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.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Officially Leaving on a Jet Plane... Monday, July 27

It's official, I bought my plane ticket.
It's official that all my in-laws probably know too as I had to use one of my sister-in-law's credit card to book the trip, because I only have an Amex, and you know how family grapevines go.

I originally wanted to leave on my birthday, that way I'd have breakfast in Korea, lunch in Hong Kong, and then dinner in Canada -- three countries on one special day.  But it didn't go down as such.  Koreans can figure out how to make a cellphone work in an underground subway or on a mountain top but heaven forbid they think about making a credit card that can be used on an international website with all the nonsense of having to prove your identity about a thousand times and download certain security files to do the process.  I have an American Express, it was issued to me by Samsung here, but I needed to use my Visa debit card.  No such luck.  Tried to use my sister-in-law's Visa, no such luck either.  I didn't know the nitty gritty of all her passwords, ID card, address and postal code to even begin.  

Ever notice how Korean web servers like nate and naver, if you have an email address with one of them, they don't work with say yahoo.com or yahoo.ca.  Your email gets "stuck".

Things the make you go "Hmmm...". 

Korea is very much a bubble and the more I live here, as much as I love it, the more out of touch it is with the rest of the world and how it is all self-promoting.  Korea is so about Korea, about itself.

I'm not one of those been-here-too-long, must-leave foreigners, I just know I'm going and I'm definitely itching to go.  It is with such bitter sweetness that I am going because I could never in a zillion billion years replace what Korea has done to my life, the life it's allowed me to venture into, and the people it's blessed me with, but I so ready for the next chapter of my life and I've come to the realization it's not here. 

Here is where I may now be rooted but it's not going to be where I'll reach full bloom.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5TH I LEAVE KOREA.

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