my friend bill, part 3

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...