Descriptions

Just came back from Taekwondo and the master said that next week I'll have my blue belt! Woohooooo! Yayyy! I'm so happy! I was sooo tired tonight...and i didnt even want to go...but it paid off after all.

One older guy there and I keep getting paired up ...either in stretches or he teaches me poomse or the technique sequences that are crucial to Taekwondo and advancing. Poor guy...he's maybe 15-18 years old..and he gets so embarrassed. It's quite cute actually. His name is something like Eun which means Silver in English! How cool is that?

There's a boy there that has taken a liking to me, if not a crush (I must add that he's about 10 yrs old) and he is keen on teaching me Korean. It's really cute. He's really quite good at English, and he's teaching me Korean...complete with drills! And then he makes funny faces at me.

Man, I've discoverd that my memory sucks for when you are told a word and expected to remember it somehow! Grrr. Koreans seem to think at times that you can learn it by being told once...I wish! But then I have to teach them English, and that takes repitition...HELLO! Even the teachers at school do that. They've at times said..."dont you remember?" Um ...hi...do you teach a language? Yes you do...and HOW many times do you have to repeat? Man, that felt good to say!
But then I still love them. What can u do.

I'm getting the requests to go to Play Bank (the jungle gym downstairs) or starting to get the 'can we go outside' for class. Then if I say I'm not allowed...which apparently I'm not...then they all start saying in korean thinking I cant understand them that other teachers have let them and they were cooler and I'm hard on them. Well sorry kids. I'd love to...but I'd rather keep my job. We'll see what buttons I can hopefully push to get them out once in a while! What ever happened to field trips n stuff? Hmmmm... Okay...so I want to be the cool teacher. Ha ha. I try anyway. Some things are just not comparable though.

So I was just reading in the Gwangju News (in English for foreigners) about the Yellow Dust season or 'Hwangsa' as it is called in Korean. I am noticing a difference in the back of my throat and having to blow my nose as usual. Sorry..but that's a fact of life. Mucus and all. Eeegh, I hate that word! Here's an excerpt from the magazine...
"...the annuall phenomenon "hwangsa", or yellow dust, is made up of clouds of dust brought from China and Mongolia's Taklamakan desert, the Gobi desert and the huanghe river basin. Carried by strong winds in the spring, the dust affects China, Korea, japan and Southeast Asia. Since desertivication is the main cause, yellow dust doesn't occur in the winter because the ground is frozen; in the summer, rooted plants prevent the dust from being spread."
Cool, huh? I keep looking for yellow hues to the sky and air, but I havent really seen anything to note. Apparently you can see it in Seoul. I' wanna go up and see it! I'm so glad I live in Gwangju. Less pollution and stuff like that to deal with.

Oh, and I'm reading an article about getting eye glasses here in Asia. Yep, dirt cheap! You can get frames ranging from W10,000 to W200,000 (won) for designer frames. Most are priced around W10,000 to W75,000 but you ca get a discount on almost any of them in the W50,000 range. (for price conversion just add or knock off some zeros for Canadian vs Korean prices- 10,000 won is $10 Canadian approximately). The article says you can get the whole thing for $23-$50. Yep...cuz I did. I didnt realize that I was getting the whole treatment till they told me to sit at the eye station, and they checked my eyes. Thanx! I needed to do that anyway! And then you can get them fixed for free if u need to. Nice!

Sometimes i feel guilty for how inexpensive some things are ...realizing the labour that went into it...but that's how it is here. Strange but true. The thing is that you tip in other ways. And also I realize that people give more of other things...and I hope I do the same for them in return.

Okay, I'm gonna publish this for now. If anything to make sure that I dont lose all this writing work!
Gnite if I dont get back on here again.