Visited Pyen Chi today and came with treats for all four-legged friends.

Khan looked soooo cute trying to find the milk bone I brought him.  With all his excessive hair and big droopy face, it was hard for him to find it.

Some of my buddies came along with me but they didn't care to get too close.  

The big black beast in this picture is actually another female Tibet Mastiff, just like Pyen Chi, but her fur is so much longer.

As for this, dare I say it for sake you don't believe me, puppy, he's a Russian Ovcharka and he and his sibling are expected to reach about 100-120kgs in weight... woozers!  I remember once visiting my friend's dog farm out in Chungju. He raises Ovcharkas and let me tell you, you DON'T walk one.  You let it walk itself!
And if you haven't noticed, this dog has NO EARS, yup, it's a thing breeders do with this particular breed.  I think it's quite nasty and looks like exposed brain if you ask me.

I really do miss Pyen Chi and obviously so do Snickers... she clearly missed us too as evident by the fact she barked her head off when we left.

Snickers is convinced she will never get pregnant (and that's alright by me).  I'm really not interested in her having babies though I know many of my friends who have given it considerable thought are eager to have one.  Pyen Chi's overly stubborn ways and get-me-pregnant-and-die mentality is right in line with how I think.  Snickers joked the other day and said if she had a baby she wouldn't be so stressed.  I'm sure he was joking but I gave him a nasty look and blurted out "Ya, like a baby solves stress.  This is why men aren't allowed to get pregnant, and amen to that!!!"

I joke about Snickers being my wife but seriously, can you imagine if in reality he was the wife and I was physically the husband?!  He'd be pregnant left-right-and-center, hoping to pop out kids like big boy Khan.  Mind ya, perhaps him being the pregnant one would bring an end to this baby talk.  I'm sure popping out a baby Khan would have him chewing on his words and begging me not to touch him again.  

Flying Pigs Are Just Crazy Talk... Thursday, February 28

Somewhere among scrapping out dog poop from the bottom of my rain boots and pretending to ride Khan like a pony, Snickers managed to direct our casual chatting to talk about having a baby.

SNIC: “What is your baby plan?”

ME: “My what?!”

SNIC: “What is your baby plan? When you give me baby?”

ME: “My baby plan?!... to keep on dodging nonsense-like questions like this.”

SNIC: “I don’t know ‘dodging’ and ‘nonsense’.”

ME: “You dodge a boxer’s punch by weaving and nonsense is believing pigs fly.”

SNIC: “My baby question is like me punching you and pigs flying?!”

ME: “Yes… exactly!”

SNIC: “But I don’t punch you!”

ME: “So then don’t ask me that question.”

SNIC: “That’s crazy talk!”

ME: “Yes… exactly. Now ask me a question again that isn’t crazy talk.”

SNIC: “No, it’s ok… my Western woman, you hurt my head”.

Snickers is convinced that if the population of the human race was up to women-only that we’d be the last of our kind, I’m sure of it. He’s always telling his buddies “Western woman, too strong, like man” and though I’m sure I could be insulted, I am flattered though not all Western woman are strong nor are all Korean women weak. 

As for my real answer though, what is my baby plan, it’s not to keep on dodging nonsense-like questions like this because it’s really not nonsense, instead it’s to deal with it later down the road (as I add “if I have to” to that answer). 

I’m throwing a baby this weekend for a friend, how ironic is that?! I’m hoping to kick Snickers out of the house because I’m sure he’ll go all goggly-eyed when the little one shows up and I’m suspecting others may put me in the spotlight by asking me “When are you having a baby?” 

Oh the baby question. I’m cool with people having babies, sure, if my mom didn’t have one then I wouldn’t be here, but I've never seen me personally having one in my future. I have a dream, I'm living my dream, and having a baby at this point in it just seems like an unwanted commercial break.  It's like when you’re at the climax of a movie on tv and they go to a commercial. I’m climaxing in my dream, in my life, and I’ll be damned if a commercial break interrupts it.

 I run like a girl... try to keep up.

And yes, I hit like a girl too... so be careful!  I pack a mean punch.

Very cool!!!

Whether it's support texting me, showing up on my door, dropping me a Facebook message or dropping me an email, encouraging words have been plentiful in my life these days.  I am blessed. 

[Please note, because the legal registration hasn't gone through yet, I had to block out our boxing club's name in the above screenshot of an email.]

In Need of a Shower... Wednesday, February 27

I’ve reached a whole new nasty level of nastiness and I was caught in all my nastiness when all of a sudden a friend, one of my Flipside Fitness gals, showed up unexpectedly at my house. Snickers thought nothing of opening the door to her and obviously disregarded the fact that the two of us were right in the middle of a business meeting, which meant I was sitting naked on the couch when she arrived. Instantly I jumped up and told them to wait. Ran into the clothes room and threw on some clothes. A minute later I came out, still looking very rough but not naked and I had washed my face. 

I spend my days slaving over business dealings, planning and Internet surfing for ideas and information, having continual meetings with sponsors and with Snickers, and making numerous phone calls. This week I’ve only showered twice, combed my hair once and, if it weren’t for my fear of the dentist and consequently my obsession with brushing my teeth, I’d probably be sporting some nasty, extended morning-mouth too. With the weather still being somewhat chilly, I can get away with putting on clothes and instead simply throw on my Adidas training windbreaker two-piece over my naked bod, throw my hair into a ponytail and sport a pair of runners when I have to leave the house, though today I did get "dressed up" for a morning coffee date. 

Ok, so perhaps that doesn’t sound too nasty, well, perhaps I should tell you what I did before my friend showed up expectantly at my house. Ok, so I went to bed at 5:30 this morning and I felt like I had only got a wink of sleep when suddenly Snickers’ phone started ringing like crazy. It was the breeders. Pyen Chi had escaped her cage -- a five and a half foot high cage -- and though she hadn’t exactly ran way, she surely was being quite the impossible lady to catch. 

I tell you, nothing like a crazy wake up call like this to really jolt your system. The breeder’s house is a good thirty minute drive away; we made it there in fifteen. Pyen Chi was definitely enjoying her freedom and looked like a prancing deer in the neighboring rice fields, jumping up and down with her tail wagging. Upon seeing our van, see ran right up to us as we drove in. Catching her was super easy, getting her back in the cage was another thing however. Snickers scooped her up and I went into the cage to hold back Khan. 

Some people ride horses, others ride bulls, well today I rode a 80kg Tibet Mastiff – Khan. I had wrapped my arms around his neck to hold him back but his 80kg strong body was like a wicked force to weaken with. I ended up wrapping not only my arms but also my legs around his body. He walked a good meter with me on his back and then he sat down.  Down I slid. 

Nothing like starting your morning off wearing quite possibly every bodily fluid a dog could possibly smear onto your clothes and hands… and face!

Yesterday Pyen Chi headed out for her "lover's honeymoon" but when the breeder called us to tell us Pyen Chi has a bit of a problem, I headed out to meet with the breeder and Pyen Chi's boyfriend, Khan.

Weighing in at roughly 80kgs, Khan is officially the most notoriously known Tibet Mastif in the Chungchungnam-Do province -- only the best for Pyen Chi.

 He's got gentle eyes and, despite his massive size, he is a gentle giant. 

 Apparently that's the problem -- he's too gentle and Pyen Chi is too tough.

This was the closet I could get to a couple shot of them.

 Khan is so handsome.

 But Pyen Chi wants nothing to do with him.  Pyen Chi is taller than him but she's got him whipped.  Just look at his body language -- both his head and tail are down.  

 So while Pyen Chi wants nothing to do with him and clearly won't even let him get close enough for a kiss, I took it upon myself to let him kiss me.  

Disappointment 101... Tuesday, February 26

I was all excited and pumped about my big business meeting with Adidas… and then I wasn’t.  

I went into this meeting honestly already set on working alongside them and I had told them that it’s not me they have to win over by Snickers.  But offering to do our interior – an expense that is very low on our budget considering all of the already existing mirrors and lack of wall space because of them – was where they lost both of us.  I feel terrible too in acknowledging this because I’ve always been very grateful for their continual support.  They've supported me since day one when I went pro with my boxing.  

I was willing to suck up the extra expense that'd come with using only their products vs. a Korean brand but offering to do my interior and bombarding my walls their name just doesn’t interest us.  We’re trying so very hard to make our own name, to wear a name and image that not only represents our dream but also that of our members.  I have big ideas with a motivational wall and quotes on the wall.  I want my Flipside Fitness gals to walk in and see their reason to get fit painted up on the wall starring back down at them, just like I want others to look up and see selected motivational quotes pushing them to train harder. 

I know this boxing club is a business but honestly it’s not about making crazy cash, nor is about spending crazy cash either and wearing someone else’s name.  My dream was never about money.  It was about doing something I love and supporting myself with it.  

Adidas talked to us about reaching a max of 500 members and I don’t want 500 members.  Honestly, I really don’t care to have over 100.  My members will be my extended family and I’m sorry but there’s no way I’m going to remember 500 names.  For goodness sake, I sometimes mix up my four-legged friend’s names and call Snickers Pyen Chi.. hahaha.  I want that close knit feeling that comes with having regulars and a smaller club.  I already think 100 is plenty but 500?!  It's definitely going to kill the dynamics of our so-called "extended family".

I quite enjoyed our meeting in that they were very supportive and super nice but I was rather disappointed that they didn’t present us with an attractive offer that actually pertained to us.  Now if they were to throw in an Adidas boxing ring into the deal than yes, I would consider it some more but as it stands we are both not sold on it. 

I have NO idea on how I’m going to tell them this though perhaps if they read my homepage they now know.  It’s obvious that Adidas was quite impressed with the size and dynamics of our club but their offer did not reflect this.  We know we're a boxing club unlike any other in Korea and they know this too so they really need to approach us with a better offer. 

A three hour meeting in all Korean – my head hurts.

A three hour meeting in all Korean with only an offer of interior design – my heart hurts. 

Moreover, I let Snickers take Pyen Chi to the breeders yesterday so that I could gain interior design rights and control of the floor plan.  I’m definitely not about to give that up, you mad?!  They’re going to have to come up with a better plan or take a back seat.  

I had a morning meeting at Seoul Global Center with one of my teachers from the business start-up school I attended.  It was great to pick his brain about some key things I've been worried about.  And in addition to all the great help he gave me, he sent me on my way with two books, about a zillion-billion pages of info and a much-needed number for a respectable attorney. 

When I left my meeting, I ran into this massive line at the subway station.  The line went straight down the subway station and then looped around.  There seriously must have been at least 200 older Korean men.

 Curiously, I followed their line and low and behold what should I see that all these men are lined up for free haircuts.  They had three barbers cutting and chopping away. It was actually quite cute, all these Korean men waiting for their haircut.  

 And then, while on the bus ride back to Cheonan, I realized that this scene was in fact not cute at all; it was sad.  As it turns out, the city of Seoul offers free haircuts once a month to it's homeless.  Finding this out definitely took the cuteness out of the shot and made me view it a whole other way!

Firing the Bad Feels so Good... Monday, February 25

Today was a busy day, ANOTHER busy day -- woke up at 7am and went to bed at 5am.

Fired someone and, I won’t lie, it felt good. 

Actually, he doesn’t actually work for me so I wasn’t in any position to fire him but I did anyways. He was hired by the person who owns our floor in the building; he’s an electrician. What’s up with all the electricians, seriously?! Anyways, his company is responsible for hooking up all the electrical wires and cleaning the place out so that our renovation team of painters, electricians (there they are again!!!), floor crew, plumbers, and ring crew can come in and work their magic. The other day he gave us this big song and dance about needing a sprinkler system, and not just a sprinkler system, a system that’d go throughout the entire building. The likeliness of this happening, getting all five separate building floor owners to install an expensive sprinkler system on their abandoned floor, is zero to none. And let me guess, he’d be the one the one to do the work, right?! Exactly. 

Turns out this was just a huge business scam but last week this was our Hiroshima. 

According to the Cheonan District Office and the fire and safety regulations, because our building is less than 11 floors, a sprinkler system is NOT required. 

So I fired him. 

I wasn’t rude about it but I did wave a random business card in front of his face and tell him, “We’re going with another company, one we trust”. To tell you the truth, there was no back up company in mind but he didn’t know. Neither did he know I had waved the back side of our vet’s card. All he knows is that he tried to play us and got burnt. 

Oh the joys of running your own business… firing someone. People either hurt you or help you, hold you up or pull you down, so ya it felt good firing someone that was trying to hurt us and pull us down. 

 Same four-legged friend but about two years later -- she's 2 months old in the first pic.  

She went from being this ball of fur that was a non-stop peeing beast that use to charge at me and bite my ankles to quite the lovely little lady.

Today was her 2nd birthday so we celebrated it with bombarding her with extra love, hugs and kisses (in addition to the oozing amounts she already gets), and lots of fresh bananas.  She got a special breakfast too -- steak, bananas, apples, eggs, and spinach, with some milk to wash it all down.

 We had also bought her a massive sized bone but ended up having to take it away, save some for tomorrow, after she went through over half of it in less than an hour!!!

 Happy bithday Pyen Chi -- Kim Pyen Chi Bere, Pee Master Beast of Fur.

Another Year, Another Label... Sunday, February 24

I think I may have sold myself to the devil or sold Pyen Chi to it because though food is the way to my heart , Pyen Chi is definitely the way to Snickers’. And I used her as a pawn in our business bickering over the interior design. This situation actually started yesterday, when we just couldn’t see head-to-head about the floor plan outline and colour scheme. We both have very different ideas as to how to set up the club and how we want to look but today a deal was made. The deal was that I’d agree to let Snickers breed her if I got interior designing power and control over the floor plan. 

I’m not too sure as to why Snickers is so excited to breed her.  I’ve warned him that under no circumstance are we going to keep one of her babies. Perhaps he’s excited because he knows this will help make her reach her maximum size or maybe it’s because of who we’ll be giving her babies to. Two of my friends have been asking us for some time about wanting her baby as has one of my sister-in-laws too. It’d be pretty cool if my nephews, the twins, had a mini Pyen Chi. They have a big house on a large lot on the outskirts of Cheonan so their pup would be well loved and have lots of play space. 

So while today marked Pyen Chi’s second birthday, it also marked the last day of her as an adopted sister and friend as this deal was agreed upon, sealed with a kiss, and concluded with us calling up the breeders we know. Tomorrow she’ll be heading off to the breeders and the hope is she’ll return as Mama-to-be Pyen Chi. 

This week Balboa will be going in for surgery so in a couple of days it will just be us and Pac. I’m hoping to use this time to really focus on training him. It’s so incredibly hard to train him with the other two around. Pyen Chi is super well behaved and understands the whole stop-and-wipe-your-feet when we come in. She knows about 7 different commands.. and then there’s Balboa. He knows many of the similar commands but doesn’t care to obey them. Let’s see how Baby Pac does.

I thought it interesting to note just who and what was being represented at today's bowling game.

Note that there are THREE different Cheonan boxing clubs present here, two of which are being represented by the management, proving that boxing in Korea is very much a community and not necessarily about competing clubs.  Very cool.

... and I thought it interesting to note just how much us Flipside Fitness females resemble Femizons -- the women of our newly appointed poster woman, the ever so fierce super hero Thundra.

I Refuse to Be Nothing... Saturday, February 23

Today marked the first birthday party of Black Skinny’s second son and I was told I shouldn’t go. Black Skinny is a very dear friend of mine, in addition to being a former teammate and forever boxing family member. He was one of the first boxers I met in Korea and he and I have been the longest running teammates within the UP Boxing Club team. So when I was told by not one but two people that I shouldn’t attend my teammate’s celebration, I felt rather hurt. I understood the reasoning behind it but doesn’t mean I accept it or think it’s right. 

Initially Junior Mint took offense when Snickers and I told him we were starting our own boxing club, telling us “I can do everything you can do but better”. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. It’s right up there with “Real women don’t box”. Originally I accepted his response to our news because I understood him viewing us as competition but now I’m seeing that it’s perhaps not this at all. 

I know that boxing is his life, I’m very well aware of this but why can’t he see that boxing is just as much, if not more actually, our life?! Look, I stayed in Korea for my boxing. It’s how I met my husband but it’s become my identity -- it’s not only what I do but what I am and who I am. 

I gave up Canada for my boxing -- boxing in a foreign country that will never understand what it’s really cost me nor really accept me. You can’t put a price on that but take away my boxing and what do I really have here?! Exactly. I’ve made it my everything – my business, my friends, my family,… my dream. 

I can’t just throw in the towel and go along my merry way. I just quit a good job so that I can put myself $100,000 in depth, making me a bigger question in the minds of my in-laws, and a possibly disappointment to my friends in family back in Canada for not returning like they all anticipated. Do you think it’s easy to tell my father who has just lost the love of his life, my mother, to tell him that he’s going to grow old alone, that I may never come back?! No, it’s not but this boxing club is my dream – OUR dream. 

On the rebound of being knocked down by the one single person whom I thought would be the most understanding, it’s been definitely encouraging to see just how supportive people I never ever imagined would be towards me! I am extremely blessed to be sponsored and backed up by a healthy larger number of companies, both nationally and internationally located.

WOW Motors 

ON Motors 

Sunny Hair 

BEAT Boxing 

Best Boxing 

Jung Su Beat Boxing
Moon Tower
Cheonan Prosecutor's Office
Adidas Korea 

Adidas France 

Adidas Hong Kong
Kim's Dental Office

Gamble Tattoo 

Seoul Global Center 

La Cubo Restaurant 

Drama Wedding Hall 

Dujung Karaoke Bar 

I’ll be honest, it really sucked sitting at home, looking up at the clock and knowing that somewhere in Cheonan my teammates were gathered together celebrating and both Snickers and I couldn’t go. We could have gone, sure, but we didn't go out of respect for not only our teammate Black Skinny but out of respect for Junior Mint, my former coach. We didn’t want us showing up to become a scene especially because of the whole mistaken identity situation that happened just this past week. 

Our boxing club is hiring Panty Boy Jr. – former Welter Weight Champion and former UP teammate of mine. He's long since quit boxing at UP but is still very much a close friend of mine.  Tonight he went to the party and then phoned with news of it. “You’re lucky you didn’t go” he noted. No one is really sure as to why Junior Mint has a grudge towards Panty Boy Jr., after all it was his parents who wanted him to stop professionally boxing.  This grudge has been dragged out for well over three years now.  The beauty of Panty Boy Jr. is that he really doesn’t bother himself with what others think or don’t think of him so he went today, knowing full well he’d get a cold shoulder and he didn’t care. I respect him for that, his ability to stay true to himself and sport some super thick skin. Junior Mint, as expected, gave him the cold stares tonight and when Panty Boy Jr. tried to be civil by greeting him with a respectful bow, Junior Mint looked through him like he wasn't even there.  

It’s rather heartbreaking to hear this because there used to be a time when these two were so close, so inseparateable. The same goes for Junior Mint and I. We had a team and it was attached with all the labels a team could possibly associated with. We were a family, brought together by boxing.   I still care so much for Junior Mint as I do for all my teammates but I can't respect his manners, or should I say the lack there of them.  I took Panty Boy Jr. being publicly punked off by Junior Mint personally, as if it were done to me, and I can't help but wish it weren't true, that Junior Mint has totally disowned us all  -- we were family.  

Tonight I headed out for a bowling event with some of my Flipside Fitness ladies. Snickers was sure it’d cheer me up and it did. But what was really the pick-me-upper was when the manager and head coach of BEAT Boxing showed up to play. He’s been helping us out a lot lately but we’ve always kept things business-oriented. I was so impressed with him showing up tonight and asked if it was ok for me to post his pictures on my Facebook page and homepage. “Sure, why not?” he asked and I loved that.

We're having to hold off on registering our boxing club because of a strangely amusing problem we have with the money but I feel a bit relieved that this has bought us a little extra time with having to tell Junior Mint we're in business.  It is not going to go over well.

Honestly, I feel like I'm being dragged through a bad breakup.  I feel sick to my stomach about it and rather heartbroken too.  Junior Mint was more than just a coach to me, he was also a mentor, friend, older brother, father, match-maker, cheer leader, and adviser but now he wants to be nothing.  I don't want to be nothing to him either.

I can't accept this.

 I can't say I'm bothered much anymore about "walking alone".  I think I quite prefer it actually and I take pride in it, but today it seemed to get to me.  

 "People are sheep", my university professor once told me and though I never wanted to be a "sheep", tonight I kind of felt like a lost tiger and being a sheep didn't look so bad... they're nice a fluffy right.  They make for great sweaters and cozy blankets.

 This is definitely right in line with what my mother told me. “Don’t change to fit in. You don’t want to fit in with them... be the change you want to see.”

Naked People Don't Need Sheep... Friday, February 22

"I'm thinking about taking up drinking", I told Snickers as I rolled back into bed.

It was way too early for him to comprehend what I meant and he just assumed it had to do with my coffee meeting today.  I recently joined a new coffee social club and, despite having gone to bed at the crazy hour of six in the morning, I managed to show up at today's meet-up.  It was a crash and burn attempt on my behalf of being social.

"Nakedness or go out? That's easy.  I want to stay naked", I noted.

"Naked yes. Naked is good", he mumbled. 

"Perhaps I should just be a sheep" I added.

"Sheep yes.  Sheep is good... sweaters, hats, blankets."  He clearly didn't know what I was talking about and though I was just throwing out random ramblings, there was an underlying point to my nonsense. 

I'm still convinced that if you don't drink, shoot pool or date than meeting new people in Korea becomes like a close to impossible happening, especially among the foreign crowd.  I was never a big drinker and I completely gave it up when I turned professional with my boxing.  And pool, it's a game that's instantly attached to overly smokey pool halls, filled with beer-drinking dudes so that's a huge turn-off for me. And as for dating, well, I'm married so that covers that.  

  

I don't drink, I don't shoot pool and I don't date... so I stay home on the weekends when others hit the streets and meet up with friends.  They hit the pool hall and I hit the pool, the swimming pool that is.  I've got a hookup with a local fitness center worker who occasionally sneaks me in after hours.  

I still remain the one girl uninvited to Friday night events.  It's true.

I don't get invited to many social events actually, especially dinner parties.  Many people become very self-conscious when I show up for a dinner event, as if I'm going to call them out on what their eating.  I used to think that I make them uncomfortable but then I was corrected by a friend.  "You don't make them uncomfortable", she said, "it's them that make their own self uncomfortable -- having to eat beside their guilty conscious."  I don't know to what percentage I agree with this but I do agree that it's not me personally that makes them uncomfortable.  Regardless, I'm always flooded with people's excuses to bad habits, as if giving me their song and dance justifies things.  Everyone has an excuse, I know that, and I have an excuse too but they don't think about that.  Everyone has an excuse and my excuse is I'm sick of their excuses. 

So in relation to what I was rambling about this morning with wanting to take up drinking and become a sheep, for the longest time I used to think that life in Korea would be so much easier if I just followed the "in" crowd.  After being in Korea for many years now, I can honestly say that being "cool" in Korea among the foreigners is pretty much the same as being cool in high school -- it means absolutely nothing.  The foreign crowd changes every year with the conclusion of another school semester/year.  

I'm definitely not a "cool" girl but I think being fit and healthy is pretty hot.

Anyways, with Snickers out of the house and me home alone, I started pondering all this.  It was a Friday night and I was home alone.  I could make out the giggles and voices of various girls I train as they exited the bar right below me and I wondered why I hadn't been invited.  

A little after 2am a friend left a message on my Facebook wall, telling me that she was downstairs at Banana Bar.  Ten minutes later I showed up there to say hi.  Nothing is stranger than feeling like a foreigner to the foreigners at a foreign bar, seriously.  I stood at the far end of the bar like I was some kind of scared underager or a first-timer to the bar scene.  One-by-one, as people started to take notice of me standing there, I was approached by people who knew me either because of Flipside Fitness or my boxing.  And, oddly enough, it turns out more strangers know about where I live (because of it's strange location -- right above the bar) than my name, how strange is that?!  

I'm always amused at just how many hugs I seem to cash in on when I run into foreigners.  I had foreigners I didn't even know coming up, introducing themselves and then spontaneously hugging me.  I think I'm good for a good year's worth of hugging now... hahaha.  

Despite initially rolling my eyes at the thought of venturing into the bar to say hi to a friend, I left feeling really great.  I have my mixed feelings about the foreign crowd here in Cheonan, I'm rather hard on them, but the foreigners I've been meeting at random things like tonight have really been leaving an impression on me and the impression has been refreshingly and unexpectedly very positive.  Being recognized as "that boxing girl" or "that Flipside woman" is definitely an amusing label when someone I don't know yells it at me from across the bar but it's cool.  Tonight's quick glimpse into the foreign scene here really left me feeling all that more eager to get our boxing club up and running.  There's just so many foreigners here and so many of them really need something like what it is we're trying to build -- a community-building boxing club.  

I yearn for the days when "that boxing coach" or "Coach Amy" will be what they'll be yelling.  

I washed AND combed my hair today, second time in a week.  That's huge in my world.

I did it because I thought Snickers was taking me out for a mid day date.

Turns out he was taking me to go study, at Kyobo Bookstore.  

I put on clothes for this?!  Heck I even put on earrings AND my wedding ring.  You know I am "dolled up" when I wedding ring.

Oh the irony of these books: "The Chocolate Diet", "Skinny Bitch", and "The 17 Day Diet".

Trust me, after the chocolate diet this so-called skinny Bi+@# is going to need a diet but I doubt a 17 day diet will help her.  She'll be back to that chocolate in no time.

Hard training + clean eating + wanting it bad enough are the only three ingredients you need to lose weight but it's not about dieting.  It's about making a lifestyle out of it, not just appointing 17 days or whatever.

I meet Arnold Schwarzenegger and apparently he's fluent in Korean!!!

Ok, so it was just his "Bible of Bodybuilding" that I ran into and not him but it still got me excited.  It was a hard read and my head hurt.  Them providing what few translations, of which I already knew, didn't really help.   

After all that hard work, having to really test my Korean reading skills with the texts, we returned to Mi Gung for a light afternoon snack.  Meal 2 of 6.  I've now upped my caffeine tolerance so I had a double espresso, a fresh crispy apple and some homemade delish almond butter for dipping my apple.  Thanks to Cat for that!!!

Just Call me Coach Kazumi... Thursday, February 21

Isn’t it funny how saying something can literally put into things into affect, like a nickname you grow into or making a joke about something that turns out to be truer than you initially thought it'd ever be.  Well, yesterday we had nicknamed the day Hiroshima Day, because of the drama that exploded so unexpectedly on us, business wise that is.  Well, I suppose I should have watched my words because, like the real Hiroshima, another bomb was dropped.

Today was Nagaski Day.

The bomb dropped when we walked into city hall to discuss yesterday's "Hiroshima" bomb dropping.  Almost instantly we were recognized -- they're apparently boxing fans, cool.  But what was not cool was then being so mistakenly taken as representing another business, a particular business I am very familiar with.  The aftermath of what was said left me with my jaw dropped to the floor.  I had been overly informed, sadly shocked, and pushed to a whole different level of stress.  What was revealed in the chilly front desk of city hall pertained to someone I really care about, someone that I do consider family, though he’s not being so “family-like” to me nowadays.

Do you ever learn things you just really wish you hadn’t learned?!  Ya, definitely one of those moments today but now someone’s strange manner totally makes sense now.   And the more I learn about the legalities, the strings attached and the loops you have to jump through to start a business in Korea, the more and more I'm learning just how so many businesses get away will being illegal.  

That was a little too much to digest.  It was early afternoon, which means I hadn't even been up long enough to digest my protein-packed pancake.  Snickers tried to pick me up by telling me to get ready.  "I'm going to take you out", he told me.  Here I thought it was a mid day date.  Oh no.... no, no, no.  He did take me out but it was out to  the bookstore and there I sat for a good couple of hours reading up on kettle bell training.  Not so easy when it's all in Korean.

In other news, I've decided to do another half marathon -- the April 14th Adidas MBC Hanghang half marathon.  Item #4 on my 2013 Bucketlist is "Beat my previous half marathon time" so I've got about 7.5 weeks to train and to beat 1:49:11.  My last half marathon was on Sunday, April 22nd, so it'll be almost a year since my last, and I had beat my previous time by 19 minutes so that was awesome.  

I wasn't initially going to do this race but as soon as I saw that Adidas was sponsoring it I just had to get in on it.  Adidas has been really supportive of me, for over 5 years now, and I have a big meeting with next week.  They'll be meeting me at our new boxing club, despite it being still without power and littered with glass and poop.  Yesterday I got an email from them and then today they called me.  I had noted to them that we want to make a mini pro shop in our boxing club and they replied, saying that they want to furnish it with display cases and equipment.  They also want to help out with tournament prizes too so that's great.  With Adidas' help, our boxing club will really be able to up the interest in boxing in Korea, most definitely in Cheonan.  We've got big plans already but with Adidas' plans... wow... very exciting.  I want to go with Adidas.  It is a very respectable company that has really been hands-on, super supportive and very personable with me but they have to work their magic on Snickers. 

With Snickers being Korean, he's very supportive of some key Korean boxing equipment companies.  While Adidas has the image and prestige, some dominating Korean companies have the maturity, years of service and affordable prices... and Snickers' attention.  

9-11 sandbags, 20-30 sandbag gloves, 4 head gears, 100 hand wraps, and 4 medicine balls

This was a very quick equipment start-up list I made. As you can see, we're not buying just a couple of things.  This is a very expensive list.  This is an investment.  

"They don't care about you" is the pull I'm using to get him over to the I-love-Adidas side because it's true.  Those Korean companies don't care about him no more than I care about them.  They're not fighting for his attention.  To prove my point, I sent this start-up list to Adidas and a Korean company that almost all boxing clubs in Cheonan work with.  The Korean company called once... ONCE... and instead of meeting up with us they just dropped a product book into our mailbox.  But Adidas... oh Adidas.  I messaged them, asking for a product book and they responded with not only THREE emails from three different Adidas reps (one of which is on holidays and all three being in different countries too I should note) and a phone call asking me when they could send a rep to come see our boxing club and discuss ideas.  

I'm fighting for you Adidas, I really am, but you're going to have to bring your A-game next Tuesday to fight Snickers.  

Today can only be called "the Hiroshima of my days".  And despite Snickers telling me to stay strong and "believe in destiny", I can't help but see the irony in today's Hiroshima explosion.  Hiroshima, the real Hiroshima that is, happened on my birth date.

 So today was Hiroshima but I'm trying to stay positive, noting that no disaster or storm lasts forever.

Hiroshima Drops on My World... Wednesday, February 20

Today was a stressful day, unlike any day before. 

I can't help but laugh at when I think of the stress of other foreigners here.  Most of them really don't know what stress is, or so I am convinced. I envy them sometimes for their so-called stress... but then I don't.  I know the stress I'm sporting now is the price I'm paying for pursuing my dream.

If fighting for the rights of the initial boxing club building was stressful than what went down today was the Hiroshima of stress -- explosive, unexpected, and it could quite possibly destroy everything... everything. We'll find out in exactly two days what the after effects of today's Hiroshima.

Snickers is all about destiny, he's a firm, firm believer in it.  "Destiny... it lead me to you", is the point he's been reminding me off these days whenever he sees me starting to get stressed.  Yes, destiny.  I do believe in it.  I believe that there's a reason for everything and that everything has it's due time.  Having said this, I believe that it's our due time for our boxing club to come all together.  To be so close to it yet so far at the same time, so frustrating.  

Legally, I can't get into the details of what went down today but my nerves are definitely hanging on a string.

Tonight I was supposed to have ROBO Time -- a Running Our Butts Off run with Flipside Fitness.  One lady canceled with three minutes to the run and after waiting almost thirty minutes for another to show up, I texted her and told her to go back.  It was just flat out nonsense.  Perhaps I needed the run more than them -- I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air to clear my head and take my mind off of today's drama. 

The run never did happen but I'm sure to feel extremely sore in the chest from today's over exhaustion with my in-house chest workout... yikes.  

Later in the evening, when I was struggling to pick up myself among the debre of Hiroshima, I got a most random text message on Kakao Talk.  I don't know how she got my number or knew to check for me on Kakao Talk but a friend of my mother's texted me.  

"Hey, I'm a friend of your mom from Oshawa.  Your dad said "hello" to you.  It's simple."  

She's a Korean lady that goes to the same church that my parents went to and that my father still attends.  My parents have spoken about her many times to me but I've yet to meet her.  My parents are quite proud to note of any Korean in their life actually, it's quite amusing.  Apparently a Korean man and his wife moved in across the street from my father and, upon realizing this, my father went right over and introduced himself.  Perhaps the fact that my hometown in Canada is nicknamed "White-bee" plays a part here.  

Turns out she's in Korea, visiting family, and wants to take me out for dinner.  The city in which she's staying for the next month is about a two hour drive but I'm eager to meet her if not to share memories of my mom but also to send her back to her home in Canada with stories to tell my father.  

 Balboa's got a problem... a big problem.

And after a stressful day at the vet, we returned and babied him the whole evening.  My poor little boy.  Next week he'll be going under the knife.

Going Under the Knife... Tuesday, February 19

Despite Balboa living among the mighty large Pyen Chi, he's been super good at dodging near-death daily collisions with her stomping large feet and her sudden-drop-to-the-floor tendencies.  Everyday I'm sure he must pray to God to save him from her overbearing size but he's fast on his feet and super alter so he's been good at saving himself.  Only once did I ever encounter him failing to dodge the wrath of Pyen Chi.  She had jumped up on me and then when she came down and landed, she landed right on Balboa's foot.  Oh boy did he squeal.  He squealed like a wild bore, like a pig being dragged out to the slaughter house.  On that particular day he limped around and with every limp he showed I reacted.  I ended up carrying him around with me that day and he quite liked that.  It's been a couple of weeks later now and he still randomly limps.  I don't reaction as much anymore, nor do I always insist on carrying him when he does this because it happens so rarely.  It's a weird thing that he does when it does happens.  Usually he'll be running at full speed when suddenly he curls up one of his back feet. For awhile there we thought he was just doing it to avoid the melting snow and ice.  He hates getting his feet wet.  He hates it with a passion actually, so we thought he was just showing so-called "prince manner".  

We decided to take all 3 four-legged friends to the vet today.  All three needed a vaccination. Pyen Chi is in heat so she needed an extra check-up, Pac has what I thought was a growth (turns out he's just got an outtie belly button), and Balboa needed to get his nails cut and leg looked at.  

As it turns out, we caught the early signs of what appears to be patellar luxation, a fancy way of saying that the dog's knee joint slips out of place and rubs against the leg bone instead. It's basically a slipping kneecap.  He's got it in both legs, so he's bull-legged and limps occasionally.  The vet reassured me that Balboa isn't in pain, it's in the early stages, but that it's more of an uncomfortable feeling because when it happens it means he can't straighten his leg, hence the limp.  

If untreated, over time Balbao won't be able to walk, or stand up for that matter.  His legs will basically stay in a crouching position.  It was hard to hear this news and I felt quite sick to my stomach but I was relieved to hear that it's not painful for him right now and that it can be treated.

The cure is surgery, a surgery that wears a $1,300 price tag, ouch.  Balboa goes in for surgery next week.

Hit the road today so that we could head out and check some training clubs.

Checked out a couple of MMA clubs because of their attention to crossfit and just to get some extra ideas, contacts and information.

This particular MMA club was out in Suwon.  We're friends with the manager but he was out today so we met one of his coaches, a young good-looking guy.  Snickers said he looked a bit rough but I thought his scarred under eye was a huge part of his tough-guy attractiveness.  "Girls dig scars" I told him... hahaha.

Twenty-two kettle bells, awesome.  Kettle bells are very much a part of our needed inventory.  I love them!

We didn't know the manager of this next club, hence the "secret camera" shots I took.

By far, this particular manager has got to be the smartest and most though-out business owner in the field of fitness clubs, wow.  "He's scary-smart!" I told Snickers and I was right. 

Ended our out-of-town day trip by stopping by the new tattoo shop.  It's a side business we're connected to.  My tattoo artist buddy, Chi Cha, left last week, headed back to Thailand so today I met his replacement.