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.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Bouncing Back from Baeksok... Tuesday, April 15

Being thrown the F-word too many times and having a bunch of rude university students crumple up my flyers in front of me was a rough start to my day.  I was still struggling to digest our decision to move and then I had to deal with several dozen rude students who thought it was appropriate to jokingly swear as I handed out flyers before work.

Baeksok University, wow, for supposedly being a "Christian" university, rudest campus body e.v.e.r and I think for every 7-8 flyers I handed out, I snatched one flyer back from the person I gave it.  Thank you to the one girl though -- the girl who was visiting her friend who attends Baeksok -- for being disgusted with what she was hearing and taking it upon herself to appologize for the rude manner and inappropriate talk of the others.  "They don't understand their English", she told me, "their manners are the 'suck' in 'BaekSUCK'."  I appreciated her witty comment but still felt so frustrated and disgusted with the language being thrown around while I handed out flyers.  

... nothing some spooning can't take care of, right?!  Right.
Ditched the thought of handing out flyers for another hour and headed to work super early.  I wanted nothing more to sleep away the morning's disappointment so I went into the office to lay down.  Snickers came in and tried to cheer me up with some spooning.  He loves the word "spooning" and is always quick to tell me to either "coffee spoon" him or "ice cream spoon" him, depending on whether he's the one wanting to spoon or be spooned.  I totally fell asleep in 'coffee spoon' position. However, it then meant I woke up with a bit of a headache.

... nothing an extra shot cappuccino take care of, right?!  Right.
I awoke from my nap to the sound of Snickers yelling something about coffee.  Coffee always gets me up so I popped my head out of the office and there on the juice bar counter I spotted a coffee cup.  "For me?" I asked.  Yes, it was for me.  A cappuccino with an extra shot, just how I like it.  However, now with a huge rush of caffeine flowing through my veins, I now had to energy to burn but with no members yet in for training, I then looked for ways to burn off my sudden overflow of energy.

... nothing a few gangsters can't take care of, right?!  Right.
Back when we first opened Hulk's, a huge percentage of our members consisted of members from a particular local gang.  We still have a few that train with us, some are still on 'vacation' while others visit us occasionally.  This past week, a few more have returned to training and today two of them came in to visit and just horse around in the ring.  Them stepping into the ring for some boyish sparring play was hilarious but the funniest part was when one took a punch to the face and it took out his contact lens.  Long after he had left Hulk's, I was left on all fours, searching in and around the boxing ring for that silly contact.  Never did find it but boy did it occupy a lot of my time and energy in the search.

I had only been at work an hour and a half and already a coffee, two gangsters, some sparring, and one silly contact had cheered me right up and distracted me from the morning's disappointment at Baeksok.  And it only got more enjoyable and amusing from there.

A random female visitor, curious about Hulk's, stopped by and as random as her visit was so were her questions.  I've had my fair share of people ask me to lift up my top or take a layer off, so that they can see my body, but today's visitor threw me for a loop when she asked me "Can I touch your body?"  I told her yes and then watched as her eyes scaled up and down my body, as if to decide on which part to touch.  She settled for my right arm and then stood there gripping it as we continued talking.  Seriously, there is no such thing as personal space for me, now that my body is regarded as a walking advertisement for my company.  I personally think it's too funny and am always amused by it.  

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