Kicks with My K-Crew... Friday, November 12

Tonight was the UP Boxing Club dinner party. I had to tutor till 7pm so I arrived a bit more than fashionably late, no worries though I cause I brought the ladies -- me, myself and I. Me arriving meant there were a total of two ladies and one mini lady (a girl about the age of 10).

I sat beside the Cheonan Bulldog and one of my boxing buddies who's always teasing me about me about this and that. Wore matching socks today -- a first -- and he let me know he noticed... hahaha.

Today one of my Church Kiddies asked me beside the obvious physical and health benefits of boxing, why was I so crazy about boxing. It's a simple answer. I'm a foreign woman living in a country that's not mine but through my boxing I've found a place in Korea. I've found a home away from home and a second family. My coach often plays the role of father and sometimes he plays the role of older brother. Today we teased him all about being a kind of second mother to me for tossing me my shirt across the table. I had left it at the boxing club the other day and he had taken it upon himself to sew it, making it a smaller size for me. Plan is to sport it at my half marathon.

I hadn't expected to see my much loved teammates. We had texted each other throughout the day and they had their own reasons for not being able to show up. I was happy to note that my new "Little Brother" showed up tonight [Korean hottie on the right in the above pic]. He just recently joined the boxing club but I've already given him a hard time on several occassions about showing up late for training and for whatnot.. mainly cause it's funny to try to intimidate and hassle him.

I had showed up in work clothes and pearls but the boys of UP know me well enough to not be fooled by tonight's lady-like attire. This was the first time my Little Brother has seen me outside of the club so he became kind of the butt end of the jokes tonight when he clearly checked me out when I walked in the door, not knowing it was me of course. He's use to me with my Adidas hoodie on and messy hair all scrambled up in an elastic.

"If I knew you were really a girl I would have listened and trained harder" he noted.
"... and what?! I'd still be able to take you on and take you down, don't fool yourself" I told him... hahaha.

Jokes were flying left, right and center, and while the boys of UP all laughed and joked among them, I couldn't help but think yes, this is where I am suppose to be, with my family.

Anyone who knows Koreans knows too well that no dinner goes down without the accompaniment of alcohol. I stuck to my good old H2O but happily cheered and toasted to the many toasts with my glass of water and their shots of soju. No one really drank a lot but, as you can tell by the above shot, my Little Brother who got a hold of my camera phone, had one too many. Ended up pulling a typical Korean move and offering to piggy back my Little Brother to a taxi. Usually it's the Korean guys who are piggy backing their lush girlfriends so I'm sure it was quite a hilarious sight to see me in my heeled brown suede boots and long swaying string of pearls carrying him down the street on my back.

It wasn't until he jumped into a taxi that he turned and told me that he beyond the first shot of soju he had been secretly doing shots of water the whole evening. Nice... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Who is your "family"?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
-- Jane Howard