Taekwondo in Korea...or..finding my inner warrior...again.

Before leaving Florida I spent two years learning a Japanese martial art called Taido (Karate). It was really when  I started taking Taido that I felt like I came into my own, became comfortable in my own skin, and learned that I really am in control most of the time. Unfortunately there is no Taido in Korea, but you know what Korea has a whole lot of? Taekwondo! My mom enrolled me in Taekwondo classes when I was getting beat up a lot in middle school, and I'm happy to have the chance to learn it again in the place where it all started.

Babehoney through a connection to a connection ended up having us bump into a nice South African lady, Saffanetta, who is quite the adventurous waygook. She's always going places on weekends and trying new things, so when she posted on our facebook group that she was taking taekwondo we immediately decided to join her. The class is 90% kids, and now there are 3 adults.

Babehoney didn't feel so hot tonight, so she watched from the sideline, but somehow slipped up that I have a brown belt in karate...so the Master and the english speaking black belt had me show them "my stuff" and decided that yes, I am indeed good enough to learn taekwondo with the kids (I hope) and that I look very stiff. The very stiff comment has followed me through all of my physical endeavours throughout life, but I was really happy to show off that I could do cartwheels, even one-handed, and keep up with the kids.

Tonight's experience kind of reminded me of Fight Quest and the Human Weapon. As a martial arts nerd, it was really, really cool to get to step into a dojo in the birthplace of the martial art. What a cool, cool feeling. It felt even cooler to be greeted by the master and his his assistants, even though they speak no English (save for one of the black belts) and understand what they were talking about because I have a bit of background with this kind of thing. This is going to turn into a 3 or 4 night-a-week thing for us, and I'm really happy about it.