Tae Kwon D'oh!

******* The internet connection has been down in my apartment for the last week, coinciding with my school vacation.  Couple this with the fact that I was just too lazy and unmotivated to go to a PC Bang and you have the fact that the next few posts will be a little out of date.  But I figure, what the hell, it's not like it's crucial life or death stuff I'm churning out here, a few days here or there makes no odds.  ********

Last Friday, the 29th, I had my belt test for moving from White to Yellow (level 1 to level 2).  I should have taken this test at the end of June, but had to bow out because of my gammy ankle.  I therefore missed a lot of classes at the end of last month and the begining of this one, so I was feeling ridiculously and needlessly nervous about the whole thing.  So in order to get my ass in gear I actually went to Tae Kwon Do four times the week before last.

Monday night was fine, just the usual and it felt good to be back in the routine of it.  Wednesday night was really enjoyable.  It was M's last night (this was not the enjoyable part!)  so she tested for Yellow.  After class we all sat on the floor, eating watermelon and shooting the breeze.  It was a great chance for us two foreign girls to have a nice, quiet chat with the Korean women.  When attempting to conduct a conversation in broken English and shattered Korea, the last thing you need is a lot of background noise.  We started with the traditional 'How old are you?'  to get our Confucian hierarchy sorted out and what not.  I got a flattering double-take when I confessed to being 33.  I do love those moments!  TKD Bride's eyes bugged out. 

"Chincha?!" (really)

"Chincha.  My 34th birthday is next Wednesday.  I'm your Unni."  (older sister)

Great laughter allround at that.

Randomly enough, as we were leaving our Kwan Jam Nim gave us all boxed towels.  Really nice, thick ones they were too!

So far so good.  It was Thursday night that was the real killer.

My third workout that week, my second night in a row and my muscles were begining to protest.  I held my own though and was feeling quietly pleased with myself.

Can you say 'false sense of security'?

15 minutes before the end of class we get a visit from another dojang (studio).  Thirty of the feckers - and every last one of them was a blinkin' black belt!

"You want us to spar with these guys?"

"Mwuh??!!"

In vain did I plead my lowly white belt status.

I actually held my own when it came to the sparring.  I mean, my punches and kicks were obviously no where near black belt material, but I didn't embarass myself either.

That all changed when we got to the intense exercise bit.

Hmmm, least said soonest mended.

Let's just say that I got a lot of use out of the phrase, "Chincha pigonayo!" (really tired)

Towards the end of the session Lush was doing a 'high round house kick' ( I love that I actually know what that is!) and managed to rip half the nail from her big toe off the sparring pad.  Thankfully BlackBelt Unni is both a 4th level Black Belt AND a mother and therefore has extensive first aid experience.

Being a true sucker for punishment, and as I already said, nervous about my belt test, I even showed up for class on Friday!

Good thing I did, too, as only two other students showed up:  TKD Bride and TKD Girl (she's only 10 and I wish I could do Form One as well as she does!)

I was the only Waygookin but that didn't matter for a second.  We had great fun that night, especially when we got to 'push kick' the hell out of our Kwan Jan Nim!

Asah!!

I had a regular class again the following Tuesday and then on Friday we had our belt test.  New Jersey and I were the only Whites and we were first up.  Like a complete dufus, I had forgotten that I would need to count to ten in Korean and could only manage as far a six without severe prompting. 

On the bright side, for the first time ever, I got to break a piece of wood with my foot!  Go me!!

In the words of my friend Trudy, it was 'More mercy than justice', but I am now the proud possessor of a Yellow Belt!

And just in case there was any danger of me losing interest in TKD, we got to watch the Black Belts go through their Forms and then do some sparring.  Wowsa!  Just think - five or six short years and I'll be almost as good as they are - hmmm, that sounded more inspiring in my head.

Fighting!!

Woohoo! Asaah! and various other exclamations of delight!

All the mulling and brooding I did on Tuesday about language and barriers seemed to break through a mental block I had about using the (very) few Korean words I actually have command of.

And yet again, as is so often the case, once I had made the mental shift, the universe obligingly re-aligned itself to facilitate this epiphany.  Composing Tuesday's blog post in my head all day left me bound and determined to stick my neck out and be willing to look like an idiot.  After all, it worked for learning how to roll my French 'r's' - which I now do delectably thank you very much!

Accordingly, on Tuesday evening, for the first time in four and a half months, I found myself leaving work at the same time as the very Kindergarten teachers that I want to talk to most.

A quick explanation as to why this is extraordinary:  In my daily school routine I usually only see some of the Kindy teachers when I am teaching their students.  They start work before me and finish after, while throughout the day itself they work from the Teacher's room on the top floor, while I'm rocking the English Zone.  We don't even have lunch together.  Yet every day, they are so gracious and respectful to me and so phenomenal with their kids, that I feel like these are exactly the kind of Korean women I would like to have as friends.

So anyway, Tuesday evening, and I am walking down the street with four of the Kindy teachers and one of them, Miss G,  asks me:

"You going home?"

"Aniyeo (no).  DVD Bang."

Four very startled girls exclaim "Alone??!!"

"Aniyeo!!  Chingu Elizabeth!" (no. friend)

(I wanted it crystal clear I was going with a girl, cos when a guy and a gal go to a DVD bang, they ain't there to watch a movie.)

Four very relieved girls, "Aaaahh!"

"We watch Korean movie with Gong Yoo."  (korean actor)

Beautiful bonding moment as five women stroll along, contemplating the gorgeousness that is Gong Yoo.

"Maeil, I watch 'Coffee Prince'.  Chincha chua!" (everyday, really good)

That was it.  A pretty short exchange, but it completely changed the landscape of our relationship.  It made us real to each other.  They saw me trying.  They learned that I know enough to know going solo to a DVD bang is weird and they now know I like Korean men.  Progress.

The next day, by yet another freak of timing, I was in the office while they were collecting the kids milk. 

"You see movie?  DVD Bang?"

"Neh. (yes) Gong Yoo movie absoyeo (not there).  We watched 'Naesarang ssagaji'. (my love slave)  Kyeopta! Chincha jaemi!" (cute. very funny)

That evening as I was leaving, Miss G looked up and said "DVD Bang?"

"Aniyeo." I grinned, "Tae Kwon Do!"

"Tae Kwon Do?! Chincha?!"

"Chincha!" I replied, still grinning.

I love it when life just works!

Honeymoon

I've been in South Korea for four months now and from what I'm heard from some other English teachers, right about now is when the honeymoon period should be coming to an end.

I, however, can't for the life of me see that happening and have noticed that the teachers who gave me this advice are ones who only partially involved themselves with Korean culture. None of them, after 12 months, could speak a sentence in Korean - a lack which embaresses me after four months,** though my co-teachers are really impressed with my vocabulary. Neither did they have friends outside of the short-term expat community.

True to my nom de plume as An Accidental Pilgrim, I have been blessed to have, through no merit or effort on my part, fallen in with a group of friends who are as enthusiastic about Korea as I am. There are teachers who are here for more than one year and thanks to Tae Kwon Do and church I am meeting and making friends with ....gasp!....actual Koreans! Who are delighted to help me learn Korean, provided I do likewise for their English. Fine by me, says I, one good turn and all that!

The other NET (native English teacher) in my school asked me the other day if I was going to stay longer than a year, as I seemed to enjoy Korea so much. I answered that I may even stay longer than two!
I thought for a few minutes about how to explain how much I like Korea, and came up with this response:
"You know when you fall in love with a guy: you think about him all the time, everything he does makes you smile. Even the weird quirks are endearing rather than annoying. You bore all your friends talking about how amazing he is. You are happy in a relationship, so now you want all your single friends to be this happy too and you try to match them up....."
My friend nodded quizzically, smiling while trying to figure out where the hell I was going with this!

"Well, that's how I feel about Korea right now. I walk down the street with a big, goofy grin on my face all the time cos I'm so happy here. I listen to K-Pop and watch Korean dramas, I'm even trying to convince my sister to come out here!"

My friend laughed and said, "Yes, you'll definitely be here for a while - now we have to introduce you to some men!"

Which is another reason for me to smile - as I think Korean men are positively gorgeous!

Somehow, I think this honeymoon period is going to last for a long time to come.


Edit: Thanks to avid listening to K-Pop, I can now say two sentences in Korean - "I'm getting tired," and "I'm going crazy."
Sentences with limited applications, ok - but I look forward to suprising the hell out of some Koreans when I do use them! heh heh heh!!

Norae Bang or Bust!

It's true what they say : it's always the nights when you really want to curl up at home in your pyjamas, yet instead you drag your sorry carcass out - those are the nights that are usually epic.
I worked late this evening, due to glitches in my handling of Korean word processing, and when I got home all I wanted to do was snuggle up to some Korean noodles while watching Taiwanese drama and nursing my cough. I'm a girl of simple tastes!
But when I got home and checked my mail I had a message from a Tae Kwon Do buddy letting me know that our Kwan Jan Nim (our Teacher) was being interviewed by a reporter from Seoul who was also going to take photos of the class. So all the students were being called in, looking all shiny for the camera. After the photo shoot we had a short practice and I was still intent on crawling back home........but then, food was delivered - little pieces of chickeny heaven that perked me right up and when someone said 'Norae Bang?' I said, 'Hell yeah!'

I've been to my friends Phillipino Norae Bang a few times but this was my first time at a proper Korean joint with some of my Korean friends. Between the natives and the long-termers who have been here over a year, we had some good Korean music going on.

I even stumbled through my favourite ballad from the drama 'Secret Garden' thanks to Dutch courage and LOTS of prompting from Insu.

My personal high point of the night was the last song, which was 'Sorry Sorry' by SuperJunior as sung by Elizabeth and Insu.

I've linked the video below so you can see for yourself how catchy it is!









The building didn't look like much from the outside, but as you can see, this joint took Karaoke seriously!

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!

The Tuesday before last my social life in Ulsan took a giant leap forward when I screwed my courage to the sticking place and joined the Ulsan French Conversation Club.
It's so me, when you think about it - for years I dreamed of moving to France but was too chicken about my language skills - now here I am in Korea, gamely trying to learn a whole new alphabet, and I join a club to practise my french!

I was very nervous going in, as it's been a good ten years since I was fluent and these days I am barely above tourist level. However the gods were smiling on me and when I went into Momo's Cafe in Mugeodong I met four lovely Americans with great french and forgiving natures!

This week at French club one of the girls announced that she could not stay long as she had a Tae Kwon Do belt test later on and would any of us like to come and watch? I jumped in with an emphatic "Mais oui, bien sur!" (But of course!)

I got the chance to watch white, yellow and orange belts testing and best, oh by far the best of all, I got to see four black belts sparring! They were frckin' amazing!!
At the close of the session there was meditation, which joined in for. I sat cross legged on the floor getting all Zen to the sound of Korean traditional music and couldn't help smiling to myself. It felt like I was in one of the opening scenes for the make-over montage of a martial arts movie: Irish girl does Karate Kid!


Anyway, I was hooked, and as we left I told the Sah buh nim, (Master), "I'll see you on Thursday!"

And so it was, on Thursday I duly returned.
I was shocked and giddy with delight to discover that he had a uniform that fit me. You would probably have to be here to realise quite how suprising and delighting it really was!!
I was called up to the front of the class to introduce myself and got a round of applause merely for saying "Annyong ha sayeo" (hello). Talk about an easy room! Though it will make practising my Korean much easier if it greeted with clapping rather than giggling!

Then as class started, came the surprise bonus - it turns out that my years of ridiculously infrequent yoga and pilates have done enough good that my Sah buh nim wa impressed with my flexibility and balance. Go me!

Later on, when we were practising forms (the punches and blocks), as I was the only White Belt (total beginner) one of the Black Belts came over to coach me individually. I had seen this guy sparring on Tuesday, this guy was a regular Jet Li! After a few practise runs he looked over to me and said, and I swear I'm not making this up: "You watch a lot of Kung Fu movies, don't you?"

Ha ha!! NOW tell me that TV is uneducational!

I had my second class on Friday night and I am thoroughly loving this sport. It's a good hard workout without the boredom of the gymn. The class is roughly half foreigners and half Koreans, so I get to make new friends, both domestic and international, as well as having a safe place to practise my Korean.

AND, on top of all this is the reason I wanted to learn Tae Kwon Do in the first place: access to the culture. It seems to me that Tae Kwon Do is to Korea what hurling is to Ireland - an integral piece of the national identity.

I have always wanted to learn a martial art and it seems deliciously efficient of me to learn one that will also give me an 'in' to Korean culture.

So watch this space - in about a month I should be reporting the acquisition of my Yellow Belt! Huzzah!!