HOME!

Team Poeun with Allie Me and Ruben!

Ruben was very happy with his award at the party! we shared a sweet moment!

Flying side kick over 5 people!! Yes that is really me...no strings!

It has been a month and a half now that I have been home!

I came back to Canada on the 5th of November, and ever since it has been a whirlwind for me! I came right back into working full-time as head instructor of Reid's TaeKwon-Do in Stittsville! We just had our annual Christmas potluck and awards dinner and did a small demonstration and everyone told me how wonderful I was and how much they missed em and how gald they are that I am home again....I am happy I was missed so much! I better not let my head swell too much though!!

Even though it is -25 and snowy out I still love Canada!

happy holiday everyone!

MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE!

In the ITF Korea office after a long day of hiking up and down a huge mountain...I was totally ITFified.... We looked very cool in our Doboks on the mountain...some people were nice enough to take this photo for us...(below)

The view from near the top...all the fall colours looked great!!

From the top! It was foggy but still a great view! I was very tired by the time we got to the top! This peak was called Munjangdae and it was 1057 M high. It was a 6.3KM climb!

I had a great weekend with Zibby Kruk and Eva! We went to mountain and stayed overnight in a small town-everyone was so kind to us and we had a ton of fun! We found a shooting range and won some prizes and then climbed a rocky mountain all day Sunday! It was a great weekend, but now my body aches all over from the climb! On the way down we were running and bounding off of all the rocks-which was a lot of fun!! I am gald we went in Fall and got to see all the great colours! It was a bit chilly at the top- and foggy as well, but it was a great climb. We crashed a disco club as well and danced a for a while and were crazy "waygooks". I had a lot of laughs and enjoyed the small town atmosphere!

MORE weekend fun!

To end my evening Dr. Kruk and a Taekwon-Do master Yoon from Morocco sang us songs on the street...I felt like a hobo but it was a lot of fun!

Downtown Daejeon streets! Packed with people and beautiful shops!

There is a river that runs through Daejeon, it has many tents next to it and at night time people and drink and sit by the river all night!

Me with many pretty Hanboks! They are all handmade and custom tailored to your body...but they are "numu pissayo!" which means very expensive!

Yes....this is some sort of intestines...they fill with meat and make something called sundae out of them...which is like a Korean sausage, the smell was pretty strong...

I went to the markets this weekend! I had some fun checking out all the various Korean wares! The market is very big and sells everything and anything for very cheap prices! You can get 7 cooked potatoes for about 50 cents! You can by fresh fish, shrimp, pots and pans, garbage cans, lights, slippers, purses...anything you can imagine! Everything is made in Korea...they are very proud of their own businesses and do not like anything from outside. Stuff that is made in China or Japan is hard to find! To end my evening I had a lovely time eating sashimi and singing songs on the street with a few Taekwon-Do Masters! You never know what is going to happen next in Korea...

BIKES AND BOARDS AND RAMPS oh my!

One of our Korean friends decided to go down the ramps on his bottom, I also tried but it hurt pretty bad...

This is Eva our skateboard expert, she was teaching us all how to skateboard!

I took someones helmet and board and put my sunglasses on to look cool...SAFTEY FIRST!

This is Kate on a dirt bike...she even drove it around the track!

Hello all!

In Korea there are many skate parks, you can rent skateboards or Rollerblades or bikes or electric scooters for a cheap price and have fun all day in the park! One of our friends had 3 skateboards and a dirt bike so we had fun driving around and falling on our butts all afternoon! It was very cold that evening so we called it a night after a few hours and went and had some Korean waffles and hot chocolate! It was a good time and we laughed at each other and had a blast falling down and having races! There was a rock climbing wall...I could almost reach the top from just standing! Korean parks are really neat because they have exercise equipment that uses your body weight to train yourself! They have soccer fields and basketball courts and tracks for running that have rubber in them so it has less of an impact on your joints! And Korea is very safe...I never hear sirens or hear of crime here-people believe that if life gives you lemons you deal with it and change it so it suits you better.

This weekend I had a lot of fun....

BUSAN-part 2...

After me and Eva got our medals...Zibby Kruk wanted to give us many hugs for putting on a good show!
My Korea TKD family! The students all came to Busan, which is a 3 hour train ride, just to cheer us on and see us compete!!

My sparring face...how ugly is that? I would not want to fight that!

Me and Eva giving a good show...we did 3 rounds of 2 mins! We had a lot of fun doing it!

Still friends...

Busan was a good tournament, good people and a good turn out overall! There was some people who had very good skill and I was happy I got to experience the tournament and meet new people!! I got a bronze in 3rd and 4th degree men's and women's patterns and I got a sliver in women's sparring. I wanted to sparr with the men but they were afraid I would embarrass them...But it was a good trip and will always remain one of my best memories of Korea!

Take care everyone...I will be sure to update again soon!!

BUSAN!

NO SMOKING ON THE BEACH! Me and Eva were the scary "no smoking" enforcers!
Morning of the tournament I was getting pumped and ready with my coach Zibby Kruk...I look mean=-would you want to mess with this?
We warmed up and did some stretching before we went in the ring....
This is lovely Busan in the morning...it was a HUGE city with some of the tallest buildings I have ever seen! It is in the middle of mountains and on the one side is right on the sea. It is the major port between Japan and Korea...many businesses and many many people!! We had traffic at midnight!
This is all the competitors lined up getting ready for the competition to start-there was a quite a nice turn-out for the first ever ITF Busan open! It was run fairly well-we even had a lunch-which is very rare!

BUSAN! Was amazing...last time I went it was only for the airport so I did not see any of it-but it has amazing condo buildings and structures all along the sea! It was a lovely city to visit-even if it was just for 24 hours! I had a lot of fun and ate lots of sashimi-which is raw fish...I even got to pick the fish before I ate it...

I liked Busan...but there was crazy traffic at midnight and we could not get anywhere...too many people in one place I guess!!

The lost archives...

This is a picture from Chusok, the Korean feast that is much like Thanksgiving...without the turkey.
A picture of me taking a picture of Eva taking a picture of Sunni!
A SHEVAS-(again) Sheena plus Eva plus Sunni = SHEVAS!
Eva trying to knock me out with an acupressure back scatcher...or something we were not sure what it was so we decided it must be a weapon...and Eva was going to try it out on me...

Hello Everyone!

These pictures are from my coach here in Korea, he is from Australia his name is Zibby Kruk! He found them on his camera and gave them to me so I figured I would post them since many of them are very entertaining! When I am not training we have a lot of fun around here! I think next weekend we will go to the mountains again and see all the fall colours and leaves changing all over the mountains-it should be fun and beautiful! I have had a lot of great experiences here in Korea, and I am happy I get to share them with everyone!

Have a great week!

My Korean Life.

If you look to the right out of my balcony window you will see the "never-ending-apartments".
If you look to the left out of my window you will see downtown Daejeon, it is mostly government buildings-kinda' a lot like Ottawa actually. Daejeon used to be the capital of Chuncheongnamdo province.
This sign says "chung chong wo gao" and has a woman sitting on a toilet...I have no idea what it means, but it is a funny sign to walk past everyday none-the-less.

This is Master Yu making a lovley pose for me as I shove a camera in his face while he is in my office!

This is my room...I used to sleep on the floor until they found me a bed long enough...but it takes up pretty much my whole room...so my room is a long bed by a balcony!

Life in Korea!

Everyday I notice something new. When I first came here everything was almost too much to handle, but now I know my way around and things seem very comfertable now. Everything is very cheap here with the market booming in asia, and I have made lots of good friends!

So this post was for those of you who wanted a little peak into my everyday life, where I sleep and what I see, etc. I will make sure to find more funny signs to share with everyone! They are my favourite part of living here-I get a giggle whenever I go for a walk! TAKE CARE EVERYONE!

Fun things!

WHAT IS THIS?? Me and my friend Kate were walking through the super market and found this in one of the bins...I still have no idea what it is...any suggestions?

Hello Everyone out in blog space!

I am now officially sick AND injured! It is a combination that I do not like...but I will suffer through. Lucky for me I have nothing to do tomorrow so I will go home and read and sleep and relax and take some medication for this illness and hopefully gain my strength back. I feel like a zombie...and I am about as pale as one too! This last weekend we did some training and took it easy. We watched a movie in Korean and I understood half of it until the end...it was half in Korean and half in Japanese...very confusing!

Lately I feel very tired-maybe it is the change in weather but I hope I gain back my strength and can train hard again sometime in the near future! The kids have been great, but sometimes the language barrier is a problem....it takes them a while to warm up to someone new. Now some of them try to climb me when they see me....I am now SONGSEAGNIM NAMU SHEENA which is teacher tree sheena! they ask me to spin them and pick them up and throw them-this for me is very fun-and I can imagine the kids love it as well! Most of the kids I find are very small...I guess compared to western children they are shorter and weigh less-so it is easier for me to spin them and throw them in the air and let them climb on me!

This week is really flying by...before I know it October will have passed me by! Unfortunately they do not celebrate our kind of Thanksgiving...so no big feasts on potatoes and turkey for me! They also do not know about Halloween! Which is one of my favourite holidays!!! So maybe I will dress-up and scare the kids....and then give them candy to make up for scaring them!

Speaking of scary....Eva got punched the other night and now looks like a PANDA! The man beside her is Master Yu who teaches ITF TKD here in Daejeon-he trains me and Eva pretty hard!

Take care everyone!

Happy Korea Day!

HAPPY KOREA DAY! and to celebrate Korea Day everyone goes.....SHOPPING!

At least that is what I have witnessed so far today.

I went for a walk and this crab was trying so badly to escape... I took a picture of this because it made me giggle...It says "Mr. Pizza-made for women"...it made no sence to me but made me laugh!

Annoyong!

I went for a walk since it was my day off and took some pictures of various things....like giant crabs trying to escape being on someones plate next and the Mr. Pizza truck...pizza made for women...whatever that means! There are many more signs that I must take pictures of because they make me giggle whenever I walk by them, and Koreans always look at me like I am a crazy woman when I take pictures of things like signs...but I am going to go enjoy my day off...talk to everyone later!!

Training hard....

Long time- no update!!

I have been a very busy lady lately!

I was even on TV the other day! I did an interview for a sports magazine and they showed me teaching the 3-6 year olds and trying to speak Korean-so for me it was very comical! Soon I will also get a big banner on the outside of the school with me and Eva in fighting stance! So soon I will be famous in Korea!

Recently I have been training two times a day to get ready for a tournament coming up in Busan in October! Busan is at the southern most tip of South Korea and this is the first ITF Taekwon-Do Friendship Tournament held in Korea for Koreans only. Right now I am walking with a limp because I am sore all over my body! Last weekend I dragged my friends to the spa so I could sit in a sauna and relax all my muscles! I am happy with my training here-I am improving on so much while I am here and getting to work on myself again, but it is hard after teaching for a while then having to be a student again.

Right now it is finally Fall here in Daejeon, it has dropped in temperature and Eva is very cold as she has never experienced a true winter before! I cannot wait to throw snowballs at her!! (hehe shhh don't tell her my evil plan!) I have been eating a lot lately-and most of it is very good food! Korean food is very spicy but once you get used to it you develop a taste for it!

This Friday it is Foundation Day (think Canada Day Korean style)! I am excited for it, but no one seems to celebrate it! It is the day that Dan-Gun (yes-just like the pattern in TaeKwon-Do) founded Korea....it was lost before but he found it! The story goes that Dan-Gun's mother was a semi-deity who was a bear she came down to earth and became a woman. She married a man and their son became a God King. The God King Dan Gun founded the Choson Kingdom in 2,333 B.C.! So Korea is really really really old...especially compared to Canada! In Korea the holiday fills everyone with National Pride, there are flags up everywhere, on every street corner there are at least 3 flags! But when I ask everyone what they do on this day they all reply "nothing, we rest!" so it is a holiday....to rest! I was hoping for crazy Korean fireworks...but I guess maybe another time.

Well that is all I have to update for now..take care everyone and I will be sure to share with you my next adventures!

Korean Temples!

A wonderful Korean 'Babbling Brook'...
The 'Heaven Hand' done right....in a place it should be done- in front of a Korean tenple!!
Sheena + Eva = SHEVA!
One of the many great mountain peaks that surrounded me.
Inside a buddist temple, the ceiling filled with prayers the walls filled with candles and many Buddhas all around! This one was special as it was a women's only monestary!

Annyong Hasesyo!

I went on a very refreshing adventure this past weekend to one of the many mountain sites around Daejeon. It is a very popular site, but at the same time the nature looks untouched and very green and lovely! I almost felt at home in the woods, with mountains surrounding me and Temples every kilometer! It made me really appreaciate where I am and how lucky I am to be on such an adventure to get to experience so much! During the week with all the teaching and training I don't really get a chance to stop and slow down and think about why I am here, but on the weekends visiting many places it always reminds me that I am in a very different, but very grand place! There is still so much for me to see and learn here!!

On days when I am homesick I think about what I would miss if I was NOT here, how different my life would be, and for the moment I would not want to be anywhere else in the world BUT here! I get to experienece and make a piece of history! I am literally a pioneer of ITF TaeKwon-Do here, and although sometimes the road gets tough I must keep going and venturing forth into the unknown! Besides, at the end of the day I still have a smile on my face-and that's all that really matters!

Lots of gratitude to all of you who keep reading my blog!

I will make sure to keep up all my adventures for you all!

Training in Korea...

This is some of the people in our late night adults class...we have a lot of fun while training- putting our blood sweat and tears into all that we do!
I am STILL the most flexible person I know! (Now I am the most flexible Korean I know!)
Some of the aftermath of training hard, many , many bruises and bumps and scratches and aches and pains.....

I really love training here in Korea! I train really hard and I am training with Dr. Kruk from Australia as well! I am getting a lot of training in while I am here and it is paying off! Already I have seen my timing in sparring greatly improve and even though I am covered in bruises and in pain from sore muscles I know in the end that it is all worth it! I like the training here because it is hard and challenging for me. But, similar to in Canada, everyone is still afraid of the long monstrous legs that are attached to me! They all yell "TOO LONG TOO LONG!!!" I just laugh! Even with a language barrier the classes are still a ton of fun for me! They are taught by Sean Yu, who is a 4th degree with ITF Korea and he makes us sweat and work hard! It is a joy just to say that I get to teach and train in the birthplace of TaeKwon-Do, actually where my building is located it is close to the location of where TaeKwon-Do was given its name!

Keep training hard everyone, and when I do come back to Canada I have a lot new bag of training tricks up my sleeve!!

ZOOLAND!

WELCOME TO ZOOLAND! Thumbs up and hands out...
A TIGER OH MY!
I AM VERY MUCH LIKE THE GIRAFFE! We have a lot in common, long legs, stunning good looks...
Doesn't Eva look so cute as a nami? (Butterfly) I just had to kick her...
Me and my best buddy the polar bear! ( you can only see his bear bum...but I swear he was there)

Time for a BIG update!

I finally have lots of pictures to share with you all!

Last Friday I went to Zooland! I got to see Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my!

And of course I finally got to see my best Friend Mr. Polar Bear, it was very hot that day so I felt extremely sorry for him! We went on all the rides at zooland, including one that drops you from 20 stories in the air! It was a good adventure and we spent the whole day there just walking around going on a safari and meeting many animals! I was exhausted afterwards, all those rides and the hot sun sure wore me out fast! It was the very first time I had ever been to a zoo! I had never seen so many animals in one place from all over the world. Korea is quite the place I must say! Everyday there is something new to see or do and I really am enjoying it here! It feels like a working vacation some days, many things aren't very expensive so we get to go a ton of places! I will miss all the animals, I have not seen many animals here in Korea besides tiny-purse-sized dogs...
Have a great week everyone!
I will have a ton more pictures and updates to come!