one week of spain

It’s july 2 and we are at the 3rd day of competition. and i cant really believe that we’ve been here a whole week. it has been a truly amazing week, although it is about time this trip comes to an end.

I think we’ve all started to get used to the cycle of life here. daily, there is competition, training, competition, and relaxation. these are all marked by meals – breakfast at 8:15 with a bounty of spanish deli meats, fruits and yogurts, and croissants; lunch at the venue in a catered cafeteria style room that reminds me alot of Serbia, and dinner at the hotel again, with two courses followed by more plentiful yogurt and fruit.

on the first day for poomse, we got to the venue at 8 to warm up and get ready to perform. we were all in the final round except for the individuals. the men’s team went first immediately following korea, but it didn’t phase us. once out on the mat, the world was small. it was only the mat, the poomse, and you. we did our taebek and pyongwong, and i think our taebek was very strong. then the women’s team (Alicia, Erika, Carissa Fu from princeton) did their keumgang and taebek and looked as synced as they’ve ever done, with pretty good sidekicks all around. alicia and i did our pairs next, immediately after portugal. the final places were 5 out of 7 for pairs (we beat vietnam and costa rica), 6 out of 6 for men, and 4th place for women (a medal). china and portugal had to poomse off for 4th because they were tied, and it was sipjin. afterwards, all the coaches wanted photos with the women’s team.

on the first sparring day (7/1) we all came out early to watch simon fight this huge guy from spain. he was probably 6’1 and still flyweight, and eventually got the gold medal. but being tall and fly meant your elbows were popping out of the arms and your legs weren’t any thicker than your wrists. another memorable fight was john kimmich vs nigeria, a huge guy who was getting kyungos all over the place so finally john had him at 7 kyungos, and we were all shouting “keep him in the corner! push him out!” and eventually he got that final 8th kyungo, and lost even though he was up by something like 14-6. and that brought john into the semis, and a bronze medal in the end.

today we ended early in the morning because unfortunately all our matches ended in the first round. johnny nguyen, team captain, had a hard draw against korea in the first round, and despite a lot of ridiculous speed he still lost by about 6 points. there’s an interesting new rule for coaching in which the coach gets one card per match to protest, and if they are wrong about something (like a headshot that didn’t score) based on video review, they lose their card and right to protest that match. throughout the day for each player, the coach gets two of these cards, so if they protest twice wrongly they no longer can protest for their player. this definitely comes into play as a strategy in some matches, depending on the timing and score.

each day we’ve been training at 3 pm because people will weigh in at 4 pm. at this time in the week, the mat is usually occupied by individuals and their coaches and a few teammates who are also kicking. the people who won in the morning and made it into the semis are still kicking when team USA gets back onto the floor. we no longer have huge group training sessions, but we all kick individually or in small groups on the floor while other people are weighing themselves or catching up on sleep. i’ve semiconverted back to sparring style, and for all of us here, just kicking with people at such a high level brings our own levels up right away.

after 4 pm, usually we’ve just gone home or back to the hotel to relax. dinner happens around 9 (spain eats late and stays up late due to the 2 hour sieta) and after that we just relax. of course i still haven’t had a chance to take any naps, and the evenings always seem still too busy to even write a blog entry.

tomorrow we’re bringing facepaint out to support the twins, and the girls.

Spain vs Portugal

We’re going to watch the Spain vs Portugal game in Vigo! In a market square or bar of some sorts…updates later.

…Update:

GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

Also, we had a little free time after lunch to go to the beach. We only had one team practice today so for a part of the afternoon, some people went to the beach. Which was gorgeous, sunny, and had warm waters.

Tomorrow is the poomse competition. Wish us luck!

A full day's training

Today we got up at 7:30, grabbed a delicious Spanish breakfast of ham, salami, cheese, bread, croissants, coffee, orange and apple juice, cereal, half peaches and sliced pineapples, and yogurt.

Then at 9 we walked to the venue, which was finally opened. the first thing we did was to takeout a bunch of broken mats and rearrange them so that the broken sides were either on the outside or the far one third. the MIT athletes were all used to it, and the others had no idea how to do each mat.

We kicked out pretty hard for the first two hours with the sparring team. We did a lot of steps and drills and paddle kicking and the energy was amazing. Then the poomse group went and warmed up poomse style, with sidekick stretches and front kicks.

Later, we had a second practice in the afternoon. Before starting practice we had to wait to get accredited…so we sat around playing Contact. Thanks to RDC and Sauza, the US Collegiate National Team now loves Contact and plays it everywhere we’re waiting for something.

We trained in the afternoon at the same time as several other countries like Korea, Chinese Taipei, and China. (In the morning it was Spain, Portugal and Cuba.) The Korean sparrers all have a type of helmet hair that looks exactly like their hair fits under the helmet and then gets cut. Their poomse teams look sharp and strong, and we have something to aspire to and learn from. Of course our own power and sync is coming along more and more and we are beginning to all look very good as well.

Alicia and I practiced poomse for another hour or so after most of the other people left, and with a wide open mat and warmed (exhausted) muscles, we actually felt and looked the best we’ve done in a long time. This included pyongwang which looked like we had good side kicks on tape. Then, we walked home in the beautiful Spain evening, with the streets bustling with activity.

Spanish days go like this: the morning is beautiful with the warmth of the rising sun. At 3, everyone goes on siesta and the streets are eerily empty, but you have the beautiful weather all to yourself. At 8, the sun is still up like it’s 4 PM, and everyone is out walking and eating and talking. Then people usually have dinner at 9 so life doesn’t stop until midnight, or later.

Tomorrow we will be having another day of training. We will also be wearing our awesome new USA swag. Represent team USA!

Vigo! Day 1

We met in the hotel lobby at 5:45 AM to catch the airport shuttle, but much to our consternation a large group of elderly German people had arrived first — by that point, however, we were used to unexpected delays with regards to travel plans, and were able to roll with it quite comfortably and make it to the airport with time to spare. This time we made sure to religiously monitor the flight information screens, and other than a delay waiting for takeoff position on the runway the flight was thankfully more-or-less uneventful.  This means, of course, that we had finally made it to VIGO!!!

Our luggage had been kept safe for us and while we were waiting for the shuttle we entertained ourselves with a photo session in front of the WUTC welcome sign that had been placed in the hotel lobby. A short bus ride later we arrived at the hotel and were assigned rooms/roommates.  Now it was finally time to begin training! We attempted to go to the event venue for registration, but it turns out that everything in Vigo completely shuts down on Sundays. We did have a short run-in with the Korean team though, some of whom were very excited to have their picture taken with RDC.

Not to be deterred, Team USA took a stroll down the block and decided to hold practice in a public park. It was quite hot outside, but we had a good upbeat cardio warmup to shake off the rust acquired from two days sitting on planes/in airports. After the general workout/warmup we broke down into groups and RDC, Bobby, and I worked a bit on forms. The highlight for me was when a group of Spanish kids came by and were very interested in our poomsae practice, even going as far to copy some of the motions of Pyongwon! I got to talking with them and they were very excited to learn that we were from the United States, asking whether I lived near Hollywood.

After the workout everyone headed back to the hotel and Bobby and I went out to find the one open convenience store in all of Spain; prices here are much better than in the airports — a large box of good-quality fruit juice for just one euro!). Each of the triples teams then had a very rigorous hour-long poomsae session with Master Chuang; it seems like the forms are starting to pull together nicely. Practice done, it was time for dinner with the team, where we made formal introductions and got our Team USA WUTC shirts to wear to the venue tomorrow and present a united front. Tomorrow we’ll really dive into things; breakfast at 7:30 and our first practice of the day from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. We’re feeling tired from the jet lag, the extended travel, and the workouts today, but spirits are very high and the whole team is very excited for the days of training and competition to come.

-sauza

Vigo…not yet

It is 10:25 PM on saturday night and the whole US Collegiate Taekwondo Team has settled down in Madrid. Yes, we are still in Madrid, Spain, instead of Vigo. It has been a long day of travel…more than 24 hours at airports, in fact.

We left boston Friday morning at 11:30 AM. We flew pretty quickly to JFK via JetBlue, then we hung out in the terminal for around 5 hours. The Iberia checkin terminal didn’t even open until an hour after we arrive. but eventually we make it to Madrid, after a 6 hour flight, which we thought would be the worst leg of the trip.

The poomse team left JFK first at 6 PM, and arrived in Madrid at around 7 AM. The gate was just as decorative as I remember it from Pamplona and the slanted part of the floor was still surprisingly comfortable, even for a slab of marble. we waited for a few hours until the rest of the team arrived. Spirits were pretty high despite being really tired after a nearly sleepless night.

However, it was unclear what gate our flight from Madrid to Vigo was. It was also unclear exactly what time boarding would start, because our flight was not listed with an exact gate, and the time kept being moved back. The problem? Delays caused by some trouble with airline workers’ unions in Europe. So we all settle down, have some food (jamon, tapas) and play Egyptian Ratscrew and Set.

Suddenly, RDC runs over and says, “What does it mean if our flight says ‘last call’?” And we all jump up as a group and run down the impossibly long terminal from one end to another, trying to find our actual gate. Turns out wherever it was supposed to be, it had left 10 minutes ago. It was around 3:15. We were scheduled to board then, but in this airport changes are not announced.

For the next 6 hours or so we are either sitting around reading, sleeping or trying to figure out what else our options are. (The last was done by a few people who were more in charge, or more fluent in spanish.) I won’t really go into the details but nothing much happened except everyone fell asleep, people walking by gawked at us and wondered who we were, and eventually we got good news that we had rebooked for the next morning and had hotels for the evening. So we are stuck in Madrid for the night. One day down, a few practices missed, but at least we are still all composed and will be relatively rested tomorrow. And tomorrow, Vigo!

Can, Cannot…laaaa!

“Can I go in there please?”

“Can.”

“Ten bucks for this?”

“Cannot.”

Singaporeans don’t say yes or no. They say can/cannot, and when I say can’t they still think I am saying can. I realized both words do sound extremely similar. After much confusion, I too have embraced the can/cannot system here – laaa. They also add a ‘ laa’ at the end of some expressions, I still haven’t figured that one out yet.

In short, I am in Singapore for about three weeks working as part of the MIT-Singapore Alliance on a water quality project. I work at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and live at NUS (National University of Singapore). Do not know why I don’t live at the same place I work, but I actually like the arrangement, because I got to experience both colleges. The universities are very, very impressive. The labs are top-notch, campuses are gorgeous, and the warm weather makes me feel completely at home. I realized even after three years I still feel like a fish out of water with the East Coast clime. I am truly a tropical creature.

I work about ten hours a day and then spend nights and weekend either sightseeing or kicking with the taekwondo teams at NTU and NUS. Tkd can be such a useful tool to cross cultural gaps. I just walked into practice at NTU (thanks to Wenxian’s extremely accurate info), introduced myself and started kicking. The taekwondo culture at NTU is very, very similar to MIT’s. They have a ton of alumni helping out and leading classes, it’s more casual, they have officer announcements after practice, people circle and do cheers. I have been cheering: “NTU, sah, NTU sah, NTU sah, sah sah!” for the last two weeks. Practice usually starts with a voluntary run around the track, and then kicking paddles (they call ‘em handmits!) or gearing up for contact sparring. The black belts seem to trickle in and out, or sit out some drills as they choose to, the color belts do the whole class from start to finish.

Practice can be pretty grueling because of the weather. You sweat off a lot ions and quickly feel dehydrated. Neither the NUS or NTU club practice on mats, which totally killed my feet. I haven’t had such bad blisters since my hard-court karate days back home in Bangladesh. Good times those. I have been practicing a lot spin kicks and other new techniques. Bought new gear here. The hogu is much more expensive here for some reason, but the forearm and shin pads were waaay cheaper. I got smas, a Korean brand, I think. It rocks!

In general, it has been really great experiencing how a different club, a different country approaches taekwondo. I quickly made friends and they took me shopping and to sketchy night places which only a local would know about. Check out the link for pictures.   Wait guys, sorry to disappoint, they are not sketchy pictures, just atypical touristy shots.

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d5441304e4459354d4452384d6a45774f4451794e44513d0d0a&sb=1

Random facts:

I, as in an American tkd trained person, hold the paddle with the weave facing out. That’s how we usually do it at MIT. But everywhere else in the world, they hold it the other way round. I have lost count how many times I have been corrected here.

Don’t roll up pants when no one else around you is the doing it. The NUS coach called me out for that one in front of the whole class.

When I say padachagi, no one knows what I am talking about.

The little shields are called ‘big brother’.

Intra-club dating is a universal phenomenon!!

That’s all from me. I will be here for about five more days and then I am going home to Bangladesh for a few weeks. Can’t wait to see my family!

New England Aquarium

Another TKD social, em… not much to say, really?
In sum: We went to the aquarium (I got there exactly at 11:30AM!), aquarium-ed until about 3PM?, walked around Boston a bit, got free 7/11 slushies cuz it was indeed 7/11/09, captured the infamous Jack Sparrow, played lots of contact (and my best one EVER = alacrity!! Snix and Tara basically went into making-up-fake-words mode… such as alacrib and alacrust and alacross etc), and had sushi/dinner nearby. Then at 8PM, Tara, Jenny, and I showed up at LSC free movie Finding Nemo to perfectly end the day (though the movie projector wasn’t very high quality and made my head hurt…)

But will load tons of pictures (I tried taking a pic of all the animals we got to see) and yea, you will get comments if you’re lucky?? heh =)

I suppose it also suffices to say that, in answer to my question-of-the-day:
“If you were an aquarium animal, what would you be?”
Tara = Jellyfish Judy = Penguin
Jenny = Otter (except we didn’t see an otter)
Snix = Electric Eel
me (Ty) = Sting Ray, I guess? (–I wasn’t sure what my answer would be when I asked everyone xD haha, but it was definitely the most allusive animal that I was trying to take a good and cool picture all day -.-” I may have gotten one.. maybe… or not -.-” or maybe just lots of different angles of sting ray that weren’t particularly impressive…)
Mary = Tomato frog
Aaron = Octopus (I think? correct me if I’m wrong -.-” heh)

(Mary and Aaron came late, so they went through the aquarium by themselves but had sushi/dinner with us)

Ok, picture time
OH!! Before I get started… be sure to FIND NEMO! GO!

Where are we?? ^^ They say “A picture says a
thousand words”–well, this one says one o.O!! uhhh

So many animals!! Including pink penguins and fuzzy
anachondas… I want a souvenir too!!

We found this machine by the gift shop–apparently
it turns pennies into oval-shaped collector coins =D
for 50 cents… I got one too! Mine has a lobster, octopus,
and crab–and it says “New England Aquarium”
“Boston” on it…Too bad it’s too small to take a
clear picture of… =(

Here’s how it works though… pretty neat!

Just keep swimming swimming swimming just
keep swimming swimming…

Aghh the turtle ducked behind Jenny!

Tara, the mysterious and allusive Jelly…

Snix: That looks taaastyy…

Penguins sitting on fake rock islands… and Judy =)

Baby anachonda in the medical section–hey! That’s
where Christine works ^_____^

STING RAY!!

What are YOU lookin’ at? Never seen a gimongous
fish before??

Sea dragon, rrwoar

How many sea dragons are there? (3)
Two twiggy ones and a really leafy one!!

EEKK!! Doesn’t he remind you of Bruce?

Another sting ray!!

Murtle the turtle. No joke.

Sea Anemone vs Sea Star

Giant octopus… did I say giant? I mean, GIANT

Oooh prettttyyyy

What’s this?

Diver in the great big tank–I forgot what it was
called… but there are 4 sharks in there… just sayin’

Electric eel

Shocking… isn’t it? (I don’t know what’s shocking,
but I just wanted to make a pun… =D)

Sea horse! DO NOT RIDE

Snix holding sea star!

Lots of fishies!!

Sleeping(??) anachonda
ZZzz “Do not desturb, I squeeze”

PIRANHA!! AHHHHH!!

big big big big catfish

What did I say about BIG fish? I really do mean
BIG.

Me + Sting Ray down below… =)

Mr Big Fish: Me grumpy grumps, Life sucks, All you who
look at me shall be grumpy too, I’m here to sadden
your day, Be grumpy like me, GRUMP =(

Oh no! Mr Big Fish! What have you done to Snix!??

Group Picture number one! Hooray!

BOO!

Hehe

Mr Electric Eel: Sorry, did I shock you?

(shhhh I’m hiding, no one can see me…)

Colorful… ooh! I see Dory!

Nemo and Marvin? hehe

I found Nemo!! He’s really small!

Nice penguin pictures =) Hey guys! Don’t tailgate!!

Nom nom time!! Where’s Snix? HAHA just kiddin’
^________^

Doesn’t this remind you of the movie? (III)
Either that or I’m just feeling too lazy to rotate it now…

Arrrr matey!! We have captured the infamous Jack
Sparrow! What’s he doing in Boston?

Mega Group Picture! There’s me and Skoot!

Awww Snix is missing a certain Fat Seal??

A social chair ritual? Is Aaron going too?

Or maybe Mr President was supposed to come too?
Mary looks soakkkeddd!!!

Chow time!

Aaron’s food

Group Picture number three! FOOD!!

Snix’s food

Mary’s food

My food–I’M STARVINGGGG NOM NOM NOM

Group Picture number 4–yaay! FOOD!!
Me want nom!

Haha, meet my new friend Skoot the penguin =)
Fuzzy Lion’s on the left–Han gave him to me ^_______^
And Morey is crashing in my room until Jihye gets
back from Korea =) =)

4th of July 2009, Belated

4th of July with MIT Sport TKD-ers! Woot! Even more awesome!

At the Hatchshell… get off at Red Line MGH T stop and walk for a while…
Hmm, methinks it might actually be around Arlington/Copley? Probably closer to Arlington?

Anyways, a blog of pictures! Woot!
And maybe some comments too if you’re lucky!! =) heh

Lots of people, eh? This is nothing yet…

Dan and Aaron! WOOT! =)
Aaron had to leave early… went to have 4th of July
dinner with Mary and her family.

Snix and Tara, yaaay! Peace?

Food. Food is good.

Mini river thing… don’t know what it is actually.
But yonder runs the great Charles.
(My hs Calc BC teacher, from Boston U actually,
calls the Charles a “cess pool.” Hmm er, it IS kinda nasty…)

Souza got a very free and very red Liberty hat.

Snix looks happy with her freebie too–woot!
Green Liberty hat =D

Eh, but I like my cap… Snix said I had anime hair? eh… -.-”
CAP!! Ze cap iz mucho important!

Group picture number one =D Everyone sure looks spiffy!
Snix–caught in the act of eating dinner!

Lots of people. There were people behind us too.
Yea. Lots of people.

The Herald Trumpeters!! WOOT! Trumpet!!

Group picture number two!! Here’s Jenny to join us!
She had to leave at 11PM though…
What’s this? Snix eating again??

The Boston Pops! Woot!

People. So. Many.

The trumpets trumpet, and the Airforce THUNDERS!!!
Yeah yeah!! (EDIT: Apparently I can’t upload REAL videos??)

Niel Diamond singing Sweet Caroline!!
Buh buh buhh =)
Never heard of him before, but he’s a pretty interesting singer =D

Got more videos but uploading is slow… so I will have to sadly stop here… (EDIT: or rather, I never started at all… this feels like a deja vu moment. This feels like a deja vu moment o.O!!!! WHoaaa!! Deja vu. Very much deja vu.)

And now… the moment you’ve all been waiting for!
LET THE FIREWORKS BEGIN!

Ooohh…. o.O!!

Aahhhh… =D

FIRE!!

Ee’z a violent one o.O!!

This one is nice and cool looking =)

Looks like a lightning storm.
Looks like a painting too, with the interesting difference
between the top edge and the main bright streaks.

What would a storm like this feel like?

EEEEKK o.O!!!!!!

ZZzAAaPp!!

july fourth, sparring day 2

we celebrated july 4th in serbia by running through a giant rainstorm. the lightning provided fireworks, and the streets flowed with water almost like the charles in boston.

in poomse, alicia and i placed 11th overall in the world. we had to do a prelim round, performing taeguk 8 and koryo, and that placed us 11 out of 15. then, the order switches, and from the last place to first place, the semis are performed. we finally placed 11th again, and did not move on to the finals. we did our keumgang and taebek on center stage, and during the stomps and kiyups the whole stadium reverberated. i think it was our moment at the top of the world.

sparring has been going on for two days. in the first day, johnny nguyen (fin), terrence jennings (feather), anees hasnain (fin), and kasey mallard (feather) fought long and tough. i think that was the most inspirational day for me. johnny sparred really tough opponents after two straight days of poomse. anees was the first to kick off sparring with korea, and when she lost and felt really bad afterwards i was able to get to know her alot better by spending time trying to cheer her up. tj won a bronze after some intense sparring, inside the ring and outside (us cheering team vs brazil & russian cheering team). and kasey sparred until her foot broke, then threw a fast double in the last second to try to tie the score, despite her toe being in at least two pieces.

that’s not to say that today’s matches weren’t incredible either. cheryl krause (fly) had the toughest fight before her actual match – she struggled to make weight and only made it through with a lot of support. bonny su (welter) had some great matches against people bigger than her – she had to weigh in after drinking four bottles of water. james howe was probably another medal contender, and we had another cheering battle in a completely unfair fight against korea in which james should have won at least 4-2 but lost 0-2 because of some seemingly unfair judging. and kris uy (welter), the nicest huge asian guy ever, bruised or dislocated his rib, and now it hurts each time he laughs, which is all the time. he even laughs when he hurts from laughing.

to make this post not sound like a typical tournament summary (read the ncta email if you want a straight up summary), i’ll say that life here has become somewhat of a routine. it’s a good routine nonetheless. after your tournament pressure is gone, it becomes like a camp combined with a partial vacation. each morning, someone’s alarm goes off between 6 am and 8 am, and that whole time, life is a fuzzy blur somewhere between dreaming about taekwondo and waking up to face the reality of taekwondo. and if you’ve ever experienced a whole day at a tournament, cheering people, helping warm up, taking video and pictures, and maybe even getting a little mat time yourself, imagine doing that for days on end. it’s been 5 so far, and it’s not getting old at all.

as the time goes by, i find that i’m naturally becoming friends with these people, perhaps more than i usually would in your typical extended trip. maybe it’s because we’re all in some sort of common struggle that puts mind and limb at risk. maybe it’s because there’s always the common mentality that despite being a bunch of goofy college kids, we’re all really damn good at something, and we all have something to prove to the world. maybe it’s because every night we get a few more people who are no longer stressed out, and every night we progress to doing something more fun, and get to enjoy the company of the real people that became free that night, not their weight cutting, stressed out zombie dopplegangers.

tonight we took a team picture. it was under the arches of the village, under an intense rain, with lightning coming down on every side. as the other tourists and athletes took pictures with us, one guy who was from a different american delegation waved to us, took a picture, and said, “happy fourth of july.” so happy fourth, from the us collegiate taekwondo team, to you.

gallery of images from serbia, day 1-3

here are some images from this trip so far. travel to serbia via paris; practice during the first two days, poomse competitions day 1 and 2; opening ceremonies.