affect her acting career." Honestly though, I'd love to see this particular girl continue on with her boxing and possibly turn pro. Korean boxing has changed so much even in the short time that I've been involved in it. She could be exactly what Korea needs to put a whack of interest and hype back into boxing and its' live fights... not to mention she fights at my weight... hint, hint.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Do you do what you love?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.
-- Bette Davis

Day date with my hubby...

After I returned home from the daycare, Snickers and I headed out for a drive out to Gongju and checked out a restaurant K-Gere had highly recommended.

It was delish but it was a lot of food!!!

And just when I thought we had way too much food on the table, they brought out more.

This was the main dish. Not sure what exactly it's called but it was pure delish and though it was loaded to the brim with veggies galore, the fact that the top of it was fried out-weighed the healthiness of it all. None the less, I eat clean so what the heck. It was delish.

Never the Same Each Day... Thursday, March 17

I've seen my fair share of strange things but today, when Snickers and I headed out for a little day date, we couldn't help but note some strange things along our drive, like this four-wheeler. Dude was all decked out in off-roading gear, driving a 4-wheeler around downtown.

And then there was this stranger-than-strange green Smirf-like house we spotted off the side of some random country road. It's apparently a pension, which means people rent it out for the weekends and stay there with friends and family.

Not too sure who would rent out a green house though. I mean, if Snickers ever said "Hey honey, we're staying at a green house that looks like it puked up by a Smirf", I'd laugh at him and probably opt to sleep in the car or something.

Had a good laugh on the way home, talking about various strange things we saw. "Maybe we're the strange in someone's day today" I suggested to Snickers... hahaha. I think so. I'm sure we were the strange in the day of a couple of older men sitting outside the restaurant today who oversaw Snickers and walking down the street and punching each other in the tush. Oh, and let me tell ya, it hurt but for some deranged reason we think it's so funny.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
If the green house is up for renting, where are the Smirfs living then?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If God is watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.
-- Author Unknown

Note the big guy in blue, that's Black Skinny, and the one all in black is the Heavy Hitter.

Black Skinny and I are the only two remaining members from the original UP team, so training with him is always awesome. Lots of jokes tonight at training, I've got the swollen right eye, Black Skinny has the ripped shirt and the Heavy Hitter has the tied laces to prove it. Sounds like rough play?! Well, what do you expect, after all we ARE boxers.

My Source of Energy... Wednesday, March 16

Lots of fun at boxing today... damn, I love this sport!!!

Tonight the boxing club was packed with some of my favorite boys but I was especially stoked to see Black Skinny walk through the club door. Training alongside him means an automatic extra boost of energy.

Black Skinny is scheduled to fight April 16th.

I haven't been doing pad work for a few months now because of my wrist injury. I've been doing everything else at boxing but have been hitting the sand bag light. I thought I'd be able to jump back into it a couple of weeks ago but a sharp pain raced up my arm, which was a cruel reality check, telling me that I wasn't quite ready. The doctor gave me his go-ahead but told me to be careful.

Not being able to give it my all at boxing has been very frustrating, almost depressing actually. I didn't really lead on to just how much it ate me up but it did. Watching Snickers pound away at the sand bag but not being able to physically do the same was really disappointing. Junior Mint has noticed this too and today he told me to give pad work a try, so I did.

Black Skinny stood ringside and watched as I geared up and started round one on pad work.

It didn't hurt. It felt awesome!

So on that note, Junior Mint continued. We went round after round, both of us not really noting just how many rounds had passed. We totally ignored the round bell and continued on through the round breaks.

I went 6 non-stop rounds... fifteen minutes.

Don't get me wrong, going 8 non-stop rounds meant my arms were spent at the end and I was on the verge of drowning in my own sweat but it was awesome. "Baby I'm back!" I yelled out.

After I pretty much killed myself doing padwork, one of my buddies and another fellow boxer stepped into the ring for sparring. They didn't do much sparring though cause in the first round, my buddy delivered quite the brutal body shot and down his opponent went. His opponent ended up staying crouched in the corner for a couple of minutes before he could step out of the ring... ouch!!!

I had shown up at boxing after a long day. I had left the house at 7am for Bundang, worked at the daycare from 8:30am to 2pm, worked at the academy from 2:30pm to 6:30pm and then spent about an hour and a half traveling home in traffic. Upon returning home, I then quickly changed my clothes and headed out for boxing.

It's funny how despite showing up so spent from the day, I can totally get a second wind and continue at full force at training. Mind ya, I definitely got to give Black Skinny and Junior Mint a lot of credit for that. I feed off of Black Skinny's energy and both he and Junior Mint make me want to push myself, in addition to them pushing me that is.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who or what pushes you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Impossible is nothing.
-- Mohammad Ali

This was the scene that I came home to today.

The front entrance of Ggum Guum was bombarded with trash and the stash of trash continued up into the hallway leading to my apartment door.

When my landlord noted the other day that he'd be getting his apartment renovated, I thought it meant changing the wallpaper or something simple. Little did I know it involved getting walls knocked down. How safe do I feel, taking a shower and feeling the floor shake from underneath me?! Heaven help them if I fall through the floor while buck naked, or any time for that matter.

Dining Out Because We Can't Sleep In... Tuesday, March 15

Returned to Ggum Guum after work to a very unhappy Snickers.

Our landlord had started his noted renovations but, unknown to us, these renovations meant a flock of men arriving at 8am to knock down walls and do a lot of drilling, hammering, banging... a lot of making noise. Snickers had finished work at 4:30am so waking up three and a half hours later to insanely loud noises from down below Ggum Guum left him frustrated, annoyed, and lacking a much needed good sleep.

I thought I'd cheer him up by taking him out for lunch. Took him on a lunch date. He noted that he wanted to go to his friend's restaurant, so off we headed to it.

And there I sat with my beautiful husband,

enjoying the beautiful scenery from our private dining room in the restaurant,

and dining on some beautifully delish food.

For $38 we had a full five course meal -- soup, salad, chicken appetizer, main dish (ordered chicken pasta), dessert, and coffee. A complimentary glass of white wine was also sent to us.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
If you had to pick one last dish to eat before you die, what would you pick?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police.
-- Author Unknown

I took this shot while on my bus heading back to Cheonan. It's just as blurring as my weekdays have been for the past two weeks.

All a Blur... Monday, March 14

As it stands, my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are jam packed to the brim, leaving me with very little free time.

The Comings and Goings of Today:

4:30am -- Snickers arrived home from work. I scored a back massage while we chatted.
5:00am -- Went back to sleep for an hour.

6:00am -- Woke up, ate breakfast, prepared today's on-the-go meals, and got dressed.
6:50am -- Ran out the door to catch my 7am bus to Bundang.

7:50am -- Arrived in Bundang, took the subway one stop and then walked to work.
8:15am -- Arrived at the daycare (start work at 8:30am)
2:00pm -- Finished work at the daycare so off I ran to catch my bus to my part time job.

2:20pm -- Arrived at my part time job (start work at 2:30pm).
6:30pm -- Finished work so off I ran to get the city bus and then the 7:10pm Cheonan bus.

8:10pm -- Arrived in Cheonan, ran home to change clothes, then headed off to boxing.
8:40pm -- Arrived at boxing and trained.
10:10pm -- Finished boxing, headed home and took Mi Nam out for a walk.

12:00am -- Finally called it a night.

I study Korean on the bus route to Bundang, review my lesson plan on the city bus to my part time job and then I eat my second last meal on the bus ride home from Bundang to Cheonan.

This leaves me with a total of an hour and a half of free time, 10:30pm to 12am.

I can't complain though, it means I've tripled my original paycheck I used to get when I first arrived in Korea and doubled my former Dankook paycheck. It was my choice to make such a crazy schedule. Thankfully my Tuesday and Thursday workdays end at 2pm and my weekends are completely schedule-free.

Ironically, now that I'm making more money, I'm too busy and too preoccupied to go out and spend the money that I'm making. Of course the sole purpose of racking in the cash is to set us up nicely for our move to Canada but I thought we'd honestly end up spending more. Snickers and I have stayed true to our weekly free-spending allowance we both have but because we're so busy, we've both have barely touched our allowance. Honestly, making a weekly allowance, which Snickers refers to as "secret money" was the best thing we've ever come up with for saving money. We've alloted various sums for things like utilities, rent, transportation and so forth but our secret money ($50 for each of us) has been really going good. At first I thought having my spending ways restricted would drive me mental but it's been... well, fun. Last week I only spent $20 of my secret money, so I had the remaining $30 carry into this week. Snickers hids his secret money so it's been entertaining trying to search it out... hahaha. The other day I found $10 of his and he wrestled me for a good ten minutes to get it back... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What do you do to get ahead?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas.
-- Author Unknown

Sundays are always "Bloody Sundays" here at Ggum Guum and today we sought out a boxing movie at the theaters.

Fed Up With Not Fighting... Sunday, March 13

Korea isn't where the boxing scene is... never really was but it definitely isn't anymore.

The WBC President Jose Sulaiman hit the nail right on the head when he flew to Korea, stood in front of a banquet room full of boxers and asked us "What happened to boxing in Korea?"

So what did happen to boxing in Korea?! I don't know... does anyone really know?

Korea makes it next to impossible for its' boxers to financially survive doing solely boxing and it's so incredibly discouraging to experience this first hand. I've always been okay with Snickers doing his boxing and it's been me who has always told him not to do any job besides it. It is a job. His job is professional boxer and yet here in Korea he's one of the very rare professional boxers who doesn't have a full time job in addition to his boxing career. And the only reason why Snickers has a part time job now is because we're building up a "nest egg" for our anticipated move to Canada.

What boxing career can Korean boxers really have if the company they work for, KBC, doesn't work for them in return?! Exactly. So you've got a country filled with boxers but only a slim percentage of them who can afford to really focus on their boxing.

It's insulting and it's discouraging. Korean boxers basically are paying out of their own pockets to fight, maybe not literally but one way or another they are. Sometimes it is literally though, too often actually.

The Cheonan Bulldog got $200 a fight in the last tournament he was in, so $200 x 3 fights is $600, and that's before coach took his fair share and the hotel bill was paid. Brutal. $600 to go through a month of a half of insane training and dieting before the tournament, three games of getting his head and body bashed in, then another couple of weeks of maintaining his weight during the tournament, and of course the healing time.

All I know is that besides Snickers' game last summer in the Philippines, which I don't even think KBC (the Korean Boxing Commission) was responsible for setting up, it's been over a year since KBC scheduled Snickers a fight.

He's itching to have a fight, hell, he's itching so much I'm convinced he's going to get a damn rash from all this itching.

I feel bad for him; I feel terrible actually.

Since I first met Snickers, his dream has always been to become a world champion boxer. I've never met someone so consumed by boxing, he loves it, and I've always been very supportive of his dream. I know oh too well what it feels like to have a dream and be the only one cheering it on. Having said this though, both him and I have come to the conclusion that him training and fighting in Korea is not going to do anything but kill his passion and make his dream of becoming a world champion all that more unattainable.

Either KBC has to start giving him fights or he's got to go elsewhere to get the fights. I think going elsewhere is the better of two options, elsewhere meaning we're considering him moving out of country for a bit while he persues his boxing career... his dream.

It tore me to pieces and played on my emotions like a rollercoaster to have him living in Japan back in October/September but we both don't really know what to do at this point. I was the one that suggested he live elsewhere. I want him to be happy, so if sucking it up and dealing with the emotions is what I'll have to do than so be it.

I no longer live in Korea for myself, I live for him and I live here because of him. I've already had many chances to do so many things and personal goals that I've set for myself but what about him? He deserves to get his shot at his dream and Korea sure as hell isn't going to give it to him.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Where did boxing in Korea go?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
One must desire something to be alive.
-- Margaret Deland

Gotti sat out on today's day date and instead both Snickers and I jumped on Maximus for a spin around in the country side.

And yes, we have couple helmets. Hey, what can I say?! Being married to a Korean man means I too do somethings that are so Korean but can you really blame me? My hubby's gorgeous. How can I say no to a hottie like him?!