Egypt...Tae Kwon Do...work...and a really big leg brace...the adventure continues..

Yes....it's true. I discovered that even I, "Christi Lee the movement improvement queen" am not invincible to injury. I've never been injured seriously before, so I am totally freaking out right now.

I recently started Tae Kwon Do. I felt like trying something new. Not to mention, the Grandmaster of TKD personally invited me to join class for free...so I did. It's really hard!!! Untraining myself to NOT kick like a girly aerobics instructor and kick like a fighting Bruce Lee is a serious task. We even spar in class. Long story short...I am the only female in class so I feel like I lag behind the guys. I decided to try one of advanced kicks that they were doing...Hmmm...clearly not for a white belt..but I thought whatever, I'm in shape. I can do your Jackie Chan moves. Well...I landed all kinds of wrong and felt a huge POP in my knee. To make matters worse, I continued with class. Afterwards I iced it...elevated it and traveled 2 hours to get to the closest hospital (which is ridiculous, but that's another story). I was X-rayed..no broken bones (duh..it's inside my knee, but I have to wait a week to get an MRI. The doctors do not think I damaged anything outside of a sprain...but we'll see. The doctor didn't seem so confident in her answer and that scared me. So does the fact that my knee is swollen to the size of Texas and I can't walk on it or bend it. Hmmm... Now that I am temporarily disabled, I have time to update the blog :)

Work is still going well. Still running into challenges trying to get things up and running for fitness programming. Lots of new equipment has come in. However, most of the military personnel doesn't even know how to use it. We just received a huge order of kettlebells, muscle posters, agility ladders, mini hurdles, versabars, versavests, pro abdominators and much more. Once my knee is better, I'll be able to conduct clinics to show large masses of soldiers how to use the equipment.

I went to the National Museum of Korea with my friend Lamine to see the Egyptian exhibit. It was interesting. There were Korean people everywhere. i thought it was interesting that they went to see an Egyptian exhibit. I could not read a word of information at the Museum because it was all in Korean. All I could do was look around. Luckily, Lamine used to be an Anthropologist before joining the Army...and he is from Ghana. As such, he knew LOTS about the exhibit. He explained everything. There was even a production of Cleopatra (where the cast is composed of Koreans...ok, that's a little odd...Koreans playing roles of Egyptians and dressing in Egyptian clothes...hard to fathom.

I also briefly walked around the Korean War Museum. I was on my way to catch a bus...so no fun story for the War Museum yet since I only walked past the outside. I'll get back there now that I know where it is. Outside the museum are models of planes and submarines used during the war.

I'm so very sad to hear about Michael Jackson. He was by far my absolute favorite artist and entertainer of all times. As I am here in Korea, the impact of Jackson's music is even more impressive here in Asia. His music was known and loved by all. Ever since I was maybe 9 or 10...all I wanted was to see Michael Jackson perform live. As I got older, my love for Michael's music and my desire to attend a concert grew larger. He is still may favorite and always will be. The energy in his music inspires my workouts, makes for great conversation and even picks up my mood when I am having a horrible day. My heart goes out to the Jackson family. He was a music genius. Thank you Micheal for forever influencing music and pop culture.