Posted 12:15 AM by spitgirl
KI-HAP AS LOUD AS YOU CAN

Well, today was Thursday, and I can tell that it's Thursday by the fact that a) it's taekwondo day, and b) it's the taekwondo day where I go hang out with Nathan after school. For those of you who aren't familiar with Nathan, he's the boy I'm currently seeing about once a week. He's definitely a ladies' man, a big joyous grin that he exercises often, wide green eyes (but he's half Chinese!), digs eskimo kisses, and loves to cuddle. Before you start getting all excited, he's about tall enough to grab my knees when he stands up, has two teeth, drools a lot, has watched Baby Mozart each time I've gone over to visit/babysit, and had baby rice and yams for supper, with about five Cheerios to keep him entertained.

But today was very special in that I had to make sure that my uniform didn't wrinkle (ha, as if that was going to happen), but mostly because today was my first belt test in taekwondo! It was very exciting, and it really is quite amusing to go back to being tested on the simple stuff. I was able to sit back and actually enjoy the test because I knew that a) it didn't really matter, b) I knew my stuff, c) this was supposed to be FUN, darn it, and d) once you've been through any white belt test, you realize how ridiculously simple it is and how much fun you should have doing it.

So, the test was taken in sections, and it went something like this.

First section: Basic Horse Stance, Basic 9 Movements #1 (ending with the incredibly silly shout, "tae-kwon! tae-kwon! tae-kwon-DO!") Demonstration of front kick, side kick, back kick, axe kick.
Second section: Basic Poomse.
Third section: Sparring. (Fun! I was out of breath and not warmed up for it, though.)
Fourth section: Basic Sparring Stance, kick combinations (front kick, front kick, axe kick)

Through it all, I had one little problem - I was so amped up my balance was off. Once again, back to the balance. I swear I should just stand on one foot in my bedroom for five minutes a day just to fix that little problem. Arrgh. I'd guess my poomse was about 90% of what I've done, sparring was a little weird because I had to remember the TKD rules and forgot that yes, you can use a hook kick to the head, and no, you can't kick the front knee a la Monday's workout. My kick combos were also a little weak for me. I know Miss Aloi is probably demanding more of me because I have prior martial arts experience, but I thought I did well enough to promote.

The most ridiculous part was the ironing, though. I iron clothes about once a year... I guess I used up my quota.

I was talking to Cindy L. last night about her TKD experiences, and we ended up talking about the ki-hap, which is pretty much a part of any basic strike. You strike, you ki-hap and blow their toupee off. Or something like that. She said that her friends in TKD say that she's cute in everything she does in TKD. Well, Cindy, soon you'll have a death-inspiring ki-hap as well, and everything will just click... so, lesson for today, fearless readers - KI-HAP AS LOUD AS YOU CAN WHILE TESTING.