Look out for the Yellow Belt!

I’ve had an OK weekend, but likely not OK enough to make this post an interesting read.

Friday evening at Hapkido we had evaluations. I was led to understand that, because of my sprained ankle, I would not participate. I was wrong. I lined up with everyone else and we were told that we would follow the list of punches and kicks in on the wall above us. The helpful instructor was calling everything out before we were to do each action, though.

This is all fine and dandy, except I don’t know what any of it means. I doubt I would have understood even if I was able to speak Korean at any decent level. I’ve only been doing this for little under one month. I am embarrassed to say that I still don’t speak Korean. One of the junior instructors was asked to stand next to me and show me what the next move was. That helped a lot. I still made a few mistakes, but I actually surprised myself with some of the actions. I think I am close to nailing the cartwheel. Luckily I didn’t have to do the forward flip. That is the think that messes with my ankle even though I land on my arse more often than not.

Despite what I think of my own performance, I was told that I passed. Now I have a yellow belt. Gone is the lowly white belt. I suppose if the girl at the dojang who is unable to do anything can wear a blue belt, then I should not even wonder about my new status.

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On Saturday I went to Yongin to convert my SA drivers licence to a Korean one. I am allowed to do it, but I have to leave my SA licence with them. I get is back when I give my Korean licence back. Naturally I refused. An international licence is worthless if I don’t have it with the actually licence. In any case, it is a government issued ID document. I can’t go around giving it to others to keep for an extender period.

I only want a motorcycle licence, so I said that want to apply for that. I was told I am not allowed to because I need the drivers licence first to prove that I the traffic rules. Well, if I just convert it, then I am not proving anything, really, am I. And how does it matter who is in actual possession of my SA licence change this? I am still deciding what I am going to do about this. I want to find out of I can jippo the system. If the Motorcycle licence and the car licence are separate documents, then I can get the converted licence, get the motorcycle licence and then give the drivers licence back. Problem solved! I still have to ask about this one.

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Today, Sunday, I went to Seoul to the Pixar exhibition(the English site with basically no English). It was good. It’s interesting to see the clay models and concept sketches. They have this interesting contraption called a Zoetrope. This particular one worked with strobe lights, not with slits, but the principle is the same as the one describes in the link. I want one

That is it, nothing serious. I hope to get some photos edited this week. I’ve had problems with my computer and getting Photoshop on, but it is OK now, I hope.