Amanda Takes Off...

A nice weekend, if a bit exhausting.

Yesterday I met Good Man at Sinchon (not to be confused with Sincheon, both on the green line to further confuse you). We had breakfast/lunch together, then walked from Sinchon station to Kyunghuigung (a palace) to watch NewSabumnim's Demonstration.

Yes, I've now seen this demonstration three times in as many months.

What? Why?

Gordon (GW), a frequent commenter and fellow blogger over at Blue Wave Taekwondo School is in town for a foreign instructor's course at the Kukkiwon. He was here with a large group of people and I encouraged them to go to the demo, where I met all of them.

Unfortunately, the team seemed sort of tired at the demo. They just got back from a trip to the -Stans of Eastern Europe and while NewSabumnim claimed she wasn't jet lagged, I don't believe her.

Board Breaking
(New Sabumnim is the Woman)

Breaking Two Apples With One Jump

Meeting GW and his gang was awesome, even though I wasn't expecting that most of them would know me from my blog.

After the demo, I introduced NewSabumnim to Good Man or Good Man to NewSabumnim, however that would work out in Korean hierarchy. NewSabumnim told me to quit eating ice cream cause I'm getting fat. Thanks.

Went with the instructor's group to eat some Chinese food. This turned into a herding cats experience. GW wanted jajangmyeon and was told that they didn't have it. We went through a whole series of "I'm allergic to shellfish...I can't eat meat...I want soju..." before settling on fried rice for everyone (except the vegetarian who got tofu and rice). And then one guy said, "Hey, what's that?" and pointed to another table.

It was the jajangmyeon they didn't have.

GW said, "That's what I wanted! OK, no! Next time!"

I think Good Man was slightly overwhelmed. He was also quiet, though he appeared to be having a good time. Before we met them, Good Man told me that Westerners can meet and talk about anything, but Koreans need to have something in common and I think he is right.

We had coffee together then bid the group adieu. It was awesome to meet them, very cool to meet taekwondoists from America in Korea through the internet...

Good Man helped me with my Korean homework on the subway. I was using the (으)ㅂ시다 form to make "let's do X!" in a somewhat forceful way. (Both Good Man and YJ told me that this form isn't used too much.) I was also using the (으)니까 form to say "because of X then Z."

I was having fun changing the prescribed sentences to mostly slightly inappropriate ones while the ajosshi next to me was trying to figure out what I was writing. Good Man was a good sport.

Then I got to a chart with a list of verbs. I had to simply conjugate the verbs using the "let's do ~!" form. One of the verbs was 쓰다 which can mean to be bitter, to write, to use, to wear a hat or watch, and possibly a few other things. There was no context for the verb, so I immediately thought Let's wear hats!

I then started saying the same in Korean, over and over. 모자를 씁시다! Mojarul ssupshida! I found this terribly funny for no good reason.

Only bad thing was getting glared at my random strangers on the subway (and this was when we weren't studying Korean, so it wasn't about my hat silliness).

Yes. I am white.

Yes. Good Man is Korean.

Yes. We are a couple.

Get over it.

Interestingly, the worst looks came from a guy younger than us who was with his own girlfriend. At least I hope she was his girlfriend the way he was groping her...

Finally did my Korean homework since there was no getting out of it while riding the subway. Met YJ for a language exchange today and she was excited that I finally did my homework. We had coffee, then she came along as I bought some new jeans. We had dinner (while waiting for my jeans to get altered for length) together before parting ways.

A nice, busy weekend.