Master Park

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for 5 months now. It’s weird to think that when I got here, the heat and humidity were so high that I thought I wouldn’t make it through the summer. And now there is snow on the ground and we’re into the negative temperatures. I have been given fair warning about Korean winters. Everybody says “Oh you’re Canadian…you’ll be fine.” But I’m not so sure.

What I wanted to talk about in this post is fitness. I’ve always been an active person. Being healthy and eating well is something that’s always been important to me. Prior to leaving for Korea I was doing hot yoga 3 or 4 times per week and was on a pretty much carb free diet. When I first got here, I was really stressed out and everything-including the food-was so foreign to me. I ended up dropping 3 pounds. I was eating like a prisoner of war and surviving on eggs, kimchi and seaweed.

It’s hard to say when the turning point was but I think I can pin it down to this one weekend in Seoul back in October. I love to read other people’s blogs and one of my favorite ones is “A Fat Girl’s Guide to Eating in Korea.” I would read her posts and cry a little on the inside because I don’t have an oven and/or access to an abundance of ingredients. So, making anything delicious and elaborate in my kitchen is out of the question.

Then one fateful day, she posted about the existence of a Dean and Deluca (a fancy gourmet American food chain) in Gangnam. You can bet the first thing I did the following Saturday was to hop on a bus to Gangnam to check it out. Let’s just say it was like letting a hungry child loose in a candy store. I made a beeline for the cheese section like I was a contestant on the Amazing Race. I think I left with close to $100 worth of food that day. Pecan tarts, cheese, cornbread, kettle chips, a small $24 bag of coffee (prior to that I was living off of instant coffee after I ran out of the bag from home, so I probably would have donated an organ for real coffee.)

Along with the discovery of that store, I was beginning to actually develop a taste for Korean food. I have found some things that I really enjoy. I think the real kicker though was the introduction of daily rice consumption coupled with the lack of exercise especially now that it’s getting colder and I’m walking a lot less. Needless to say, I have put on a few pounds in the past two months. Five to be exact. It’s not about the numbers really, I just feel like a useless blob. All I want to do now that it’s getting colder is hide in my apartment and watch movies

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Last week I was walking home from work when I heard a car honking. I turned around and this bus driver, an older Korean man was frantically motioning for me to stop. He left the bus in the middle of a lane and jumped out. He came over and said something in Korean and then started guiding me in the direction that this group of kids was going. I followed them up two flights of stairs and arrived at the door of a Taekwondo gym. The bus driver motioned for the master to come over and said something to him in Korean. The master then turned to me and asked if he could help me (in perfect English). I told him I didn’t know a thing, I was just brought in by the bus driver. They then exchanged more words in Korean and finally he explained to me that the bus driver was the owner of the gym and he wanted him (Master Park) to start teaching classes in English. He had previously taught Taekwondo in the US for 20 years and his English was perfect.

He asked if I had any friends or coworkers who would be interested and I said that I would ask around. Long story short, I got great response from other expats and I will be starting Taekwondo soon. I am REALLY excited because I have always wanted to try it and what better place to train than its country of origin?!?! Apparently it’s good exercise and it’s also very close to my work, so I will have no excuse not to go when its -20 degrees outside.

It must have been a sign from someone, somewhere since I was chased down the sidewalk and dragged into a Taekwondo gym.  Maybe one day I will be a blackbelt ; ) This is going to be interesting. It’s a far cry from yoga. Challenge accepted.