Amanda Takes Off...

I ran by a bookstore around the corner from my job during my lunch hour (the one I got the Cho Jae Jin Men's Health magazine from). I wanted to see if they had any martial arts magazines.

I asked if he had taekwondo things. He handed me the Kukkiwon's two-volume Taekwondo Textbook. This is an updated edition, done in both English and Korean. I have a book with the forms in it already, but these were only 15,000 won each, with photos instead of line drawings. And it has a long history section, photos of the various moves, a chart of the striking points, information about freesparring, etc. I like the fact that I can see the Korean terms in Korean because I can't remember Romanized Korean words.

When I was checking out, he asked me if the books were for me. "녀, 태권도 좋아해요" He asked me if I had a black belt. I said, no, I was practicing pal jang. He said, "Pal jang? Pal jang?" He handed me back extra money, "OK, you, discount." I bowed slightly and thanked him kindly. I have no idea why I was given a discount, but when I told Master he laughed and laughed. He said, "See, taekwondo, good, good." (He also approved of the books and started telling me who the people in the photos were.)

Class was fine tonight. I have problems with this weird, almost kicking, moving across the studio move. I watch and watch and watch again and Master explains it to me over and over, but I just can't seem to do it. I pointed to my head and said, "I understand." I pointed to my feet and said, "I don't know." He asked me if I liked taekwondo and I said yes, but not this stuff.

We also worked on freesparring. I got to spar Brave, Studious, Grin, and Tired Guy. Several of the boys said, "Oh, Amanda, whoa! Good!" at some of my kicks. That was nice to hear, but I still feel clueless when it comes to sparring. Master called me over and told me to feint. He said I always attack and never feint. This is true. I said, "In America, we don't have feints." He grinned and said in English, "Feint, chance-maker." He demonstrated how to use feints—your own or your opponent's—as chance-makers to attack.

"Chance-maker" is my new favorite word. I am going to use that word. I am going to introduce it to the English language. What a great word. I'll tell him later that he means opportunity, but I was so digging "chance-maker" that I didn't have the heart to change it.

Before class started, while I was working on my poomse with the new stances, Studious walked in. He said, "Amanda! Amanda [something in Korean] University!"

"You got into University?"

"[Something in Korean] University!"

I tried Korean. "Studious. University. Go?"

"Yes!" He put his hand to his heart and took a deep breath, "So happy."

I cheered for him and gave him a ten, "잘한다!" It means, roughly, "good job," or "nice going."

Later Master told everyone and asked Studious if I knew what was going on. I said I did and asked where he was accepted. He's going to Suwon University, School of Science. I have no idea if this is a "good school" or not. Whichever school you go to here is more important than how you do, and Koreans are known to sort of go crazy in University, never studying or doing the work, and so on. Sogang University, which was founded by Jesuits, became known for actually failing students who didn't show up to class. What a concept.

At any rate, the pressure put on middle and high school, and especially third-year high school students here is hellish, and I'm very happy that he got into university. Even though I had nothing whatsoever to do with it, I felt very proud of him.

At the end of class, I noticed that Powerful was wearing socks with little roses on it. He always has fascinating socks on. I leaned down, looked at them, and said, "사랑해요." He looked at me and said, "I love you, too." Master looked at me and I pointed at his socks. I managed to get Master to understand that a few days ago, Powerful was sporting a pink hair clip on his jacket. I asked if it was his girlfriend's pink hair clip.

Well, Master had dragged Powerful outside for some talking to earlier while the rest of us warmed up and did poomse, and it didn't seem like he'd gotten into trouble, but I didn't know what was going on... I thought maybe he was talking to Powerful about the hickey-like mark on his neck.

Master said in Korean, "Yesterday, he had girlfriend. Today, he doesn't have girlfriend."

에이씨. (Aisch, something you wouldn't say to someone older than you, but you can say to someone younger than you, not exactly polite.) I didn't even know he had a girlfriend, I was only kidding around. I said, "Today?" He nodded. "At school?" He nodded. I got a disgusted look on my face, tskd and said, "I'm sorry."

He smiled, "Thank you."

Poor kid. He's such a darn sweetheart and he's a cute guy to boot. I'm willing to bet this was his first girlfriend, so I feel for him. I admit, I'm curious as to what Master said to him. Master is always coaching...broken hearts, homesickness, encouraging the boys to do well in school... I think he has a cool job.

(As a side note, it is illegal in South Korea to make false promises of marriage. I laughed long and hard when I found that out.)

I'm missing class tomorrow night to visit the nearby studio. Master told the boys what was going on and said, "Amanda choice, my schedule or Bangi studio." He sort of snarled when he talked about the other studio, so I asked what he wanted me to do. He said it was my choice, but we went back and forth, saying "Tongil" very nicely and "Bangi" in the worst possible ways, trying to top each other. We went back and forth until I pulled out my dictionary, looked up "traitor" and said, "I'm not a traitor." He shook his head and looked up "misunderstanding." I returned that with "joke." He said, "Oh! Me, too!"

I said, "I know. You, me, together, joke!"

It was his idea to keep me training, and this studio's master is a friend of Master's Haan Dong friend, and it's temporary, so of course nobody thinks I'm a traitor. Based on his reaction, however, I think the word may be taken more seriously here than in America.

I've been slacking on my Korean studies. It's time to kick it back into gear. I haven't been speaking enough Korean in class.