Taekwondo and Snacks

Yesterday was excellent! First of all, a few of the teachers came around and brought snacks to all of us, which was really nice. My coteacher brought every pieces of banana and another teacher brought around these rice wrap. There was red bean paste in the middle and the rice cake was wrapped around it, and there as a leaf wrapped around that. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to eat the leaf...so I took a bite before someone could tell me. WOOPS! It was ok...I don't mind the chewy texture of rice cakes, but I didn't like the bean flavor in it. Still, it is really nice for teachers to bring things around to everyone else. I'm going to have to make something or get something to share after my first pay check. My classes were pretty good also. There was one class that I didn't know I hadn't introduced myself to yet, so I'm going to have to do that next week, but that's ok.

After school, Gianni and I both went home and started packing for our big Seoul trip today! We'll be in Seoul for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), so we'll be home Sunday evening. Gianni came over, and we ate the last of the chicken and made some pasta to go with it. Hopefully soon, we'll make some chili in the rice cooker or something more interesting for dinner. I think we're all packed and ready for our trip now though.
I'm very excited to be going to Seoul. Getting the traveling started early.

I have been looking around for a taekwondo class for adults, and I found one of facebook the other day! I set up to do what I thought would be an observation class last night. We met the teacher, Mr. Hwang, at Daegu station, and he drove us to the gym from there. He speaks a little bit of English and is a really funny guy. We got to the gym and were given guest uniforms to put on, so we could try the class! Thrown into the deep end I guess! There was another couple from the US (not English teachers), so they were really helpful during class. They helped us learn the moves. The first half hour was a warm up, the next hour we did some kicking and punching of hand-held pads, and the last half hour we spent some time learning the first poomse (form) of taekwondo. It would be one of the things we'd have to memorize and perform if we wanted to move on to the next belt. The class is supposed to go from 8:30 to 9:30 and then 9:30 and 10:30, but most people stay for both classes. They are more like a continuation of each other apparently. We stayed the whole time and then got things figured out to sign up after class. Gianni realized that it was close to 11pm when the trains and buses typically shut down. Our new friends from class, Serena and Max, drove us home after a stop for some dinner at McDonalds. It was my first cheeseburger in weeks, and boy was it good! We had a really great time at taekwondo, and I think we're both really looking forward to going back and starting up for real next week!