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2003
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31 July 2004 (Saturday)

Craig and I hung out by and in the pool today--how nice to have a pool on a hot July day!! The water was so much warmer than when I was in it in June with Craig's family!!

29 July 2004 (Thursday)

Today I leaped over a giant hurdle (that I had created in my mind, apparently): I called Chicken on the Mountain to make a reservation! We will find out tonight at 6:30 if we have one chicken and one pancake (no fish) for two people!!

25 July 2004 (Sunday)

Kids warming up before tests begin. The gym was much more crowded as the day wore on. 7/25/04 (all photos today are by Craig)

We think the test went well! We got to the gym where the test was held at 9 AM and the 2,500+ kids that were testing for black belt or higher went before the adults, so we didn't get to test until about 4 PM! It was really hot in the gym and by the time it was our turn, I was so bored from watching the kids test all day I was not nearly as nervous as I had expected (I was nervous when we first arrived, but I don't even think I got as nervous as that once our test began!). Craig thought I was easy to spot when it was our turn to wait downstairs (I'm in the back in the top two photos and the front in the bottom two).

We basically did everything on auto-pilot (we were tested on poomse # 8--Minsue is in the bottom left of the last three photos) so I'll have to watch Minsue's video to find out how we really did! (I don't have any photos to show of sparring, it happened too fast!) We won't find out the results until late August, but we are pretty sure we passed as I think we'd know if we didn't do well enough to pass (at least that's what I hope!). I will be happy to only go to TKD three days a week now, that's for sure.

23 July 2004 (Friday)

Minsue and I went to TKD twice today! Our usual morning class and also the evening class with the middle-schoolers. I think Sabeamnim is trying to kill us!

20 July 2004 (Tuesday)

Minsue & I went to TKD from 6:30-8 with the middle schoolers tonight. It was pretty hot sparring, but I think we both felt more comfortable around the kids which is good since we'll probably be surrounded by them at the test on Sunday!

Sad news from home this morning: Rachel & Mat's dog, Kirby, died Sunday night/Monday morning. We got Kirby when Rachel went to college and then he moved in with Rachel & Mat when they got married. He was a good dog--it will be sad to not have him around when I'm visiting next month! It also makes me want to hurry up and get home to spend all of the time I can with Tillie--she's two years younger than him.

16 July 2004 (Friday)

I'd love to tell you that I've been having "only in Korea" moments the past few days, but I just haven't! Mostly I've been at the dojang, showering twice a day (once before TKD and once immediately after), doing laundry, and then relaxing!

I'm counting on the following interesting things to happen over the next couple of weeks: 1. go to beach party with Craig's work Saturday, 2. take black belt test on 7/25, and 3. head to the US for three weeks where I'm already compiling a list of the places I want to eat and the stores I want to browse (and I'm really hoping I don't eat or buy too much!). I've been dreaming of a Boston Market chicken carver sandwich on wheat for the past two weeks. I think I'll have that for dinner the first night I'm in TX!! Jello fat-free pudding cups sound absolutely heavenly, and I cannot wait to get to Target!!

Then, maybe, once I'm back from the US, I'll have some more Korean tales to tell... well, I hope there are more between now and when I leave, too! I plan to attempt to keep up my journal while in the US to make note of all the things that might seem strange to me having been gone almost a year now.

12 July 2004 (Monday)

Craig finally came home today!! He came home at 1 PM which is when I usually leave for pottery, so I ditched pottery today. Oh well, it was nice to finally have him at home with me! I made lasagna for dinner to welcome him back--it was nice to actually cook something for a change as well (something I wasn't doing too much of since living the life of a bachelorette!).

10 July 2004 (Saturday)

Going to the dojang today was fine, but as I predicted--it was really hot and humid! Minsue and I felt a little embarrassed to do our poomses in front of the kids, but I think we're actually better than them so I'm not sure what we were worried about. Just a brief taste of what it will be like on the 25th though when we're two of only a few adults testing for black belt! It's likely that there will be very few western women there which will make me really stick out--not something I'm really looking forward to!

Although I felt mildly guilty about serving Mexican food at my apartment while Craig was out of town, I was assured that he has been eating well in Malaysia... so Erica, Brandy, & I cooked up some Mexican for a Mexican night for us and our spouses (minus Craig). There was a Mexican night at the foreigner's club but we didn't buy tickets for it so we decided to have our own--and we think ours was better than theirs by far!

9 July 2004 (Friday)

There's not too much going on here, Craig is still in Malaysia, so I'm getting a little tired of being alone.

Minsue came back from Seoul yesterday so now we are back to seriously getting ready for the black belt test. We are going to TKD tomorrow (Saturday!) at 1:30 (it's going to be really hot!) to practice with the kids & high school kids. Should be a learning experience if nothing else!

6 July 2004 (Tuesday)

Now we're in trouble... we have to start using the Korean waste disposal system! We were so spoiled before when our apartment was still considered a construction zone! I'm copying and pasting the emailed instructions from our apartment managers below:

"Inflammable: Use a Red Plastic Bag (Vinyl coated paper, diapers, tissue, fax paper, photos, toys, clothes, etc...) Non-inflammable: Use a Yellow Plastic Bag (Food, pottery, glass, electric bulbs, etc...) Recycling Material: Recycling material to be disposed of in allocated bins. (PET bottle, can, beverage bottle, etc...) (!!!) We don't use a Yellow Plastic Bag at the moment so please use a Red Plastic bag for all waste except recycling material."

It looks like we won't be using the rest of the large kitchen trash bags that Craig brought home from the US in December!

4 July 2004 (Sunday)

There was a typhoon heading our way today and Harley was not too excited about the noise the wind makes as it winds through our apartment. We (Harley & I) stayed home all day to wait out the storm. Fortunately it never got too windy or too rainy and the power stayed on, so it was a much better stormy experience than when we arrived last fall.

3 July 2004 (Saturday)

I didn't do too much today except call Rachel to wish her a happy birthday. This evening I went to Connie & Matt's for a cajun dinner party.

1 July 2004 (Thursday)

Craig left me today for a week in Malaysia for work, but luckily for me, Erica & Joel left for China today as well, so I get to watch Harley through Sunday!

Minsue & I went into the dojang today to practice our poomses, turnkicks, and sparring for the black belt test at the end of the month. I'm going to need to buy a second uniform with all of the washing I have to do to this one--it's going to wear out pretty soon!