News

Most recently, I have...

• learned to play a scale on the trumpet.
  
• pretty much mastered all the white-belt stuff I'll need for the Tae Kwon Do testing next Friday (bwahaha)
  
• transformed computer paper into elegant stationary. (Water does amazing things).
  
• started a zoology course at Hampton University (and greatly contributed to the campus's racial diversity...)

Admittedly not as exciting as the lives of many of my friends, who are off galivanting around in foreign countries. :-P But you take what you can get. :-)

Tae Kwon Do (Woh-Pah!)

I've been attending Tae Kwon Do classes for about a month.

One of my brothers started taking lessons several years ago; my other four siblings picked it up last fall. I finally gave in after coming home and realizing that they knew how to kill me 27.5 different ways, and that I didn't even know how to land a punch.

Plus, roundhouse spinning back kicks are just plain cool. I defy anyone to watch them being practiced day in and day out, and not get even a slight bit jealous.

So, hoping I wouldn't have to break too many boards, or do anything else that would splinter the little tiny bones in my hand I rather desperately need to play the piano, I trudged along with them to class.

Grand list of accomplishments so far:

• I can count to eight in Korean!
  
• I can do a roundhouse kick (and hit the target 40% of the time!)
  
• I can make my littlest brother collapse on the floor laughing as he watches me practice my fighting moves! ("No, no, silly -- not like THAT! The guy is over there!")
  
• And I can make it through the white belt form. :) And, yeah, I've broken the obligatory board.

So...assuming I don't do anything stupid at testing at the end of the month, I'll be a yellow belt by the time I get back to college. (Bwahaha!) And someday I'll finish hacking out how TKD has cemented my views on liturgical worship and the sacraments... ;)