deery-lou.
this morning when i looked out the window i noticed that it was snowing. nothing major. just a few little flakes here and there. like a drizzle. i had overslept and my energy level when down. i didn't much feel like going to taekwondo but i did. my routine upon arriving at tkd is to do stretching while the rest of the kids are running around like wild chickens. they're throwing rubber balls, kicking rubber balls, and bouncing on giants balls. it never fails that a ball hits me quite often. it was during my stretching that my friend bill approached me as he always does. today he told me that he's seen me for 4 days now. being the very observant child that he is he then asked if i was stretching. and whether or not i was good at it. i told him that i was ok. somedays good, somedays not. again he told me that the blue belt was bad. "he's always bad", he said. he then asked if i liked kimchi. my reply was yes to which he said, "very good." he went to say how he wished he could speak english. i told him that he was speaking english. but he insisted it was good. i told him otherwise. class started and we took our places. for most of the class my sahbamnim had me jump roping until it was my turn to practice poomsaes. i swear he's trying to kill me with all the jump roping. i am getting much better though. while i was putting on my socks at the end of class bill came up to me again. "i hope to see you again," he said. i told him it probably wouldn't be for awhile since i going back to night class. he then asked if my parents were dead. i told him no. then he said that he was seven years old and wanted to know how old i was. i told him i was 35. he replied by saying i was "old". then said my parents must be very old. as we were leaving class he told me that was he just older he was to go to america. i know i've said it before but i love this kid. we walked down the stairs sharing idle chit-chat. on the second floor his grandfather was there and i bowed to him. i said good bye to bill and then they left. i went to change. i'm hoping that this is not the last time i'll see my friend bill. he definitely made these last 4 days quite memorable. i never did get that picture. but i won't give up. i'm sure i'll be seeing him again.
be well...
Monday, February 27, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
my friend bill, part 2
deery-lou.
today bill came up to me and said "i met you three days ago." techincally it was a week but i let that slide. he was bouncing around the gym on a giant green ball. he made his way to me and asked if i was stretching. i said yes. while i was stretching out my legs he told me it was time to sit down. at one point during class he was just standing there crying. or at least pretending to cry. not really sure what was up with that. periodically he just let out these wild cries. all the other kids seem to laugh at him but he just doesn't care. he does what he wants. i love him for that. while the kids in my class were playing a game, i had to practice my back kick. they were playing some sort of dodge ball game with 5 balls. one of the balls nailed me in the face. and i wasn't even playing. hehe. after class bill waited for me. he asked what we were going to do tomorrow. i told him i didn't know. he replied by saying, "me neither." as we walked down the stairs he pointed to the boy next to me and said he was the bad boy. he keeps hitting him, pinching him, etc. but the girl in front was good. i then told him i had to go get changed for work. he told me to be good and went on his way. this boy kills me. i need to get a photo of him.
be well...
today bill came up to me and said "i met you three days ago." techincally it was a week but i let that slide. he was bouncing around the gym on a giant green ball. he made his way to me and asked if i was stretching. i said yes. while i was stretching out my legs he told me it was time to sit down. at one point during class he was just standing there crying. or at least pretending to cry. not really sure what was up with that. periodically he just let out these wild cries. all the other kids seem to laugh at him but he just doesn't care. he does what he wants. i love him for that. while the kids in my class were playing a game, i had to practice my back kick. they were playing some sort of dodge ball game with 5 balls. one of the balls nailed me in the face. and i wasn't even playing. hehe. after class bill waited for me. he asked what we were going to do tomorrow. i told him i didn't know. he replied by saying, "me neither." as we walked down the stairs he pointed to the boy next to me and said he was the bad boy. he keeps hitting him, pinching him, etc. but the girl in front was good. i then told him i had to go get changed for work. he told me to be good and went on his way. this boy kills me. i need to get a photo of him.
be well...
Thursday, February 23, 2006
lost or stolen
deery-lou.
i got a letter from my mom the other day. within her letter was a letter from bank of america. apparently they were concerned that a third party had gotten hold of my debt card and put a block on it. i called them to find out what was up. not sure why i did because you never get the information you want from these people. i spent 10 minutes on the phone and he kept repeating the same information over and over. i asked why it was blocked. he response was that it was called in lost or stolen. funny but i don't remember calling them. i asked who reported it stolen or lost. he had no answer. i guess anyone can report you card lost or stolen and they'll block it. hmmm. he told me that the old debt card was no longer valid. a new one was sent out. all i had to do was activate it. i told him i was living in another country. in which he responded by telling me to call the 1.800 number. i asked what part of living in another country he didn't understand. calling a 1.800 number from korea doesn't work that easily. he gave me a new number. it'll be quite interesting to see how this transpires. especially since i have no idea what my pin number is anymore. footnote: i was talking to him after i had polished off 7 glasses of korean wine. probably not a smart move. i'm sure i was being an uber b.i.t.c.h, too. also during this time i thought that my debt card was in my wallet. so after i hung up the phone with him i decided to get my debt card out of my wallet. well, much to my surprise it wasn't there. i checked the other place i usually keep it and it wasn't there either. oops! i guess i had lost it somewhere along the way. it seems odd to me though that someone from korea would call and report it. the good news is that no transactions were made. unlike poor misty who just got her wallet stolen and someone charge $800 dollars on it. so now i'm awaiting the arrival of my new card. hopefully they'll be able to give me a pin too.
tomorrow i'm heading off to the north to go to the mountains for an office retreat. good times.
be well...
i got a letter from my mom the other day. within her letter was a letter from bank of america. apparently they were concerned that a third party had gotten hold of my debt card and put a block on it. i called them to find out what was up. not sure why i did because you never get the information you want from these people. i spent 10 minutes on the phone and he kept repeating the same information over and over. i asked why it was blocked. he response was that it was called in lost or stolen. funny but i don't remember calling them. i asked who reported it stolen or lost. he had no answer. i guess anyone can report you card lost or stolen and they'll block it. hmmm. he told me that the old debt card was no longer valid. a new one was sent out. all i had to do was activate it. i told him i was living in another country. in which he responded by telling me to call the 1.800 number. i asked what part of living in another country he didn't understand. calling a 1.800 number from korea doesn't work that easily. he gave me a new number. it'll be quite interesting to see how this transpires. especially since i have no idea what my pin number is anymore. footnote: i was talking to him after i had polished off 7 glasses of korean wine. probably not a smart move. i'm sure i was being an uber b.i.t.c.h, too. also during this time i thought that my debt card was in my wallet. so after i hung up the phone with him i decided to get my debt card out of my wallet. well, much to my surprise it wasn't there. i checked the other place i usually keep it and it wasn't there either. oops! i guess i had lost it somewhere along the way. it seems odd to me though that someone from korea would call and report it. the good news is that no transactions were made. unlike poor misty who just got her wallet stolen and someone charge $800 dollars on it. so now i'm awaiting the arrival of my new card. hopefully they'll be able to give me a pin too.
tomorrow i'm heading off to the north to go to the mountains for an office retreat. good times.
be well...
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
my friend bill
deery-lou.
i made a new friend in my tae kwon do class. his name is bill. he is 8 years-old. he has a shaved head and his uniform is always messed up. i don't remember him from before. it could be that he was in another class. during class on monday he walked by me and i smiled. well, that was all it took. within seconds he came over to me and started talking english. he actually spoke very well. he was telling me that he was korean and that i am in korea now. which was good to know because i wasn't quite sure where i was. hehe. he then told me how this other kid in class was bad. it seems like a lot of kids pick on my friend bill. he's a tough one though. he keeps giving it back. bill started asking me all kinds of questions: age, am i married, can i speak korean, etc. on two different occasions i told him how he spoke english very well. the second time i mentioned it he called me on it by saying, "you told me that already." what a cutey! we spent the rest of class chatting here and there. while we were chatting about 6 other students circled around us. they wanted to be a part of it too. my friend bill played interpreter. it was actuall quite amazing. after class he asked me to wait for him so i did. he ran back to get his shoes then he and i made our way down the stairs. he paused at the poster for beauty and beast and asked if i had seen it. i told him no. he saw it though. he said that he enjoyed it. when we got to the ground level there were a couple of bubblegum toy machines. bill preceded to tell me which toys he got out of each of them. he opened his hands to show me the two toys. i pointed to the green one and asked him what it was. he told me it was a robot. it was. as we passed the two video games he pointed to the one and said, "it has monsters." once outside we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
on tuesday as i approached the top of the stairs to tae kwon do there was my friend bill. he turned to look at me and said, "i met you yesterday. it's nice to see you again." i told him it was nice to see him too and we headed for the gym. i spent a majority of the class watching my friend bill. he's a bit out there, but good for him. in a country where everyone seems to be a carbon copy of each other its nice to see someone stand out. watching him jump rope was a trip. the boy was all over the place. he made me laugh. he came up to me today and again told me that the same boy from monday was being bad. i just want to put him in my pocket. it's too bad i only have a few more days of the morning class. bill definitely makes it interesting. here's to bill, my new friend.
be well...
i made a new friend in my tae kwon do class. his name is bill. he is 8 years-old. he has a shaved head and his uniform is always messed up. i don't remember him from before. it could be that he was in another class. during class on monday he walked by me and i smiled. well, that was all it took. within seconds he came over to me and started talking english. he actually spoke very well. he was telling me that he was korean and that i am in korea now. which was good to know because i wasn't quite sure where i was. hehe. he then told me how this other kid in class was bad. it seems like a lot of kids pick on my friend bill. he's a tough one though. he keeps giving it back. bill started asking me all kinds of questions: age, am i married, can i speak korean, etc. on two different occasions i told him how he spoke english very well. the second time i mentioned it he called me on it by saying, "you told me that already." what a cutey! we spent the rest of class chatting here and there. while we were chatting about 6 other students circled around us. they wanted to be a part of it too. my friend bill played interpreter. it was actuall quite amazing. after class he asked me to wait for him so i did. he ran back to get his shoes then he and i made our way down the stairs. he paused at the poster for beauty and beast and asked if i had seen it. i told him no. he saw it though. he said that he enjoyed it. when we got to the ground level there were a couple of bubblegum toy machines. bill preceded to tell me which toys he got out of each of them. he opened his hands to show me the two toys. i pointed to the green one and asked him what it was. he told me it was a robot. it was. as we passed the two video games he pointed to the one and said, "it has monsters." once outside we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
on tuesday as i approached the top of the stairs to tae kwon do there was my friend bill. he turned to look at me and said, "i met you yesterday. it's nice to see you again." i told him it was nice to see him too and we headed for the gym. i spent a majority of the class watching my friend bill. he's a bit out there, but good for him. in a country where everyone seems to be a carbon copy of each other its nice to see someone stand out. watching him jump rope was a trip. the boy was all over the place. he made me laugh. he came up to me today and again told me that the same boy from monday was being bad. i just want to put him in my pocket. it's too bad i only have a few more days of the morning class. bill definitely makes it interesting. here's to bill, my new friend.
be well...
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
friends
deery-lou.
a journal entry by sue.
friends
I have a good friend.
He wears glasses.
He has a good heart.
I want to get along
well with him. [here she added hearts, stars, and triangles]
be well…
a journal entry by sue.
friends
I have a good friend.
He wears glasses.
He has a good heart.
I want to get along
well with him. [here she added hearts, stars, and triangles]
be well…
Monday, February 20, 2006
jordan's journal
deery-lou.
on monday i collected journals. if you recall from my earlier post on kukkiwon i saw one of my students there. here's what he had to say about it in his journal.
how cute is that! in class i often call him "jordan catalano". i actually gave all my students last names in that class: [benjamin grimm, alexander the great, ruby tuesday, isabella rossellini, erik estrada, kevin eubanks]. jordan is a great kid. cute, funny, and he is always smiling which puts me in a good mood. i most confess that their class is one of my favorites.
be well…
on monday i collected journals. if you recall from my earlier post on kukkiwon i saw one of my students there. here's what he had to say about it in his journal.
how cute is that! in class i often call him "jordan catalano". i actually gave all my students last names in that class: [benjamin grimm, alexander the great, ruby tuesday, isabella rossellini, erik estrada, kevin eubanks]. jordan is a great kid. cute, funny, and he is always smiling which puts me in a good mood. i most confess that their class is one of my favorites.
be well…
art by jordan
deery-lou.
art by jordan.
friday, february 17th. the day before kukkiwon. can you guess what he had on his mind?
anna teacher & ethan teacher about to spar.
j.k.
be well…
art by jordan.
friday, february 17th. the day before kukkiwon. can you guess what he had on his mind?
anna teacher & ethan teacher about to spar.
j.k.be well…
Sunday, February 19, 2006
kukkiwon
deery-lou.
first let me thank all of you who sent me emails, called, or left comments wishing me luck. i really appreciated that. it felt like you all were with me on saturday. as you can probably tell i survived my test. my nervous engery didn't implode inside me. my morning started at 8:30am. i tried to sleep a little longer but couldn't. i was actually surprised i got any sleep. it took an episode of survivor and 3 project runways until i finally drifted off into the land of dreams. not really sure if i had to be at my tkd school at 11am or noon, i decided i'd shoot for 11:30am. of course when i arrived my sahbumnim looked at his watch then at me indicating i was early. i went into the gym and started stretching and practicing. at around 12:40 horace showed up. he was going to ride with me and my class to the testing center. we left around 1 pm. we arrived at kukkiwon at 2 pm. shortly upon arrival christine and anna showed up. then a few minutes later young arrived. yes, my co-workers came to cheer me on. the testing center was not how i imagined it. i was expecting a gym of sorts. instead it looked like a school theater right now to the wooden movie theater seats. apparently this was a second testing site since there were so many people. there were at least 300+ at this site. the program didn't start until 3 pm. there were three performances by a taekwondo troupe. its always interesting to watch them perform. following them was a magic act. yes, i said magic act. for a minute i thought i was actually in high school watching talent night. when the magic act ended, there was a brief introduction of the judges and then it began. the testing was arranged by groups. i was in the first adult group which meant we wouldn't take the stage until after all of the children were finished. talk about a long wait. jordan, one of my students, was actually there with his tkd school to take his test. it was pretty funny to see him. i learned from anna that i needed to score a total of 60 points to pass. she tried to explain to me how it was broken down but it didn't make any sense. the test was set up in three parts. in groups of 15 you enter the stage and face the judges. this meant your back was facing the audience. the first part was practicing kicks, punches, blocks, etc. you really didn't know what you were going to have to do until the announcer called it out. this had me a bit worried since i only understand a little bit of korean. my kwanjangnim told me when it was my turn to just look at the people around me and copy. the second part was the poomsaes. we had to do 2 different poomsaes. one of them was definitely paljang [8] and the other one was a random poomsae [1-7]. after the poomsaes were finished you bowed then headed to the back portion of the stage for fighting. there were three fighting sections going on at one time. after an hour of watching this over and over my nerves started to subside and i was actually getting bored. my group finally took the stage at 5 pm. i walked around to the side entrance where they had sheet of thin foam on the ground for us to sit on. we sat in numeric order. i was number 7. at first i was sitting in the wrong spot so they had to point to where i was suppose to sit. no one there spoke any english. i'm not sure if i mentioned this yet but i was the ONLY foreigner there. the man started speaking. i just stared. there was nothing else i could do. i did realize that he was taking roll. i wasn't sure how i was suppose to answer. when he got to me he looked muttered something and then moved on. my group of 15 included 6 ajummas, 8 college students, and me. let me just say that all of the college students were BIG. where were all the skinny, lanky ones. then i thought that perhaps i'd have to fight an ajumma. how funny would that be. before i realized what was happening we were motioned onto the stage. it was time to begin. the butterflies in my stomach picked up speed. we bow and then the test began. i feel pretty confident with the punching and kicking segment of the test. during my first poomsae sam jang [3] i messed up a little bit at the very end. i knew it at the time too because it felt wrong. there's a slight possiblity they didn't notice since my back was toward them. i'll have to wait and see. the next poomsae was pal jang [8]. once i finished the first poomsae i felt much more relaxed. i think i actually did fairly well on this one. no mistakes that i realized. when we had finished we bowed again to the judges and headed off stage and toward the last part of the test:fighting. unfortunately i didn't get to fight an ajumma. i got paired up with a college student. he was big, too. once we were suited up we headed over to our designated fighting spot. i'm not really sure how long the fighting actually lasted. it felt like forever. especially since i was getting the shit kick out of me. i did manage to get a few kicks in here and there but nothing major. this guy was fast. he nailed me once in the groin but i kept going. i was actually pretty proud of myself. after our fight i was completely exhausted and very thirsty. my opponent shook my hand and said something in korean. most likely it was "thanks for letting me kick your ass". i walked back up to the front where my kwanjangnim was and he gave me a thumbs up. i won't know for sure if i pass for two weeks.
the first part of my very long saturday was over. i felt relieved. i felt tired. however my night was just beginning. tonight was horace's farwell dinner in seoul with his friends. from the tkd test center we jumped on the subway and made our way to namaste for dinner. namaste is the very yummy nepali/indian food. once again i had the chicken butter curry and garlic nan. i could literally feel the fat growing on me. after dinner we hopped into cabs and headed for the comfort zone. the comfort zone was this really cool bar. its an area i had yet been too. but from the look of the shops its one i definitely need to check out. there's a university nearby so its kind of a young crowd. i love finding new areas. young went with me to the pharmacy so i could get some cream for my hand. it had been throbbing ever since i blocked a kick while fighting. we had one cocktail at the cz then headed off for "the hill" in itaewon. we hit two bars in "the hill" soho and queens. from queens we went to a dance club called del. it was in the basement of the hamilton hotel. the place was packed. we stayed there until 4 am. thats when young and i headed back to soho for one final drink and await the openning of the subway. at 5:20 am we head for the trains. i finally got home around 6:50 am. my day was finally over. it was time to get some much needed sleep. and thats what i did.
be well…
14 days and counting
first let me thank all of you who sent me emails, called, or left comments wishing me luck. i really appreciated that. it felt like you all were with me on saturday. as you can probably tell i survived my test. my nervous engery didn't implode inside me. my morning started at 8:30am. i tried to sleep a little longer but couldn't. i was actually surprised i got any sleep. it took an episode of survivor and 3 project runways until i finally drifted off into the land of dreams. not really sure if i had to be at my tkd school at 11am or noon, i decided i'd shoot for 11:30am. of course when i arrived my sahbumnim looked at his watch then at me indicating i was early. i went into the gym and started stretching and practicing. at around 12:40 horace showed up. he was going to ride with me and my class to the testing center. we left around 1 pm. we arrived at kukkiwon at 2 pm. shortly upon arrival christine and anna showed up. then a few minutes later young arrived. yes, my co-workers came to cheer me on. the testing center was not how i imagined it. i was expecting a gym of sorts. instead it looked like a school theater right now to the wooden movie theater seats. apparently this was a second testing site since there were so many people. there were at least 300+ at this site. the program didn't start until 3 pm. there were three performances by a taekwondo troupe. its always interesting to watch them perform. following them was a magic act. yes, i said magic act. for a minute i thought i was actually in high school watching talent night. when the magic act ended, there was a brief introduction of the judges and then it began. the testing was arranged by groups. i was in the first adult group which meant we wouldn't take the stage until after all of the children were finished. talk about a long wait. jordan, one of my students, was actually there with his tkd school to take his test. it was pretty funny to see him. i learned from anna that i needed to score a total of 60 points to pass. she tried to explain to me how it was broken down but it didn't make any sense. the test was set up in three parts. in groups of 15 you enter the stage and face the judges. this meant your back was facing the audience. the first part was practicing kicks, punches, blocks, etc. you really didn't know what you were going to have to do until the announcer called it out. this had me a bit worried since i only understand a little bit of korean. my kwanjangnim told me when it was my turn to just look at the people around me and copy. the second part was the poomsaes. we had to do 2 different poomsaes. one of them was definitely paljang [8] and the other one was a random poomsae [1-7]. after the poomsaes were finished you bowed then headed to the back portion of the stage for fighting. there were three fighting sections going on at one time. after an hour of watching this over and over my nerves started to subside and i was actually getting bored. my group finally took the stage at 5 pm. i walked around to the side entrance where they had sheet of thin foam on the ground for us to sit on. we sat in numeric order. i was number 7. at first i was sitting in the wrong spot so they had to point to where i was suppose to sit. no one there spoke any english. i'm not sure if i mentioned this yet but i was the ONLY foreigner there. the man started speaking. i just stared. there was nothing else i could do. i did realize that he was taking roll. i wasn't sure how i was suppose to answer. when he got to me he looked muttered something and then moved on. my group of 15 included 6 ajummas, 8 college students, and me. let me just say that all of the college students were BIG. where were all the skinny, lanky ones. then i thought that perhaps i'd have to fight an ajumma. how funny would that be. before i realized what was happening we were motioned onto the stage. it was time to begin. the butterflies in my stomach picked up speed. we bow and then the test began. i feel pretty confident with the punching and kicking segment of the test. during my first poomsae sam jang [3] i messed up a little bit at the very end. i knew it at the time too because it felt wrong. there's a slight possiblity they didn't notice since my back was toward them. i'll have to wait and see. the next poomsae was pal jang [8]. once i finished the first poomsae i felt much more relaxed. i think i actually did fairly well on this one. no mistakes that i realized. when we had finished we bowed again to the judges and headed off stage and toward the last part of the test:fighting. unfortunately i didn't get to fight an ajumma. i got paired up with a college student. he was big, too. once we were suited up we headed over to our designated fighting spot. i'm not really sure how long the fighting actually lasted. it felt like forever. especially since i was getting the shit kick out of me. i did manage to get a few kicks in here and there but nothing major. this guy was fast. he nailed me once in the groin but i kept going. i was actually pretty proud of myself. after our fight i was completely exhausted and very thirsty. my opponent shook my hand and said something in korean. most likely it was "thanks for letting me kick your ass". i walked back up to the front where my kwanjangnim was and he gave me a thumbs up. i won't know for sure if i pass for two weeks.
the first part of my very long saturday was over. i felt relieved. i felt tired. however my night was just beginning. tonight was horace's farwell dinner in seoul with his friends. from the tkd test center we jumped on the subway and made our way to namaste for dinner. namaste is the very yummy nepali/indian food. once again i had the chicken butter curry and garlic nan. i could literally feel the fat growing on me. after dinner we hopped into cabs and headed for the comfort zone. the comfort zone was this really cool bar. its an area i had yet been too. but from the look of the shops its one i definitely need to check out. there's a university nearby so its kind of a young crowd. i love finding new areas. young went with me to the pharmacy so i could get some cream for my hand. it had been throbbing ever since i blocked a kick while fighting. we had one cocktail at the cz then headed off for "the hill" in itaewon. we hit two bars in "the hill" soho and queens. from queens we went to a dance club called del. it was in the basement of the hamilton hotel. the place was packed. we stayed there until 4 am. thats when young and i headed back to soho for one final drink and await the openning of the subway. at 5:20 am we head for the trains. i finally got home around 6:50 am. my day was finally over. it was time to get some much needed sleep. and thats what i did.
be well…
14 days and counting
Friday, February 17, 2006
mcdonalds, games, and a tkd test
deery-lou.
hi. i ate almost a whole baguette tonight. oink. oink. my nervous are completely shot for tomorrows big test. of course while sparring with my sabanim today i did something to my foot. it throbbed all day long. hopefully by tomorrow it'll be all right. on thursday i took a field trip with one of my classes. first we went to mcdonalds where all the kids wanted fries and coke. anna and i were the only ones eating burgers. the kids pretended their fries were fangs and acted like vampires. needless to say i joined in. then they kept giving me the coke they didn't want to finish. i did manage to score enough points on my mcdonalds card for a free order of 20 mcnuggets. lucky me!! after mcdonalds we headed over to the game room. fun. i played a fighting game. it took me a little while to realize i needed to be sitting on the other side to make my person move. hehe. i still haven't mastered the "selecting the players i want." the machine keeps picking them for me. one of these days i'll figure it out. so anyway now its friday. and i wishing it was monday. hehe. i need to be at my gym by noon tomorrow for some last minute practicing. let the good times roll. now if i can only get some sleep. i'm sure i'll be dreaming of visions of my doing taekwondo all night. i'll let you know how it goes.
be well…
14 hours and 15 minutes and counting!!!!!
hi. i ate almost a whole baguette tonight. oink. oink. my nervous are completely shot for tomorrows big test. of course while sparring with my sabanim today i did something to my foot. it throbbed all day long. hopefully by tomorrow it'll be all right. on thursday i took a field trip with one of my classes. first we went to mcdonalds where all the kids wanted fries and coke. anna and i were the only ones eating burgers. the kids pretended their fries were fangs and acted like vampires. needless to say i joined in. then they kept giving me the coke they didn't want to finish. i did manage to score enough points on my mcdonalds card for a free order of 20 mcnuggets. lucky me!! after mcdonalds we headed over to the game room. fun. i played a fighting game. it took me a little while to realize i needed to be sitting on the other side to make my person move. hehe. i still haven't mastered the "selecting the players i want." the machine keeps picking them for me. one of these days i'll figure it out. so anyway now its friday. and i wishing it was monday. hehe. i need to be at my gym by noon tomorrow for some last minute practicing. let the good times roll. now if i can only get some sleep. i'm sure i'll be dreaming of visions of my doing taekwondo all night. i'll let you know how it goes.
be well…
14 hours and 15 minutes and counting!!!!!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
saint valentine
deery-lou.
to all of you who take the time to stop by…
today was filled with lots and lots of chocolates from the girl students. in korean valentine's day is the the day where girls give boys chocolate. on march 14 [white day] its the boys turn to give the girls chocolates. i decided to make v-day cards for all of my students. after passing out cards to one of my classes they decided to make their own cards on ripped pieces of paper and hand them to be. it was too cute. yuni gave me a card with her box of chocolates. it said:
for Ethan.
you teach me not long
time. but you are nice
teacher. i will endeavor
study English! Happy
Valentine!!
2006.2.13
From Yuni
be well…
4 days and counting!
to all of you who take the time to stop by…
today was filled with lots and lots of chocolates from the girl students. in korean valentine's day is the the day where girls give boys chocolate. on march 14 [white day] its the boys turn to give the girls chocolates. i decided to make v-day cards for all of my students. after passing out cards to one of my classes they decided to make their own cards on ripped pieces of paper and hand them to be. it was too cute. yuni gave me a card with her box of chocolates. it said:
for Ethan.
you teach me not long
time. but you are nice
teacher. i will endeavor
study English! Happy
Valentine!!
2006.2.13
From Yuni
be well…
4 days and counting!
Monday, February 13, 2006
jump rope [poem]
deery-lou.
another poem by brent
jump rope [poem]
hand hand turn
faster turn foot
jump foot
foot foot jump
faster foot
turn hand exacting
be well…
another poem by brent
jump rope [poem]
hand hand turn
faster turn foot
jump foot
foot foot jump
faster foot
turn hand exacting
be well…
Sunday, February 12, 2006
what am i doin'?
deery-lou.
saturday i had a special taekwondo class. we practiced our forms for one hour. we went through all eight twice. rested. then did them again. rested. practiced kicking. and at the end my master called out three different forms for us to do. i felt pretty confident up until the the end. not sure if was because i was completely tired or hungry but during my last two forms i completely messed up. i started doing form 7 when i should have been doing form 6. then when i was doing form 8 i threw in some moves from form 7. i think my head was going through form overload or something. needless to say i left class feeling not so confident. am i really ready for saturday? i don't know at this point. its too late to turn back. i'm just going to have to try to do my best. its funny because i'm not so much worried about getting the belt as i am by embarrassing my masters. this is going to be the fastest week of my life.
be well…
6 days and counting!
saturday i had a special taekwondo class. we practiced our forms for one hour. we went through all eight twice. rested. then did them again. rested. practiced kicking. and at the end my master called out three different forms for us to do. i felt pretty confident up until the the end. not sure if was because i was completely tired or hungry but during my last two forms i completely messed up. i started doing form 7 when i should have been doing form 6. then when i was doing form 8 i threw in some moves from form 7. i think my head was going through form overload or something. needless to say i left class feeling not so confident. am i really ready for saturday? i don't know at this point. its too late to turn back. i'm just going to have to try to do my best. its funny because i'm not so much worried about getting the belt as i am by embarrassing my masters. this is going to be the fastest week of my life.
be well…
6 days and counting!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
i am ethan!
deery-lou.
here's a drawing that ruby did to accompany her five sentences. enjoy!
be well…
p.s. i attempted to take a picture of the banner. i need to do it in sections then place them together in photoshop. unfortunately only one was in focus. oops! i'll try again on saturday seeing that i have to go to class at 3pm. training, training, training…
here's a drawing that ruby did to accompany her five sentences. enjoy!
be well…
p.s. i attempted to take a picture of the banner. i need to do it in sections then place them together in photoshop. unfortunately only one was in focus. oops! i'll try again on saturday seeing that i have to go to class at 3pm. training, training, training…
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
so long and farewell…
deery-lou.
today was bittersweet. i had to say good bye to sally who is moving away. sally was my first student at ils. she hasn't been to class since last wednesday so it was a surprise when she showed up today. she came barring gifts: pizza. we had a little party in class. i gave her a pez dispenser as a parting gift. hopefully she'll use it well. i wish you well, sally. i'll miss seeing her little brother who was always so much fun to play with when he visited.
on a lighter note when i arrived to taekwondo class on monday i noticed a new banner that was hanging in the hallway. it's probably about 5 feet long and about 2 feet wide. the banner had five giant pictures on it. two on either end and one in the middle. the pictures on the end were group shots of the students and masters. then when my eyes got to the center picture i froze. it was as if i was a deer caught in headlights. it was the picture of me and my masters. could i be any whiter in that photo. i nearly died of laughter. i'm on a freakin banner for my taekwondo class. how funny is that. i'm not quite sure what they plan on using the banner for. hopefully its just for show in the school. i should feel honored that that chose to use it though. it as if i'm reallly part of the group. how sweet is that. perhaps i'm on my way to stardom. hehe.
be well…
10 days and counting…
today was bittersweet. i had to say good bye to sally who is moving away. sally was my first student at ils. she hasn't been to class since last wednesday so it was a surprise when she showed up today. she came barring gifts: pizza. we had a little party in class. i gave her a pez dispenser as a parting gift. hopefully she'll use it well. i wish you well, sally. i'll miss seeing her little brother who was always so much fun to play with when he visited.
on a lighter note when i arrived to taekwondo class on monday i noticed a new banner that was hanging in the hallway. it's probably about 5 feet long and about 2 feet wide. the banner had five giant pictures on it. two on either end and one in the middle. the pictures on the end were group shots of the students and masters. then when my eyes got to the center picture i froze. it was as if i was a deer caught in headlights. it was the picture of me and my masters. could i be any whiter in that photo. i nearly died of laughter. i'm on a freakin banner for my taekwondo class. how funny is that. i'm not quite sure what they plan on using the banner for. hopefully its just for show in the school. i should feel honored that that chose to use it though. it as if i'm reallly part of the group. how sweet is that. perhaps i'm on my way to stardom. hehe.
be well…
10 days and counting…
Monday, February 06, 2006
i wonder…
deery-lou.
here's a journal entry from one of my students. her name is sue.
The Day Stuck in Traffic
I was in an automobile.
Cars were bumper-to-bumper.
I was too bored.
I wonder why there are so many cars.
be well…
here's a journal entry from one of my students. her name is sue.
The Day Stuck in Traffic
I was in an automobile.
Cars were bumper-to-bumper.
I was too bored.
I wonder why there are so many cars.
be well…
Sunday, February 05, 2006
24 [or more like 23:40]
deery-lou.
a question for you to ponder. if you've been out all night, by the time 5:30 am rolls around do you consider it super late or super early? and is it too much to be eating tuna-chikay [tuna fish soup]? on friday night [yes, can you believe i went out on a friday] i met up with jenny in seoul. she had a 1:30 pm flight on saturday so we figured we'd have one last blowout before her departure for mother england. here's a timeline of how my very long friday went [please note that i've been sick all week and have slept very little]:
8:30 am — showered and dressed
9:00 am — went with jk to fill out paperwork for a form of all my departures while in korea. i need this for my taekwondo black belt test
10:45 am – left to catch bus 55 for tkd class
11:20 am - 12:20 pm — spent most of class practicing kicking. YES! almost a full hour of kicking, kicking, kicking. i did manage to get in 2 minutes of poomsae practice. after class jk stopped by with my form. i then turned in all my paper work and money to my master. it looks like i'm really going. eeeeek!
12:30 pm — jk took me to lunch at lotteria. i got the new paprika burger, whatever that meant. we took the food back to school and ate there. the burger was actually quite tastey.
1:15 pm - 6:25 pm — these hours were spent in class. most of the classes had a speech test. after the test i played games with the children. [which translates to ethan teacher too tired to teach]
6:30 pm - 7:15 pm — i actually had a break from teaching. i surfed the net. hehe
7:15 pm - 7:55 pm — my last class of the day. it seemed to last forever
7:57 pm — i rushed out of school to catch the bus home. i needed to meet jenny by 10 pm in hongdae which meant i needed to be on the subway by 9 pm. got home at 8:10 pm. quickly checked my emails which was a good thing since jenny said she was running late. the new time to meet, 10:30 pm. i spent way too much time fussing with my hair. i was having a bad hair night. it at that stage where its too thick and heavy for wax to straighten it and not long enough to start curly. i'm so tempted to shave it all off once again. i think i had so much product in it that it was becoming a creature of its own.
8:45 pm — figured if i didn't leave my apartment now i'd end up messing with my hair some more. knowing that enough is enough i headed out for the subway. it was freezing outside. i think the temp was -15 c. burrrr! [could jenny have picked a colder night to out]
9:00 pm — i arrived at the station. shortly thereafter my train arrived. good thing i didn't have to wait too long.
9: 05 pm - 10:05 pm — my train karma was with my tonight. at the first transfer the train inbound was already there. yeah!!! i didn't even check if it was the right one. i just jumped on. there was no way i was going to wait in the cold. my second transfer was inside so i didn't really worry much about having to wait. although i was surprised that i was going to be super early. sometimes it takes an hour and forty minutes to get out there. not tonight though.
10:05 pm — i arrived at hongik station with plenty of time to wait. and that i did. wait. wait. wait. i did venture out to the freezing cold to get a hot coffee in a can. thank gawd for that. the man at the store even remarked about how cold it was.
10:45 pm — miss jenny finally showed up. of course she was standing near exit 6 when we had agreed on exit 2. i gave her a bit of a hard time.
10:45 pm - 11:05 pm — venturing out into the cold, we set out for our first stop on the evening: maryjane's. i got a little lost. sometimes things look so different depending on the hour you are there. it took us a bit longer than expected to get there. i seriously was beginning to lose all feelings in my toes. not fun.
11:05 pm - 2 something am — these hours were spent drinking two pitchers of long island ice teas and 2 shots of tequila each. we did a little bit of dancing, too. at one point we got busted while talking about someone at the bar. hehe so bad. mj's has got to be my favorite place. two of the workers there kept bustin a move all night long.
2 something am — we decided to move on. back out into the cold we went although we only got as far as across the street. there was a electronic club that jenny wanted to check out. she asked the guy if she could come in for only 10 minutes. she told him that she always wanted to come in and that she's leaving on saturday for good. the doorman ended up calling the manager. jenny told her the same story and after agreeing to buy a drink each she let us in. there were a total of 5 people in the place. we bought the drink special. i have no idea what it was. all i remember is that it was super tall, super strong, and super pricey. we did some dancing then jenny wanted to move on. since we weren't finished our drinks we decided to smuggle them out. [hi, are we in high school or something]. it was now 3 something am.
3 something am — as we were exited the bar we spotted a korean punk rock boy. he had a pink mohawk. jenny ran up to him and his friend and started chatting away. next thing i know we were following them into the f&f club. we got in for free since jenny said we were with them. the music was most awesome. all 80's. the good new wave stuff. it felt like i was back at e.a. [electric avenue, a club i went to in high school]. there were a few koreans but it was mostly filled with foreigners. we spent the next wee hours dancing and dancing and dancing. i did request a song "how soon is now" but it never played. the dj did play "this charming man" though. perhaps he didn't have the other. our dance cards full we opted to cruise. it was now 4 something am.
4 something am - 5:30 am — miss jenny had the munchies. she wanted to go into the plastic tent restaurant to eat. granted at this time i had no concept of time. i sat there and looked around the crowded restaurant and thought how cool it was to see two mom type women out and about eating and drinking soju. then it dawn on me the time. i looked around again and couldn't believe all the people out eating and drinking still. after several failed attempts of jenny trying to order food. they didn't have what she wanted. she settled for tuna chikay. which is basically canned tuna fish in a spicy soup with dumplings, rice cakes, and kimchi. not a big fan of the tuna fish but there i was at 5 o'clock in the morning eating TUNA FISH!!! the transformation is complete. i am now officailly korean. we finished our meal then made our way back out into the cold.
5:30 am — too cold to walk to the subway station we hopped into a cab. where the cab dropped us off didn't quite look like the station entrance. instead it look like a side entrance and the door was still bolted. we walked out and went into a nearby hotel. we told the person there that it was so cold outside and if we could sit in the lobby. they said yes.
5:50 am — we left the hotel, went back down the non-subway station entrance only to find it still closed. we headed back out to the street and hailed a cab. this driver actually took us to the subway station. jenny decided that she was going to take the cab all the way home. she asked him to wait as she went down to get her stuff out of the locker. it took a bit to figure out how to get the stuff out. apparently not only do you have to pay to put you stuff in it but you have to pay again to unlock it. go figure. then we said our good byes. i headed to the train and jenny to the cab.
6:00 am - 7:oo am — it was another 3 trains to get home. i slept most of the way. the heated seats felt soooo good. i'm always surprised that i end up waking up one stop before my actual stop. i'm waiting for the day that i completely sleep through my stop.
7:20 am — i made it back to my apartment. i felt like a walking zombie. i was never so happy to see my bed. i slept until 1 pm. my entire day was spent in bed watching tv. i forgot how good china beach was. i watched 4 episodes. there's nothing better than marathon tv. i am a tv junky...
be well…
a question for you to ponder. if you've been out all night, by the time 5:30 am rolls around do you consider it super late or super early? and is it too much to be eating tuna-chikay [tuna fish soup]? on friday night [yes, can you believe i went out on a friday] i met up with jenny in seoul. she had a 1:30 pm flight on saturday so we figured we'd have one last blowout before her departure for mother england. here's a timeline of how my very long friday went [please note that i've been sick all week and have slept very little]:
8:30 am — showered and dressed
9:00 am — went with jk to fill out paperwork for a form of all my departures while in korea. i need this for my taekwondo black belt test
10:45 am – left to catch bus 55 for tkd class
11:20 am - 12:20 pm — spent most of class practicing kicking. YES! almost a full hour of kicking, kicking, kicking. i did manage to get in 2 minutes of poomsae practice. after class jk stopped by with my form. i then turned in all my paper work and money to my master. it looks like i'm really going. eeeeek!
12:30 pm — jk took me to lunch at lotteria. i got the new paprika burger, whatever that meant. we took the food back to school and ate there. the burger was actually quite tastey.
1:15 pm - 6:25 pm — these hours were spent in class. most of the classes had a speech test. after the test i played games with the children. [which translates to ethan teacher too tired to teach]
6:30 pm - 7:15 pm — i actually had a break from teaching. i surfed the net. hehe
7:15 pm - 7:55 pm — my last class of the day. it seemed to last forever
7:57 pm — i rushed out of school to catch the bus home. i needed to meet jenny by 10 pm in hongdae which meant i needed to be on the subway by 9 pm. got home at 8:10 pm. quickly checked my emails which was a good thing since jenny said she was running late. the new time to meet, 10:30 pm. i spent way too much time fussing with my hair. i was having a bad hair night. it at that stage where its too thick and heavy for wax to straighten it and not long enough to start curly. i'm so tempted to shave it all off once again. i think i had so much product in it that it was becoming a creature of its own.
8:45 pm — figured if i didn't leave my apartment now i'd end up messing with my hair some more. knowing that enough is enough i headed out for the subway. it was freezing outside. i think the temp was -15 c. burrrr! [could jenny have picked a colder night to out]
9:00 pm — i arrived at the station. shortly thereafter my train arrived. good thing i didn't have to wait too long.
9: 05 pm - 10:05 pm — my train karma was with my tonight. at the first transfer the train inbound was already there. yeah!!! i didn't even check if it was the right one. i just jumped on. there was no way i was going to wait in the cold. my second transfer was inside so i didn't really worry much about having to wait. although i was surprised that i was going to be super early. sometimes it takes an hour and forty minutes to get out there. not tonight though.
10:05 pm — i arrived at hongik station with plenty of time to wait. and that i did. wait. wait. wait. i did venture out to the freezing cold to get a hot coffee in a can. thank gawd for that. the man at the store even remarked about how cold it was.
10:45 pm — miss jenny finally showed up. of course she was standing near exit 6 when we had agreed on exit 2. i gave her a bit of a hard time.
10:45 pm - 11:05 pm — venturing out into the cold, we set out for our first stop on the evening: maryjane's. i got a little lost. sometimes things look so different depending on the hour you are there. it took us a bit longer than expected to get there. i seriously was beginning to lose all feelings in my toes. not fun.
11:05 pm - 2 something am — these hours were spent drinking two pitchers of long island ice teas and 2 shots of tequila each. we did a little bit of dancing, too. at one point we got busted while talking about someone at the bar. hehe so bad. mj's has got to be my favorite place. two of the workers there kept bustin a move all night long.
2 something am — we decided to move on. back out into the cold we went although we only got as far as across the street. there was a electronic club that jenny wanted to check out. she asked the guy if she could come in for only 10 minutes. she told him that she always wanted to come in and that she's leaving on saturday for good. the doorman ended up calling the manager. jenny told her the same story and after agreeing to buy a drink each she let us in. there were a total of 5 people in the place. we bought the drink special. i have no idea what it was. all i remember is that it was super tall, super strong, and super pricey. we did some dancing then jenny wanted to move on. since we weren't finished our drinks we decided to smuggle them out. [hi, are we in high school or something]. it was now 3 something am.
3 something am — as we were exited the bar we spotted a korean punk rock boy. he had a pink mohawk. jenny ran up to him and his friend and started chatting away. next thing i know we were following them into the f&f club. we got in for free since jenny said we were with them. the music was most awesome. all 80's. the good new wave stuff. it felt like i was back at e.a. [electric avenue, a club i went to in high school]. there were a few koreans but it was mostly filled with foreigners. we spent the next wee hours dancing and dancing and dancing. i did request a song "how soon is now" but it never played. the dj did play "this charming man" though. perhaps he didn't have the other. our dance cards full we opted to cruise. it was now 4 something am.
4 something am - 5:30 am — miss jenny had the munchies. she wanted to go into the plastic tent restaurant to eat. granted at this time i had no concept of time. i sat there and looked around the crowded restaurant and thought how cool it was to see two mom type women out and about eating and drinking soju. then it dawn on me the time. i looked around again and couldn't believe all the people out eating and drinking still. after several failed attempts of jenny trying to order food. they didn't have what she wanted. she settled for tuna chikay. which is basically canned tuna fish in a spicy soup with dumplings, rice cakes, and kimchi. not a big fan of the tuna fish but there i was at 5 o'clock in the morning eating TUNA FISH!!! the transformation is complete. i am now officailly korean. we finished our meal then made our way back out into the cold.
5:30 am — too cold to walk to the subway station we hopped into a cab. where the cab dropped us off didn't quite look like the station entrance. instead it look like a side entrance and the door was still bolted. we walked out and went into a nearby hotel. we told the person there that it was so cold outside and if we could sit in the lobby. they said yes.
5:50 am — we left the hotel, went back down the non-subway station entrance only to find it still closed. we headed back out to the street and hailed a cab. this driver actually took us to the subway station. jenny decided that she was going to take the cab all the way home. she asked him to wait as she went down to get her stuff out of the locker. it took a bit to figure out how to get the stuff out. apparently not only do you have to pay to put you stuff in it but you have to pay again to unlock it. go figure. then we said our good byes. i headed to the train and jenny to the cab.
6:00 am - 7:oo am — it was another 3 trains to get home. i slept most of the way. the heated seats felt soooo good. i'm always surprised that i end up waking up one stop before my actual stop. i'm waiting for the day that i completely sleep through my stop.
7:20 am — i made it back to my apartment. i felt like a walking zombie. i was never so happy to see my bed. i slept until 1 pm. my entire day was spent in bed watching tv. i forgot how good china beach was. i watched 4 episodes. there's nothing better than marathon tv. i am a tv junky...
be well…
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