2 Year Anniversary

This rainbow was seen in Korea recently. Everyone who passed was mesmorised by it and took out there phones to take pictures.

The Aussie team trained with the National Korean Taekwondo Team today in what would be regarded as their "AIS" facilities. Nothing was that different to any other session we have done besides the jumps, leaps and bounds.

I suprised myself....and the whole room..... when instead of jumping over a person (who was standing nice and tall) and landing on my feet and running through...I jumped over the Korean girl and almost face planted into the ground before miracuously pulling off the army roll of the year.....The sign at the door definately said "TAEKWONDO" not "GYMNASTICS";)Even though I was sooooo embarressed at the time, I am still giggling inside at the thought that I performed the most perfect mistake!:)

Today was my two year anniversary from when I fought at the Olympics in Athens. Memories always come to my mind about the event. Although it was a bad day back then, it is what it was and all I can do now is reflect and live my new journey towards Beijing. I'm enjoying all the moments, both good and bad...as they say "Everyone must go through a storm, to find a rainbow"

Country Training

This is literally what it looked like. Power point lines and endless rice paddocks.

Amy and I at the end of a gym session using the "rubber" machine.

We spent the last week in a small small small country town somewhere in Korea where only mosquitos and massive steroid looking spiders live. I was pretty much eaten alive by the mosquitos....(the pictures will come). The purpose of our visit to "the most boring place on earth" was to watch the Korean National Championships and focus on our own training ahead of Korean Open and World Cup. The Nationals here were alot different to any other competition I have seen before, ...literally all the athletes did was kick non stop for 2 minutes each round and the person who won was not the most intelligent fighter nor the most tactical, but was the person who kicked the most. ...It was strange to see a game of tkd being played that way but I guess thats how it is in Korea.

We trained every morning and afternoon and had a pool session to conclude. On the last day we fought against Woosuk University (2 fights each). Woosuk is now the number one university in Korea....and strangely it was the team that lived in this very boring city...I guess the only thing they can do is train and sleep;)

Our only adventure out of this small town was to the city about 1 hour away. The place we went to was kind of like a big Myers store, or Whitfords City, or Highpoint if your from Melbourne. Needless to say 3 hours in there was way to long ....thus all the girls bought a ton of makeup we dont need!

Thank god we are now back in Seoul. There are people and 7elevens stores that are close enough to walk to, we have supermarkets, computers and everything else needed to keep ourselves sane for another two weeks. I love training in Korea because of the intensity and the high skill level...but at times it does get quite boring. I can't wait until holiday time...when I can talk about all the cool places to go to. Korea is a marvel!~

"Moist" in Korea

Wondering why it's moist? The weather here is extremly hot and you can't walk 5 metres without breaking a sweat. Training isn't bearable and with my chest problem I have found it really hard to find air....(YOU THINK ITS EVERYWHERE BUT WHEN THERE ARE 100 PEOPLE IN A MEDIUM SIZED TRAINING HALL....ITS HARD TO FIND THE GOOD STUFF:))

It's "moist" as Ruth puts it, and its the word of the trip so far.

Boxing with the Phillapeano's

hmmmmmmm I got into some kind a punching neck fight yesterday with the Phillapean girl. She came at me the other day and punched me in the face.....needless to say I wasnt impressed and wasnt going to let her do it to me again....when she came in and started attacking my throat todayI landed one of my own.......I'm not mean enough to knock her out cold with my fist but I did for once fight back higher than normal. .....it felt great and the fact that I realised she can dish it but cant take it, made me stronger inside.

My hand was damaged from the day before but I couldnt feel anything with the huge glove I was wearing. Heres a pic of the damage I did. My thumb bent back in the clench against a heavy weight Thailand girl.

KOREA AGAIN --NUMBER 15

1. Out to dinner
2. After training

Im in Korea again for the 15th time. Nothing much has changed since we were here last--other than the weather. You cant walk out of the hotel room without feeling as though you are in a sauna. Training is the worst because your drenched with sweat from beginning to the end.

So far we have trainined 2 days, both of which have been with the Phillapean and Thailand Team. It was team sparring so we have had the opportunity to mix things up a bit. Im loving the feeling of fighting again, I need to put what I practice into the ring more often. After training we have had running sessions......the massive hills are a killer and I havent been able to walk far or talk much after....but that could also be due to the fact Im sick!

The Italian team were in Korea for a day when we arrived and next week the Egyptian Team will join us. At least there are other people around who speak english...it does make the time pass faster!........

Off to bed now, another early morning tomorrow.

The Aftermath

After comp we all had a team dinner at Carrefour (a massive eatery where you can have what ever you want!) to which the Italian team joined us after. I had some wierd octopus meal and I think I fell ill from it. I was sick until 3am in the morning, and then had to wake up for morning training at 7am! I was running on the treadmill wanting to vomit every step of the way.........but luckily for everyone I held it all in for after.
....Some one has a shoe fetish....???? Can you guess the team player who bought these....??:S:S:S SCARY!

Quick Results Run Down

We are off to Korea now for training and then the Korean Open so I dont have much time to update, but I will give a quick run down of the results.

I fought China first match and went down 4-2. Small mistakes are costly!!!! China went on the win the Gold medal. (......My luck with the draws hasn't been that great this year having lost to the gold medallist in the comps I didnt win.) Its my fault in the end -- just as long as I make it happen at the Worlds!.......

Burak won a bronze in the mens -68kg. Beating Poland, France, and then went down against Korea 7-5.

RUTH WON BRONZE - DAY 1

Strange events....a normal day in china

I guess you are all wondering how I fought today....I would be too ...If I actually fought!!!!

I ate all the right food before bed, I had the best night sleep, ate an awsome breaky, warmed up fantastically, was ready to kick some chinese butt.....had my guards on ready to go.....and then found out my division wasn't on that day!!!!! CAN U BELIEVE IT! I was wondering why there were little girls warming up and massive Chinese women! I kept asking....
1) are there juniors on today because i dont think those little girls are big enough for me. (there are no juniors in this comp)
2) Are you sure thats a girl...maybe its a guy fighting under 58kg? (I didnt have my contacts on)

As it turned out they changed the timetable ...and Australia ...well we were just one of the countries that didnt find that out! /58kg for men, 49 girls and +67 women fought today instead.

Sooooooooo AMY, KATRINA, AND RUTH had to put our gear on and fight without warming up! WHAT A STRANGE DAY!

Ruth managed to win a bronze medal after beating China which is great. She sadly went down in the semis to the Olympic Gold Medallist 5-0 (who is also from china...suprise suprise)

Sooooooooo I fight on sunday now which gives me two more days to prepare. I will also fight China first match.

Oh yeah......so we didnt fight today, but after the competition we did manage to do some weird weird shopping:) And ride some pretty funky, squeaky, rusted old bikes:)

CHINA CHINA CHINA

Its two years to go until Beijing Olympics and ironically we are in China right now preparing for a competition that starts tomorrow. It’s the China international open and around 20 countries are here to compete. I have no idea who I am fighting but should find out fairly soon. Kristy, Dounia, Ryan, Saf and I are all competing first. We have not seen a lot of the country so I’m not sure I can give an accurate interpretation of it, but at this stage I’m not very fond of it. No one speaks English, we have been caught in the rain on numerous occasions despite the 35 degree whether and we are in the middle of no where. On the plus though, food is extremely cheap. For lunch I had a massive beef dish with rice plus soup and a large diet coke for $2 dollars! …Gatorade 600ml cost 50 cents…..and bananas…..OH BANANAS MY FAVOURITE FRUIT is only 90 cents per kilo! It sure beats the $12 Aussie back home! Also the hotel we are at has everything, swimming pool, sauna, squash court, yoga, bowling alley, store, Korean restaurant, Chinese restaurant, buffet, need I say more!

The English: Chinese people speak

1) Your killing me, are you crazy! Too low! (this is in regards to how much we ask for when shopping) What ever the price is just divide it by 10. I walked into one store wanting to buy this skirt and she asked 880Y for it which is about $170 Aussie dollars….surprisingly I only paid 80Y ::: A$17!! I think they think tourists are stupid!
2) Okay Okay…come back lady. Special Price

Things to note:

I never thought anyone liked white skin. The girls wont stop trying to touch my skin or comment on how white and wonder I look….I’m not complaining because in Australia everyone always laughs how ghostly white I am. Sooooooo I fed my ego and bought whitening cream. Hehehehe

These are the only two words I know in Chinese and its so frustrating not being able to ask anything! 1: Che-Che = Thankyou + 2:Niha = hello

Oh and don’t try on jeans if you don’t intend on buying them. I have seen so many people get abused for not wanting to buy it after discovering it didn’t fit. They think you wasted their time.

Check out the boys and their new bodies. hmm glad I dont diet!

OH IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME 24 TODAY