Taekwondo and Other Things

I’ve now passed my 8 month anniversary with Korea.  It feels good to be on the home stretch, but I never thought I’d get to the point where I’m thinking about things and people that I’m actually going to miss when I leave. I definitely still feel that 1 year here was enough for me. I don’t think I could do it again but it’s been a great experience, I’ve learned a lot about myself and I don’t regret anything. There were plenty of times that I was ready to pack up and go home.  I have 3 pieces of advice for anybody that is thinking of living abroad or anyone who is abroad and is struggling with missing home.

1)      If you can’t change your circumstances, change your attitude. I complained a lot about this job. Obviously I drew the short straw for hagwons and I am stuck at a school with a fascist director most days for 11 hours. I used to have 2 breaks during the day but recently, due to a staff shortage they changed the schedule so that it’s now jam packed with no breaks. Once I made the decision that I was going to tough it out til the end, I just decided to find ways to endure. Make the best of your situation, it’s not forever.

2)      Remember why you did it in the first place. What was your original motivation? Are you trying to save money? Pay down student loans? Experience another culture? Whatever it was, you have to keep that big picture in mind. It will get you through the shitty days when you’re ready to throw in the towel.

3)      Find something to do that you enjoy. My saving grace these past few months has been taekwondo. I’ve never tried martial arts before but always wanted to. I’m proud of myself for sticking this out because it’s a big commitment to go to the gym 3x/week to train after 11 hour days at work. It’s worth it though. I always end up having a good laugh at the ridiculousness of me trying to punch and kick.

Speaking of taekwondo, this post is long overdue. Remember way back in December when I wrote about how the grand master stopped his car in the middle of the street and chased me down to join his gym? Well it was actually another couple of months before anything became of that. A lot of the public school teachers who had long breaks over the holidays went home, so classes were put on hold. It was the end of January and I had nearly forgotten all about taekwondo since it had been so long since that first meeting. I was walking to the café near my work when I heard someone shouting “hello” from across the street. I turned around and saw Master Park jogging toward me. He demanded to know why he hadn’t heard anything from me about starting classes.

I sheepishly informed him that most of the teachers had gone travelling for the Christmas break and I had temporarily forgotten about it. I promised to send out another message and get back to him the next day. The number of people interested had dwindled from about 12 to 5 by then but we were determined to do it anyway. I had my Japan trip planned for the end of January so it was decided that we would start first week of February.

I was nervous for the first class. Master Park had asked two of his young black belts to come and help out the first couple of weeks since he had a leg injury and couldn’t demonstrate the kicks. The first two weeks were kind of frustrating because I’m really not the most coordinated person. I was always the one turning the wrong way or punching with the wrong hand. I just nervous giggled through the whole first week. But slowly, slowly I started to get the hang of the forms and the kicks.

Master Park is an interesting story. He’s been living in the US for the last 15 years teaching taekwondo. It’s not really clear how he ended up back here but he makes it known every day that he doesn’t like this country (even though he was born here) and that he’s extremely lonely here. He’s drunk more nights than not. But he is a good person and an interesting character. The other night, the group met for dinner and he told us that if he hadn’t met us and starting teaching us, he wouldn’t have stayed here this long. It’s funny because I feel the same way. So I guess we’ve all kept each other going.

Last month we had our first test for the belt promotion early on a Saturday morning. Since we are all only here for a short while, we actually tested for two belts in one day. Master Park showed up still drunk from his previous Friday night out and he kept pausing the test to go on these inspirational tangents about life and motivation. It was pretty funny. We all passed the tests that day so we were promoted to green belts. It was a good feeling because whenever I told my students that I was doing Taekwondo and then had to tell them I was a white belt, it was an instant loss of credibility.

My time here in Korea is coming to an end, but first our TKD group is headed to the Phillipines for the first weekend of May. We are going to see a taekwondo demonstration and then we will have a couple of days to explore. I am excited to get one more stamp in my passport before heading home.