Constants from the week:
- The answer to every question is, "It depends."
- After a year in Korea you will not be fluent in Korean and will largely have lost your ability to speak English
- Kimchi
- Name Tags
- Getting lost at least once a day
That all being said, I'm having an amazing time. I've slowly but surely been building up friendships in a turtle-race like consistency. We had our first Korean Language quiz together. I think I probably failed, but I'm already looking forward to the free snacks provided in the mandatory study hours.
Today was also our first Taekwondo meeting! We learned the history of Taekwondo and watched youtube videos of men fighting and bursts of flame. I'm wondering what belt I have to get to for that to happen! Tae stands for foot, step, or step on. Kwon is fist and Do is the art of. Together it combines to produce something better, captain planet style, in, as my master puts it, the art of learning the right way of using every part of your body.
I journeyed into Goesan alone today in search of a white T-shirt to wear under our Taekwondo outfit to protect our modesty. After entering a couple clothing stores and realizing that they had nothing in my size, I finally found a store selling white T-shirts. It was then that the absence of speaking Korean truly caught up to me. For a solid twenty minutes I stood in the store using my nonexistent Korean to throw out words like, I am American, Sorry, and Four (the number of T-shirts I needed.) In the meantime the women in the store looked at me quizically, continued to speak in Korean, and one made her dog bark at me every once and again for good measure.
Until next time, I'm Grace Huntley and I enjoy long sojourns in Goesan's Hot Springs, building up my kimchi tolerance, and naps on the marble bleachers at Jungwon University. ;)
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