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.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Breeding Lifers... Saturday, March 2


Two things I’m not particular fond of shopping and babies and ironically that’s exactly what today revolved around, shopping for tomorrow’s baby shower.  Sometimes I can’t help but laugh at the ironic situations I get myself in. 

Tomorrow Flipside Fitness is hosting Pretty in Pink – A Welcoming Party.  It’s for one of my friends, Mama Ro.  She’s a beautiful American gal married to a Korean/American cool dude, both of which sport the title “Lifers”. 

What’s a “Lifer” you ask, well a Lifer here in Korea is basically someone that is here for the long haul, who has no intentions of leaving anytime soon.  They're not from Korea but now call it their home.  I use to cringe at the title when people labeled me with it but now I quite like it actually.  Why not live in Korea for many years?!

Korea is safer for me and, with the exception of my “tenant” initially, no one has ever really scared me here.  Ok, so Snickers tries to all the time but that’s not what I mean here.  Koreans are a lot more innocent-minded and are very community oriented… not to mention pure eye candy!  Most importantly, Korea has definitely proved to be quite the land of opportunity for me.  I can do anything and everything here.

In my many years of living here in Korea, one thing I have noticed is that not only are more and more foreigners tapping into the greatness of Korea and moving here for work but more and more are staying longer.  Living here beyond the first year wasn’t so popular back when I first moved here, nine years ago, but now I run into people who have been here for two, three, four years or more – “Lifers” and “Potential Lifers”.  

In making our boxing club (... because you KNOW I couldn't go a full homepage entry without bringing it back to our boxing club... hahaha)... in making our boxing club, it's my hope that yes, we'll be able to make Cheonan more foreign-friendly but really help make Cheonan more of a home to other foreigners.  

Hahaha... while other boxing clubs breed champs, we're going to breed Lifers.

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