B-day, Seoul, Everland, BJJ
So, it’s been a few minutes since I’ve logged anything about my life here in Korea. I’ve been both busy and lazy and those are my excuses for why Dick Daly have been M.I.A. As you may know, I made the huge mistake of getting a lady here. Now I actually like the broad and might keep her. Korean women are alotta damn work. They need more attention than something that needs a great deal of attention all of the time. My lady doesn’t let me go anywhere without her tagging along. Occasionally she’ll let me take a shit by myself, but not as often as I’d like. And I blame this on all my slime ball foreigner friends here that keep fuckin’ around on their Korean ladies. These chick talk and tell each other everything. But let’s get off these chicks and get back to my update.
I have been spending a lot of time in the gym, both weight training and fighting. I’ve decide that I’ll focus on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) with the gi/kimono, as opposed to solely MMA right now. I feel like I may have missed the MMA boat because of my age and my non-existent martial arts back ground. This may change if I show exceptional progress in BJJ, but I think Jiu JItsu lends itself to a life long sport that suits my style. I had my first tournament in June (2010), in Seoul and it was a great experience.
My birthday is June 25th and the BJJ tournament was scheduled for June 27th. Initially I was planning to participate in a tournament the previous weekend, but the entrance turn-out was low and I wanted to get the most competition possible. It was some what of a bummer because the original plan was to get the tourney out of the way and party hard the following week for my b-day. I hadn’t done much partying or drinking at all and wanted to let loose on by b-day weekend. And I’m sure all my friends were about tired of me being all focused and anti-social. But I was nervous because it was my first tournament and my lady and some friends were gonna watch me perform. Didn’t want to disappoint the fans.
What I did was make a weekend trip out of it. My b-day was on a Friday and the tourney was that Sunday. So, I suggested we go to Seoul on Saturday, check out their theme park, stay in a hotel that night, and go to the tourney on Sunday. A few friends hopped on the plan and we booked a package that included a charter bus and tickets to the theme park. WE went out for dinner on Friday night, stayed up til the morning and boarded the bust to Everland in Seoul. After our trip my buddy appropriately renamed the theme park “Never Ever Go Land”. A bit of an exaggeration, but accurate nonetheless. We found a hotel, grabbed some food and I turned in early so I could be well-rested for my match the following day.
The match went rather well. I only competed in my weight class (94+ kg) with the gi, or kimono. I’m still a white belt and at the time of the tourney I only had about 8 months of experience. If I competed in the no-gi competition I could go against much more experienced dudes, because there are no belts, and I wasn’t ready for all that. I just needed to get the feel of tournament style fighting and get the nerves out of the way. Long story short, I got the gold!
The end.
Back in Busan at my gym