From part 1, back up a few weeks.
One of the kindest and eldest men in the club insisted I be given a name. Not just a Korean name (which I still lack but we won't get into) but a Korean archery club nickname, which everyone must have. Coincidentally he and I didn't meet again until my fateful return-to-the line day.
He began with "mi" (미), taken from miguk, "Beautiful Country," as America is known in Korea thanks to the Chinese thinking it was beautiful a really long time ago.
He then offered me the choice between five second characters, ranging from "peace" to "house/floor" to "instrument." The aforementioned bilingual explained that two or three were traditionally girls' names and suggested I go with ... the three I just managed to remember. I settled on "peace" because it wasn't "instrument." Music is a part of my soul but it ruled me too long. Also I had never heard that name before but I thought I'd heard "beautiful peace."
And now, I am mi-sung (http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=%EB%AF%B8 for mi, http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=%EC%84%B1 for peace (accomplishment)). Please refer to the Chinese characters for the true writing.
But I must say my peace is not beautiful.
I WANT TO HIT THE DAMN TARGET. Not the grass. Fortunately now they tell me my arrows must be too heavy ... that surely must be the problem.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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