ITF IIC Houston (4/13 - 4/15)

I spent the past few days in Houston at the ITF IIC seminar. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, had a big lunch at Papas BBQ.

I had my 3rd dan test on Friday at GM Binh's dojang, everything went pretty smooth, even the breaking. I did side kick power break, inward knife hand, and jumping rising kick as special technique break. But, I hurt my right foot, the big toe; it took me 3 attempts to break the board. My whole foot got bruised pretty bad, it's swollen and I feel as if my shoe is too small. My toe has been black and blue since then. I thought I was going to flunk my test, because I didn't prepare my theory at all, it just somehow completely escaped my mind.... At the end of test, Mr Morris asked me why the heck did I pick rising kick? I should have picked something easier. Oh well, I'll do something easier next time.




We went through a lot of things during the IIC, patten, defense, pre-arranged sparing etc. I didn't get to find out my test result until Sunday night at MG's home. I thought Mr Morris must've misheard the invitation, as the hours went by, nobody looks like going to tell me the result. However, at the very end Master Suarez did made the announcement that I passed my test - in front of GM, masters and ITF president, and I got to shake hands with them. Kewl!!! Mr Morris said it's quite a bit of unusual. Lucky me :-) I was the lowest ranking student - a mere 2nd dan.


Hanging out at GM's dojang after the dinner.


Doing all sorts of crazy exercises.


And hand conditioning work by hitting the pole, with Mr Trinidad posing in the back ground.


We also had alot of different food on this trip:
Amazon Grill(not bad, but nothing special too),
Raging Cajun: we had bucket of crawfish and soft shell crab po-boy. I'm not very good with crawfish, it took me some time to peel the shell, if it wasn't for Carol, I'd spent whole night there... but the soft shell crab was delicious, I'd definitely go there just for that.
Goode Company BBQ: Looks like a shack, but with very good BBQ. I liked the ribs and source. Carol loved the spicy pork - very tender. We also tried the Sweet Water Duck, slightly gamy - but yummy.

Me in front of the Goode Company Palace Bar with the horned Armadillo in the back ground.


I'm going to make an appointment to see a doctor tomorrow...