Amanda Takes Off...

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.

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.