My university classes are now over, and instead I now meet my friends at Paris every morning at 7:30 am. Paris is our lovingly romantic nickname for Paris Baguette, the local bakery, where even the garlic bread has sugar on it. Bread is a Western concept, and Koreans don't seem to understand that bread is not the same as cake, and that all bread should not be sweet (strangely, one of my favorite foods here is a slightly sweetened pastry with spicy chicken and vegetables tucked yummily away in the center).
Breakfast is not the reason for our daily meetings, though. Instead, we wait for our Master to come pick us up in a black van. Do not be alarmed; I have not joined a Satanic cult. No, I have joined hapkido. Five days a week, for an hour, five crazy waygooks and a wonderful Korean woman practice hapkido (a traditional form of Korean martial arts) at a hagwon. For the most part, we're all hopelessly out of shape, and it's quite a comical experience; however, Elizabeth assured me that if I worked out for five days a week for 7 months I'd be in better shape than I am now.
After rolling on my head and punching things for an hour, I work a hopelessly long day before going to yet another Korean hagwon (you'd think working at a hagwon for 9 hours a day would be enough). This hagwon is called "Jazz Belly", and even more ridiculous than the name is the fact that I've begun belly dancing too. Several of the women from work and I shake our jingly scarves and body parts to an interesting amalgam of English and Korean pop music, which was very impressively combined with a poppy version of "The Little Drummer Boy" tonight. The whole experience is hopelessly embarrassing, but I find myself consistently drawn back for more.
My spontaneous Korean life seems to be getting ridiculously scheduled, but I'm enjoying all of it. My only concern now is finding enough time to prepare for Christmas- only ten more days!
3 comments:
Care Bear- The martial arts thing sounds way too difficult but the belly dancing sounds like fun. You will have to teach me some moves when you come home....I miss you!
Sounds great, Carrie. You're living the life that I want to get back to in a few years. Do you think you'll do another year in Korea or come back after this year or something completely different?
And if you're wondering who the hell I am... I'm Heather. We used to work together at Huntington. :-)
Heya Carrie, it's Mike Gatto, from Huntington. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your time in Korea. I'm especially glad you're finding so much to do there that your time needs to be scheduled to fit it all in.
I am not ashamed to admit that I envy you the experience you're having. I hope you accumulate lots of great memories and look back on your time abroad as one of the best things you've ever done with your life.
Oh, and merry Christmas. ^_^
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