MIT Sport TKD Blog

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 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!!

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.

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.

this morning people got up at 6 am to go get breakfast. i don’t know why they got up at 6 am to get breakfast seeing as how we hung out until 2 am. i didn’t get up, but i didn’t go back to sleep again. for the next hour or so, i laid in bed, and the only thing that could go through my mind was taebek.

today was the first day of competition for taekwondo, and the men’s and women’s individual competitors went. we went to the training arena at 9 am. it was a huge dome with three large rings – probably more than sparring ring size. the middle ring was elevated. we tried to get around the barrier and they gave some sort of excuse for it being for spectators or volunteers but be realistic, the majority of people watching will be the teams. so jason hwang smooth talked his way in – “let us go just for the next two matches, promise.” and he stepped across without even waiting for the woman to shrug dejectedly and let the rest of the US team in to sit directly behind the center ring.

the individual competition was scary. there was a mix of super amazing people and not so super amazing people, but everyone was definitely well prepared. the scoring was somewhat confusing and many countries who we thought would score lower got really high marks. korea got the only 8.0 and above – for both men and women – and even though the women ranged between 7.0 and 7.5 and the men were usually 7.5 to 8.0 the korean girl was the only to get a 8.13.

johnny and carissa didn’t place past the prelims. they divided the 19 men into two groups of 10 and 9, and the women into 12 and 12, and instead of doing a top 16 and then a top 8 for the finals, they just took the top half each time. we didn’t stay for the rest of the poomse so i didn’t get to see the finals, or any forms after taeguk 5 and 6. one girl from russia started doing taeguk 6 when it was supposed to be 5, and that completely screwed her up for the rest of the time.

tonight we’re going to have opening ceremonies. the weather is drab and wet and chilly. it’s like we’re in boston again. it should start at 8 but we have to attend events with the US delegation starting at 4:45. hopefully the pictures will be exciting, since the event, from the inside, will just seem to drag on. but nothing can be worse than the pan ams opening ceremony, so it’ll be fine.

tomorrow (thursday) is the day for pairs and men’s and women’s teams. we are pumped up.

6-30

this morning the men got up early to go for a jog. at 8:00. so i decided to sleep in a bit since we stayed up til about 2 playing poker the night before. but i couldn’t actually go back to sleep because i felt like i had overcome the jet lag. in reality, it was because i’d taken a nap until 2 am EST so now i was up for the rest of the east coast night.

today we had the flag raising ceremony. we got together with the US men’s waterpolo team, who all looked like large, blonde, mustached bears. there was also the US men’s and women’s basketball teams. they made kris uy, our 6′4 welterweight, look like a shorty. we walked up the red carpet to the flags, the same place we kicked outside yesterday. then we saw the Universiade Sparrow, and took a few goofy pictures with them.

the flag ceremony was nice and short, despite having about 100 US athletes there. when i say short, i mean time, because most of those people were either over 6 foot tall or over 200 lbs heavy, or both. i got the women’s bball center to take a few pictures for me, and when she reached up with my camera it reached up about twice my height.

we went to the official practice room a bit late because of the ceremony. there was a long tkd room with a long set of mats, and the spanish and australian teams had been there for a while. we finally got some room and kicked out with some team drills, and i felt really pumped with all the energy in the room. except my calf was getting more and more pained so i could only kiyup loud and pretend i was kicking hard.

on the way to and back from the training space, we took the C shuttle. and one interesting sight was that when we went over the bridge each time, you could see the slums that were under the bridge – old abandoned cars and tin foil roofs and clothes lines hung up between the trees. and there were lines of old abandoned trains with graffiti all over them and broken windows. also, everywhere you see wild/stray dogs running around, in ones or pairs, just hanging out in the streets. serbia is still an old city, with trash and industrial waste all over the place, a combination of the new athletic complexes and the old ruins from the US bombing in 1999.

we had a second workout at 7 or 8 pm today. by that time everyone had been napping for an hour and we were super tired. i was out of it until we did a few warmup drills, then my poomse felt pretty good. i also used a little gadget called “the answer” which was supposed to help you kick high and be stretched and warmed up after a minute per leg.

at night, we got our SWUG swag. nice USA jackets, nike warmups and shirts, and a few polos and a pair of shorts. it’s pretty sweet stuff. that also meant that we got our luggage back – it felt so good to have a real shower, a change of clothes and a shave. also, carissa and becca arrived so our team was all there.

tomorrow the individual poomse people, johnny nguyen and carissa fu, compete. we’ll be up at 8:30 to cheer them on.

6-29

Today we arrived at Serbia at about 3 pm Serbia time. the whole country smelled different – it was slightly smokey, like an industrializing country city. you could see distant smoke stacks beside the shiny new universiade buildings.

when we went to baggage claim, the luggage was gone. all of the ones we checked in boston, including the big ones that contained all the team swag, and the small duffle bags that had our emergency clothes in case the big ones got lost. i knew we should have kept them out but laziness got the best of us, the air france got the rest.

the serbian volunteers were very direct. as they talked about getting our bags back they were constantly shouting and gesturing at each other. we figured it was just the way europeans talk. and that explained the way jordan always talks. the drivers and other volunteers were basically what i imagine jordan’s friends and family are like.

we went to the “olympic village”, and even though it’s not really the olympics i guess we’ll call it that. here we saw all the different countries in their matching warmups, tshirts, polos, etc. and we, the american crew, walked through as a ragtag, nonmatching group of mavericks. i guess tomorrow we’ll get our stuff – we got one red polo, one blue shorts, one white tshirt, all way too big.

in the afternoon, after getting our room keys and credentials, we went to a nike store to train. yes, it was a NIKE STORE in which they were selling shoes and other gear, but in the back was an area with weights and an open space. since it wasn’t quite big enough for everyone to kick and do forms, we went outside to an area with a huge red carpet, and step sparred under the flags. pretty soon, a crowd gathered around us to take pictures and gawk at the taekwondo contingent. (keep in mind our ragtag clothing.)

the big adventure we had today, however, was when we all went to go to the team meeting that was on the 1st floor, with the lobby being the ground floor. coach linda buelle told us all to cram in to the elevator, but as the doors closed the elevator went clunk *CLUNK* and we would go up a foot then drop 6 inches. so for 15 minutes we were stuck in the elevator, with 13 sweaty athletes and three very sad looking volunteers. we kept banging on the doors and i thought that the oxygen would be running out, so i kept holding my breath until we finally pried the doors open. we were half way up the door and you could see the gears. i’ll upload images later when the rest of my luggage comes in.

the first day was full of adventure, i guess you could say that. losing all our luggage, kicking on the red carpet, then nearly suffocating (or imagining so) in an elevator. tomorrow should be just as fun.