Jumped in Goldie (our car) with my hunk-of-hunk-of-burning-love husband, Snickers. (Leave it to a Korean man to wear such a shirt and have no shame about it... hahaha)
Drove out into the countryside of Onyang, a neighboring city to Cheonan.
There wasn't much to see on the drive but it the sky was the bluest I've seen since I've returned from Canada so I got camera-happy with taking shots.This is what surrounds K-Gere's new pad. I took this shot from the walkway on his apartment's floor level... nothing but countryside farms and mountains basically!

The New Single Man in Town... Friday, September 30

Richard Gere’s Korean twin now officially lives in Cheonan… again.

Ok, so K-Gere isn’t exactly Richard Gere’s twin but in my books he’s pretty close so the nickname fits. The low down surrounding the return of K-Gere to my part of Korea is that he just broke up with his girlfriend. Yup, he’s now a single man… a happily single man! He announced his singlehood to us all by informing us that he’s moving back to Cheonan and picked up weight training. So with his new bachelor pad and gym membership, he’s apparently much happier, not to mention he’s lost his cute pudge and is now getting quite toned! Good stuff!!!

If a guy’s father is any reflection of the man he may turn into than that’s alright with me because Snickers’ father K-Gere is a pretty cool, open-minded man. He is totally support our boxing and he can cook up quite the storm in the kitchen. Sports and food are both huge parts of Snickers and my life, so a guy who supports my boxing – to the point where he’ll even watch tournaments I go to so that he can report back to me about what the announcers say about me -- and can manage to make both our bellies overly happy is a keeper!!! The fact that he doesn't treat me like a typical female scores him major, major bonus points. He'll punch me in the shoulder if he thinks I'm picking on Snickers or for whatever and though it kind of hurts, it's perfectly fine with me... hahaha.

Tonight K-Gere worked his magic in the kitchen with cooking up some live crab. Between tonight’s good heaping of crab and the crab Snickers cooked me, I’ve eaten a lot of crab in the past couple of days!!! One of Snickers’ sisters joined us, as did her fiancé and together the five of us gobbled up a lot of crab… delish!

Being called "muscle man" today at boxing really got to me, more than I should have let it.

But it's ok... what doesn't break me makes me stronger.

Adidas IS ALL in... Thursday, September 29

Being called "muscle man" at boxing and then being told again that "REAL women don't box" wasn't how I wanted to end my evening. Snickers had headed off to Suwon after late night training, leaving me home alone and not able to shake off today’s uncomfortable situation that occurred at boxing. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it weren’t for who had said it to me, how those around me reacted and the finer details of it all.

When 1am rolled around and I was still tossing around in my blankets, I threw on some running clothes and went for a long run. I thought I’d run to work off the stress of not fitting into the label "woman" here in Korea. 13km later and I still had it on my mind. I figured it was about time I try to take another try at sleeping. That’s when my phone buzzed, letting me know I had an email. It was an email from Adidas in France and it totally drowned out any and all neg. thoughts that were consuming me.

I had written to them earlier this week, to touch base with them about my boxing, what I’ve been doing and what projects I’m starting, like my boxercise class, but the response I got them was beyond what I was expecting – it was SO MUCH more!!!

The email was addressed to both me and various Adidas representatives, of which I think they may be in France, Hong Kong and Korea. In the email they commented that “It goes without saying that we will help you, it will be our pleasure” and I felt so encouraged to be supported by such a brand I love.

But the part of the email that really got to me was when I read “I think it would be good to discuss with Amy how we could use her as a consultant in Korea for the Boxing club community as I think she has connection to help us here. Amy, we have changed our Korean office and staff completely and I think we should meet to discuss this.” I was so thrilled when I read this and felt so completely honored. I met with Adidas Korea once, back when they first opened office, but nothing became of it so I’m glad to see it’s newly improved and my active involvement is being sought out with it.

The email ended with “let us know what you want and we will send it to you Free of Charge” and that was definitely the icing on the cake. So now it’s official, not only is Adidas continually supporting me with my boxing but now they’re assisting me with my boxercise class – how awesome is that?! Sooooo awesome!

I tell ya, you just have to love Korea even if only for the mean plates of delish food they cook!!!

Tonight, I certainly was tempted to go with the pork. I'm not a vegetarian so by all means off with Wilbur's head and slap on some spicy sauce!

Not so tempted with the menu this tent had going on... note the fourth item down. I've never been a fan of feet let alone chomping of them so I definitely didn't want that thrown down onto my plate!
But I couldn't resist this... chicken! I'm a huge fan of chicken, with chicken stirfry being my ultimate favorite dish-of-the-week this week. So we dined on spicy chicken mixed in with lots of leafy greens, sweet potatos and onions.

And just as expected, it was delish!!!

A Total Shift in Original Conversation... Wednesday, September 28

Attended the Cheonan Dance Festival tonight and it was pretty cool, though I must admit I was more interested in the festival food as opposed to the actual dancing part of the festival.
Koreans definitely know how to cook up a mean plate of food.

In my own personal opinion, Western food is so completely boring compared to Korea’s food. I love that their food is spicy. Beads of sweat build up on the tip of my nose, I have to fan myself a bit and sometimes it's so spicy that you can’t help but feel like your sweating your brains off while chowing down! I love it!!!

Half the time I feel like I don’t know all that I’m eating because along with the main dish comes a million-and-one veggie side dishes – veggies that I don’t even know the name of let alone have ever seen grace my plate in Canada and that’s okay with me. Bring on your identifiable veggies Korea. They could serve them with dog for all I care – and yes, I have eaten it – but if it’s tasty and my tummy smiles back than I’ll have some more please.

Koreans eat dog, China apparently eats cat (and anything drowned in deep fry, or so my friends tell me), but as much as Westerns want to point their finger and yell out “eww, that’s nasty”, they load up on veggies while so many Westerns are loading up their tummies with quite the opposite. Fast food, heart attacks-on-a-bun, and clog-your-arteries foods are consequently making obesity and other health related problems such a common issue among them.

I really noticed this when I brought Snickers to Canada for the first time, summer of 2010. He literally stepped off the plane and gasped in the airport. He’s convinced Canada is the land of the supersized – supersized houses, supersized meals, supersized price tags… but also supersized people. Honestly, I felt somewhat embarrassed because in Canada -- a country where vegetarians and vegans can so easily thrive and manage, where you can easily ask for menu alterations and buy non-fat this, low-carb that, and organic whatever -- it’s got a serious weight problem.

Please don't get the wrong idea, I’m not writing all this to sound like some kind of bully, that’s not it at all, instead I write about this because it is a big problem and I really wish I could do something about it. That’s why I love people like Tosca Reno, a woman who went from flabby and forty to fabulous and fifty and who is eagerly trying to educate the world about taking control of their health. The woman is simply amazing and very motivating.

"But you're so skinny Amy, you don't have to worry about your health"... what?! First of all, I live in Korea so according to Korean standards I'm not and it's only because of hard training, a dedication to educating myself about fitness and maintaining clean eating that I got to the size I am. My mother didn't give me any skinny genes. Thanks but no thanks.

Exercise only accounts for 10% of your overall health, genetics are another 10% but diet is 80%.

Yikes, eighty percent of what we eat (or don't eat) determines your health... ouch!!!

It’s one thing to be a larger person but it’s another thing to be larger because you’re unhealthy. My mom was a larger woman and even after she consciously worked at cleaning up her eating habits and adding daily exercise she remained large. She never really did drop in weight but changing her attitude about health changed her life so much. Not only did her level of health improve but consequently so did her level of comfort, level of confidence and level of happiness, all because she made a conscious effort to be pro-active about her health.

According to Forbes.com, “There are currently 1.6 billion overweight adults in the world, according to the World Health Organization. That number is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The following list reflects the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over. These are individuals who have individual body mass indexes, which measures weight relative to height, greater than or equal to 25. Obese is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.”

In the Forbes list of “The World’s Fattest Countries” 2007...
USA, ranked 9th with 74.1% of it’s population being overweight
Canada ranked 35th with 61.1%
South Korea ranked 123rd with 42%.

My teacher once told me, “If you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem”, so what part are you playing?! I'm busting my butt everyday not only to help encourage my friends with fitness and educate and train my personal training clients but at trying to set an example for them all. I'm hosting my boxercise class for free and may end up having to even pay to host it because of my boxing club's building rules. I want to extend myself to others, help those in my life take control of their lives by stepping up their health. So if you're thinking "I'm only one person", well let me tell you that one person can make a difference.

Make a change with your own health and there, that’s one person not feeding into that nasty statistic!!!

He says "Don't eat me... please!!!"...

... and they say "Share with us... please!!!"...

but we all know food is a way to my heart, just like a typical dude, so Snickers and I gobbled this little guy and all his buddies down. Simply delish. And to think, we bought them off a truck seller that was passing by our window for dirt cheap.

The Randomness of Today's Thoughts... Tuesday, September 27

Discovered Nature Valley bars at Emart and what flavor should they be but Canadian maple – big score there!!!

Got the go-ahead from Junior Mint to start advertising my private boxercise class – very cool!

Arranged private cooking lessons for Snickers and they start tomorrow – yup, that’s how we roll as a fusion couple… hahaha.

Overheard a conversation I wasn’t intended to hear and after piecing together the few words I did hear I figured it all out – Snickers got into YET ANOTHER car crash. Some lady doing an illegal U-turn YESTERDAY hit him and our car, being the beast of a tank it’s proving to be, sent her car spinning and came out with only scratches to the front bumper’s paint. He tried to calm my frustrations with the discovery by telling me how much money the lady’s insurance company is throwing us.

Am almost 100% convinced that acquiring a job in Korea that will satisfy me, put my skills to work and give me the sense of challenge I’m very much craving means creating my own job.

I thought that having a F2 visa would advantage me because it dismisses the legal hassles employers go through with visa sponsoring – wrong. Employers know it means I can simply step down from a job if I’m unhappy.

I thought being somewhat bilingual (English and Korean) would advantaged me but I was wrong about that too. Employers seem to want their foreign workers to be very foreign and English-only.

I thought for sure that my 7 years of work experience in Korea would definitely advantage me but, yup you guessed it, I seem to be wrong on that too. It’s cheaper for employers to hire fresh-off-the-plane workers than have to offer me a salary that credits my experience. Moreover, the typical jobs designated for foreign workers offer very little room for advancement and I’m not particularly interested in working the same job and getting paid the same amount as a newcomer.

Having said all this, I’m looking into other options and means of making work for myself. I don’t want a job I can just clock in, put my hours in and then go home after what feels like another no-brainer day. I want to put my passions to work, test and challenge myself, and feed off the energy and enthusiasm of what doing something I love brings to my life. I think we all want this but too often I feel like we as foreigners really have no choice but to settle. Korea is English-crazy and let’s face it, we have something they want – English, obviously. I like teaching English but admit that I’d love it if I didn’t feel it was my only option here.

Found out why the small group of East Asians girls who work at the nursery school run by nuns next door are always watching Snickers and I and stay somewhat secluded in the school; they're run aways. They came to Korea to marry Korean men then for whatever reason they ran away and found their way to this one particular organization that houses them and gives them work. I felt terrible when I heard this because all the girls are very young and I think it's so sad to hear of such unhappy mariages. I for one love, love, LOVE being married. Anyways, they’re not a particularly friendly group of girls but I guess it's understandable. I wave to them a lot but they never wave back. They just watch. Come to think of it, I've never seen them really venture outside beyond the opening day ceremony they had.

Oh no... here he comes... the Korean Hulk!!!

Regardless of the fact he's my husband, for a hulk he doesn't seem so intimidating.

Ok, maybe a little scary here with his "I'm-too-exhausted-but-not-impresed" look on his face.

Despite training with the Korean Hulk (aka Snickers) and some awesome teammates, I'm really looking forward to getting some strong women in here to help me represent.

A Private Boxercise Class for My Fabulous Gals... Monday, September 26

Hello boxercise!!!

I've been working on this for a bit and it's an idea I've been tossing around for awhile, well, this week I plan on posting this on my girls-only club. It's a private class I'll be giving on October 16th here in Cheonan and it's available to only my club members so if you want to come to my class than CLICK HERE to join the club. Note, if the class is a big success and if I go in the direction I'm hoping to with it, this private class will become a regular thing... stay tuned for that!!!

Announcing my own boxercise class!!!

It’s a well-known fact that when you feel better about yourself you look better, smile more, are happier, and radiate with confidence. I’m all about feeling great and that’s where I can help you.

As a professional athlete here in Korea, I train hard and train others hard too. It’s my job but, more importantly, it's my passion. Fitness IS my thing and I know all too well the pressure of not only looking good but staying in shape-- ask any that know me, they know how hard I work to drop 20lbs in a month for a fight and I’m married to a Korean champion boxer so talk about pressure.

Boxing is such an awesome way of getting fit and staying fit, not to mention it’s a lot of fun! So let’s hit the club together… the boxing club that is.

Introducing boxercise!!!

What is boxercise, you ask… good question. Boxercise is a full body cardio workout that uses a variety of exercises, like skipping, shadow boxing and combination drills, done over a one hour period. Many of the exercises I include in my boxercise class are ones I use in my own daily training or with other boxers I help train.

If you’ve never tried boxing but have always wanted to, if you’re looking for a fun way to exercise, or if you're just looking to get out of the house on a Sunday morning than this class is for you!!! I’ve planned this boxercise class to be directed towards the beginner so don’t worry if you’ve never stepped foot into a boxing club before or know little to nothing of the sport. Moreover, because my boxing club is closed on the weekends, it’ll only be our group there for a private boxercise workout. Bring your runners, some comfy clothes to sweat in, a positive attitude and be ready to have fun and sweat! My club has two shower bathrooms so feel free to shower up and get dolled up for the rest of your day.

This is a free private class so what do you have to lose but a few unwanted inches that is ;)

Sorry guys but the closest you'll get to seeing the rest of my friend's hot bod is reading about it. No room for you boys in my club of gal-pals... hahaha.

The Fabulocity of My Fabulous Girls-Only... Sunday, September 25

Got down and busy with editing and planning the homepage and upcoming event for my girls-only club. Am totally stoked about organizing this group. I think it's going to be great; it'll be as great and as fabulous as I want it to be and that's the truth. Already the list of my "fabulous girlfriends", both those on the Facebook page and the official club homepage, has reached over 100 and that's wicked!!!

I'm married to a beautiful man who is my best friend, so why the heck do I want to join yet another meat-market club where dropping the fact that I'm married -- happily married -- means be dropped off the "potential friends" list... exactly. That's the beauty of this girls-only club. I totally believe that guys and girls can be friends but I've gone there too many times and have been disappointed too many times too. I'm craving a group of gal buddies, you know, girlfriends I can just be a girl with, nothing more nothing less.

Club Profile

I love being a woman and I love being in Korea, but let’s face it, sometimes it’s hard to find irreplaceable fabulous girlfriends like those back home in this country – a country that is most likely a home away from home for most of you ladies. You know the kind, those fun-loving, adventurous and comfortable gals you can call up and do things with or doing nothing at all but still enjoy the time together.

Well, Seoul Girls Night Out is the perfect place to meet other fabulous ladies here in Korea. Group members range from newcomers to those born and raised in Korea, but all are equally fabulous. Regardless of what country you’re from, if you’re female and fabulous than this is the club for you!!!

Seoul Girls Night Out is a multicultural women's group intended to give a range of events and activities to do that go outside the typical thrill seeker or "pub crawl" type events that are oh so usual of meetups in Seoul. Typically, it’s much harder to develop more lasting friendships once you have graduated from college, started a career and have moved on to real life. Moreover, living in a foreign country where people are in constant rotation and everything is new, makes it all that significantly more difficult.

So why not come out and expand your social circle?

At least twice a month we’ll have club events, ranging from meals together, live music, live theater, spa days, game nights, and possible occasional road trips. The goal of our club is to give a potential for all involved to develop lasting friendships and to experience Korea beyond whatever it is you call work and whatever you think Korea is. Korea has the potential to be a fabulous country – it IS a fabulous country – and you are fabulous too, so why not share yourself with others and come help make this group something really, really great.

To be a part of this group you should be between the age 25-40ish, willing to cohost, contribute to or host group events (occasionally), able to attend at least 1 event per 1-2 months and SIMPLY FABULOUS!!!

Today I narrowed down my search and selected a restuarant to host my first meetup and it's stunning so I edited the details to my first planned event. I'm already in the process of planning something for Halloween and am hoping to introduce my boxercise class but may hold off to November to do so.

My adorable Mi Nam, my beautiful Pyen Chi the Pee Master Beast of fur,

my gorgeous husband Snickers, and a cozy spot by the lake = sweeeeeeet!!!

Picnic Time... Saturday, September 24

I've become way too all about my dogs, well, I wouldn't say "all" but I have become one of those people that gives their dogs a lot of attention. I am fully aware of this... this and the fact that I need to get out more with TWO-LEGGED friends, as in people, as opposed to four-legged friends.


But until then... hello doggies.

Today I loaded up the car with my four-legged friends and my husband with our destination being a picnic in the park.
We ended up not going very far actually, and we could have just walked there but I'm sure the little ones enjoyed the car ride... and I know drivers passing by us got a good laugh out of Mi Nam and Pyen Chi letting the wind flow through their fur... hahaha.

Found a nice cozy spot beside the lake at Dankook University, so we set down our picnic blanket and made our claim on the spot.

Mi Nam and Pyen Chi roamed the area but after much play, we all ventured back to our blanket and it was a fast lights out for us all in the park.

Either Pyen Chi is quite the fisher or she's got a keen nose for fish, I think it's the second, but her running back to the blanket with several fish was rather nasty.

So Pyen Chi caught fish and Snickers caught Pyen Chi. I relaxed on the blanket and Mi Nam ventured over to make friends with some strangers.

I couldn't help but laugh at this scene, Pyen Chi digging a hole. If digging a hole in Canada was believed to dig your way to China, then where does digging a hole in Korea take you considering China is practically next door?!

Sorry my four-legged cuties but this Polack isn't about to share her chicken stirfry!!!... ok, so maybe I shared a bit with Snickers. I argue that I had to though, he's my husband... and he's bigger than me... hahaha

My New BFF... Friday, September 23

My new BFF...?! What?

I joked with my friends in Canada this past summer, telling them that I needed them to let me in on the inside scoop with new English slang. One of my cousins filled me in on BFF but it sounds to valley girl for me... "valley girl", do people still use this term?

Anyways...

So ya, apparently my new BFF is chicken stirfry, sorry curry, you are so yesterday... but I still love ya and am sure to slap you down on my plate again this week;)

Snickers -- a guy who pretty much eats anything and everything and in such massive one-dose quantities -- is a very picky eater when it comes to eating anything I cook. He won't even so much eat my jello, a no-cook snack that I love to throw fruit cocktail in. And who doesn't love jello?! Apparently I married the only person to give a big two thumbs down to jello. And my oatmeal-packed banana pancake -- a breakfast for champions that has turned even the biggest of skeptics into hardcore addicted fans -- nope, he doesn't like it.

I just don't understand it. He likes rammian -- a fried noodle drowned in a spicy water broth that leaves him with tummy pains and threatens to leave him on the throne for hours -- yet my cooking (my very clean-eating cooking) doesn't even get the chance to graze his lips.

But, and here's where this story takes a turn, he likes my chicken stirfry! Yup, it's true. Hell has frozen over and we have a winner. My chicken stirfry with brocolli, mushrooms, peppers and slash of a secret sauce I picked up in Canada scored a big smile from Snickers, meaning they've beat out all other dishes I've ever tried to please Snickers' tummy with.

Boxing last night mixed with today's mid-day run and weight training, yikes... Mother Nature and her hot summer were definitely beating down on me today, leaving me with nothing to do but sleep off the exhaustion.

Woke up just in time for boxing.

Not Normal... Thursday, September 22

No rest for the wicked, and with that in mind I geared up for a run at noon, followed by some weight training in the afternoon and then boxing in the afternoon.

I've got a boxercise class I'm working on.

Am in the process of editing my fitness text, a continual item on my things-to-do list.

Contemplating taking on another personal training client though I'm not too sure if he's able to put aside his male ego, accept that I beat him in a race, and take my training for what it's worth -- a means of helping him as opposed to competting with him.

Still no word on any scheduled fights, which totally ticks me off considering that's the main reason why Snickers returned from Canada instead of staying with me. He supposedly had a proposed fight but... well... KBC... no comment on that. They've got fighters that want to fight yet no big fights scheduled. And so the frustration with them continues.

They continue to call my manager, asking me to accept various fights but the irony of the whole thing is I haven't even officially renewed my boxing license for this year. My face is "good for business" is what I've been told and I know it's true. I continue to be the only foreign professional female boxer fighting out of Korea and, as of last year, because of a good male friend retiring from boxing, I am now the only foreign professional boxer here. I want to fight again, that's an obvious, but I hate fighting KBC to get a fight for Snickers. He'd jump in the ring tomorrow if they told him to, that's not the issue, the issue is that they just aren't giving him the due fights. Do you know, he's STILL waiting to be scheduled a fight to make up for the title his former coach stole from him... stole from him a YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!! That's brutal. KBC said he'd be given the chance to fight for it back but when?! If we held our breath any longer for that we'd be beyond blue in the face. Dang skippy.

The Heavy Hitter has a fight on October 8th so both Snickers and I will be attending. We'll do our usual handing out of business cards, shaking hands and posing for pictures, and dropping mad hints to KBC that we want a fight.

Correction, Snickers NEEDS a fight if not to help feed his boxing career but to keep him sane and keep his passion for the sport alive. I support Snickers completely and totally with his boxing but too often I see and feel it first hand how discouraging it is for him not to get fights and not to have those in his corner who should be in his corner.

I know all too well what it feels like to have a passion for something and go against the grain of things to do what I want to do, afterall, I am in Korea and have been for almost 7 years now. Back when I lived in Toronto, when it came to the kind of lifestyle I lead and the money that filled my pockets, I had a two floor apartment with a friend, a maid regularly cleaned our house, I got weekly meals made and dropped off for me, a driver who often took me to work, and a silver medalist who was teaching me boxing. I had an ex-fiance who adored the socks off me, a supportive family that was only an hour drive away, friends were always dropping by that is whenever they could catch me at home cause I was a little miss social bug, but I dropped it all to come to Korea.

I did it because I've always wanted to just get up and go start a new life. Korea was a refreshing new clean slate I wanted, I needed, I always hoped for. People called me crazy when I came here and now I get other people calling me crazy for me doing boxing and for me supporting my husband with his boxing career.

If crazy means I didn't settle than I am 100% flattered.

I never strove to be normal and I'll be damned if I let my husband ever be normal too!

Am I seeing right?!... Do you see who I see?!...

Could it be... no, really??? Yup, it's Black Skinny. Tonight he made his big return to boxing.

And both Snickers and I were there when he walked in.

The boxing club already has some great members -- I'm particularly fond of my High School Kiddies -- but Black Skinny jumping back in the pile is just too awesome!!! Welcome back big guy, I missed you... WE ALL missed you!!!

Black is Back... Wednesday, September 21

Black Skinny returned to boxing today and it's about time. He basically went into hiding after the heartbreak of his last fight -- a fight that all thought he'd for sure win -- and beyond the one time he came to pick up his game gear a week after his fight, we haven't seen him since. I've been nagging Snickers to give him a call and though I've kept in touch via text messaging, we both missed him so much. He's always been the much-needed leader of our pack at UP. Training without him is definitely not the same and his abscense is felt. Our "team" has changed so much throughout the years and thinking about it makes me sad. I miss my boxing boys.

Black Skinny and I are the only remaining original two.

Others, like the Cheonan Bulldog, have since been added but it's not the same. It can never be the same, though I must admit it's pretty awesome that I ended up marring one of these additional members.

Teammates coming and going only is making me feel all that much older. Black Skinny, Q and I are the "older generation" of the team, with Snickers following behind with the Cheonan Bulldog and then the Heavy Hitter. Our team is a small one.

Today all but the Cheonan Bulldog were present when Black Skinny walked through the boxing club door. I greeted him with a good punch to the shoulder, he gave me a good kick to the leg, and then we both giggled.

Getting ready for some hardcore sparring.

Giving and taking of some brutal beats.

And a packed boxing club loving it all!