They say you have to have the sweet to know the sour, or is it have to have the sour to know the sweet?! I don't know. I don't teach English anymore so that's the excuse I'm going to lean on here. Whatever the saying is, all I know is that having the sour with the sweet makes you definitely appreciate the sweet more. Yesterday was very much a sour-filled day so the sweetness of today was all that more potent.
One of the biggest concerns I had when we left UP to start Hulk's was losing teammates whom I've trained with for six years and have formed a second family with. There once was a time when I decided to stay in Korea because of my boxing and because of them. They made Korea a home for me and in this new home they gave me "familyship" (that's Snickers' Konglish word). It was hard to part with them, surely harder than I or anyone expected, but it's been so incredibly amazing to see how many of us have really stuck together. At UP we used to train together everyday and though some of them now train with me at Hulk's, others who haven't joined us visit often and have extended their familyship to us via helping us build Hulk's. Many of them came to help with renovations while others donated equipment or needed services, like our credit card machine.
Today Black Skinny, my former captain and teammate, surprised us with a fridge. Panty Boy Jr. had originally hooked us up with a fridge but his company had a shortage of fridges and we stopped buying juices from them so they came and took it away. The bonus of our club being so dang cold is that it wasn't an issue, us not having a fridge, because it was cold enough that milk and other things requiring refrigeration were ok being out in the open. We've got a long list of things to buy and things to pay off and buying a new fridge just wasn't a top priority. December was a hard month for us, probably the second hardest next to September when many of our students at Hulk's left for university. The drop in temperature, students having exams, teachers/workers having year end extra work, and perhaps people just wanting a break for the Christmas holidays all meant bills were pushed, pennies were counted and what money we did have was definitely stretched. January has proven to be quite the successful month for us and we expect to do well in February too because of students and many workers here having their winter break.
Only Snickers and I run Hulk's but the reality of it is it takes a community to keep it going. Our K-Crew has been so amazing in helping us out and you'd be surprised at just how awesome other people and other businesses within the community have been with getting word out about our club and helping us build Hulk's stronger. There are a lot of people and businesses in the community that support Hulk's and are eager to see it reach it's potential. Just the other day we were approached by a K-Crew buddy of mine who thought it'd be great to buy a pool table and put it in Hulk's. "You have the extra space, so why not?" he asked. Why not... ummm... because dropping cash like that on something that surely isn't connected to boxing or exercising is just nonsense. "Priorities my friend", I told him. He tried to justify it by telling me we'd be saving money in the long run, it'd bring in more business and it'd be an awesome addition for our members to enjoy. By saving money he was referring to our weekly Sports Days. Once a week many of the K-Crew get together and have a Sports Day. It's usually on a Saturday night and it means them going from place to place, playing numerous sports -- batting cage practice, ping-pong, pool and bowling to name a few. Lately they've been playing pool a lot so my buddy thought it'd be a good idea to put our cash into buying one as supposed to always paying to use someone else's table. "Let's bring our Sports Day to Hulk's!" he said. He was convinced it was a fantastic idea, so convinced in fact that after a couple of phone calls it was made official. A pool table will be coming to Hulk's.
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