Head spinning, body not wanting to

I just spent the last 30 minutes doing sommersaults. Yep. I'm not just saying I did a couple of them in a 30 minute period. No. I sommersaulted for the majority of a half an hour. Another day in taekwondo proved to be a total embarrassment. Only, this time, I have a killer headache to boot. I haven't sommersaulted since...God, I can't remember when. To top it off, I wasn't doing it right. I'm sorry, my large mass of a body can't flip on a dime on command...while dizzy. I'm definitely going on a diet now. Wow. That was a killer. The cool thing was, while I was segregated to the "beginners" activity, the other kids were doing flips. Yeah, front handsprings and all. That was pretty cool to watch-the sommersaulting, not so much. The high school boys who are black belts and usually oversee the "beginners" activities were pretty entertained by the whole thing.

On the positive side, a girl who is going to be a student at Pungsan High has joined the class for break. I love her. Her name is Min Jeong, her belt matches mine, and she speaks more English than the others. I quickly befriended her even before knowing she was going to be my student because 1. she's a girl, and 2. she isn't terrified to speak to me.

During break, students go to taekwondo whenever their schedules allow, so the dojan has accumulated a large number of kids in the late afternoons. I'm going everyday for 2 hours, 4-6 PM, right in the middle of the rushhour. In a way, I like it because it takes a lot of attention OFF of me. I mean, when the 7 year-old starts crying and the 15 year-olds pull each other belts off, there isn't the constant scrutiny over everything the foreigner does or doesn't do, understands or can't make heads or tails of.

There are 4 girls in a class of over 30 boys. It's a little intimidating because friends in Korea are almost always the same sex, and I think some of the boys are quite happy ignoring my existence or, even better, remaining aloof because of my status as a teacher. Oh well. I've definitely made a friend in the Grandmaster and his wife. She's such a wonderful woman, though her English is as good as my Korean.

*Notes to self: Talk more to the high school black belts...Learn Korean...