Amanda Takes Off...

The doctors in the States that say you can't really take drugs to cure a cold are wrong, wrong, wrong. I don't know what I've been taking, but the low-grade constant headache and painful throat/cold thing I had in both Atlanta and Minnesota is gone, gone, gone. It went *poof* after the first two doses of my miracle drug. Someone tell the Westerners, stat!

Thursday's tae kwon do class was fun. I found out Brave One's name.

During the first hour of class, Master worked on my form with me, and then another black belt helped me. I kick wrong, I punch incorrectly, and I bow too Japanese-like. (My old Master was in Korea during the Japanese occupation, which probably explains that!) Then we broke into groups of four and rotated stations. We sprinted back and forth across the floor 10 times (OK), did 50 squats (OK), 60 burpees/cherry pickers (um, yeah, no....) and 60 half-then-full jumping jacks (OK).

Then we had recreation time. We broke into teams by playing rock, paper, scissors. It's amazing how small changes in something so classic can confuse me. I throw scissors with my pointer and middle finger. The Koreans use their thumb and pointer finger. I throw paper flat (palm to palm) but they throw paper with the edge of the hand hitting the other palm. I was thrown by that. I tied the kid I threw against until I won.

I chose to join Brave's team and we played the funniest version of floor hockey I have ever seen in my entire life.

We were using focus targets as sticks, a small beach ball as the puck, and two cardboard boxes for goal boxes. The boys would bobble the ball on their targets, kick with their feet, and hit the ball like they were swinging tennis raquets. Master kept yellow carding people and telling them to keep the ball below the waist, but it didn't work. It became this sort of tennis-baseball-hockey game.

I was cracking up. However, I did score for my team. YAY!

Then we played soccer. And by we, I mean not me.

I think I'm really going to enjoy tae kwon do here.

Today I went to Kyobo Books, this overwhelmingly large bookstore. The ceilings are mirrored, there's a stationery store, a music store, an electronics store, a cosmetics store and more in this area. This picture doesn't even begin to demonstrate the scope and size of this store, but it does highlight the sheer population that was there today.

I saw this book and thought of Trish. The spine you can see on the left side belongs to a book called Good Morning, Kimchi! Kimchi is the last thing I want to wake up to in the morning, personally.

After Kyobo I went to some Korean classes. They're nearly free (1,000 won or $1.08 donation requested but not required) and you can start at any time. The teachers are friendly, too. We worked on numbers and after 90 minutes my brain was shot. But I think the classes will be good, especially combined with the book that Michael suggested and my tae kwon do classes.

At the subway station I grabbed this snack. I don't know what the green goo is. It wasn't very good.

Before coming home I went to the market near my house and managed to remember one phrase from class. I asked a woman how much nail polish remover cost. Somehow that question ended up with me sitting on the couch in her store while she gave me some green tea and practiced my dialogue sheet with me! She also asked me how old I was and told me how old she was, so I got to practice my numbers more. Who knew that adding one Korean phrase could wind up with tea and conversation? Welcome to Korea...