Amanda Takes Off...

Friday night's taekwondo class was a test. We started with a lot of running, then some poomse (I need to work on my stances) and kicking drills.

It was a good class, but when we were changing in the closet, Crybaby asked me a funny question.

"아만다, 기분이 나빠요?" Amanda, are you in a bad mood?

"아뇨. 왜?" No. Why?

"조용했어요! 말 안했어요." You were so quiet! You didn't talk at all.

"심사 했어!" We had a test!

She just laughed.

After class, Master asked if I wanted to have some dinner and soju. Master, his wife, their children, Officer and I went to the restaurant we met Good Man. On the way there I was holding Master's Daughter's hand. A very large truck passed as and I held her close to me and hugged a car to keep from being run over. At the very last moment she yanked free from me.

Oh my. God.

She ended up hitting her head against the very back of the truck while her mother and I were both yelling at her.

Oh. My. God.

Everything happened fast and in slow motion at the same time.

I scooped her up, she started bawling, the truck stopped, Master ran to talk to the driver, I reached up to touch her head, felt for blood, his wife yelled at me, "괜찮아?" Is she OK?

I felt no blood, no cuts. I nodded, "괜찮아! 괜찮아!" I started whispering to Master's Daughter, 괜찮아, 괜찮아.

The driver came around the back of the truck and talked to us, Master's Wife and Officer checked her head while Master explained what had happened.

I felt terrible and I couldn't even explain what happened because I was so freaked out. I was just clutching her and whispering, "You're OK, you're OK" over and over.

We got to the restaurant and I took her shoes off. We sat down, Master called her to the other side of the table. Her tears were already dry, not three minutes later. I looked at her, touched my head and mouthed, "괜찮아?" She grinned and nodded.

The owners remembered us and asked a) where I was from and b) where my boyfriend was. This time Master appeased them by telling them I was American and from Minnesota. The husband pulled out a little planner with a map of the US in it and made me point to my home state. The wife drilled me about Good Man.

We ate some delicious 닭갈비 and had some soju. I think poor Officer wanted to go home and I sort of felt bad. Since Master is her boss, she was basically being subjected to a wayshik while I was just enjoying the company of my Korean family.

At one point Master and I were chatting about Korean because I'm having a heck of a time with the relative clause. He was trying to explain it and we started talking about studying Korean in general.

"관장님, 작년 만났어요. 하지만 한국어를 말 할 수없었어요. 조금 긴장 했어요?" Master, we met last year. But I didn't speak Korean. Were you a little nervous?

Master and his wife both shook their heads and spoke at the same time. "아니요." No.

"그래요?" Really?

They spread their hands apart and Master said, while his wife nodded in agreement, "많이 했어요!" I was very nervous!

I laughed because I expected him to save face a little bit, but he wasn't afraid to tell the truth. He told me that he'd never spoken to a foreigner before. I'm sure if he really meant never or if he meant he'd never made a foreign friend. I know I'm the only foreign student he's ever had.

He said that his brother had called him and warned him that I was coming, so he had about five minutes to prepare for me.

For some reason I found that terribly funny.

Master said he speaks English well when he drinks, so perhaps he should drink soju before every taekwondo class. I laughed and shook my head and tried to say in Korean, "If you drink soju every day, your wife will not like me!"

"No, my wife likes you." She nodded.

"I know," I said. "But if you drink soju ever day...I think she won't like me." She smiled and nodded.

Master said, "I like soju, you like soju. I think you drank a lot in the US."

He thinks that? I shook my head, "No, Master, I only drink soju because I practice taekwondo."

"Huh?"

"태권도 연습하나까 관장님 만났어요. 만났으나까 소주를 마셔요!" Because I practice taekwondo, I met you. Because I met you, I drink soju.

We all laughed.

But it's true!

Last week I had to go to a public school teachers' retreat. The only really interesting thing about it was a taekwondo demonstration by Yong-in University. Photos are up in the gallery.

Yong-in Taekwondo Demo

When Master told me his brother's wife was pregnant, I asked if she was having a boy or a girl.

Master's Wife said, "They don't know. In Korea, doctors can't tell because parents want boys and..." she seemed to search for a way to explain it at my level of Korean. I understood.

"Ah, I understand," I said. "But if they give a doctor money? Will they know?"

Master laughed. "Oh, Amanda! You are Korean!"

Because this is a photo-heavy post, I've split it into a few pages.

I needed to do a bank transfer today. Expecting an adventure at the bank today, I brought the printout from my last bank transfer, my contract (to prove I legally made the directly deposited money in my account), passport, ARC, and bankbook. After being shuffled from place to place, the woman only looked at my printout and bankbook. Five minutes and one signature later, the money was transfered. She didn't even look at my ID. The whole thing was done in Korean.

Wow.

I was shocked.

After that to Seoul Grand Park, which includes a zoo (better than I expected, worse than most in the US, very plain cages, etc), botanical gardens, a huge amusement park, an art museum, some other technology museum, some forests, and many walking paths.

Welcome to Seoul Grand Park's Zoo

I didn't really want to go to the zoo but it was included in the ticket. I started walking along the edge of the zoo, on a nice paved path. The weather was wonderful, a nice 50 F or so, and there weren't many people there. It was nice and peaceful. I started walking along this path, taking photos.

Birch Tree

As I took this photo...

Blue Skies

...an ajosshi started chatting with me in Korean. I didn't want to be rude, so I answered.

Never answer an ajosshi! ㅋㅋㅋ

He said, "Let's go!" The path didn't have access to the zoo. You walked in one of two directions on it, those were your only choices.

So we walked, while he chattered away at me. I got some good Korean practice, he was very concerned that I was 28 and not married.

He wasn't creepy, he wasn't scary or anything like that. He was just an old man who came to the park a lot, retired, maybe a bit lonely. Some of the other hiking/walking ajummas and ajosshis greeted him and asked who I was, so I think he may have been a regular. "She's American."

When we'd walked around the path, he said, "Let's see the tigers!" So I followed my ajosshi down a little path to the zoo.

Ajosshi

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According to the English-language Everland guide I have, you want a "Romantic Christmas with your lovers."

Wow. Korea's got a sex revolution going on. Who knew?

Christmas is Korea is not really treated as a family thing. Christmas here consists of one day off of work and going to a coffee shop with your lover(s).

Today Good Man came over around noon. I was feeling suddenly very sick and asked him to pick up my grocery list for me. I made some foil packets filled with boneless chicken breast, small potatoes, onions, a bit of cream of mushroom soup, olive oil, salt, One Shot pepper blends, and herb and garlic or red pepper blends. Roasted those for an hour and had that for dinner with kiwis for desert.

We spent the day chatting, watching downloaded shows, and just enjoying being together.

A wonderful day.

Seafood for Sale on Christmas Day

This post from Brian in Jeollanam-do sums up why I will not be extending my contract in Korea.

***

"Master's Wife," I whispered, "is Master here?"

"Yes."

"Is Officer here?"

"Yes."

I scrunched up my face. "Um, I have a Christmas gift, but I forgot about Officer!"

She nodded knowingly, and took my gift.

After class (a Christmas party that consisted of watching some horror movie and eating snacks), I went to say goodbye to Maser. Master, Grin, Officer, Master's Wife and another man I don't know were chowing down on the gift I'd brought: two dozen molasses cookies and Snickerdoodles. I'd baked them Saturday and they'd kept very well. I'd found a straw woven tray from some Chuseok gift and used that for the cookie tray.

They enjoyed the cookies, which felt good.

I can bake.

***

I'm not sure if it's a full moon, nearly full moon, or just was full moon. Photo taken at 1954, ISO 100, shutter 1/100th, f/16. I have a tendency to really overexposure moon shots but remembered that the Sunny Sixteen rule basically works with the moon. Heavily cropped (I only had my prime lens!) and contrast lightly adjusted in Lightroom.

Christmas Eve Moon

Taken through a bus window. I think it's a dump. It's near several schools and a big open market area. Korea, Sparkling!

NOTE! I have moved my blog! You should have been redirected. Please make note of the new URL and update any links and/or bookmarks you may have. I will NOT redirect for a long period of time!

***

Random photos from the past month.

At taekwondo.

Crybaby, A Budding Photographer

Near Costco.

Depth of Field Study on a Branch

Pine Needles

Near my apartment.

Biomass

From a night out with Jennifer, Gym Guy, and Annie.

Meat

Good Man Laughing At...

...Gym Guy Describing How He Likes to Sleep

Shin Ramyeon Socks

Near the subway station.

Merry Soju Christmas

NOTE! I have moved my blog! You should have been redirected. Please make note of the new URL and update any links and/or bookmarks you may have. I will NOT redirect for a long period of time!

***

Tonight's taekwondo class was fun. There's this new fourth grade student who came to us from another studio. He has no balance. We were playing soccer and every single time he went to block or kick or hit the ball, he fell on the floor. At one point, I swear, he managed to do a flying side kick (or something like it) from a standing position. I couldn't stop laughing.

I was in charge of Team Crazy again and we totally kicked butt! I scored three goals, nearly all of them by accident. It can be nice being a tall woman in a game full of short kids. They kick the ball, I block it without even moving, and somehow manage to scores goals.

아싸!

In between games, Officer Sabumnim helped me with my Korean homework. I had to ask her three questions then used reported speech (which is a giant pain in the butt) to repeat what she said. I was glad she helped me cause the elementary students were just plain confused. Also, Officer seems very shy with me and I'd like her to feel more comfortable with me.

I'm not sure why she's so shy with me. I think it might be the fact that I'm 8 years older than her and that I've been at the studio for over a year.

"Good Man. If you had to describe Korean culture to someone, what's the first thing you'd start with?"

He thought for a moment and nodded. "Fake degrees."

I walked into the kitchen. I was afraid I was going to spit out my tea and wanted to be sure the sink was close by.

***

So Good Man met some teacher-friends of mine tonight, one of whom was black. Twenty-six and he finally met a black person. So odd.

As we were walking home (after dinner and ice cream) he said, "I will do your dishes. Will you make me a snack?"

"You're still hungry?"

"Yes."

I shook my head. "I don't have any food."

He grinned and said in a sing-song voice, "Yes, you have!"

Last night Master and I had soju together. We haven't had soju together since he met Good Man.

Good Man was supposed to join us, but he was stuck working until 12 am in Ansan, so he couldn't come. Master's Brother and the Sabumnim from his school were also supposed to join us, but that Sabumnim was teaching swimming and Master's Brother's Wife is 4 months pregnant, so they were spending the evening together.

So...it ended up being Master, our new Police Officer Sabumnim for a while and another friend of Master's for a while.

Master always speaks English better when he drinks soju, but since Officer was there, I tried to speak Korean. I've only met her twice and she's very shy and I was trying to make her more comfortable. She's not used to drinking soju and I taught her the rules, which Master found very funny.

Shortly before Officer left (around midnight) another friend of his came over. This man is one year older than us (his birthday is the last day of this year) and they met at a military training. He owns a Lucky supermarket in the market area.

Lucky had never met a foreigner before, so he was really fascinated by me. He kept asking all these questions and then I'd start to answer and he'd freak out and ask Master what I was saying. Master and his wife kept saying, "Listen to her! She's speaking Korean!"

I know Master and his wife understand me very well because they're used to me, my accent (North Korean!), we have our own little language and the like. But I think part of this guy's problem was that he's so unused to hearing foreigners speak Korean. I don't think it was simply an accent thing, I think it was some sort of a mental block.

Lucky was extremely interested in the fact that I am dating a Korean. Master said something about my boyfriend and he said, "What? Who is he? Is he Korean?... He's KOREAN?"

I have no idea why this was so interesting to him. He kept asking why I love Good Man. Well, really, how do you explain that?

I said that Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Europeans, black, white, yellow, are all different but that their hearts are the same. I said that language and food and culture may be different but that heart, mind, and ki (energy) are the same.

I'm not sure he believed me though.

He kept pushing, why do I love my boyfriend? I said, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"I've had many girlfriends."

"And why did you like them?"

He laughed, "Because I am a man!"

"OK, same thing."

Master thought I wasn't understanding the question and repeated it in English. I fully understood what he was asking, but when I'd answered "[Good Man]'s smart and nice and kind and I think he's handsome. I like him" that hadn't been good enough.

I said, "When we are together, we have fun."

But my answer still wasn't enough. Master asked me the question again for Lucky. I turned it on him. His wife was sitting next to me. I said, "Master! Why do you love your wife? Master's Wife, why do you love your husband?"

They looked at each other across the table, smiled, and she blushed. Master said, "OK, Amanda, I understand." He then said something to Lucky to get him to understand.

But Lucky was still interested in knowing why I'd ever date a Korean man because "foreign women don't like Korean men."

I asked why he thought that and he said that Westerners have stereotypes. I laughed and said Koreans had stereotypes about us, too and then started listing them, including "Korean men don't like foreign women."

After that I said, "I think many Western women think Korean men are too traditional. But..." Here I was a little uncomfortable because Master's wife was sitting next to me and I didn't want her to misunderstand me. But I think she knows me well enough to know that Master and I just friends, so I continued. "I came to Korea. And I met Master and his brother the first day. And I practiced taekwondo every week with Master and he is very nice. And his wife is very nice. And his kids and my little brothers and sisters. And I met my temporary Master and he was very nice. So I think not all Korean men are like ajosshis." (Master laughed at that.) "Some Korean men are not good. Some American men are not good. Some European men are not good. It's the same in every country. But some people are good. It's the same in every country."

That answer seemed satisfactory enough.

His wife and I got to chat a bit more when Master and Lucky were going on about I don't know what. She asked me a bit about my first date with Good Man. Then, when we were done, Lucky asked what our first date was like. Master's Wife and I both just laughed.

Lucky was so curious about me that I had to ask if he'd ever met a foreigner. He hadn't and I said he had a lot of questions. He said he wanted to form a closer relationship. I said, "I know. We are drinking soju together, so now we are friends!"

Master laughed and said, "See! She is very Korean!"

Lucky asked how I learned Korean and Master and I started talking about my studying at the studio, on my own, with language partners and Michael. Lucky was really surprised that I came to the studio speaking no Korean. I was really surprised that I was using the past, present, future tenses, "if...then," when, after, before, and must grammar patterns correctly.

Master's kids were cranky and we threatened them that Santa wouldn't come. Master called Santa and told him that if his kids weren't good, he couldn't come. I asked if kids put out milk and cookies for Santa here and they don't. I explained the tradition and said, "Maybe, in Korea, Santa drinks soju." Can you imagine? Soju and kimchi for Santa!

Apparently I was really on the ball last night because Master kept laughing at what I intended to be jokes.

Master's Wife kept the food coming and made some frozen crushed raspberry slush to mix with the soju. Master had frozen some soju beforehand, so I said "얼음 소주 머리가 아플 거 예요!" I will get an ice soju headache. Master promised I wouldn't. I have always wondered why his wife doesn't drink with us. She said she gets sick whenever she drinks, so now she just doesn't.

Since Good Man couldn't come, Master asked me to call him. Good Man apologized for not being able to join us and asked how I was going to get home. Master said I was going to take a taxi and that I was fine. Then I talked to Good Man, who asked me the same things. I said, "[Good Man], I heard Master tell you. I'm fine, I'll take a taxi home."

"OK, I just worry about you."

"But I'm with my Korean family. I'm OK."

When I did leave (after 1 am), Master and Lucky went out for beer. They invited me, but I knew better than to continue the evening any further. I am not Korean. I will break up a group.

The only problem was that Master told the taxi driver that I spoke excellent Korean. He was doing this to try and prevent the guy from screwing me on the price, but the guy then asked me questions the whole way home (about 25 mins) when my head hurt and I just wanted to sleep.

Saturday I met YJ for a language exchange. It's been a long, long time since we met. It was nice to see her.

We practiced a little bit of quoted speech and read a cute children's book by a Japanese author called, roughly, Me and Mom. A little bear is asking his mom why she loves him, then he does some naughty things and she scolds him, so he asks if she expected a good boy. She talks about being pregnant with him, and hibernating with him, and him being a good boy. The book is cute, but a little...twisted.

We also read the reading section of the last lesson of my 2A book. It's about James, who is riding the bus next to a cute girl. He wants to talk to her but she spends the whole 50 minute ride on the phone. With YJ I just practiced pronunciation and comprehension.

Yesterday I told Good Man I wanted to speak more Korean and dragged out my book and read the story again.

He laughed at me. He couldn't quit laughing at me. Apparently I sound like a North Korean. (Side note: no wonder I keep confusing "octopus" and "squid!" They're the same word but opposite on either side of the border!

Reading the Wikipedia entry I linked to above, I think I sound like a North Korean because of ㅓ.

The vowel ㅓ is not as rounded in the Seoul dialect as it is in the Pyongyang dialect. If expressed in IPA, it would be [ɔ̜] for the one in Seoul dialect and [ɔ] for the one in Pyongyang dialect. Due to this roundedness, speakers of the Seoul dialect would find that ㅓ as pronounced by speakers of the Pyongyang dialect sounds close to the vowel ㅗ.[Emphasis mine.]

Good Man says I sound like a North Korean because my voice isn't flat enough. Especially when I'm reading things that end in -sumnida and variations (-seossumnida and the like). But I recognize that ending very quickly and so I tend to rush through it and my voice goes up and down.

Besides laughing at my accent (which actually didn't bother me because people can still understand me) he was laughing at my answers to the questions about the story. One of the questions was "What happened in the story?"

I wrote, in Korean of course, "James likes a girl. But the girl is 된장녀. So she talks on the phone continuously. James is always lonely. ㅠㅠ [crying tears face]." Dweinjangnyoe means "soybean paste girl." It is a very recent slang word that describes the type of girl who wants to live a Sex and the City life, drinks lots of coffee, only cares about fashion and money and will only date paper-perfect men, preferably with lots of money.

I had a friend who failed the driving test 10 times and thus wanted a husband who made enough money that she could always have a driver. 된장녀.

Another question was, "If you were on the bus and someone like this sat next to you, what would you do?"

iPod을 들을 거예요. 여자가 전화[로] 얘기 많이 하면 바보예요. 그리고 나는 바보[걑은] 사람 안 좋아해요. (Good Man's correction in brackets.)
I would listen to my iPod. If a girl talks [on] the phone a lot, she is an idiot. And I don't like people who [seem like they] are idiots.

He couldn't stop laughing at me. I don't know why.

Last night Jennifer had a going away/Christmas/signed a new contract party.

There. Was. So. Much. Food. This still isn't all of the food that was there.

Food

There was also a Secret Santa gift exchange. At one point I got this...

Creepy Water Sloshing Present

The box says "If you open... you must eat... this very tasty treat!"

We couldn't figure out why Gym Guy had been manically giggling and chewing on napkins to try and stifle himself.

Tricky Gym Guy

It was a squid.

Squid

I got to change gifts. Actually, I'd gotten a French press at one time, but then someone stole it from me and I had to choose another gift. That's when I got the squid. After that I got to choose another one. I got a nice passport case in lime green. I actually have the same one in black, so Good Man's going to get it. Good Man got a bottle of wine.

And games, Jennifer made games! They played that fruit game. Gym Guy with his crazy monkey arms made a good showing.

Monkey Arms

I won the "a letter about Christmas game" with 22 out of 26 letters and got the movie Good Luck Chuck as a prize. When we played Pictionary, our team's contribution to the hat were dirty words. Their team won by one point...our words were easy to draw.

Jennifer Looks Slightly Disgusted by One of Our Words

We also played charades. This poor guy got stuck with both of mine. One was 된장녀, which I translated as "Sex and the City Korean woman." Then he got stuck with "LSD trip." The second photo just happens to be accidentally out of focus, but I think it adds to the trippiness...

Charades

That's a Trip?

Good Man and I didn't get back to my place until 4:30 am, after we both fell asleep in the taxi.

A great night, but I (we) will miss Jen when she's in Canada.

A few weeks ago I passed some of the students from my school playing video games. I got this very quiet student (a first or second grader, because I don't teach him) to smile for me. Composition is too tight, I know. I had my prime lens and just couldn't back up because the boys were jostling me.

Smile

One More Time

Last Shot

***

Last night's taekwondo class was fun. We played soccer and the kids couldn't stop tripping over each other, falling, kicking each other. One kicked me hard in the shins. I've got a bruise on the right one. Always that leg.

I told our team that our name was "팀 미쳤어!" Team Crazy! We would chant "one, two, three!" in Korean and scream "Team Michyeotseo!" and make devil's horns.

The other teams really did think we were crazy.

A Few Weeks Ago...
"Good Man, I know you installed email or whatever on my computer last night but...don't be angry, but Mark told me about Google Apps, so I can get all of my domain emails in one place. And Google's spam filter is much better than Squirrel Mail's, so I moved all of my accounts." I take a deep breath, "I had to do something with 'MX records' on the email servers or hosters. Or something. I don't even know what that means, but I was supposed to assign everything a 1, 3, or 10 value. I couldn't, so I just used 10, 20, 30 and kept them in the same order. Know what I mean? The only problem is...I have to figure out why the contact form stuff is still going to Squirrel Mail. So...I won't be using the email you set up. Sorry."

Good Man looks at me with milky, soft eyes. "It's OK."

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I like it when you're geeky."

Tonight
Tonight I figured out what the contact form problem was, something about bulk handling. I still don't know what this means, but I fixed it. I also managed to find a website to help me create my own contact form, since my old ones were coming back with empty messages. I installed the php and recoded to fix it.

Awesome.

Next up, moving this whole blog to a new domain and creating multiple blogs on said domain. Hmmm...

Help Me
Good Man doesn't do this sort of computer stuff, so he can't help me figure this out, but maybe one of you can...

Most of my pages are .shtml because I'm doing SSI. Because I designed my website like this from the beginning, I have NOT changed me .htaccess file to parse, yadda yadda. But it used to be that if you went to www.amandatakesoff.com/gallery or /list or /whatever, it would automatically go to /whatever.shtml without displaying that in the browser bar. I could link just to /whatever and it was fine. Now, for some reason, I must link to whatever.shtml and that ugliness shows up in the browser bar.

A) Does anyone understand what I'm saying and b) does anyone know how to fix it?

Oil Spill

So the oil spill here was right off of Mallipo Beach, where Michael took me for my birthday last year. It's also the first (and so far only) place I ever saw flying fish (so cool!).

Unfortunately, I can't volunteer to help because a) I have no way of getting there, b) volunteering on an E2 visa is sort-of-maybe-probably-illegal depending on which immigration agents you fall under, c) I don't think being in cold water in December would be good for my Raynaud's and cold-induced urticaria.

However! I can send money. For anyone else residing in South Korea, the info from the US Embassy newsletter is as follows:

Donations of money to assist in the clean-up operation are being received by the South Choongcheong Provincial Government at the following account:

Nonghyup Bank, Account No.: 471-01-002107, held in the name of: The Governor of South Choongcheong Province.

Penance

"Amanda," Master said, "Why you not in class?"

"Well, Tuesday..." I recounted a simplified, significantly less pissed version of the story in Korean. Master was nodding and chuckling. "And last night?"

"Ah, last night..." I made him look up "penance." He laughed and I explained what Good Man had done for penance. When I got to the part about buying roses, chocolate, a cheese stick, and Diet Coke, Master stopped me.

"Coca-Cola Light?"

"Yes," I nodded, "I like Coca-Cola Light."

He just shook his head and laughed.

"Master," I said in a perfect Korean whine, "If he's late, it's OK! But call me! And one person drinks, with one person who doesn't drink...it's not fun!"

"I know, Amanda. But now OK?"

"Yeah, Master, now it's OK!"

Last night was awful.

There are a lot of things about Korean culture I don't understand. There are things I dislike. There are few things I hate.

A 회식 (wayshik), forced coworker and/or boss binge drinking outings, would fall under the hate category.

To make a long story short, Good Man told me he would meet me at 9. At 950, having ignored multiple phone calls and text messages, he texted me that he would meet me around 1020. He finally showed up at 1100.

Completely drunk.

I. Was. Not. Happy.

Not happy that he was two hours late, not happy that he refused to answer the phone, not happy that he ignored text messages, not happy that he was swayingly drunk. Not happy that he didn't even bother to bring the Diet Coke I asked him to bring.

I told him to go home and he wouldn't listen. He just stood in my complex's hallway. Swaying.

Now, drunk people in Korea are treated differently than in America. In Korea, it's considered that drunk people don't have any control, so you forgive them for whatever they do. Also, being drunk is an excuse to tell the truth. After all, face saving and lying like Koreans do, all day long, day in and day out, gets mighty tiring. Drunk people are generally ignored. Similarly, Koreans' domestic spats and familial abuse (spousal, child, whatever) are "family matters" and thus ignored, even when they happen in public.

I am not Korean. All of my neighbors know I am white. I could not get away with leaving my Korean boyfriend's drunk butt in the hallway (I tried, and he wasn't leaving). They would not ignore that. My school would hear about that.

I had him come inside. And then I yelled at a drunk guy. A drunk guy who could not go back in time and fix it. I mean, this wasn't like he forgot to take out the trash, "now go do it and make it better." What was he going to say that would make it better?

I am loathe to admit a few things here, but I will.

One: The number of text messages I sent in two hours is probably equal to the total number I read/send in a day. The number of times I tried calling him is probably equal to the number of calls I make/receive in two weeks.

Ugh. I briefly turned into the type of girl I hate. And the type of girl I would hate to date. Ugh.

Two: I screamed at him, why couldn't he answer his phone or text messages and demanded to know if he was with some prostitutes, because "I can't really think of any reason you could pretend that you didn't notice all those calls and texts from your girlfriend unless you were with another woman."

(Prostitution, while being illegal, is rampent here. It is common for men to have sex with prostitutes during their military service, and these male-only forced-drinking things often end at juicy bars, songrooms with "helpers," and the like. I have a Korean friend who is married to his second wife. During his first marriage, his boss demanded he use a prostitute his boss hired for him or he would be fired. My friend was fired.)

Two and a Half: In fact, I made Sung Hyun (Gym Guy, Jennifer's boyfriend) ask him in Korean what the hell he'd been doing, because I thought maybe he'd tell the truth in Korean. His story stayed the same, nonetheless.

Jennifer, bless her, who had tried to calm me down pre-1100 entrance, told Good Man, "Amanda is really upset with you."

"I know," he mumbled.

Three: I knew it was pointless to argue with him because he couldn't go back in his magic time machine and make it better, but I did anyways. And I called him some really nasty names. Ugh.

Well, arguing/ranting at a drunk person is an infinite waste of time, so I went to bed and he fell asleep on the couch. I woke him up a few hours later for round two, when he was a bit more sober.

I asked him how Korean women deal with this. He said he thinks they give up. I told him I am not a Korean woman and he fell in love with me because I'm not a Korean woman. I told him I fell in love with him because he's not a traditional Korean male.

("Giving up" in fact, matches what a coworker told me months ago. Her husband had been out until 7 am drinking and spent 500,000 won at the bar. I asked her how she deals with the wayshik culture and she said she just ignores it, tries to swallow her anger, and hopes her husband isn't doing anything behind her back. "It's the culture, I know," she said, "but I really hate it." And like Master said, "All Korean woman hate wayshik, all Korean man know, OK!")

He said it would be different if we lived in the US, where they don't have these parties. I do not care about that excuse. We are not in the US. I still don't deserve to be ignored for two hours and then greeted by a sloshed boyfriend.

After some sleep and more talking this morning, I feel mostly OK. But damn. Damn.

On the way home, on the subway, I was knitting. A pack of ajummas+ (meaning ajummas on the cusp of being halmonis) were staring at me, fondling my knitting (why do ajummas do that?), talking about it. They started asking questions, in Korean, of course. I think I said I was working on that sweater for 6 years. Oops.

One asked if I was knitting the sweater for my husband. "No, I am not married."

She looked at me, her eyes getting wide, "How old are you?"

"Don't ask her that," another one scolded her. "Women hate that!"

"Twenty-eight."

"And not married! Oh, oh," she started clucking her tongue.

A third woman asked, hopefully, "Do you have a boyfriend?" while a fourth said in English, "Ah, miss? You miss?"

"Yes, Miss. Yes, I have a boyfriend."

The pack of wild ajummas gasped. "Is he Korean? Is he handsome? How old is he?"

I blushed as I answered all of their questions.

When they were satisfied, the primary woman said, "Ah, 28. I remember 28. But now I am a halmoni."

***

During work today, I was teasing two students, a boy and girl from fifth grade. They were throwing paper balls at each other, kicking each other, hitting each other. I made a heart with my hands in front of them. The boy tried to pull my hands apart but couldn't. "Ahhh, it's too hard," he said in Korean.

"태권도 연습해," I answered. I practice taekwondo.

***

Master points to his heart and refers to someone neither of us has ever met, "Open?"

"I think. It's like this..." I squeeze my hand into tight ball, barely parting my thumb and pointer finger, "little open."

"But Amanda, you know taekwondo. Go like this," Master says, mimicking spreading a heart open with his bare hands.

I laugh.

***
Tonight's taekwondo class was nice.

It was my first class with Training to Be a Police Officer Sabumnim. I sense she's a little unsure of how to speak to me because she doesn't know my Korean level. However, she heard me babbling at Master after class, so she should have a better idea now. Our first class together was definitely better than the one with New Sabumnim, in part because a) I knew what to expect a bit better and b) she's a bit softer than how New Sabumnim came off. This is her first Sabumnim job. She's been teaching the kids' day classes for about a month to train. And proving that I am indeed Korean, as Master always says, it occurs to me that she's rather young (20), so I expect less problems with her.

We worked on poomse after doing sprinting drills. After a short break, we jump roped 500 turns. My legs will be sore tomorrow. Then we did target drills with Master, but he was making me nuts. He kept turning around or moving to talk to another student. And he'd do it just as I was kicking. So I'd have to do some fancy footwork to keep my balance or to keep from kicking Master. After this had happened 5 or 6 times, I yelled, "Master! Why?" in Korean. He grinned, "Oh, Amanda, sorry!"

It was a run-of-the mill-class, but it felt really good.

My school was on my right side as I shot this photo this morning around 9 am. 50mm lens, ISO 200, f/11 at 1/100th.

The sun was coming up over the edge of the mountain. Beautiful. By the time I left eight hours later, it was gone.

I lightly cropped in Lightroom. I used the punch preset on all three. I can't decide which image I like best.

Color

Strong Contrast Color

Contrast at 100 Color

Low-Contrast B&W

High-Contrast B&W

"Amanda, your turn, go" my studiomates whined.

"Wait!" I snapped at them in Banmal. "십초!" Ten seconds!

We were working on poomse, eight of us, each of us counting off a form. I was counting the last form in the color belt sequence, pal jang.

My studiomates were rushing through their forms, sloppy. They weren't saying "바로" or "시엇" (return, bow), both of which I consider important parts of practicing forms. These acts return you to your original position. They act to center you, to close the form, to bring your energy back to its original state. Of course, these steps may be skipped depending on your training purposes, but tonight was not the time to skip them.

They were going from a sloppy ending of one form into a sloppy beginning of another. I was not going to encourage that habit.

"Ten seconds! Wait!" I growled.

I waited until every child was standing rod straight. I used my strongest (not loudest), clearest voice. "Tae guek pal jang! Junbi!" I waited. They fidgeted. I waited until they were still again. "Hana!" I checked everyone. "Dul!" I checked again.

Master said to go slowly, I was going to go slowly.

When you've learned forms, you can sort of get on autopilot and do them without thinking about the next step. Again, this sort of practice has its place. Tonight was not it. I wanted to confuse them just a bit. Make sure they really knew the form. "Set!" By slowing down, I was going to test them.

(My problem is counting in Korean. If I slow down, I can lose my place, especially when I get around the tricky 17, 18, 19 area. But I didn't make any mistakes tonight. I passed my own test.)

We went through the form, slowly.

I scolded them when they bowed long before I said siot. We went through each form again. I was dripping in sweat, my arms trembling from the power I was trying to use. The boy next to me kept trying to poke me for fun, kept whispering my name. I glared at him. Forms are my favorite aspect of taekwondo and he wasn't going to ruin it.

My turn to count came again. I did the same thing. Strong, clear voice. Slow count.

Master spied me across the room. He grinned and shot me a thumbs up.

While I was waiting to meet Good Man to have fish eat our feet, I saw a guy taking pictures of a guy skateboarding. So I took pictures of them. Actually, at one point I was standing next to this...raised platform/sitting/meeting/thingy area and the skater zoomed past me, about 6 inches from me.

I guess he figured I wasn't going to move.

After that, I figured I had every right to shoot photos of him.

All photos taken with the D80 and 50mm lens. I shot in shutter priority, 1/80th and 1/125th.

First Try I

First Try II

Second Try

After these shots, I decided I needed to focus on the last half of the run more (I had tons of boring shots of the first half of his runs). I got the last half of this run. The "X" he's making tells me that he wasn't happy with the run.

Third Try I

Third Try II

Third Try III

***

Tonight I got some terribly, terribly long messages on my handphone.

"Good Man, what do they say?"

"They're from a lover."

"A lover?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Well!?" I looked at him, "What do they say?"

"I miss you all the time...I love our time together...when I can't call you I can't get any work done...I can't sleep...I really like our time together."

Earlier I'd sent the guy a "Who are you?" message (in polite Korean). He'd written back an apology, that he'd meant to send it to his girlfriend. After Good Man told me his messages, I texted the man again, this time in English. "Your girlfriend is very lucky! You really love her! Good night! ^^"

Good Man was curled up next to me on the couch. I looked at him. "Hey. Why don't you send me sweet messages like that?"

He lifted his head to look at me, smiled.

"I'm serious," I laughed, "I want sweet messages like that. You need to go back to a military day. Send me messages from your helmet."

"But I do your dishes."

I burst out laughing.

From the Doctor Fish Cafe.

Eyes

Hands

Smile