Miscellaneous Miscellania (Miscellanii?)

Train Time
One of my favourite things to do in Korea is ride the subway. It's 14 stops from my house (about half an hour) to the MMA club. When I get on I put my I pod in and watch everyone come and go. It's interesting to watch all of the different types of people come and go. Businessmen, students, market salespeople, mothers, kids and fashionistas. It's interesting to watch how they interact with and treat each other. I often make up stories in my head about where they're going and what they're doing. I love people watching.
Plugging into my Ipod is also one of the only times that I can tune out the constant noise and clatter of Korea. There are so many people and it is so busy all the time, even at night, that it is always noisy. Being on the train listening to my own music (instead of K-Pop) is by far the most peaceful part of my day.
Ever hear the perfect song at the perfect moment? Today on the subway Soungarden's "superunknown" came through my earphones. In the song the phrase "alone in the superunknown" is repeated dozens of times. There's something so cool about being alone on the subway in a city of milions of people that has a culture and customs that are so unknown to me.

Training Time
None of the guys at Daegu MMA wear a cup when they roll, and, you know, when in Rome... I've been pretty lucky so far but I took a wicked knee shot today. This reminds me of a conversation I had with my old teamate Alex Jeffrey who has also crossed over into jiu jtsu and mma. He said "Don't you find it crazy that we wrestled for ten years with no cup or mouthgaurd?" My reply. "Yeah, but remember how we got sacked just about everyday and always had chipped teeth?"
"Hmm, true."

Square peg?
I recently discovered that in Korea you can force your key into the keyhole upside down in the dark if you try hard enough and are too stubborn to just take a second to turn on the light and actually look at what's going on. I feel like this is probably some kind of metaphor for my life. I'll let you guys try and figure it out.

Hardcore Spectating
It looks like I won't be making the trip to Seoul to watch the K1 Grand Prix finals this weekend. It's a bummer but I won't have been paid by then and just can't afford the trip right now. I do plan on going to Japan to watch some Dream and/or Sengoku MMA events later in the year. Instead of K1 I'll stay in Daegu and watch the pre-world championships track meet. There's a bunch of world champs and olympic medalists here so it should be awesome to watch. If it's on TV we'll be the ones with no shirts on, maple leafs painted on our chests and waving Canadian flags. I sure hope there's some Canadian athletes at the meet.