Changes

I remember hearing a line from a movie that went something like this "Somethings change; somethings never change.", and as I have now reached the 1/4 mark of my stay hear in Korea I find that saying truer and truer. Sometimes the changes are easy to see, others aren't so easy to spot, some of the changes and again others not.
I suppose the first change is the most noticeable, and that would be my appearance. Sure, I cut my hair which is a big change for me but others aren't quite as spectacularly noticeable, at least for me. The biggest physical change I've noticed is my arms. Kumdo has been subtle changing my arms. My forearms are noticeably more muscled as are my biceps and triceps. I've also managed to put a dent into my weight. I had been down 15 pounds at one point but I gained back five of that, which I will attribute to added muscle mass (I hope, lol)
On the subject of Kumdo, the master thinks I'll be ready for the armor next month, which I'm looking forward too. I've noticed my strikes have become a lot faster and more accurate, and my footwork is improving. Still, it's nice to have outside confirmation. I'm looking forward to actually being able to spar. I feel like a paper tiger as I've only been learning offense, but now I'll actually be able to start learning defense. My hands and feet are starting to toughen up too. They still get blisters, but they are really starting to get resistant to the beatings they take each week.
As for school, it still a mix of bad and good days. I have a class where all the parents are coming in next week so Ive got to put on a show with my class, but that's not until Wednesday, and truth be told, I'm more than a little nervous. Last Friday the kids went on their Spring picnic field trip. It was originally scheduled to be at Seoul Grand Park (which has a zoo and all kinds of stuff), but due to some problems in Seoul which I won't go into it was changed to Lotte World, the world's largest indoor theme park. It's ranked 7th in the world in terms of attendance. Since I and the other teachers were with the kids we didn't get to do much, especially considering the limited time we had. But we all agreed that we're gonna go back next month.

W ell I suppose that's a good length for this post for now, but I'll keep the promise I made a few weeks ago (I'm sorry, I've been busy, well sort of....) and post the picture of myself, enjoy!

Children's Day

Let me first apologize for the gap between my posts, It's been busy, although there isn't much to post. I had originally meant to post earlier in the week with pictures of my classes, but that fell through when my camera refused to work. But enough of that. Today's post will go in reverse chronological order (sort of).... yay!

Today was a national holiday in Korea, namely Children's Day. Basically think Mother's or Fathers day, but for kids. Yeah.... At any rate what it meant for me was I had the day off. Mmmmm yeah 3 day weekend. I spent much of it loafing around as I'm waiting for payday on Wednesday. I did however take part in some gaming on Camp Casey (which meant I got to eat on base)

Friday, being as it was Children's Day weekend, we had a party for the kids at school, which meant I had to be at school for first period...... Thus I decided to go to Kumdo that night, but we'll come back to that. My assignment for the day was Arts and Crafts, which despite my lack of a artistic ability went fantastic. Basically what it entailed was from 9:40 to 2:45 (minus 45 minutes for lunch) I was making Parent's Day cards with origami carnations. The kids had fun at any rate...

After I was done for the day I went to the 8:30 pm Kumdo class, where it turns out I'm like a minor celebrity. Despite never having met any of the students there, they all new my name and a good deal about me. Apparently the master told them about me (which is weird because the asst. master teaches the morning class). Anyways class went well, save for the fact it was very hot and I was dripping with sweat at the end.

Monday, I went in for my 2nd Crohn's appt. I had to have blood work done. It came back normal. As I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of diagnosis and my graduation I realize this last year could have gone much worse and that I am truly blessed, especially when I consider a teacher I knew here in town who had Crohn's got careless and had to go in for emergency surgery and had to be set back to the U.S. It was a good object lesson for me, but I digress. The appointment went well, but since it's been nearly a year since my last procedure involving a flexible camera taking images of my insides, I get tho schedule one for my summer break. Yay! (please insert sarcasm here) Oh well, I realize it's necessary and all, and at least it is n't my favorite thing in the world, the barium follow through x-ray.

At any rate, I get another wonderful three day weekend this next week as it's Buddha's Birthday (which is also apparently another national holiday). I promise that I will make another post (more substantial than tis one as well) then. For now take care. Shad