Last week, one of the Korean teachers quit, which stinks as she did it on the last day of the month, which is when everything for the next month is prepared. Thus, all of her classes are be covered by someone temporary. Not good, really. Fortunately it has only affected one of my classes, which I've been kind of setting my own schedule on what to cover on a given day, not to hard really, just annoying. However, compound that with being down a foreign teacher as well and the schedule gets pretty convoluted. The good news is that they are already training a new Korean teacher, and the new foreign teacher (who will get the bonus prize of rooming with me as my old roommate moved as he had planed since before I moved in) should arrive Wednesday or Thursday. Speaking of Wednesday, I don't have to work. Yes that's right, I have Wednesday off. Why, you may ask? It's election day here, and apparently that means no school, quite nice really. That also got me thinking: If election day in the U.S. was a holiday, would more people turn out and vote? Something tells me no, but it would be interesting. At any rate, that also means I get to deal with campaign posters, people on in lines on the street saying what I would assume to be vote for candidate (insert number here, all the candidates are numbered). I actually met candidate #2 last week. He didn't make a good impression, I can say that much. I was on my way to school, and I hadn't got out of the neighborhood, when low and behold there he was. He must have caught a glimpse of my shoes as I was descending a hill and he had his down, because he started to approach me as if to shake my hand ir something, then he looked up and realized I was a weygook (Korean for foreigner) and quickly moved in a different direction. I'm certainly not voting for him.....
I also had my appointment with the GI doc last week. No real problems, I do however get to go in on the 28th for a blood test to make sure my kidneys and liver are still working, but that's routine. I was even able to get my prescriptions, with no hassle, and they were fairly cheap, only 50,000 won ($50 for those of you who don't know the exchange rate yet).
And know for the topic you've been waiting for, the reason behind my title: I start Kumdo tomorrow. What's Kumdo, you may ask? Kumdo (or Kendo in Japan) is the Korean (and Japanese) art of fencing. Don't really think of it as you would the Olympic sport fencing as the similarities end at wearing protective gear and using fake swords. Kumdo employs a unique style of footwork and strikes with a bamboo sword (unlike fencing which is limited to very linear movement and thrusts). I'm very excited as I've wanted to be able to do this since high school. My classes start at 7 AM and go untill 8 AM, which is really the only class time offered that would work. So I get to get up at 5:50 AM on weekdays so I can get ready and catch the bus, as the dojang (dojo/place of instruction) is a rec center on the other end of town near the city hall. It's pretty nice, the place has a swimming pool, driving range, Korean style bath, racquet's ball courts and of course the Kumdo area. I'll elaborate more on Wednesday, but for now, I'll just post some pictures.
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