Annoyong Haseyo!

Here is Kate and Eva! Eva is the other TaeKwon-Do instructor and the girl who helped get me to Korea, Kate is a student of ours at TaeKwon-Do and also and teacher at an academy in DaeJeon!



This is the underground mall! (goes on for a few streets!)



I wanted to try on one of the big visor/hats that older women wear around here, the store clerk said I was very pretty! I asked if I could have a job modelling hats for her....she did not understand me...

Hello Everyone!

The past two weeks have gone by so fast it has been amazing so far!

I am learning a lot of Korean now...I am getting better at reading...at about a grade 1 equivalent reading level-haha I am reading baby books now and signs and asking everyone what things mean! I am teaching 8 classes a week now and also training 4-5 times a week. They train hard which is very nice...but everyone here is still afraid of my long legs in sparring! I am making new friends everyday! I am content just walking around stores and looking at things because I am still amazed at all the lights, signs, different clothes, nik-nacs and 100's of cellphones (cellphones are like the main accessory here, your cellphone must make a statement!).

Today at my Korean lesson I learned how to tell everyone I am Canadian: "Kaenada-saram". After the Korean lesson we went to the underground mall-which Ivisited before in 2004. (For those of you who do not know in 2004 I came to DaeJeon for the World Championships, I got a sliver for Special Techniques and a gold and two bronzes from team events). The underground mall is alongside the subway- I never get sick of it because it is so bright and has so many cool things to look at!

Everyone here comments on my skin, they say it is so white and that I am very beautiful! I get people coming up to me all the time just to tell me they think I am pretty! Maybe that is part of the reason I love it here so much! Korean standard of pretty is clear white skin, shiny hair, skinny waist and bright white teeth! I am not half as skinny or small as the women here! They eat so much at one meal that it takes 2 people to finish one meal(Eva and I share meals!) Korean women eat a lot but stay so skinny, I am so jealous!!! Although back home I may have fit a small or medium...here I fit maybe a men's extra large!!!

The last two weeks have flown by pretty fast, I have not had a huge bout of homesickness yet-but sometimes I think about how different things are in Canada and I miss some things...like green grass-that is hard to come by around here. The sun I find here is very hot-just standing to wait for the lights to turn so I can cross the street I find too hot! But, soon it will be fall and cooler weather will come-then I will be much happier because it will remind me of home.

Every morning now I am doing yoga! It is very hard here, not like the yoga I did at home! It is fun and many people try to speak English to me. It is good because it immerses me in Korean and helps me stretch my muscles after all the hard training from the week. Sometime in the near future I want to go and do Korean Traditional Archery! There is a lot to learn a do in Korea-if you want to get into the culture! I want to go from being a Waygok to a Hangok (westerner to Korean) and I think after two weeks I am well on my way!

Take care everyone!

Annoyonghi Kayseyo!