Two More Days of Hapkido

December 9th, 2010
We visited 유미 Yoomi’s dad at his camera shop and he cleaned my sensor for free while I was there (I also picked up some filters and a new strap). It was sad talking to him about what a hit his business has taken from online shopping. Especially considering how much of the online stuff is somewhat or all fake and how often these people later need service on their camera gear and have to pay through the teeth since they don’t get any A/S on online sales…


Then Karjam bought me two new pairs of glasses for my birthday and we went to 합기도 Hapkido.

I met the kid who’ll be my partner for the test, or rather I re-met him. I’ve known him since he was four. Okay, that’s just weird, right? Then some other girls I’ve taught before (who are now 2nd dan) came in and were all excited to see me. I didn’t really remember them, either. Seriously, when you see them and they are tiny and then you see them and they probably have boyfriends, it’s really hard to skip through all the intervening years.

I was there and exercising for five hours, which was about four hours more than my body wanted. I did a lot of falls, including running, leaping and rolling (length and height), kicking practice (I can see what I need to go back and polish, but the cool thing is I only need to do things on my good side, it’s not like I have to do kicks equally well with both legs. Not that there is a large difference, but still, it’s a source of comfort not to have to train hard on both sides. I also was able to work up to full speed on some of the cane and belt techniques, then the 관장님 Gwanjangnim taught me to use the staff some. Why do I have to use these three? The staff will need the most practice of all.

Near the end of the evening I was just sort of sitting and having a rest while I watched the Gwanjangnim teach and I started thinking about how he was teaching and how martial arts are taught in Korea (very successfully, obviously, with large numbers of students) and I started contemplating how and why the traditional arts are taught differently—something I hope to pursue more later on as I write my dissertation.

December 10th, 2010
I went to 합기도 Hapkido again, but my partner had too many final exams to show up, so I mostly worked on the staff by myself (something I could do in Seoul, too, so I felt it was a waste of time). Karjam doesn’t want to go back to Seoul until tomorrow, so that’s what’s happening.