Finding Serenity

The title has nothing to do with Firefly, if you were wondering ^_^

To start, this one discovery, to me, is probably one of the most important to me on a personal level.  I have told numerous people about how coaching wrestling this past year was one of the best things I did for myself to be happy again.  Coming to Korea, I wanted to do two things: find a wrestling club and enjoy myself.  To me, the world could be falling apart but if I was wrestling, I wouldn’t notice.  It’s that one thing that lights me up.

I spent the last week looking for a wrestling club in Busan.  The only one I could come up with was at a University in the middle of the city so I had my Korean co-teacher call up the coach and ask if he knew where any clubs were locally.  All he could tell me was I was not allowed to practice with his team because I was not a member of the University.  Well, dur-duh-dur.  I knew that before I even called him.  He clearly wasn’t understanding what I was asking for so I tried to explain it a few different ways.  He understood, eventually, and said he did not know of any clubs in the area.

Well, I had a backup plan.  Should there not be a wrestling club, I was content to find an MMA/ jiu-jitsu gym since at least there was still grappling.  I researched a few clubs but nothing I found was close enough to my area. 

I got home from school fairly late one night because I had gone to look at a gym for yoga and dance classes then went out for dinner.  It was about 8 pm when I started searching clubs again.  I found one in particular that was only a few metro stops away from me so I looked into it further.  I managed to find a schedule and their night classes included kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and … wrestling.  I can’t explain how many things were going through my head at that moment.  I looked at the schedule and saw that their kickboxing class was just about to end and the wrestling/jiu-jitsu class was about to start.  I am not impulsive, I am always to person to sit and think things through but this moment threw me into a frenzy and for once, I let it take me over.  I scrambled in my apt to get my backpack together.  I changed into workout clothes, just in case.  I didn’t know if I was going to show up and have them turn me away or if I would have to come back another day.  I didn’t want to get my hopes up but I at least wanted to try. 

I ran out of my apartment to the subway station and got on the subway within minutes.  As I was sitting, I could hear my heart beating.  Like my head, it was also going a million beats a minute.  If people listened, I’m sure they could have heard it.  Even as I type this now, the same adrenaline rush I had before is kicking in and I can hear every beat of my heart.

The gym was only three blocks off the station exit and I easily found the building.  I looked into it and saw a pile of shoes halfway down the stairs and I followed suit.  I took my shoes off and went down the rest of the stairs, entered the room and bowed, saying “annyeonghaseyo”.  The room got quite and everyone looked at me.  I honestly didn’t know what they were going to do but then one man came up and asked what I needed. 

I explained that I was a wrestler and I had been looking for a club and when I saw wrestling on the schedule, I didn’t think twice, I just came.  He said it wasn’t a wrestling gym, it was to train fighters like UFC, and I said that was ok because I knew I would get a chance to wrestle at some point.  I asked how much it was for a membership and the deal was much better than the gym I looked at earlier today and quite frankly, I can’t put a price on this kind of happiness.  I asked where the nearest bank was and I went to get the money.  I gave it to one of the guys and hopped into practice.

The first drill was pummeling, something I am all too familiar with but they paired me with kid who looked a little too flimsy.  A part of me wanted to show them that I was not a cute little lady who did this just because – I take it seriously.  So I started pummeling and the kid would keep on backing away from me.  When it got to bear hugs, I did them, and I made sure I did them well.  Then my partner said something to the coach in Korean and then the coach came up to practice with me J 

I learned a few new moves, which was fun but I truly enjoyed it when it got to sparring.  I have no idea what sparring is in jiu-jitsu so I just wrestled and the coach said we could just wrestle.  I haven’t practiced in over a month at this point so doing an actual practice and not coaching it pushed my body to its limits.  But I wanted to prove that I would take this seriously and I was a decent wrestler.  What really drove me was knowing the whole room was watching to see what I was made of.  I pulled every move I had and tried my best to wrestle the coach but honestly, he was a full grown man and I never had a chance.

After sparring, he told me I was probably one of the best wrestlers in the room – which made my day.  I may not know anything about jiu-jitsu, but at least he said I was a good wrestler. After practice, we sat and talked for a while about the club and wrestling.  Near 10:30 I said goodbye and left.  It was silent but when I got my shoes, the room burst into talk.  I wish I could speak more Korean so I could have known what they were saying. 

I didn’t care how late it was when I got home or that I had to wake up early, I was so hyped up on the experience that I could have skipped the entire way home.  Like I said in the beginning, it’s really the only thing that can keep my spirits up when everything has been turned upside-down. Amidst all this change at least now I have a place where I can go to feel at ease and focus on something familiar.