Amanda Takes Off...

I am between jobs right now and technically homeless. Interesting.

This week has been exceedingly busy, but taekwondo was good the nights I went. Wednesday we played soccer at the school and I went after Master. He kept saying, "Oh, Amanda, good!" I wasn't getting the ball, but I was on him the whole time.

Thursday Master gave me my red belt, then said he was very 바쁘다 (busy, occupied, not free) and he asked the college student Girl I Rarely See to teach me the first several steps of my new poomse. She taught me the first several steps, then she kept saying 혼자. I had no idea what she was talking about. Studious and Powerful tried helping but finally I got out my digital dictionary to find out she was saying "alone, one person."

(A few of the boys and Gold Medal Girl are testing for new dans tomorrow, hence the reason he was so busy. I told Master I wanted to see a test, so it looks like I'll get to watch a dan test at the end of the month.)

During the break I was reading one of the student's Korean workbooks. I got to the word 말랑말랑하다. Studious, Cocky Guy, and Powerful started trying to explain it. "Jelly," Studious said. "Like this," Cocky Guy said, pinching the flesh on his arm. But they kept saying it wasn't exactly like jelly. I said, "Squishy?" I kept asking if I should just get my dictionary, but the boys wouldn't let me. They were bent on getting me to understand it without just translating, for whatever reason. Studious grabbed the corner of the body sized target and said, "Amanda, 말랑말랑하다. I said, "이게 말랑말랑해요." The word indeed means soft, squishy, tender.

Then I asked about 팔짝팔짝뛰다. 팔 is also the word for eight and arm. Cocky started screaming the word, slapping his arms then screaming "짝, Amanda" jumping hard. Turns out that it means to jump the way a frog jumps.

We played soccer Thursday night and I learned the words 편 (team) and 회전하다 (turn, twist). I straight knocked Late Boy to the ground just for the heck of it; Master cheered me on. Then Master asked me to come down to his office after class, where he introduced me to a friend of his from University, someone three years his senior. He runs a studio a neighborhood away. I have no idea if I got introduced because I don't know the guy, whereas most of my studiomates might, or because I'm foreign or what.

Master then told me I needed to get more friends and I told him the Americans here are crazy.

Friday Heidi graciously helped me get a cell phone. It's really hard for foreigners to get cell phones here and it took an hour and a half to get it done. I have to pay more than Koreans, but I wanted a cell phone that would be for me and in my name and not linked to my school in any way. It's bad enough that my housing and visa are linked to my school. I don't need them to be able to check my phone records as well.

It is very nice having a Korean friend. I've edited some letters for her, she's helped me get a cell phone, I'm going to edit her resumé for an internship she's applying for, she's helped me exchange jeans, and translated an entire letter that I wrote. But the cool thing is that we're actual friends. Going to the play together, having dinner together, and she invited me to her sister's wedding at the end of the month. I even said to her, "I hate asking you to help me so much, but I really appreciate it." She said, "Oh no, you're a friend, don't feel bad for asking for help." I'm glad she doesn't feel used, because I really do like her.

After getting a cell phone, we stopped by the studio together to get some paperwork done and Heidi found out that Master was not telling me to get more friends. He was telling me that if I had any American friends in Ha-an Dong, his friend would like to teach them. Ohhhh. It's amazing how well I misunderstood him.

Leaving the studio, Heidi and I ran into Girl I Rarely See and Tall New Guy. Actually, Tall New Guy shoved some food in my mouth before I even saw him. I looked at him, this pastry in my mouth, thinking Where the heck have you been, dude? and Is she your girlfriend, because I still don't know, but only said, "What is this?" in Korean. It was a yam pastry, actually quite good. But it was a bit of a shock to have someone shove food straight into my mouth as I was walking down the street. Heidi didn't know either of them, so they all met. When we departed, I got to see the Koreans really bow to each other after a first meeting. That was interesting because it was so low.

I wonder if foreigners can ever get the whole bowing thing down perfectly. I doubt it.

Later I went to the studio. Powerful and another guy, the one the other guys say is black, were in trouble for something, Talking, motorcycles, not quite sure what Master was trying to tell me. I've never seen them look so shamed. Tall New Guy and Girl I Rarely See were on the bench. Right away Tall New Guy was back in old form teasing me. I teased him back until he asked if I wanted to fight with him in English. I stuttered out in Korean, "I here daily. Tall New Guy? Where? Who is Tall New Guy?" After I stuttered it out again, the other teenage boys started cheering for me.

We didn't fight.