And I'm Freeeeee! Freeee sparring!

Quite unexpectedly I might add. I walked in to Taekwondo this evening, and the master and all the black belts were there and said "Hey Robert free sparring!" So I put my stuff away, and streatched out and watched a couple of bouts. Then the master pointed to me and motioned for me to put on the gear. So I did.

They had to get a size five chest pad out for me, and the helmet was nice and snug. Then the master asked me how many rounds I wanted to fight. I thought he was asking me how many times I had free sparred before (probably about... ten), but once he and the other teaching black belts figured out the word "minute" we agreed on three one minute rounds. My opponent was one of the teaching black belts, and he is as big as I am. We shook hands then turned to the master and bowed to him, and then bowed to each other went into fighting stance and the ref, a black belt I haven't seen before yelled "shi-jawc!" which is "Start!" in Korean and my opponent opened with a back kick and then for the next 59 seconds kicked me around the room. I got maybe five kicks off. None of them connected. I did get a few punches in but into a chest pad they don't do much. The good news was that he wasn't going for the head, and I never went down. Also I was bouncing off the kicks pretty easily but I was not fast enough in my counter kicks. After the first round ended, the master asked me if I wanted to go on.

Now I have been watching "Fight Quest" on Discovery channel. It is about two American martial artists, going around the world learning different fighting styles in five days then fighting masters of the styles. Last night I watched "Rocky" for the first time ever. After thinking about it for a moment, I said "No, thats enough, I need more training." Whether they understood the last bit I don't know. But it was true. Part of me wanted to do all three rounds. I had plenty of energy. I was breathing heavy but not winded. But I realized I was also totally unprepared for a free-sparring match. I haven't trained for it here, we have been doing forms for months. Most of my kicks are slow, (but strong) and the high ones are low. There a lot of practice games you do also before free-sparring that I hadn't done (that the black belts have) to improve speed and reading your opponent. It has been years since I have done anything like this.

But even though I feel like a little bit of a wimp for not going all three rounds, I learned some valuable stuff tonight. The main thing is that I now really have to work hard so it doesn't happen again. I hope they realize this also and let or preferably make me train harder with them.

Another good thing to this end am delighted to mention, is that I have been getting up in the mornings, instead of sleeping in. Also I have been eating small oranges for snacks, using the stairs instead of the elevator and quit drinking cokes. Now I need to make time in the mornings to stretch and exercise some. I am going up to Seoul tomorrow, and I think I am going to find a wind/exercise suit.

Oh and also I want to add that I have put up more pictures including ones from Everland.

Roller coaster oo oo oo....

So last a bunch of us piled in a small bus and took some students to Everland.

Everland is one of the not exactly not Disney theme parks in Korea. It was a fun day. We went on a holiday, so there were a lot of people there. When we got there, we made our way straight for the T-Express, the parks new wood roller coaster which features a nice 77 degree drop to get you started.

Now as anyone who knows me knows I am not a fan of roller-coasters. I once went through the entire line for Mr Freeze at Six Flags and then didn't get on. But I like to think that I learned something from that and similar experiences: going to a theme park and not going on rides is boring and expensive. So I decided, that I would go on the ride because three minutes of terror after a hour of standing in line doing nothing for a hour and a half is better than standing around doing nothing with three minutes of doing nothing at the end of it. So I got on the ride.

With James the roller-coaster fanatic. He was disappointed you couldn't look up see the track move as the car hit a curve like you can on the Texas Giant. He said that the best place to ride a coaster is in the last car, for much the same reason the best place to ride a school bus is on the back seat. It is nice and bumpy, and by the time the motion reaches you, the vehicle is totally committed to it. So I found my self waiting for the next car, just so he and I could ride in the back.

The ride itself? Let me just put it this way: James was the only person on the whole car with his hands raised.

But I did survive and by the end of it, I found that I was rather enjoying my self. So when we got off, I went a head and bought the T-shirt, just so everyone knows that I have been there and done that.

The rest of the day consisted of small rides, and lunch. The small rides were: Columbus' viking ship swing, and a Rodeo Tilt-a-whirl. We had a lot of hurry up and wait there. Part of the problem is we got stuck in a crowd watching a parade that divided the park. It was a pretty smooth move on the parks' part, you have to watch the show, but annoyed us to no end. What was fun about it was that Brother Lee and Nathan, one of the guys that helps out at the school, held of some inflatable axes that a couple of the kids had bought so everyone knew where to go.

All in all it was a good time. I wish we had had more time.

The rest of the weekend was pretty normal. I went to Yesan on Saturday, and had some ice cream, and got some sandals since socks have been bugging me lately.

Sunday was church church church. I some how have lost the calluses on my fingers. I guess I haven't played enough guitar lately. Ah well.

Story Tree

This is a story about Story Tree. It is actually in my head a talking blues story about Story Tree, but you are going to just have to hallucinate the guitar playing in the background, and Woody Guthrie saying all this. Actually make it Ramblin' Jack Elliot because this is going to be a rambling talking blues story about Story Tree, and if you don't know what he sounds like think of Steve Martian saying it cause he wrote a song called "Rambling Man," and you probably do know what he sounds like.

Looks like were off to a good start.

It was back in the year 2008, which is in fact this year, cause even ramlin' talking blues songs have conventions though rhyme and meter is not among them, and bunch a big brown boxes arrived at the Kindergarten.
They were full of books.
Slim books
with "Story Tree" written in big black letters on their covers.
Yay.
New curriculum.

As the title said they were all little stories
And our principal said not to worry,
Just tell each story, a page at a time
a page for a week and you will be fine.
We said "What?"
And then he said it again
in English.
Because he was talking to his assistant in Korean the first time.
But though he said it again we were still confused
Beth and I didn't know what to do
The instructions were written in the Korean script,
we were feeling ill equipped,
but that was okay that was fine,
We're Americans we can get by
We
can improvise.

So I got took the books, the tapes, the puppet cut outs, and a guitar and went down stairs to teach.
Now each story you should know
is a retelling of a fable from long ago
For my class it was the Ant and Grasshopper who share some food
then the Big turnip, which tasted good,
then the Ugly Duckling whose friends are rude
and next the Tortise and the Hare, renamed the Turtle and the Rabbit
Then last Goldilocks and The Three Bears who have a eating habit.

Each story was four sections long
each section had a song
based on children's songs from around the world.
Each section had about four lines
like "Hello how are you?"
and "Your are ugly, go away."
and "I am not slow"
and "I can fly!"
Dull.
To say the least.
And sometimes grammatically incorrect.
especially when you have to stretch it for thirty minutes for five days.
But of course there are other things, like getting them to pay attention and to sing the songs which I play my own arrangements of on guitar and the "puppets" which I let them hold to tell the stories with which they enjoy mightily, especially when we did "the big turnip" and all had to pull the turnip together.
They liked the falling over part.
Who wouldn't?
and don't forget the video.

But the thing that really bothers me
about these story trees,
is the stories as told don't make much sense
which is hard to take when you grew up with them.

The Ant the Grasshopper become friends
which completely ruins the moral at the end.
The big turnip is just that big
instead of getting more the pull the should have learned to dig.
The Ugly duckling turns to a swan and finds he can fly
which he could have done as a ugly duck by the bye.
The Rabbit admits the turtle is really fast,
when really he lost cause he was a lazy ass.
As for Goldilocks I haven't looked
I am too afraid to open the book
before I need too.

But now my friends I have to go
I just thought that you should know
if you ever find yourself seeing story tree
it is time to run it is time to flee.
Cause if you don't you will rue
the day you got the Story Tree Ramlin' talkin' blues.

I just realized the last few posts haven't had titles so this one does.

So it turns out, my TKD instructor has notice the mixture of passion and abject boredom on my face. I got to join two other red belts who have been training for sparring tonight. I actually got to kick some tonight. Also he double checked my residence license. I think he might be looking for a loop hole to get me tested for black belt sooner than October. He said originally that I could test six months after I got my card which was in late March. But he was looking at the dates on the card so that could mean that he found the rule was six month since I have been here which would make the test in the next couple of months. But I don't know for sure. He didn't explain since... well he couldn't. He knows about as much English as I do Korean. But even if it turns out to be nothing, it is encouraging.

Also I think I should add that I am in much better shape than when I arrived. I have lost about ten or fifteen pounds, and a couple of inches off my waist. I can now wear ties with my top shirt button buttoned. I still am quite "fat" compared to most Koreans, but at least I am not easily winded too. (it is weird seeing almost no overweight people) I have started weight lifting with my roommates weights.

Teaching is going fine. I am having a good time with all my classes, even the ones that give me trouble.

So much to tell, I just don't.

Lazy, lazy, lazy. We started a new semester with the older kids, last week, and that has been nice. We are using different books which I like much better than the one we used last time. It is a pain in the butt to try and teach a curriculum that you think is pretty stupid. This one is much better even though the grammar book is for British English rather than American.

I have been starting to get somewhat homesick lately. Mainly it has just been small things. Like they do their sideways break falls in Taekwondo slightly differently, and it doesn't make any sense to me. Then I just had to go visit the Zoo in Seoul. I saw American Bison, Armadillos, Coyotes, raccoons, mountain lions, Longhorn cattle, Red eared slider turtles, annnnd a desert in a green house, right next to the rain forest. Someone had even thoughtfully cut some graffiti into some prickly pear which made me laugh.

The Zoo also had a pretty good seal and dolphin show. I got to see other animals I have not seen in a long time: Ant Eaters, Sloths, all manner of dear, Rhinos and Hippos, Sea lions, lion cubs, and a baby monkey hanging out with its mother. It was a pretty neat and large Zoo.

Korea is really interesting when it comes to parks. They tend to mix all the different kinds as much as possible. For example the Seoul Grand Park Zoo, about the size of the San Antonio Zoo, but it is only one of five parks at Seoul Grand Park. There is also, a Petting Zoo six (or was it 11?) Kilometers of hiking trails, a art museum, and a Disney want to be theme park. You say sure efficiency of space Rob. But they don't just on a large scale. A couple of weeks ago, the Wesely school and church staff, went to a small park which had hiking trails, a small zoo, which included a black bear, and it's cub, a pretty good play ground and a wonderful botanical garden and flowers all along the paved trail. Koreans unlike Americans, don't have any qualms about mixing artifice and nature, or simply "improving" nature. It's interesting.

I know I need to update this more often. I will try.