San Diego Part II was so epic. Had such a good time. Apex San Diego was pretty dope. Had 3 days of relatively intense learning sessions and made me realize much more of what I want to do with Parkour coaching and running a PK gym business in general. To be honest, I don't have the personality of a coach and it's not quite something I would LOVE to be doing full-time - I remember back when I started giving classes I just did it as a means to earn money, knowing that there is a huge potential of it being a back-up career thing. Soon enough, I gave up coaching as I just wanted to be a better and more professional athlete. It wasn't the wrong choice at all, but adding another 5 years into training, I think that all has to change now. Being in America and seeing everyone who are no different from me and you start up their Parkour gyms and learning from how they run things and questioning about their mistakes, etc. has definitely motivate me to do the same, albeit in a much tougher, close-minded and backwards country like Singapore. Yes, it'll take a ton of work to pull it off, but that should not stop me from making it happen.

ParkourEDU certification wasn't exactly a breeze in the park but it gave me a great insight of actual teaching. There were written examinations, coaching practice, fun games to play with students, Parkour Ukemi, speed runs, etc. I hope to apply more of these when I get back to Singapore and actually start a class and curriculum of my own. The lack of practice usually sets me back quite a bit, and being rusty from not coaching for several months will definitely take me awhile to get back into the swing of things. Finally being certified surely has to be a great takeaway from this trip. Also, I learnt a lot about what I should work on, especially ankle (p)rehab work and mobility drills. I am sad to say I have a really shit pistol squat (rounded back AF) and I really want to get it perfect. 

So job hunting in San Diego or in America in general has proved to be tooooo much of a task to handle. Aside from working visas, another huge issue to deal with is not having a car and trying to make it work in a city of a shitty/expensive public transportation system. Also, coaching hours were scarce and the traceurs in each cities are already struggling themselves to get work, so it isn't quite a smart move for me to come in and 'compete' with them. Even if I do end up working, it'll be pretty short-term and the money will take awhile to pile up. It's not even that great of money either. I guess it was just not meant to be. Thus, my Mexican travels ensued. 

I started to feel a little more powerful in this trip, not exactly knowing why. I guess the constant days of training has heightened my current state of power. However, I had a pretty stupid injury (honestly not sure why it's so bad) doing a triple kong and putting too much pressure on my left wrist somehow. The triple kong was awesome to get (first one outside in a while, especially cos it took my right wrist forever to heal, but of course I had to fuck up the other one now), and it's never a good idea to do such a wrist-intensive movement 3 times, but I had to because the cameraman screwed up my initial shot. Sucks really bad to be honest. I guess I should've done better to control my triple kong, or just man up to myself and say that it's not worth doing it 3 times and settle for a super shit shot (or just legit get a better cameraman...). 

Apart from that mishap, I achieved some really cool jumps whilst at San Diego (and a super awesome day trip to Temecula that I thought would be too much effort to make the trip to, but as with everything, it turned out fine in the end - saying yes to things is always better than do nothing) which I'm going to save from a proper edit.

Speaking about 'proper' edit, this trip has been pretty amazing for photo opportunities and I believe I've collected some pretty awesome footage. Thank god the copyright fucked up on me during the first US trip, because it is a way better idea to combine both trips into one lit as video. Aside from Colorado, another pretty dope place that I've been to for the sights is Mexicali/Baja California. Had such a good time there not knowing what to expect at all. Thanks to Genaro who brought me around the entire trip pretty much. We did some water tower missions, running up sand dunes, and camped overnight 2hrs deep into the Baja (was an insane drive into the campsite). Saw so many stars but I fucked up cos I just didn't cared enough to take a milky-way timelapse. Oh well, at least I had a dope ass time. 

Sadly my wrist was too shit to actually film more Parkour and some of the amazing spots here in Mexicali, but tbh the weather here is HOT af, like 35degrees hot. For no reason. 

Next up was Guadalajara (plane ticket only costed me 33USD), which was like another completely new journey. Pretty lucky to be hosted by locals who are trying their hardest to speak English, while I, on the other hand, is picking up pieces of Espanyol here and there. I figured while I here, I might as well learn the language right? Did some sick training on the first day on some red walls, checked out the local markets (so sick for souvenirs and food), went to an abandoned Planetarium, and also went to the mountains/canyon where we hiked down ran up this super steep train tracks. Wrecked on the first day. Second day I met up with some crazy talented locals and felt pretty powerful despite a shit wrist to still manage some pretty sick jumps. Yesterday I went to the physio to get my wrist checked. Hopefully it'll turn out alright for Mexico City, or better still, this weekend for an impromptu trip to Leon (midway from here to Mexico City) for a pretty huge jam! Stoked for this. And today, I cooked up breakfast - Tortillas with Frijoles Mexicana and Chorizo Omelette. Beans and eggs in a tortilla is a god-sent breakfast combo.

Food here has been amazing of course (it's Mexican, duh) and it's cheap AF compared to the US too. I've been on a 3500 pesos budget for 3 weeks but I'm down to about 1.4k now because of two physio sessions (the first one was totally not worth it). Speaking about money, I'm actually super unsure of what to do post Mexico. It seems like I will not be selected to go to Chengdu anymore, which means no free flights home... and after doing some searching, it is extremely expensive to fly back home (no shit)... I do kinda wanna end my trip soon-ish as my baggage is piling up, money is depleting, and travelling alone for too long can get pretty monotonous, and I just wanna just get back to rest/recover/rehab and work on stuff that will actually matter in the future. I've been writing down a bunch of fitness/mobility goals that I want to achieve next year and that will take precedence over actual Parkour goals. #timetogetstrongandhealthyagain

My option now is to stick to the original plan of travelling Central America, fly to Costa Rica and somehow fly home from there (which is super expensive), or travel longer by covering more land (Monterrey, then Austin, Dallas, Houston, then New Orleans, then Orlando and Miami and fly home from there (which is slightly cheaper than Costa Rica)). That will also cost a lot more because I'll be back in the US and travel for that much more days (and that much more cities) will be super expensive too. But money aside, I think this trip would probably be the last long trip (any trip that exceeds a week would be consider long already) as I want to settle down, find a full-time job, and/or start the Parkour gym dream that I've been thinking of for so long. There's still so much more huge travel bucket list and it's kinda sad to not be able to tick them off (especially my Hanoi - HCM trail one), but I guess I'll make time for it in the future somehow.

Welp, fingers crossed somehow that the FISE will want me in at the last moment, or else it's hustle season once I head back to Singapore. Have no idea what will happen next...

PS: 17 days into the pact and still going strong. 

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It has been pretty much almost a year but I wonder if time actually heals all wounds. It has been long enough that I moved on to realize that life's still pretty amazing without you. However, I'm not sure if I should try to talk to you again or will that just be a plain dumb move because it would suck to get a nonchalant reply. Maybe you're all good cos you've found your replacement source of happiness (whilst I'm still searching and never finding), so what's the point trying to reconnect at all? I guess it'll be nice to try to know what's going on with your life again, but maybe it doesn't go both ways, because the words of the past holds no meaning now. Sometimes, I still feel bitter about everything that has happened, but expressing one bit of it would just mean shutting me off again. So the loop never ends. You're always on the losing side. You gotta just be a better man.