Test-uh

So this past Saturday I tested for the next level of my black belt, second dan.

After many hours of practicing my poom se's, I felt ready! and nervous and excited.

So, Saturday came and we all met at the club to head out for the hour long drive to the test site. I swear the van ride there was more stressful, listening to the 3 boys screaming and beating each other in the back seat! man.

After stopping to ask many locals how to get to the high school where the test was being held, we finally arrived.

This is just me, but shouldn't you know before hand WHERE the site is before heading out? Minor detail, but still.

So everyone outta the van. We get in the gym and there are about 400 kids and some high school students running around in their do-boks getting ready for their test.

My fellow waygook friend Nate (who was along to take pictures and see what the test is all about for when he tests in May) and I were soon spotted and were pointed at many times.

Yes, we're tall. Yes, we're white. Yes, we can learn Tae Kwon Do in Canada. Yes, we learn from Koreans, not whities.

So anyway, we have a big group warm up and listen to many long winded speaches given by important Korean masters.

One master I recognize. It's my old master from the club I trained at for about 4 months when I first arrived in Korea. I ended up leaving his do-jang b/c I felt like I never left work when I went there. Kids everywhere, kicking balls around, screaming, shitty training, chaos, no respect.

It was very frustrating and was not what I was hoping my Tae Kwon Do experience was going to be. Training in the home country of where a sport originated, I expected to be so hard ass and serious. Like what one would expect if they were going to train hockey in Canada.

It turned out to be the complete opposite, at this club anyway, and it was so disappointing. So, I finally left.

The master called my house, he speaks no English and I speak VERY little Korea so this was useless.

He then called my co-teacher at school and asked why I wasn't there anymore.

Since then I have found my new club that I've been training at for the last 6 months and I love it. It's still not as hard ass as I had hoped for, but it's pretty awesome.

That was a long explanation. sorry.

Soooooooo, back to noticing my old master at the test.

La-la-la, I've been getting ready/antsy for my turn for about 2 and half hours now and it's finally my turn.

Ok, here it is. Do us waygooks proud and don't mess up! you can do it whitey!

The way the test is set up is that you go up with the others that are testing for the same level and you do 2 patterns in front of 3 judges and then go to the other side of the gym and do a kicking sequence and spar.

My old master, is judging the patterns. After we finish he, waves me over. Being the big dumb waygook, I'm thinking do I just go to the other side of the gym like I'm supposed to? do I go to him? So I go over to him and he jus starts blabbing in Korean, draws an X in the air at me and tells me NO in Korea. That I can understand. And I can definitely understand his body language. He is not happy.

So a little confused, I go to the other side and finish the rest of the test.

Our crew is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs ready to go but I just wanted to change first.

As I'm coming out of the bathroom, where someone had taken a big runny shit on the floor completely missing the squater, I notice old master yelling at my new master. Uh-oh.

This goes on for a few minutes. It was mostly the old master yelling and pointing at me and making dirty faces.

Turns out he is pissed that left his club and that he didn't know I was training somewhere else, that HE taught me all of my patterns blah blah blah.

Of course it just couldn't go smoothly, there had to be some drama.

So, hopefully he won't have enough power to actually fail me as I completed everything that was asked but I won't know for about a month.

As we're walking back to the van, I look up and of course! who's in my path, but old cranky master, I bowed to him and he just gave me a dirty look and drew another X in the air at me like he was performing an exorcism. "The power of christ compels you waygook!"

So that was my test. Overall, I was happy with my performance but just wish there could have been a bit less drama.

Worst case scenario is I fail and have to retest again in May and hopefully not get X'd!