Amanda Takes Off...

This is a photo heavy post. You are warned.

I left Sunday morning and arrived Monday night, as scheduled. (And that is messing with my head. I keep thinking it's already Wednesday, which is the wrong direction my head should be going in.) Jason and the other foreign teacher, Ali, picked me up. Ali has been here for about two weeks, so she's already got that steep learning curve thing down, which helps ME! (I am reminded of only having been in San José for two days and showing two new arrivals around.)

I'm on the seventh floor of my building. Here are two shots of what I see, taken at about 6:00 because I couldn't sleep. One to the right, the other to the left. I took six photos and wanted to seam them together, but I haven't figured out how, and seeing as how it's nearly 1 am, it isn't getting done right now.

After school, Jason took Ali and me to the bank, so I now have an ATM card in Korean for a Korean bank with a Korean bank book. Most interestingly, they needed a name for the account, but it could only have three characters, so they couldn't do the Korean form of my full name. My last name doesn't translate particularly well, so they decided that the name on my account is "Amanda." And for the record, that's the third vowel I've been told to use for my middle beat. OK, now it's on the bank account, it's what I'm using!

Then we went back to my apartment while the cable guy installed cable, DSL, and gave me my cell phone. (Yes, I went from having no TV to having Korean cable. It's the only way ANYTHING comes in, including International CNN, and since North Korea is threatening a nuke response I figure I might like to have it.) The phone is in Korean.

I mentioned, while the workers were there, that I was interested in tae kwon do, and did any of them know where a studio was? One guy has an 11th grade son who takes it up at the stoplight and 150 m to the left. So there came some weird, complicated discussion about the worker calling his son, the son calling Jason, and Jason calling me, to get the son to take me to the studio. But the son doesn't speak English and my Korean is up to 4 phrases, so Jason finally decided he would take me.

First, we went to the wrong studio that was a partner studio to the studio we were supposed to go to. At both studios we spoke to the masters about my level of experience and why I want to take tae kwon do. (Forms, breaking boards, self-defense, competition, earn a black belt?) I don't know what the "correct" answer is, but I said for physical fitness. I said I like doing the forms most of all, although I enjoy breaking a good board. I said that I wanted to earn a black belt one day for me, but that I didn't want to teach or compete. Really the whole conversation would have been much faster had I no experience, but I felt like both masters would be happy to teach me, and that was a good feeling.

The Unintended Studio has more kids than adults, and one woman who teaches kids. They have mats on the floors and classes are M-F for an hour. The Intended Studio has a few more adults, one woman, and wood floors. There are classes M-F for TWO HOURS.

Both studios offered the "women" statements without me asking. Neither studio has any foreigners, and I can go watch classes at both places before I choose. And both studios warned me that they only teach in Korean. I said I knew that, but would it be OK if I looked confused and stupid for the first week? Both masters just laughed and said it was OK. Both studios do the Tae Guk Il/I/Sam/Sa.... series of forms, which is the one I prefer. (My master in Atlanta taught both ITF and WTF forms.)

I am leaning to the adult/wood/2 hr classes but flat out said I couldn't start at 10 hrs/wk. He said he would be flexible for me. Maybe 3 times per week. The classes would run from 8 to 10 pm. I can go to a 1 hr 6 pm class, but that cuts very close to work, and that class is mostly kids. We were there before the 6 pm class started and as soon as I walked in the studio, the kids swarmed behind me and just stared at me. Flat out, jaw-to-the-ground staring at me. I smiled at one kid twice, but he just gaped. I wonder how dry his mouth was when I finally left?

Thank goodness for Jason today. I HATE needing to have someone translate for me. It makes me feel so helpless.

Then Ali and I went grocery shopping at Lotte-Mart which is like a higher class Walmart on speed. Holy moly, too much fun. I love shopping for food when I have no idea what it says. I was reading the Korean on some cereal. "G...no, K. K-O...twice... B or P...O...R, maybe like L..." Kokobor. Oh! Cocoa Ball! That was awesome. I was very proud of myself. Only when I came home did I notice it was written in English on the lid, too.

Also, a lot of things were packaged "plus." As in, "4 bars of raspberry lychee soap +1" or "milk [of an unknown fat content because they don't seem to have labeling laws] plus strawberry milk!" Cheese plus, noodles plus, cleaning supplies plus...

So I have a Korean bank account, phone, and cable. I will soon have a "too many hours per week, how will I ever have a social life" Korean tae kwon do studio. I figured out how to make the clothes washer dry, but I haven't figured out how to get hot water. The right combo of buttons is working for Ali, but not for me... Will work on that tomorrow. Two cold showers in a row is too much.

So, I spent the second Fourth of July in a row outside of the country. But today I spent it as my first full day as an ex-patriate. (I said "ex-patriate," not "ex-patriot" Department of Homeland Security!) Somewhat ironic, I suppose.