Today my day revolved around 3-feet high mini Koreans. I worked at the daycare and then had just enough time to race it off to my afternoon part time gig.
I had left Ggum Guum at 6:50am, returned at 8pm and crashed at 9pm. Besides the mini Koreans that consumed my time and effort today, I only talked to four people taller than 3 feet. And all these conversations were brief, were held at work and were about work. Anything beyond work just didn't happen today, so I had no means of knowing that just an hour flight away, in Japan, all hell had broken loose.
I thought something was strange when my cell phone started beeping like crazy and ringing off the hook. Emails sent to me via Facebook and Yahoo, text messages sent to my phone directly, and random out-of-country numbers kept my cell phone busy and eventually killed my battery. The word Japan had flashed way too many times on my phone screen but I was too exhausted to give it any attention, I had no effort to give any attention to anything beyond letting my body crash in the middle of the floor.
It wasn't until Snickers returned to Ggum Ggum around 5am, after his night shift, that I started to question just what the heck was going on.
"Did Japan sink or something?" I asked him.
That's when he turned on the TV. I sat there with a dropped jaw and bulging eyes, watching the news channel repeatedly show clips of the tsunami that hit Japan. It seemed so unreal, so unbelievable. My immediate thought was "what about Satoshi and Mr. Seki?!", my two boxing friends who live in Japan. I met Satoshi when he traveled to Korea for work and trained at UP Boxing Club, and Mr. Seki was my Japanese opponent's coach who is just simply one of the funniest and coolest guys I've ever met. Thankfully both live in the southern part of Japan so they're safe, thank God for that! I smiled from ear to ear when Satoshi responded to my text, telling me that he's ok.
Apparently I was the immediate thought of numerous friends and family in Canada, hence my phone going crazy with missed calls and message notifications. I don't think my friends and family being so stressed and worried about me is a good thing but honestly it felt good to be reassured that though I'm out of sight I'm not out of mind. Sometimes it feels like I live in outer space; my world here in Korea often seems so disconnected with that of Canada.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How can we all help Japan?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
-- Helen Keller
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.
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