So last week on the work front we had some successes.... new students, new patterns, new english words. The week training wise was pretty settled... Monday and Wednesday were pretty quiet, with only one class in the evening made up of 4-6 five year old boys and 2 eleven (?) year old girls. The boys can be right terrors and do plenty of mucking around, while the girls are very smart and very quiet - same ol' same ol' heh heh heh heh.... Actually one of the girls is pretty amazing, Mr Brown took her for half a class and had taught her Saju Magki, Saju Jirugi, Chon-Ji and Dan Gun which she could then complete by herself without any problems, he said she is one of the most talented students he has ever seen..... Much of this can be attributed to Park's great teaching skills as she has been his student for a while.....
Tuesday and Thursday were spent at Buam Taekwon-do Academy where we start at 2:30pm and finish at 10pm after teaching five classes. The classes are arranged so that I instruct for an hour and then have a break for a half hour, except for 7pm where i get an hour break for dinner. The students are a good bunch, who seem to very much want to learn what I'm teaching which is nice.... The first three classes are Primary and Intermediate School Students, while the last two classes are High School students. I've been working with them for a couple of weeks now and am really happy with their progress, we've got a grading at the end of the month and I think we'll probably have them all grading with the last two classes possibly double grading if Mr Chirtoca and Mr Brown are happy with them....
Friday's a long day with Kindergarten during the day and then the Gimhae Dojang class in the evening.....
As Mr Brown has told you in his update we had one heck of a weekend. Mine started with Park and Ki Tae at the Gimhae Dojang on Friday night. After they had closed the Health Club side of things we set up the DVD player and the guys showed me a Korean movie about the Korean War. Oh-My-God!!! It had to be one of the most realistic and frightening portrayals of war that I have ever seen. And to think these guys all do compulsory military service and all face the very real possibility of being involved in a conflict. It's a major wakeup call..... Anyway, the movie finished in the early hours of the morning at which point we all trundled off to bed to get whatever sleep we could before the grading in Busan the next day.
The grading was interesting, not the formatted standard grading that we're used to, but definately interesting. Mr Brown, Mr Chirtoca and I seemed to spend a lot of time sitting at the front of the Dojang patiently waiting for things to begin.... We were a little worried that the parents would not be happy, but once we got under way and the students got up to do their thing there was nothing but smiles all around.....
After the grading the foreign contingent and Park went wandering around Busan for a while, ostensibly to look for a Hanbok for Mr Chirtoca for an event we're attending this weekend, but in the end we spent time wandering the streets, stopped for a drink and a bite to eat, and then into one of those games parlours like Time Out so that the guys could play shooting games.... Yes, I was out with the boys.... ah well, if you cant' beat 'em.......
Sunday started with a 6am meeting time at the Busan YangJeong Dojang in preparation for our trip to see Mr Kim's Chinese Calligraphy teacher on the eastern side of Korea.... We all turned up in various states of wakefullness (or not) and disarray and piled into the van, quick trip to the next suburb to pick up Mr Kim's Tea Teacher and some scholars and we were off!
Mr Chirtoca was out like a light in the front seat of the van (late night sir?), and the President was out like a light on the back seat with Mr Kim driving and Mr Brown and I in the back seats with the rest of the crew..... We stopped for a bite to eat (breakfast of rice, vegetables and chilli paste) and to see the Bamboo Museum (Mr Brown's right - you can make one heck of a lot of things from Bamboo) and finally arrived in a very small town off the motorway which was the home of Mr Kim's Calligraphy teacher.
His house is built in the traditional style and is about 60 years old. It has beautiful, dark, chunky wooden floors polished by years of feet and socks, wooden grilled doors with rice paper screens.... Mr Brown and I thought it might get a little cold in winter as it didn't look like the rice paper would keep much of the cold out, but we were sure that they had some ingenous way of staying warm.....
Across the driveway is his family temple which has been there from the time of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather....
Of course when we arrive anywhere here in Korea it's tea time. First we were ceremonially welcomed to the home with much bowing and kneeling (by us :-) ) and then we were invited into the study of this amazing man. He has been studying Calligraphy since he was a child, has books on a huge range of topics.... Mr Brown discovered that even when you think that people cannot understand what you're saying that you need to be careful what you say as he said at one point that the teacher was a cheeky old bugger and we're both convinced that he understood....!
What seemed like 5 seconds later it was time for lunch (more food!?!?!). Rice, kimchee of all different types and fish. The fish was great and the teacher took it upon himself to keep pulling off pieces of the flesh with his chopsticks and placing it in our bowls to ensure that we didn't end up with bones and to keep us eating. Time and a very full belly later we rolled back out the door onto the verandah and the Calligraphy began!!!
I'm incredibly lucky as I've ended up with two pieces.....
The calligraphy continued and Mr Kim offered to drive us to a nearby temple (despite the fact that this is the first time he has been to his teacher's home since he began studying with him many years ago). Mr Brown says he's seen many temples since he's been here in Korea and that they are starting to become just another temple.... if that makes sense.... but I'm still blown away by the sense of peace that eminates from these places, and majesty of the geography that is chosen as the settings of these places of worship and meditation.....
After wandering around for a while soaking up the atmosphere we headed back to the house of the teacher where the calligraphy was just finishing up. We had a quick snack of some Korean Pancakes (made with spring onion and chilli - yum!) and green tea and started to make our goodbyes which included a large number of photographs of everyone. (yes Roman and I were getting our butts pinched!!!)
2 comments:
Thank you...nice to know whats been happening in Korea.
The calligraphy looks interesting, not at all like Japanese or Chinese. I love the photos of the temples - they are very Chinese.
Long hours to be teaching, especially small children.
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