Jung SuWon "camping" - the infamous obstacle course

One of the things we did you'll have seen in the video from a couple of postings ago. Yes, a real outdoor obstacle course, one even the Army would have been proud of!

It included all sorts of items and "things", most of which I would have put into the category of turture instruments, but I did grow to love it - the thrill of it, the feeling of accomplishing something so utterly unimaginable to me.

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of course, wanted to show us our potential. She explained that each of us already has all the potential we'll ever need and that her job is to show us a bit of that potential. So even though I was scared out of my mind, and didn't think I could do any of the Obstacle course exercises....after a round or two, yes, I was doing it.

After that, we all sat down around the camp fire and expressed. Grandmaster started by saying....see what you did today! If you can do that, you can do anything you set your mind to!

More of Jung Su Won Style camping...

So while I thoroughly enjoyed the physical workout - I very much loved the Ki energy lessons as well. The first Ki Energy lessons were simple - Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim would have us sit down either under some beautiful trees, or right there in the grass, and give a brief lecture, drawing from the environment around us. It was so exciting for me, to finally actually feel, and eventually, see Ki energy! I had thought that such a privilege was reserved for only the most ancient, Oriental Masters who live on top of tall mountains....

And here we were, total and complete Westerners, learning about the secrets of Ki Energy, from a true Master!

We also learned energy forms, like the one you see in the video above...and yes that is Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim in the video......

Self Discovery weekend - oh yeah!

I missed posting for a couple days - wasn't feeling well...

But I am excited to tell you more about Self Discovery weekend.
So here I was, barely a purple belt, full of excitement, heading out into the middle of nowhere, hours away from any known civilization, into the middle of herds of dangerous animals, poisonous plants and whatever creatures might lurk out there.....

It was way out, for sure. But there were no more dangers other than the ones we created with our own fears.

I remember well my first "traditional" weekend. After I had recovered from the shock of "no bathrooms", and after we set up our tents, we were getting hungry - all that driving and the fresh outdoor air had made us hungry.

Now remember, we weren't supposed to bring any of our own food. It was supposed to be provided. I had secretly been looking around for cans of chef boyardee, or some other prepared food, perhaps we were only going to get some army rations or power bars or something.

But nothing of the sort. We soon found ourselves digging some shallow holes and putting some good sized rocks into them, then adding firewood and startig fires. In no time at all Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim was performing what I call "food magic." In a very old fashioned way, she cooked - and showed us how to - rice, soup, and some Korean meat dishes (I'll go into details about this on my food blog).

That first meal was better than any meal at a five star restaurant. Not only did it taste fantastic, but we all felt a surge of energy inside us, and a deep sense of connection with how the food was made and where it came from.

Stay in tune as to how our next day started, after a peaceful night under the stars (well, ahem, inside the tent...)

Jung Su Won training - Self Discover Weekends!

Ah yes, those wonderful times, when we went out to some place in the wilderness and trained like we imagined it might have been for the ancient warriors!

Well, this being more modern times, we did have each our own individual tents, and some other small remnants of civilization with us, but for the most part, it was pretty much "roughing it", at least on those original ones...what wonderful memories! We did not keep any watches on us, or cell phones, or pagers. No flashlights, battery operated anything.

We would arrive on Friday night, leaving right after work, and drive for several hours, and then pitch our tents. Then sitting around a campfire...Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim would introduce us to this strange new world...

I will never forget my first Self Discovery weekend - I was barely a purple belt and still so new to a lot of Martial Arts. I asked an instructors where the bathrooms were.

And what do you think I was told? Nothing! I was simply handed a shovel, with a roll of toiled paper stuck on top of it...

More of this tomorrow