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.

Thursday, March 02, 2017

And We've Arrived!... Thursday, March 2

I arrived in Manila, Philippines roughly at 12noon and must have stressed about Balboa in the belly of the plane, down with only one other dog, for the entire trip.  At my stopover in Taipei one of the airline workers approached me in the airport and held out his hand with his phone.  On it displayed a picture of Balboa. 

EVA:  Is this your dog?
ME:  Yes!!! Yes, it is!
EVA:  He's trembling so much... Are you sure he'll be okay?
ME:  Yes, he's traveled once before, from Korea to Canada, and he was okay.

And just like that my stomach was in knots.  I kept on wondering what the worse case scenario could be but knew there was nothing I could do at the point but cross my fingers and hope for him to be okay.

At the airport Balboa was personally escorted off the plane and brought to me in the airport while I waited for my luggage.  His cage was then put down and I opened it to put the leash on him and let him out.  He instantly jumped into my lap and just like that he was okay.  He instantly stopped trembling and instead looked around, as if nothing had happened.  

We were picked up at the airport by family and I thought that was super sweet.

I was in a foreign country, once again, but greeted with a warm smile, a big hug, and a car to take me to my new home -- a condo in a beautiful and posh part of Manila.

At the condo I was greeted by more family.  They had brought food... chicken!!! 

When family left, I then laid down around 3pm for a what was suppose to be a short nap.

Woke up around 11:30pm, 8.5 hours later!

Around 12:20am I managed to throw on a hat and go for around what would now be considered "my hood" for the next three months -- Eastwood City.

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