Update!!

For those who haven't heard, I passed my black belt test.  I found out about a week ago but I didn't want to write about it until I had a picture of my belt.  I had a feeling I was going to get it, but it's nice to have it in my hands.  I took a week off because I pulled my groin and was letting it rest, so every day I would ask Diana if there was any news.  Finally, on the Friday of my third week of waiting, it arrived.  I'm very proud of myself, even though in Korea most people have their 1st black belt.  Well here it is!!!

At work on Friday, there was a speech contest for the elementary students.  There incredibly cute and it was nice to see them put their English skills to work.  The Korean teachers helped them with there speeches, so I had no idea what they had prepared.  There were some awesome speeches.  Gwen, Diana and I were the judges.  My favourite was by one of my older elementary school students named Tammy.  Earlier in the week, I taught her class all about their signs (Cancer, Gemini, Taurus etc.) and what their signs said about their character.  I was pleasantly surprised during Tammy's speech about herself when she mentioned she was a Pisces and how Pisces are romantic, kind and creative and that she loved her sign.  It's so satisfying to see kids learn and retain what you teach them.  It makes me really love my job.  Tammy ended up coming in second place.  First place was my student, Ivy.  Her speech was excellent.  When she finished, everyone knew she was going to win. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=m7rkXu6DsoQ

In other news, I'm getting an A/C tomorrow.  I'm very excited because sometimes at night I have trouble sleeping because of the heat.  I also got a new haircut today at The Wiz downtown.  I heard some good things from Diana.  I especially like how haircuts here are very cheap.  My last haircut was about $6 and this one was only $15.  I'm still getting used to the bangs, but I think it suits me.

Seoul in Pictures

A couple weekends ago, Fraser and I went up to Seoul for the long weekend.  I mostly wanted to cross off all the touristy stuff on my to-do list.  All in all it was a great weekend.  Unlike last time, we had a great time and no one got lost.  Here are my favourite pictures from the trip:

 

Gruel shop in Insadong, a very touristy shopping area of Seoul.  It's a great area to buy "traditional" Korean goods.  The gruel shop sold soups and porridges, which are very popular in Korea.

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend was Buddha's birthday.  The grounds of the Jogyesa temple were covered in lanterns.  It was really an amazing sight.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a Buddha statue at the Jogyesa Temple.  I love this Buddha because it kind of resembles Yoda.

 

 

 

 

Seoul at night from a cruise boat on the Han River.  It was pretty romantic, except for the fact that it was a bit chilly and the boat had a "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme, costumes and all.

Panoramic shot from inside the Changdeokgung Palace.  It's the best preserved palace in Seoul.  Unfortunately almost every temple and palace in Korea was completely destroyed by Japanese invasions.

 

 

 

The nicest building in the Changdeokgung Palace.

 

 

 

 

My attempt to take a panorama shot of the "Secret garden" of the palace.  I ended up cutting off the tour guide's arm though.  It was a very pretty pond with a circular island in the middle covered with trees.

  

 

This is a statue in front of the war museum.  The statue is of two brothers, one from the south and one from the north, meeting on the battlefield and embracing each other in forgiveness. 

 

 

From this picture you can see the grandeur of the war museum.  Around the outside are fighter jets, missiles and military vehicles.  Inside, there are tributes to every country that helped in the Korean War, including Canada and the Philippines.

 

This is a man-made river near Insadong.  It's really beautiful and perfect for couples and families.  I wish they made one of these in Toronto.

 

 

 

 

Me in front of the main building of the Gyeongbokgung Palace.  The biggest palace in Seoul.

 

 

 

 

 

Fraser hanging out with a little kid in the palace.

 

 

 

 

A pavilion on an island in a pond.  It was beautiful.  There are lots of lily pads floating on the water and many of fish living in the pond.  I'm sure the king and queen loved relaxing here.

Children's Day long weekend

  Last weekend was a three day weekend to celebrate Children's Day.  Yup, that's right.  Korea has a whole holiday dedicated to its children.  On Saturday, I went to Korean class in the morning and then to taekwondo in the afternoon.  In between, I took some time to enjoy the herbal medicine festival going on in downtown Daegu.  There was a stage set up for performances and many booths with information and crafts celebrating Buddhist culture.  I was really interested in one booth in which a monk was writing messages in their fancy Buddhist script.  The biggest problem I had was that I didn't know what any of the messages meant in Korean or the Buddhist script.  I talked to the lady at the booth for a bit and she picked one out for me.  It looks pretty cool.  It says "Teaching and learning are helpful to me" and my name in Korean, English, and script going down the side.  They gave me a paper with the Korean message, so I could get it translated later on.

Saturday night, I went out to dinner with some friends, then spent some time enjoying the festivities.  There was a small parade and some fireworks. Afterwards I went to hang out on a rooftop with a group of friends.

A float in downtown Daegu

On Sunday, Gwen, Samson, Fraser and I went golfing.  Daegu has these awesome driving ranges all over the city.  They are basically buildings with big nets attached, so you can use them even if it's raining.  It was Gwen's first time and mine too.  Samson was awesome, but he is good at every sport!  After awhile I could hit the ball straight and far, but not consistently.  There were many times when I  missed the ball completely.

 

Swing and a miss!

The weather was beautiful on Monday, not too hot and sunny.  I went to a city about an hour away called Gimcheon, which had a beautiful temple called Jikjisa.  Jikjisa was amazingly gorgeous.  The grounds outside the temple were surrounded by low mountains and in the middle was a big fountain and a sculpture park.  Up on a slope was a fake waterfall with a playground on top.  There were tons of kids there enjoying the weather and their well-deserved break from school.  It was really great to see all families enjoying time together. 

Sculpture Park

On top of the fake waterfall

Children enjoying Children's Day

After exploring the area outside the temple, I followed the trail of lanterns into the temple.  The temple was first built in the 5th century by a Buddhist monk and eventually became one of the biggest temples in East Asia.  Like most temples, it was burned down by Japan and rebuilt in 1610.  My favourite parts were all the lanterns decorating the temple in honour of Buddha's upcoming birthday (he's 2552 year old this year) and one room of white Buddha statues.  All are the same except for one.  If the different one catches your eye first, your first child will be a son.  Apparently, I'm going to have a daughter first. 

Lanterns for Buddha's birthday

White Buddha statues

Kung fu fighting!

On Sunday, I had my black belt test.  Diana and I woke up early for an quick practice before heading to the elementary school where the test was held.  There were tons of kids there, most were very young.  Diana and I were the only foreigners, so many kids would come up to us and practice their English.  They would constantly yell "What's your name?" at us.  They were really cute though.

Gwen and Samson came to see us do our test.  Unfortunately, we had to wait a long time for the young kids to finish.  I felt a bit bad that they had to wait around for so long, but they were able to see some of our students who were doing their tests too. 

After about an hour of waiting we got in a long line that lead to the gym where the tests were taking place.  I was super nervous.  I was mostly terrified that I would get in front of the judges and my mind would go blank.  In the line, we met some ladies who helped me make sure my uniform was on right.  They were from a mothers taekwondo gym.  It was cool to see these mothers testing for their black belts alongside kids the same age as their children.

When we got into the gym, we were put into two lines of four.  I was in the front row and Diana was behind me.  In front of us were two judges.  One was our Sa Beom Nim and the other was the one judging me and Diana.  We did 2 poomsaes and a spar, while Gwen and Samson cheered us on.  The whole thing was about 5 minutes long.  It felt like 5 seconds.  I didn't do everything perfectly, but I didn't mess up anything really badly.  In the end, my Sa Beom Nim gave me a nod of approval.  We won't know the results for a couple weeks, but everyone says we did well.  Hopefully good news will come soon.

Some of the kids from our TKD studio.

Sa Beom Nim looking all spiffy for the event.

Here I am waiting for some instructions

I'm the one in the front left throwing a kick at Diana during the spar.

I'm the middle closest to the judges.

8th poomsaes

I'm in the front second from the left.