Amanda Takes Off...

Happy birthday, Dad! Saengil chukkuhamnida!

I didn't make it to last night's class since I fell asleep an hour before I was supposed to leave and woke up more than an hour after I was supposed to leave...

Tuesday's class, however, was great. NewSabumnim ran us through a bunch of kicking drills. At one point she told me to twist my foot more on my roundhouse kicks.

"Master always says that," I said in Korean. "하지만...할수 없어요. 아마...다음 달에 할수 있어요." But...it's impossible. Maybe...next month it's possible. Luckily she burst out laughing, which is what I wanted. I wasn't trying to be insolent.

We were doing turning back kicks (hook kicks? I have no idea what to call them in English) and she was having each of us stand next to her while she held the target. We were supposed to be looking at something. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what we were supposed to be noticing. She tried to make me understand I tried to understand but... I was however, very grateful that she included me in the line up of watchers rather than figuring I wouldn't understand so I shouldn't watch. One day I will understand what she wanted me to notice.

The last half hour of class was primarily a lecuture from NewSabumnim about respecting your parents and doing chores. She was making everyone say "I promise" after each lecture point. I'm sure this was done in part because Tuesday was Parent's day.

I listened politely but kept my mouth shut. In Korea you live with your parents until you're married (generally speaking, YJ is 30 and just moved out of her parents' home a few months ago). I remember H once saying that his brother (about 30 years old?) "is independent but still very respectful of our parents." I can't convey how he was treating the word "independent," as if it were a bad thing.

I was mentally practicing how to say "I am 28 years old. I have not lived with my parents since I was 18. In America, being independent is good," if she said something to me. Luckily, she didn't.

Then she left and Master came to talk to us about the tournament on June 6th. He told me that he called to check that I could compete, and I can! I won't be the oldest one there because Goalie's Mother will be doing poomsae competition.

Afterwards he helped me with the form. I'm going to do striking (격파) and poomsae (품새). There's an option to do each one as a team vs independently. I asked what that meant. As a team, you start and stop at the same time. It didn't sound like it was necessarily a team you chose, which seemed odd to be. The individual style means that 8 or 10 or 12 (I can't remember) people are all doing the same form, but they may be off of each other. He recommended I do it individually, which was my own idea.

For poomsae, I'll be doing Koryeo and my choice of either Sa Jang or Pal Jang. I laughed when he said I'd be doing Koryeo. "What, you don't know it?" I know it as well as Ghost and Brave's Brother and Unnamed One have taught it to me. Master hasn't even gone over all the steps with me and he's the one who does a good job of explaining why I'm doing something.

In any case, at our school anyone who wants to compete and is able to (has a black belt) does. That means I don't feel a ton of pressure.