Welcome to Modern Farang Mu Sul

As the year 2005 comes to a close, I just reflect on the incredible roller coaster of a year we had in Modern Farang Mu Sul®. We said goodbye to some and welcomed in several new faces. We have overcome some difficult challenges, and yet have thouroughly enjoyed many other wonderful positive experiences. That's just the way life goes. We in Modern Farang Mu Sul® are a very fortunate group and we all need to reflect and count our blessings. Here are some updates:

FMS - WHQ: With Christmas and New Year right on top of us, we here at WHQ had still quite a few things to take care of before we called it a year. We had first, another trip to Puerto Rico to see Master Denis Vega and all of the Modern Farang Mu Sul® family in Puerto Rico. We also had one last trip to Los Angeles to see Master David Dehnert. We had our annual World Headquarters Modern Farang Mu Sul® Christmas party, and we also had a couple of birthdays to celebrate too.

At the very top of my priority list was to spend some serious quality time with my wife, kids and the rest of my family. In order to accomplish this as well as get some much needed R&R, we closed the WHQ dojang for a week and I took some vacation time off from work. That was the smartest thing I've done in a long time. We did one of our favorite rituals, which is to go around San Francisco as tourist and just enjoy all the wonderful things it has to offer. The city is especially beautiful during the Christmas season. We also took in a local circus. What a wonderful time indeed. You've just got to do things like that every so often.

As mentioned before, we had our annual Modern Farang Mu Sul® World Headquarters Christmas party, which we were very happy to celebrate at Inst. Terry King's new house. He and his fiancé Heather along with Inst. Kim Leith, coordinated yet another spectacular evening. The party turned out to fall on Inst. Stuart McCalla's birthday. So, we celebrated them BOTH. We had our annual awards presentation, gifts and special birthday cake for Stuart. Too much fun. Our Christmas party's keep getting better and better. This year's was certainly a smashing success. The perfect way to put an exclamation point on the the year 2006. Farang!!!

December also marked another milestone in our FMS family. It was one year ago that Master James De Alba and his lovely wife Dolores moved to Sonoma and opened up the their two new businesses: JAC Hairgallery beauty salon and BLUSH Day Spa. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating the grand opening. Well they had a great first year anniversary party, and what a great time it was. Congratulations Sir!

FMS - Hollister: Master Schleeter and the Hollister FMS students and family recently had their annual Christmas party celebration. Master Schleeter got to play his "Santa" role and reward all the kids for such good work throughout the year, as well as recognize some of his adult students for their hard work and dedication. He also took advantage of the family gathering to award the new color belts from the last testing. Sounds like so much fun. Good job Sir. Looking forward to spending lots of quality time down in Hollister this upcoming year.

FMS Poland: I got word from Inst. Katarzyna Klepczyk and Asst. Inst. Andrzej Klepczyk on their events for December. They all enjoyed the Christmas holiday with their families, students and friends. Also, as in every year, they celebrated their birthday's together with a special theme party. The gang was all there including Inst. Sebastian Dorobek and Inst. Mirgus Guszczynski with thier respective wives and children. This year the party had a unique "old town" theme. Everyone came dressed in traditional Polish wear. They decorated the house like a village, and had lots of delicious typical Polish food and drinks (such as pierogies, kielbasa and of course, vodka). Sounds like soo much fun. Happy Birthday, the both of you!!

Their FMS school is also embarking onto new territory. They are now expanding the program to include a children's class. They have had a great response, and are now developing the first group of kids. Remember that these are the future Farang. Needless to say they are enjoying it tremendously. They recently gave all the children a special Christmas gift: New Doboks!!! How cool is that? Keep up the good work you guys. I am soo proud of you all and adding this new dimension to the program should be a very fun and fulfilling experience. I look forward to meeting all of these new little faces soon. Farang!

FMS Portugal: Inst. Nelson Pinto has kept up his intense schedule. He is very busy running his various clubs and maintaining very active with monthly seminars. He recently had a couple new workshops. The first one for December was Alcobaça-Seminário inter estilos - which was and Inter-Styles Seminar. He also conducted I Seminário Infantil da APMFMS , which is the 1st FMS Children's Seminar at the Portugal Headquarters dojang in Villar, Cadaval. And last but not least, they had their FMS Christmas party, where aside from a great celebration, Inst. Pinto gave out special appreciation awards to 3 very dedicated and important students. They were: Tiago Soares, Canta Dumitru, and Tiago Silva. They have not only been very dedicated and loyal students, but have also been instrumental to the development of FMS in Portugal. Congratulations gentlemen. Well deserved. And congratulations to Inst. Pinto on doing such a fantastic job, sacrificing and giving so much, setting the example and following his heart. It is awe inspiring to see your non-stop efforts to convey this majestic art that means so much to you. I'm glad, because I feel the same way too! Farang!

FMS - Michigan: Inst. Robert Hudson is in the process of putting together some new special self defense, awareness and safety workshops. They are scheduled for next month. He is also working on some special self defense videos. Wow!.. Sounds fantastic! I can't wait to see the completed project. You have our full support, and if there is anything I can do to help Sir, just ask.

FMS - Puerto Rico : To bring 2005 to a perfect end, we made our last trip of the year to visit our FMS family in lovely Puerto Rico. Huge thank you to Master Dennis Vega and all the FMS family in Puerto Rico for such a wonderful time. Thank you to Inst. Amalio Jimenez and his lovely wife Brenda for taking such good care of Inst. Gumina and myself. Thank you to Inst. Joseph Gumina for accompanying me to PR and being such a great helper. Master Vega's wife Gimasoa Vega, thank you will never be enough for the warmth and joy you gave to us (not to mention letting us steal your husband away soo much). Inst. Luis Soto, you are THE BEST. Thank you for your fine attention and being so available and helpful. And special thank you to all the FMS-PR family for making us feel so much at home. I truly feel like I am at home now every time I go to the enchanting island of Puerto Rico.

Farang!

We had an awesome pair of seminars on Knife Fighting and Submission Grappling. Thank you to Sigung Jerry Mendez and the Kajukempo PR group for joining us and having such a great time. Also, thank you to Master Pedro Rodriguez for having some of your guys join us as well. You are all now part of our extended family.

Farang!

While in PR, we managed to get in a color belt test. Good job everyone. I'm super proud of you all. We also had an advanced class focusing on Farang Jang Gum Sul (Korean Sword Arts). Very cool. We also had some fun working on special meditation and KI power classes, double middle sticks, staff, trapping, and lots of other things such as breaking. Soo much fun.

We were very fortunate to take in some of the beautiful sights of Puerto Rico as well. We went to the amazing underground river and Caves of Camuy. Of course we went into Old San Juan (that was automatic). While in Old San Juan, we visited the Senate building and took a tour. That was very enlightening and special. We also went to the awesome Moro Fort and Castle. So much history. Simply fantastic and so many breathtaking views. We were treated to a variety of authentic Puerto Rican cuisine, drinks and even hand made cigars. Twist my wrist, right? We ate all types of mofongo, platanos, amarillas, abichuelas y arroz, panes and alcapurrias, we drank all types of rum and pichorro (I hope I spelled that right). You name it, I think we had it. Thank you to Inst. Amalio Jimenez and Brenda for not only feeding us endlessly at your beautiful restaurant "House of Joy", but, also for the massage at your clinic on Monday. That was PERFECT! Inst. Cardona and Inst. Molina kept bringing us specialties (yum!). No matter how much I sweated in our workouts (and you all know that I do), I know I still gained weight. Well back to more workouts here at home.

Words can not describe my pride, joy and gratitude to all the FMS family in Puerto Rico. Thank you all again. I look forward to seeing you all here next year.

Other News: We got word that Marcin Muszyñski, who is an FMS student from Wroclaw, Poland will be extending his stay here in the USA. He has moved from Texas to Florida, where he will be for a few more months. I know this is a great opportunity for expanding his English language skills, among other things. We certainly hope that a trip to California will be in the plans for next year!

Birthday News: We are happy to announce the birthdays of our FMS Black Belts from all over the world, so all of you students will know exactly when you can show your gratitude and celebrate with your teachers. FMS Black Belt Birthdays for this month:
Inst. Ken Gibson Dec - 2nd and Inst. Stuart McCalla Dec -17th. Remember, you are an inspiration to so many, and this is your special day!

Next month of January will be: Inst. Shayna Merwin Jan -06th, and Inst. Sebastian Dorobek Jan -16th.