Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays

My Christmas Eve was one I don't think I'll ever forget for a while.  I decided as a newly single man, that after substitute teaching for a friend, I would go to a church for the evening.  My English club friends were having a white elephant Christmas deal, but my mind was focused on the real reason for the season.

So of all places, I decided to try the Kyungbuk National University Church -- a church located outside the gate of a university with a population of about 30,000 students.  The church is more of a community for International students and people from around the campus area as well.  I was astonished to know that the assistant pastor is an African American man, who is about 6'5 or 6'6.  He's been a very successful business man in his life, but it seems as though he is a very well respected man around this city as well.   Pastor Ken, as the folks call him, has a very lovely little Korean wife as well.  She's been to seminary, but is still in the process of finishing that calling. 

The people I met hail from various countries, such as Ethiopia, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, and of course Korea as well.  The Christmas Eve program consisted of some dinner, music, caroling, and even some gift giving for all of those in attendance.  I felt weird taking part in the gift giving, but I was told to do so.  

I definitely felt great about the experience, especially being the only person there who is a native speaker of English.  More to come later -- I'm putting myself to sleep!!!

Hi Again

So we meet again after a little slacking off by this author guy here.  Anyway, not a lot is going on right now.  I should have jetted home for a few days of Christmas, but I just thought that'd be a little too hard me in terms of the turn around.

At least we have Friday - Tuesday without work.  Wednesday we'll start back next week, and then the following week will be a time of intensives -- which means we start work in the mornings as well. My coworkers all departed this morning for destinations beginning with T's. Chris and Jack went to Taiwan, specifically Taipei, while Brittany and Mike went to Thailand, for the beach areas of Phuket.  They used a travel agent that I used for my short Japan trip, and they were all very satisfied with the help that she gave them.  I was definitely happy about that.

Anyway, tomorrow is Christmas Eve -- according to my computer it's 12:09 AM on Christmas Eve, but that doesn't really count in my opinion.  I've taken some time away from working and doing jiu-jitsu this week -- sort of.  I only did Thursday night and tonight.  My knee still seems a little banged up, so I may go visit the doc after Christmas, but we'll see about that.  It was nice to just sleep in a little bit, and make omelettes, french toast, roast sweet potatoes, or just be able to play catch up with folks via Facebook or Skype.

Today was a pleasant day off, but I spent wayyyyyy too much time on buses.  Sometimes those subways, or taxis are just more convenient than sitting in traffic on buses. I went to practice jiu jitsu twice, although there weren't many people there each time.  I was kind of stuck just doing weights more than anything the first time.  The second time I went was right after the Young Falcons of Korea Family Party.  I was invited to receive an award for teaching them, which was pretty cool. Anyway, I'm gonna go to sleep now.  I'm working for my co-worker Jack tomorrow at his other job, since he's out of town.   Then onto some Christmas Eve festivities tomorrow night with a church that I've never visited before. I am excited, nonetheless though!

Some of what's going on right now

I'm not sure where to start, but things are moving fast over here.  In a little over three weeks, I'll be without work -- am I worried -- a little bit, but I'll get something figured out.  This fella' I've been praying too lately seems to have a plan, though I am just not sure what it is right now.

So I've been doing quite a bit of cookin' at home these days.  Most of it just happens in the morning with some big four egg omelettes, that usually consist of chicken, tomatoes, onions, and some peppers.  I've made some salads, cooked a few different chicken dishes, and made some various pasta dishes as well.  This weekend I hope to do something with penne pasta, and duck, which should be fun. Tonight I made some chocolate covered strawberries, and did a banana as well.  I also plan to venture into some stuffed french toast soon.  By the way, peanut butter, strawberries, and banana make a good sandwich.

Besides cooking not much has gone on during the week.  I went to the doctor and got my nasal area, as well as knee checked out.  I'm on meds for both at the moment.  Hopefully the knee continues being pain free, though it still hurts in places on the side.  Fingers crossed, there's not an MRI next week.  Work has been dull as usual, for the most part.  We have five more days of work, and then get Friday, Monday and Tuesday off around Christmas.  All the coworkers are super ready to take their vacations.  Chris and Jack will go to Taipei, while Brittany and Michael will go to Phuket, in Thailand.  I'm gonna stay around here and spend time catching up with some folks.

Last weekend, I did something really cool though.  Marina and I met up and we bought gifts for two boys that live in an orphanage here in town.  We had a limited of 20,000 won (about 18USD), so we found these cool backpacks, bought some sweets and a few cool pens for them too.  It was definitely fun giving back in some way.  There are kettle drives going on around town here too, just like with the Salvation Army back home. We checked out a few little shops around the area afterwards and then we visited the local Russian/Uzbekistan restaurant downtown. The food there is wonderful, and it helps Marina cope with being homesick sometimes, so I didn't mind it at all.  She makes for the best company, and has always been a good friend to me.  We went and visited our English Club after that, and enjoyed meeting quite a few of the new people who have been visiting these days. 

Some Japan for ya

Details about the the crazy diet

So here's what happened over a course of 13 days --- I had to bust my butt to lose about 12 lbs.  It was a little difficult, but I slept great almost every night, and still ate pretty well also.

The night before I started this craziness I ate a wonderful thanksgiving dinner with Miss Marina.  The next day the diet started.

I spent  almost every day working out at the health club -- weights and bike, or weights, running and bike, or weights, step -up thingy, running, and bike.  The weight-lifting was not very strenuous in terms of the sets that I did.  The hard part was going from exercise to exercise without stopping.  That worked my heart up a good bit for sure.  After one big set of all the weight exercises, I then ran for 5-7 minutes, biked for 5-7 minutes, did a bunch of jumping jacks, or did the step thing (which very rough).  Monday, Thursday and Friday (since the class schedule allows), I was able to get in my jiu jitsu practices.

You're probably thinking that I missed some meals in here.  Actually, on the last day I did skip dinner -- well, I snacked in small bits and ate a lot of fish at a wedding buffet.

So, I don't recommend eating the way I did.  That is, unless you really love cooking chicken breasts.  Let's just say I ate lots of chicken, and tuna with salads throughout the first week.   Around the meals I would eat a banana or an orange.  At night time I would drink a glass or two of milk as well.  The last six days or so was nothing but chicken.  Chicken and cooked vegetables mostly for all three meals.  Some of the meals included some kimchi that I cooked the chicken in -- super spicy stuff.  That pretty much explains it all right there.  I did use a sauna to cut some water weight, but that probably resulted in maybe 15% of the weight loss.

I'm happy to say that I've put six pounds back on already.  I am impressed too, that veggies can fill a person up that well!

First Jiu Jitsu tournament Result

So my two matches didn't go my way --- I lost both by a combined three points.  The first one was horrible -- in that the opponent and I didn't do much to each other at all.  Neither one of us hit the ground at all.  It looked like two guys getting ready for a match with someone else.

The second one was pretty good, considering the other guy was very close to blue belt status, and I don't have any stripes on my white belt -- he was a four stripe white belt.  He had me down and in great position to whoop me after the first 90 seconds, and somehow I got a wonderful escape and back on my feet.  Then toward the last minute or so he got me down and I couldn't escape his guard -- I definitely gained some good respect from him though, in keeping the match close.

I know I needed to be more aggressive in both matches, but it was a good experience being there with the team regardless.  Anyway, I'll post some pictures  later. I'll even share some more details about the diet that I was on for the last two weeks of training for this tournament too.