What a tiring week! Apart from the many assignments (and late assignments!) that I had to grade (and I’m sad to say that I’m not finished with these), we started with the Final Exams today until next Friday. For this, of course, I have to prepare many exam papers. I copy the exam papers myself, since I don’t trust it to be done by someone else, lest the questions are leaked. Hence, lots of extra work.
But that’s not the only thing that tired me this week. I also had to go to the Japanese Embassy twice this week to prepare my visa. I plan to go with the Korean Taekwon-Do Team to Japan to attend the Tokyo Taekwon-Do Championships later this month. Even with the help of my Taekwon-Do instructor*, it still took many hours to get it done. I am happy to say that I got a visa today and will go to Japan from the 21st till the 24th. Unfortunately I need to return to the Korean Department of Home Affairs next week to make sure that my re-entry visa for Korea is in order. I wouldn’t want to get stuck in Japan!
Next week will be even more tiring I think. I’ll be doing lots of grading. I have to finish it all before the coming weekend as I’ll be busy over the weekend with Young’s wedding, and, as I mentioned, fly to Japan on Sunday evening; so all my work has to be done before I leave.
The requirements for getting the visa were far from easy. I had to get an “employment certificate” from the university I work, give proof of sufficient money in my bank account, and even had to submit a detailed inventory of my planned visit in Japan: places I’ll visit; things I’ll be doing; activities I’m going to take part in.
It feels funny to be an official member of the Korean Taekwon-Do Team. In South Africa I never had the opportunity to be part of the national team, for various reasons; however, here suddenly things worked out for me to be part of the Korean Team! It’s not certain yet if I’ll be competing (I think it’s a bit too late for me), but I will act as an umpire and get a chance to train with the Korean and Japanese teams.
*It feels so strange to be talking about “my Taekwon-Do instructor”. I’ve been without an official instructor for much of my Taekwon-Do career. Practicing on my own mostly, while myself being an instructor for students of lower rank at my dojang (Taekwon-Do school). I only occasionally visited instructors of higher rank than myself – so to call someone “my Taekwon-Do instructor” and mean it in a quasi-permanent sense, rather than a haphazard sense feels quite odd.
It’s weekend. It’s Sabbath. And I’m looking forward to some sleep.
3 comments:
Good luck with the end-of-term rush.
I hope you have fun in Japan. I am glad you are getting to go to the event. Visa paperwork is tedious and it has gotten worse over so many more restrictions.
That picture of you on the roof rerminds me of how I liked going to the roof sometimes. I sometimes played my flute up there, took pictures, or just watched the sunset. I have missed going on a roof.
Japan will be fun, moreover most people can speak English from my experience when I was there,
probably you can treat yourself in the spa or something like a full body massage, which might be expensive but affordable.
You remember the same picture I took of you, with the same pose at childrens grand park?
I often think of the times we use to have a class on the roof with King etc. in the year 2006.
Roofs are cool!
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