how do i get myself into these situations

deery-lou.

i think i joined a korean cult. these members of the ansan sisterhood program or just too much. tonight before heading to taekwondo do i get a call from paul who is in charge of the sisterhood program. he was calling on behalf of jung-bae, the man who wants to take me to daebudo. paul was calling to make arrangements. he wanted to know if i was available on saturday. not really thinking i said i had no plans. which is partly true because my previous plans haven't been finalized. he asked what time i would be available to go to daebudo because jung-bae wanted to take me there. realizing there was no way out of it and being the nice guy i am i told him anytime as long as it wasn't early in the morning. ten minutes later i got a text message and then a phone call from paul. it looks like i'll be heading to the island at 11am with jung-bae and his family. how did this happen. i never really expected him to follow through with the plans. perhaps i got too use to people in america saying we should do this or that and it never happens. not the case here. this people are determined. they always go out of their way to make people welcome. it'll definitely be an adventure. jung-bae, his wife, two son, and i spending the day together. jung-bae's english is not that great so i can only imagine the conversations we'll be having. i guess i'll just have to wait and see.

on other news. things at school have been a bit strange. there's some weird vibe going on that horace and i can't really seem to figure out. it all started around when i declined to teach some extra classes. they want me to work an extra 15 hours a week plus 2 hours on saturday for $4 an hour. i told them that i couldn't manage that. the pay was just too low especially since they were getting half of it. haf anyone. so anyway things have been a strained. the other day horace had a blowout with jk who actually yelled at horace. we tried to ask one of the teachers what was going on and she responded to horace by saying she doesn't want to get involved anymore and just wants to do her job. horace kind of blew up and said some things. in return she went to jk and told him. so much for not getting involved on her part. we now call her judas. to make a long story short jk and horace ended up in the elevator together this morning and seemed to work things out. according to horace he thinks that jk is having some family problems and thats why he's been a bit distance. which is kind of relief. at least we now know he's not mad at us for the extra teaching stuff. we still haven't signed contracts yet and i'm hoping this won't affect that. i really don't want to have to look for another job. although i don't think it'd be too difficult. there are plenty of jobs out there. i'll keep you posted.

i have a little buddy in taekwondo class. his name is tong cha-won. he's always saying hi to me and sitting next to me. its so cute. he tries to talk to me but i only understand a little of what he's saying. the other day he looked at me and said, "ethan, i'm so tired." my response, "me too." then he smiled. i love him. i've been trying to learn poomse 6 which is quite challenging since they actually haven't shown me the moves. i'm trying to copy them as the whole class is doing it. hello. i'm a foreign and don't understand korean please help. hopefully they'll show me some pity and take me through it step by step. the other day my kwanjangnim told me that my black belt test would be october. yikes! he also said that i need to start training really hard. he had me kicking the other day for 20 minutes straight. i was so freaking tired afterwards. i think they're trying to kill me. seriously, i do. tonight the kwanjangnim was sparring with some of the students. it was so funny to watch. he was totally kicking their ass. thankfully time ran out before it was my turn. next time he said i'd have to spar him. he just wants to kick my ass. why can't i spar with the little ones. oh, wait. they'd probably kick my ass too. its a lose lose situation for me.

approx. 32 hours until the island trip. wish me luck!!

be well…