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.