Another Week

Another week has come to and end, another week ahead. Last Sunday I taught a Parkour workshop again. I enjoyed the group of people that attended, from various countries. They members also learned the techniques with a fair amount of ease, and after only about 30 minutes they were able to do a basic run.




On Thursday night last week the senior students, for whom the current semester is their final one, organized a banquet in honour of the teachers. In Korea senior students host such a banquet to thank their lecturers for what they have done for them during their years at university. As a teacher I can only say that it is a much appreciated gesture. This was the first such a banquet I've attended, and was definitely the best one so far. We were taken to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kangnam, which included an excellent buffet.

There are only two weeks of classes remaining at the university where I work, which means that we are very focussed on finish the material in time. Of course this means that I've started doing lots of grading in order to finish the assignments and class tests before the final exams start December 13.
Saturday night I met up with a dance instructor focussing on Jazz and contemporary dance. We had a very interesting conversation, mostly comparing the similarities between dance and the martial arts. I learned a lot.

Today (Sunday), I attended a Taekkyeon tournament (as a spectator). Although I have seen Taekkyeon tournaments online, todays one was the first time for me to see in person. Most of the events were group events, with five members per group. If a fighter wins his bout, he stays on to fight the next challenger from the opposing group. In one of the sets, a girl stepped up and won against all the members of the opposing team. She was quite good. Of course, I enjoyed the adults fights much better, as they used much more intriguing techniques. I took my video camera with and will put together a video once I have time.

The tournament ended around 7PM, it was supposed to end at 5PM. Starving by then two of my fellow Taekkyeon mates and I went to Itaewon for dinner. We had fabulous Thai food, including tongue smackingly good Thai deserts. While having dinner it started to snow.

By the time I headed home it was snowing quite hard. At first I was tempted to take a taxi from the subway station to my house so that I do not have to walk to far, but then I decided to rather take the bus and enjoy the fifteen minute walk in the snow to my apartment. Although I've experienced it now for a number of years, snow is still a novelty to me—I grew up in Africa, after all. That white blanket that covers everything is to me a beautiful spectacle year after year.

Today America and South Korea performed their joint naval exercises in the West Sea; the largest ever naval drills.I guess they were pretty intimidating as North Korea didn't react much. Then again, there is still a couple of days to go as the naval exercises are planned to continue till Wednesday.

A Dead Owl, a Red Haired Korean, Bomb Shock and an Exhibition Decision

The owlet I picked up in front of my apartment yesterday did not make it through the night. By the time I picked it up it was already in the afternoon. Someone told me that they saw it there in the morning already. I was planning to take it to a vet today, but unfortunately when I went to check on it after I got up it was dead. I'm guessing that having sat outside in the sun may have taken its toll, not having fed for so long. Since I don't keep meat in my home I had nothing to feed it. I tried to give it some egg on a spoon but it wasn't interested. Since I have little knowledge of caring for raptors I just hoped it would survive the night so that I could take it somewhere professional. So it goes . . .

At the Taekkyeon class tonight I saw something quite interesting. There was a bearded Korean man He had a read beard. I asked him about it and he assured me that it is indeed his natural beard colour. This is the first time for me to see a Korean with naturally red hair -- or at least a read beard. I told him I want to bring my camera next time so that I can take a picture of his red beared. He didn't seem to pleased with the idea. I've seen a number of Koreans with a slight red tint in their hair, but since many Koreans dye their hair all kinds of brown and auburn shades, it is quite difficult to judge if the red tint is natural or not. I've been thinking about writing a blog post about physical (genetic) differences between Koreans and Cocasions. I hope to do it soon.

After the Taekkyeon training I spent a little time getting to know some of my fellow practitioners. One Korean man and I struck up a conversation and since we live in the general same direction we took the same subway line and continued talking for another half an hour or so. His name is Beomseok -- it sounds a little like "Bomb Shock," so that's how I'm going to remember it. He is studing Oriental Medicine. It sounds quite interesting. I would probably have enjoyed it, but life don't always present you with opportunities for all your likes, and neither am I so passionate about Oriental Medicine that I'd quite my job and enroll myself as a freshmen again. To be honest, the idea of starting my academic career from scratch again just sounds to daunting. Now if I had the opportunity to get a degree in Taekwon-Do I would seriously consider it. Korea has a number of universities with Taekwon-Do as major; acutally, it is a major in Sport Science or Physical Education, while specialising in Taekwon-Do. There are about three universities that offers the course in English. It would even be better if I could work at a university teaching martial arts -- now that would be wonderful. Combining the job I like with my passion for the martial arts.

I'm planning to go to an art exhibit tomorrow. Either Greek sculptures or Rodin's sculptures. Maybe I should do it in historic sequence -- Classical idealism before naturalistic expressionism. Greek sculpture tomorrow and Rodin on Wednesday.

I Took Up Taekkyeon Again

Image Source

Since I suspended my formal training of Hapkido for the time being, I’ve taken up Taekkyeon again. I started with Taekkyeon on Monday and will be going to the dojang twice a week – Monday and Wednesday. The Taekkyeon gym is situated in Insadong, which is a tourist friendly street in Seoul, focused on mostly traditional Korean memorabilia, traditional teashops, and it seems also traditional martial arts.

I did Taekkyeon before, but stopped going for two reasons. The times clashed with my day job and my fellow practitioners were all old ladies. I don’t have anything against the elderly, it is just that after about two months of training my learning curve reached a plateau and I realized that it was not going to improve that much. One major reason being that the dojang caters for health enthusiasts, not for combat practitioners. If I wanted to learn about Taekkyeon’s martial applications I had to go to another school. Well at the time my program was already too full, so I just quit Taekkyeon for the time being. In the meantime, an opening in my program presented itself so I found a new Taekkyeon gym with the help of my Taekwon-Do instructor – it is the main Taekkyeon school in Seoul. Unfortunately, like with my Taekwon-Do school, it takes me more than an hour to commute from my home to the gym.

I’ve had two classes so far and have practically just practiced the basic stepping that is iconic of Taekkyeon. It is much more difficult than it looks, and it seems that my previous Taekkyeon exposure has taught me some wrong habits, which is somewhat hard to break. The instructor says that it takes about eight months to master the basic stepping. I understand the importance of building a sound foundation and basic training; however, I do hope that I’ll get the stepping right in less time.

'n Oog vir 'n oog

An oil painting by Carl Hammoud.

Ek neem al hoe meer gereeld werk huistoe. In 'n vorige inskrywing, toe ek vir die eerste keer werk huistoe geneem het, het ek gekla dat ek dit nie wil doen nie. Intussen het ek my opinie daaroor verander.

Dit is bloot regverdig, dink ek. Ek is tegnies veronderstel om vanaf 9vm tot 5nm op kantoor te wees. Maar Woensdagoggende neem ek sowat 'n uur en half af om Taekkyeon te gaan oefen en Dinsdag- en Donderdagmiddae vertrek ek 'n uur vroeër, sodat ek die Hapkido-sessie om 5nm kan bywoon. So in geheel neem ek omtrent drie tot vier ure 'n week af. Hipoteties gesproke behoort ek dan drie tot vier ure terug te werk. Daar is niemand wat oor my skouer loer of my dwing om op kantoor te sit nie. Nietemin, ek gaan nie meer kla as ek werk huistoe neem nie.

A Weekend of Conversations

My friend Young and I spent some time together over the weekend. On Friday evening he picked me up to attend Vespers at a church not too far from my place. I guess it will take about 30 minutes by public transport to get there. However, it took us longer by car, because of the Friday night traffic in Seoul. Car is still more convenient; and conducive to good conversation. I've always enjoyed spending time in car with friends, enjoying deep conversations.

Saturday morning I decided to go to the Sabbath keeping church in Ilsan again, there to spent some time with fellow South African friends, Brian and Maike. Ilsan is known as a satellite city of Seoul and it takes about two hours to get there by public transport. Walking towards the bus stop I bumped into Young. He was on his way to campus, but on the spur of the moment decided to do the two hour trek with me.

After lunch the four of us (Brian, Maike, Young and I) had delightful discussions. We spoke about relationships mostly. Young is getting married towards the end of the year so Maike and Brian shared some valuable and candid information about marriage, problems newlywed couples face, money matters, love-life and the like. We also spoke about sin and temptation, partly as an offshoot from the sermon that was about Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. And had some strange confessions about our respective families.

On our way back Young and I went by the Jazz-café I posted about before, where my other South African friend Lindiwe met us later.

Although I was home by 23:00 it must have been an exhausting day, because I slept until 11:00 this morning (Sunday)! Of course, it doesn’t take much to get me to sleep in. For the most of the day I procrastinated at home. I did go for Taekkyeon training in the evening and did some preparation for classes tomorrow.

That was my weekend.

Sunday: Babies, Martial Arts and Work

Yesterday I slept in. I would say it is a good way to start a Sunday. If only the whole day was that peaceful.

I went to my friend John's. The visit was twofold. Firstly it was to meet John (American) and Yoshiko's (Japanese) baby-daugther, Mika. (American + Japanese = Cute.) I've been told that she looked forward to meeting her first South African. I hope I didn't disappoint.

The second reason for my visit was for Taekwon-Do. Both John and I do ITF Taekwon-Do, which is sort of a novelty in South Korea. It is easy to find a WTF school, but ITF schools are rare and difficult to access. For this reason John and I plan to train together, hopefully once a week. We worked out at a nice spot near his house that John likes to call "Stone Henge". It is a type of amphitheatre nestled next to a mountain trail in the middle of Seoul. We'll mostly likely work on our patterns, which is something that can quickly get rusty if not trained often.

After our visit and training I had to rush back to my office. (It takes about an hour or so to get from the centre of Seoul to where I live.) I teach different modules on Mondays, so there is lots of preparation that needs to be done. I had just over an hour to work on my preparation, because at six o'clock I had Taekkyon training and the building where my office is, is locked in the evenings after seven. Which is good on the one hand, as it forces me not to procrastinate too much. But bad on the other hand; especially if I suddenly need to go to my office and everything is locked up!

I've come to the conclusion that Sundays are too busy. I really need to get my preparation for Mondays done before the weekend. I need to plan better. It is time to read Stephen Covey's First Things First again.

The photos in this post are not Creative Commons images.

An Encounter with Oriental Medicine

This morning I went to my Taekkyeon instructor, who is also an Oriental Doctor, for treatment. The tendon of my right hamstring muscle has been bothering me for probably three or four months now. I hurt it one Taekwon-Do session because I thought I can still kick head height without warming up, as I used to do at the age of 18. (Teenagers, beware… the day is coming!) So there I was, at the doctor.

I tried to explain to him what is wrong, but he silenced me. Instead he made me sit and started to take my pulse. First the right wrist. Then the left. Then the right again. He tapped me on the right side to indicate the problem is on the right side of my body. This time he allowed me to show which tendon is causing the fuss.

And then the treatment started. First I lay on my stomach and allowed him to push and pull along my spine, popping stuff and stretching stuff. Initially it felt good; not a relaxing message, but a good working of the muscles. But after half an hour he really started to press all the right places. As if he knew exactly which pressure points would cause me the most excruciating pain; he started to stand on me with his knees, kneed with his elbows, pinch and prod with thumbs and knuckles. It took all my will power not to squirm from under him. And then he started acupuncture with two acupuncture pens. They look similar to normal parker pens, but with special three thronged heads. I felt like screaming, so painful was it. Some of the points stung in long waves along my meridians. Although I’m not fond of getting hurt, I do think that I have a rather high tolerance for pain. But such illusions disappeared under his touch. Apparently I also got some injections near the sore tendon.

What a tender (as in painful, not as in fond) experience. I have to come back often, he said. Once a week.

I have many problems, explained the translator to me. He also referred to my skin problem. I suffer from acne problems – mostly on my back. The doctor said it might be related to my kidneys, liver or a nutritional deficiency. I know for a fact that supplements of zinc and excessive amounts of Vitamin C helps to relieve the inflammation. Hopefully this oriental treatment might fix this long time bane as well.

So, coming Sunday after Taekkyeon training, I will be back for another torture session.

Taekkyeon - another attempt at understanding TKD

In my attempt to better understand my chief martial art, namely ITF Taekwon-Do, I've cross-trained in many other martial arts. My thinking is that if I really want to see Taekwon-Do clearly, I need to look at it from different vantage points.

Seeing, for instance, many circular techniques in Taekwon-Do, I decided to take up Hapkido. And indeed, my training in Hapkido helped me to understand better one of ITF Taekwon-Do's main principles - the sinewave motion.

I've also started wonder about the relaxedness of Taekwon-Do. A strong influence on Taekwon-Do's early development was (Shotokan) Karate, which definitely do not have the "relaxedness" I'm referring to. My conclusion was that I would find this relaxedness in the other main influence in Taekwon-Do's development - Taekkyeon.

So I've recently taken up Taekkyeon. And from the first moment I knew my suspicion was spot on. Taekkyeon is a so called soft-style and therefore very relaxed. Lots of emphasis is placed on breathing techniques, almost like Tai Chi Ch'uan.

My first class was exceptionally interesting. Most of the techniques are done while singing traditional folk songs. (Taekkyeon is closely linked to Korea's traditional folk dances.) Since the instructor is a Christian, we even did one stretching-and-breathing routine to the melody of "What a Friend I have in Jesus"! As I understand so far, Taekkyeon is completely based on relaxed motions.

My instructor is also an Oriental doctor, and does acupressure messaging and acupuncture therapy. He also teach Oriental Medicine at the university where I work.