December 2, 2009
For the past two months, instead of learning Korean, I have been doing something I never knew I wanted to do: Tae Kwon Do. Who knew that me, the little girl who loved dancing and skiing and later really got into tennis was secretly interested in kicking and punching while wearing robes and colored belts? Not me. Korea must have awakened the inner beast inside of me.
Stretching at the Dujon
Thus far, my ranking has been the lowliest of the low: a white belt. I stayed after classes for more white belt classes in which we learned how to stand and walk among other things and dreamed about the day when I could go home with everyone else and get a good night’s sleep.
Well, that day came on Sunday night when we had our belt tests. I punched, I kicked, I yelled, and I even broke two boards while doing an axe kick and a front kick. Before the test, I had, for some reason odd to me, convinced myself that the boards weren’t actually wood boards and therefore easier to break. Actually, they are wood boards and it kind of hurts. Either way, here is a picture of me breaking that board:
Kicking and Breaking
November 24, 2009
‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where—’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way to go,’ said the Cat.
‘—so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’
~ Lewis Carroll, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
November 19, 2009
There have been some pretty outstanding examples of language misunderstandings. With one notable exception from Ecuador (where I asked “How much do I cost?” instead of “How much does it cost?” for 2 months, which has lived on through story telling – thanks due to Kristin) not many of these cultural/language mix-ups have happened to me I have to admit.
Although it is not an epic story of mistranslation, I did have a small clarification to make that made me smile. Today my class and I were talking about how to describe our Parents. During the activity where the students write sentences about their own parents an advanced fifth grader came up to me and poked my hand saying “Is this called fur?”
I have found quite a few of my students pulling on my arms and hands only by the hair a number of times so the fascination was not new, but the question caught be off guard. Today, Thursday, is my long day with 6 classes and today was definitely a long day. His smiley question made me laugh at how words can make such a good impact on a long day. I told him “No, it is not fur. Fur is for animals. People have hair.” He stared at my hand, grinned and went back to his desk.
-Kelly
November 16, 2009
My coteacher informed me today that Seoul received it’s first snow this last Saturday. It was so early in the morning however that nobody really caught on except the weather reporters.
The last few weeks have been going from warm to cold to warm and now to cold again. A few weeks ago the weather shifted from a morning in the mid 30’s to the high 60’s in just over a day! Along with the heat changes, the humidity has also been on a roller coaster and should be settling into a very dry winter (watch out those of you with dry skin).
For the most part the large maple tree leaves have fallen leaving the smaller leaves to still drop. This is probably a good thing since Kristin described some of our interactions on the sidewalk as “embarrassing” after we finished shoving each other aside to be able to crunch the huge leaves around us.
-Kelly
November 15, 2009
The Leader of the Pack
November 13, 2009
At my climbing gym most people know some English and can show me routes or give me little pieces of advice. There are very few, however, that can convey more than that without a lot of patience. While I was bouldering last week I was approached by one of the women who spoke English well. She had been elected to talk to me by the others so quite a few of her fellow Koreans where watching to see my reaction. The club had decided to go to an outdoor gym wall about a 1/2 hour away and wanted to know if I could come. I said of course! Everyone was happy, even those who were pretending they weren’t watching smiled at me later. A little interest in anything Korean and a bit of willingness on a foreigner’s part seem to go very far here.
On Saturday we met and took off in the gym’s van loaded with climbing ropes, quickdraws and a lot of smiling. The wall was about 60 feet high and overhanging the whole way around. Some routes were radically leaning others were more mild, but no matter the route when you lowered down you could not reach the wall unless you were swinging. Although I never got to lead a pitch, there were few of us who knew how to belay so I stepped up and got to belay quite a bit. About 1/3 of those who came had never climbed outside of our bouldering gym – definately not a 60 foot overhanging wall. Despite the height all who were vertically inexperienced did great. The training classes at our gym really do pay off!
I was able to break a personal record as well – well almost break one. To date I have only climbed a complete route as hard as 5.10b over a year ago when I had been climbing hard for months and finally worked out some final moves over the course of two weeks. On Saturday I gave a 5.10d a try and although I couldn’t do the last two moves (the second crux) I did the rest of the route easily the first time on it! I was really stoked and tried a few more times, but kept getting thrown off the last two moves. Maybe next time I will send it? I am really happy that the gym that I have started going to is working out well because it is really exciting to see some improvement after not have put serious time into climbing since last November – almost a year ago!
-Kelly
November 12, 2009
I was told about this holiday the day before and didn’t really understand it. To be honest I only sort of understand how excited people were now after the fact. Wednesday was November 11, 11/11 that is. Pepero is a stick candy I had not seen before a few days ago when it took over window displays across the city. They are a sweet bread stick dipped in chocolate. When you hold two next to each other it looks an awful lot like the number “11″ and Wednesday being 11/11 it is only logical to celebrate this candy on November 11th right?
The idea is that the students give teachers boxes of these sticks. I am sad to say, although those dentists out there might disagree, that I have only received three sticks on the “official” day. Kristin on the other hand was given boxes and the other English teacher at my school has had so many that she had to turn down students who are offering her more boxes… I did sneak in some extra Pepero the other night a day early at my climbing gym though so I can’t say I am going without.
-Kelly
November 11, 2009
Navies of the two Koreas clash off the west coast.
When people ask me how I feel about living so close to North Korea and the potential dangers of that proximity, I usually reply that I don’t think about it; it’s less stressful that way. Now that I am living an hour from the border, there’s not a whole lot I can do about it.
November 10, 2009
On Sunday, we took a trip to the Seoul Cinematheque in Insadong to see Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen. The Seoul Cinematheque is an amazing little jewel; they just finished up a 7 film program of widescreen films over the course of five days. The seven films were: La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960); Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961); Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962); The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967); 2001: A Space Odyssey; (Stanley Kubrick, 1968); Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973); and Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979). Pretty amazing selection of films, but unfortunately we only had time for Lawrence. Neither of us had seen it before and it was not only a great film, but watching the desert scenes was breathtaking.
The next program they are running is a Japanese film series, and I don’t think any of them are subtitled in English, unfortunately, but I am excited to see what other programs they will have in the future!
Directions: The Seoul Art Cinema is located in Insadong near exit 5 of Chongno-3 (sam)-ga subway station, on lines number 1, 3 and 5. Keep straight after coming up the stairs of exit 5 and go under the overpass you should see film posters on your left. The box office is on the fourth floor.
Website: http://www.cinematheque.seoul.kr/ Sorry, no English, but you can find out what English movies are playing. Titles with English subtitles have an ‘e’ beside the title of the movie playing
November 4, 2009
Gyeongbokgung Temple
