Amanda Takes Off...

Tae kwon do consisted of soccer for one hour (for one month classes are only 1 hr long). I didn't score and at one point one of the kids on my team said, "No think, Amanda." I don't know if he was saying I wasn't thinking or needed to quit thinking or what, but Master seemed amused. I just nodded very seriously and then we played 가위바위보 (gawi bawi bo or scissors, rock, paper) while watching the other teams play.

Before class I managed to make myself understood when I asked Master what the belt test cost. I had to say it two different ways. I tried "Test [Eng.] alma imnikka?" He shook his head. So I pointed to where the belt would be and said, "Taeguek sam jang alma imnikka?" He understood me and that was exciting. I'll get my new belt on Monday. I was wrong. It's not green; it's purple. Oooh, purple.

He also taught me what I'm supposed to be doing when I press my knees to the wall, so that should help with my front kicks.

I had to pick up more yarn for the baby jackets I'm designing right now. The woman I dealt with on Thursday wasn't there, but I managed to make myself understood to the gentleman who was working there. I should've brought the yarn because I don't know my colors yet and had to dig around to find another navy yarn to show him. He really had to dig around to find the yarn I needed and I am grateful for that. I have a feeling that dye lots mean nothing here, but oh well! I needed the extra yarn!

I also managed to buy pizza WITHOUT corn, peppers, ham, and all that other junk they've been putting on there. I know, my life is really exciting, eh?

After my Korean class yesterday (where we learned to talk about hobbies, sports, and food), I met Michael and Leslie for dinner. We met Michael's friend Xiandong (completely guessing on the spelling), a guy from China who's here for business. We had some dinner together and then went to the strangest bar I've ever been in. It's called Moo (무) and for some reason it was decorated with a mushroom theme. An exciting thing happened at Moo: we found out that I knew a Korean word that neither Michael nor Xiandong knew. 석류 (pomegranate)! So we had pomegranate soju, which tasted much like Kool Aid...

We went to a noribang afterwards, which was made more interesting by the fact that Leslie is a trained operatic singer. At one point Michael handed me the second mic and made me sing a song with him--in Spanish. He said, "You studied Spanish, didn't you?" So we sang Quizás, Quizás, Quizás together. A very abbreviated list of songs sung include Leslie and Michael doing a very exciting version of Copacabana, Xiandong and Michael singing some Korean song called Ha Ha Ha, and me singing Dylan's One More Cup of Coffee which actually has verses, not just Dylan Mumblin'.

Leslie and I will probably be getting together one weeknight this week sans Michael. She's a good egg.

This afternoon Ali and I met one of our students and her family at Outback Steakhouse for the student's birthday. Somehow this ended up with all of us wearing goofy hats (that the staff gave us, mine was a pumpkin) while the staff sang a song for her and took our picture for her to take home. I was also asked my blood type. I have no idea what my blood type is. O? At any rate, very nice family, and very kind of them to invite us out for lunch.

I had the belt test tonight. The testing environment was more formal than I'm used to. Master sat behind a desk that was draped in velvety material. There was a big sign behind him (I was too nervous to even try to read it) and he marked up all these papers. Before he showed up, at the very beginning of class, everyone was lifting their knees up against the wall. They showed me what to do but I don't know quite what the purpose was...

I think the test went well. I was the only one testing in my belt. I was taught to do front kicks with my non-kicking leg facing forward (the direction of the kick) but now I'm being told to rotate that foot 90 degrees. Also, I was taught to keep my foot fairly neutral when kicking, but now I'm being told to point the foot and pull the toes back. It's hard to overcome 2 years of training. I was also told to go 천천히 (slowly) on the form. Again, the speed that I was trained at for years is hard to overcome. I am not complaining, all studios are slightly different and this is good training for when I train with my third consecutive studio when I get back to the States. Also, he seems to understand. (Of course, I will retract this statement if I didn't pass the test.)

After everyone test and we bowed out, I was told that I could change and leave. I waited a bit, but Pyeong Ju didn't come out (nobody did) so I guess he was doing a lot of talking in Korean.

I stopped by the really local yarn store in the market near the studio. A much longer post is on my primarily knitting website, but here's a picture of it.

Today I had my first real "I want to cry (about Korea)" day.

It is summer here in Korea, which means everything changes. Kids are out of school and thus all of the private schools (hogwans) have "summer camps." So there was no tae kwon do on Monday and the schedule is weird for one month. I thought tae kwon do was from 6 to 8 pm. It's really from 6 to 7 pm or 5:30 to 7 pm, I'm not sure which.

I work until 5:30 and have to take the shuttle home with the kids, which means I don't get home until 6:45 or so. So today I was late (although only a half hour late since kids were missing from the shuttle) to tae kwon do. Master told me I was late and I told him I had work and eventually he called Jason (translator extraordinaire) and we three chatted back and forth and Master decided to change the whole schedule so that class starts at 6:30.

Oh no, no, no. I asked Jason to please tell him not to do that. I told him I didn't want to be the random 미국 (American) who messed up 24 other schedules just because I have work. He talked to Master.

At the end of class...it got changed.

Of course, the shuttle still isn't getting me home until 6:45. So I called Jason and asked him to talk to my big boss at the admin meeting tomorrow, because the whole schedule got changed and yet...I'm still going to be late. Jason pointed out that it's Master's studio and he can change things, but I know it was changed for me. Jason said he'd talk to everyone else at school. Hey, if I'm going to get special treatment one place, I guess I'll ask for it elsewhere... I'm already getting permission to take a taxi home tomorrow rather than riding with the kids because I have a belt test tomorrow. Oh, and normally belt tests are on Fridays but since I don't come Fridays, mine is tomorrow.

Pyeong Ju and I walked home together and I told her I was horrified that everything had been changed for me and she reassured me that it was OK. We stopped by the grocery store and we got these fabulous pomegranate ice cream bars (석류) for 250 won each! No nutrition labels on them. After destroying Michael's life by reading the nutrition label on the 돼지 bar (lit. "pig"), I don't even want to know...

I really am trying to be gracious, but I would hate for the other students to resent me. What was it I learned in anthro class? No matter how hard you try to be an observer, your very presence changes the situation.

Yesterday I took a day trip to some islands, Gangwha-do and Seongmo-do, in the northern part of South Korea in the West Sea. Michael's friend Leslie is visiting for several weeks, and they invited me to go with them. We were less than 15 miles from North Korea for much of the trip.

We visited a Buddhist temple, Bomun-sa, on the island of Seongmo-do. The temple site is dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. The site was very pretty, surrounded by juniper trees and set in the mountains. We climbed more than 400 steps to get to a bas-relief sculpture/carving called Eyebrow-rock Buddha. We also went to the beach where we peered across the water to North Korea.

We then visited the Goryeo palace site on the island of Seongmo-do. The palace was quite small but had some interesting history, as it was used as a place of exile twice by the royal family when Korea was under the control of the Mongols and Manchus. Most of it didn't look like it had been restored recently, which I liked.

Photos can be found in the gallery; here is one of my favorites.

When we got back to Seoul, we chowed on some great Indian food and Michael graciously offered to let me crash at his place.

Today we went to two foreign food markets and I grabbed two boxes of unknown-name Mac and Cheese. I don't normally do fake-cheese Mac and Cheese, but for 900 won each, I couldn't pass them up. I also bought 2 lbs of pepperjack cheese for 10,000 won. Ouch. At least now I know where to find some foreign markets...