Taekwondo World Championships

As I mentioned previously, Carolyn and I have been taking taekwondo classes for a couple of weeks. Last week the master invited us to go with him to an "international taekwondo tournament." We thought it would be an awesome Korea experience so we said OF COURSE! So yesterday, we went down to the gym, piled into the gym's van, and headed to Gyeongju, about an hour and a half east-southeast of Daegu.

Uh...yeah. We're not in Kansas anymore toto!

Great Britain putting the beatdown on Portugal

When we arrived I noticed something was amiss...there were tons of signs, an excellent display of kites marking the entrance, and people from all over the world. It was the freaking world championship! We got to watch a couple of matches that were really out of this world, for example the women's final between Korea and China. A politically charged ancient rivalry that resulted in two women beating each other up pretty well. The Korean won, by the way.

It was really neat to feel like we reconnected with the world a little bit, there were taekwondo competitors from every country I can think of, and it was neat to see some of the national pride on display.

Burial mound in background

The perfect gate.

Oh those beautiful Korean Mountains!

After the championship we went over to see some historical burial mounds that Gyeongju is famous for, and that was equally enjoyable. It was a beautiful spring day with families in a park flying kites, riding bikes, and walking among ancient burial sites that dated back to 935 BCE. Simply amazing.

It was very interesting being with our master for the day because although he speaks very very little English and we speak even less Korean, we managed to communicate somewhat. I think he wished we could communicate easier so he could tell us what was happening, but I made sure to tell him that even though we couldn't talk much it was such a cool opportunity for us to go to a world championship with our teacher that we would remember it forever...and we will.

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.