My First Korean Wedding

On Sunday, Lucas and I attended our first Korean wedding. Hyun, one of the reinforcement team, was marrying his girlfriend of six years. We were told that we should get there before the time because the weddings start promptly, and are over quickly. We were also told that the gift you should bring is money, nothing like a toaster, or what we would buy back home. So we get to the Airport Wedding Hall, and there are so many people milling about in the lobby area. There were two open rooms that you could see, one was small and set up in a traditional manner, and the other was just a little bigger and had all the seats in it. When we got there, we saw the end of another wedding. These rooms are WIDE open to the lobby, there are no doors, so anyone can see what is happening inside. Hyun was standing my the table where you brought gifts to thank people, and he was with his mother. She was absolutely beautiful, dressed in her hanbok. We said hello to Hyun then took our seats. You just sit anywhere.

So, the ceremony begins with te two mothers walking down the aisle in a spotlight, then going to the main part at the front and lighting a candle. There was this woman who was directing them to do everything, even holding their hands to basically light the candle for them. Next came Hyun, dressed up in his shiny silver and light purple suit, walking down the aisle in a spotlight, then bowing deeply to both mothers. Seung Hwa, she came next in her spotlight with her dad, then the ceremony really began. The man who was administering everything, he started talking, we had no idea what he said, all we know is that Hyun said "Ne!" very loudly (which means yes). Seung Hwa said nothing the whole time. Then, it was over. It was so fast. No exchanging of rings or anything. Then the lady who was constantly fixing Seung Hwa's dress shot confetting out of a trumpet, and the bubbles started to flow. There were two bubble machines that worked very hard throughout the ceremony. Hyun did a couple push ups with her on his back, and then Chris (foreign teachers manager) said a speech in Korean, Marla (teacher) sang a song, and two kids played music. I suppose that was the reception? It was all in the "wedding hall". Now came the picture part. First with his family,then hers, then friends, then there was just one with all the foreigners who came.

After this was done, Hyun and Seung Hwa left to do another tradtional ceremony in their hanboks with just their parents in the other room. Everyone else went to the buffet. Back home, weddings last for hours. Here in Korea, you eat and leave. You eat fast and leave. We were eating and talking, and we pretty much the last ones to leave. The whole thing, ceremony, "reception", photos, and food, took and hour and a half. Korean weddings are so fast paced, and they seem like they are not a life changing thing. You go in, you go out. Doesn't seem like anything happens really.

Andong Mask Festival

This was the first superman we met in the day.

For the entire day, Autumn (far right) had a massive craving for corn dogs. She talked about it every minute. Finally, we came to a corn dog stand, and she was in heaven.
We met Superman again, but looked a little different, and with him was Spiderman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. We went to get our picture taken with them, but then the flood gates opened and children were being pushed into us to get their picture taken with the Waegookins (foreigners).

We made our own masks, mine didn't turn out that well, but it was fun while we were making it.
I did a little Korean calligraphy and put up my work. I just said Lucas (heart) Erin 2008. And then I went to put it up, and it was like a swarm. The Koreans busted out their $1000 cameras with mega attachments and were snapping our picture constantly.
Everyone was a little tired."So-Mek". This is Soju + Beer. What kind of dangerous things do you think that this can do?

Today, Lucas and I made an impromptu trip to Andong with a couple of friends to go to the Mask Festival. Apparently, this is THE festival that "represents Korea's spirit". There were many masks, from Korea and abroad. We left the house at 8 am this morning to head to the bus station. We were all pretty tired. It was SO cold out this morning. The weather in Korea has taken such a sudden shift that it's thrown me of guard. Last weekend it was muggy and hot, and then on Monday, BAM, freezing. I was wearing a jacket all day, but was frozen to the bones. I couldn't shake the chill. We got to the festival just as things were beginning to open. Korea is the land of morning calm, so it takes a little to get things going. There was a carnival like beginning with Midway games. At the end of the day Lucas played on where you get a proze depending on what number an eel will swim to (he didn't do well, his prize was a wooden finger...?).

We meandered through the many tents that were selling random masks, pottery, and papers. It was fun to wander and see the wares. I love looking at everything, much to Lucas' dismay. We saw a couple performances, including one with drums. Before this show started, however, the MC brought a bunch of kids up for a dancing competition and a yelling competition. It was hilarious! They were aged about 3-6. One little girl, maybe 3 years old, tried to get down the stage, but got scared and started crying. I was looking for her mother, and she wasn't to be seen, so I helped her down. She just grabbed a hold of me so tight! She was adorable. Her mother did come though, damn! So the dance competition begins and each kids has their turn. Then the MC called me up, because I was in the front row, and he asked me to do some "free style Canada dance". So I did the kind of dancing my kids do for laughs. The kids behind me started to as well, and then me and this one little girl had a dance off. So fun! And then I got to give all the kids a button.

At this point, everyone's pretty tired. We wandered for a little bit, but we just ended up heading back to the station. It was hard moving at the festival becuase we would be bombarded by Koreans wanting their pictures taken of us, or with us. And in the beginning, the middle school students kept coming up to us, to "interview" us (basically, what is your name, where are you from, can we have a picture with you).

Now, we are exhausted. Tomorrow Lucas and I get our first taste of a Korean Wedding. Apparently, they are somewhat tacky and fast paced, but a great time. The first face we saw in Korea, Hyun, is getting married to his girlfriend of six years. Looking forward to it.

Getting Excited Again

Lucas and I have spent the morning trying to figure out what the deal is with Japan. We booked 3 out of four nights thus far, and on the last night, we're not sure what we're going to do. We fly into Narita Airpot on October 1 at 145. Then we have to somehow make our way from the Airport to Shinjuku. Shinjuku is the area we're going to stay in as it had good access to the railways and there's some good things around it. We're going to spend the first day just orientating ourselves in the area. Day 2 we're going to take the train out to Mt. Fuji, and check out that area. Day 3 we go south to Kyoto, where there is mass Temples, Palaces, Shrines, etc. All the good stuff. Day 4 we'll go back Tokyo in the late afternoon or evening. That night, we're not sure where to stay. Day 5, our flight leaves at 620 at night, so we have to day to do whatever we want.

It's only a week and a half until we go. I'm pumped!

I'm not sure if I said this already, but we found a home for our cats. A girl from our baseball team is going to take them. The cats have been super cuddly lately, I think they know whats going on. They are intuitive cats.

Sweet Relief

I am sooooo ecstatic. Oh my flubbabkejhak -.

I got my China pictures back. Neal downloaded some program and recovered all my pictures.

Holy mother, I cried. I'm so happy. They are backed up like there is no tomorrow. That memory card is the devil.

Good Reviews

Okay guys, I might be lacking on the postings, you are lacking on the comments! That was a seriously long post about China, so that makes up for what I missed.

Luc and I got our 9 month reviews back, and they were both AWESOME. I'm so happy about it. My 3 month review I was upset about, but hurray on this one! So now we were offered one position at a YoungJae School (Genius), and one at a regular. Unfortunately, these positions were for January 6th, and so we can't take them. Toria's birthday is at the end of January, and we're going to Disneyland for it (so excited about that!). Hopefully, there will be something in February or March that we will take. This will give us some time with the family.

China

We are back from China. It was an early morning today, wake up was at 430 because of an early flight. Luc and I were surprisingly okay today considering that. I've been so excited to come home and post my pictures, but as it turns out, my computer did something to my card, and now I have none of my photos. NONE. I can't even begin to describe how I feel. Luc took photos with his camera too, but its different. We took pictures of different things, some things only I had, and the colour, etc is different. I can't believe this happened. Why couldn't it have been something trivial that this happened to, but no, it had to be my fricken China pictures. I need a punching bag, I can't get those things back.

The trip itself was a whirlwind, everything happened so fast. I'm glad we took a tour because we would have no idea where to begin, there was so much. The trip began with an early morning train ride to Busan where we were to meet our tour group and fly to Beijing. Lucas was still drunk from the night before, as he didn’t get home until about 430. He went to a friend’s going away while I played responsible and tried to go to bed early (didn’t work out so much as I was too excited to sleep). We did make it to Busan though. The group was awesome, 15 people, mostly New Zealanders. There was one guy there who really got on people's nerves as the tour went on, you'll find out later why. We flew out of South Korea without a hitch, and arrived in the "Dragon". Lucas and I learned all about Beiijing's new airport terminal on TV a couple weeks ago - it was built to resemble a dragon, and was opening just in time for the games.

Immediately we were greeted by "the Jerry". Our tour guide was hilarious, and as Luc said he is a "perfect example that you don't need to know grammar to speak English". He repeated his sentence twice everytime and referred to himself in the third person, and like to talk about the "respections". He was awesome.

Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven, where one would go pray to the emporer. We walked into the gates, and walked down "the Long Hallway". There were so many people there, and it was rad to see people playing instruments and playing cards. They were just hanging out. The temple was a circular building. Here we got our first taste of Chinese imperial design. It was like Korea's, only there was a lot of gold leafing. You don't get that here. We hung out there for about 20 minutes, taking photos, and then headed to our next stop, which was dinner. A local specialty - Peking Duck. Many people enjoyed the duck, I didn't think it was anything special. It was my first taste of duck in general, and it just reminded me of a fatty, greasy version of dark chicken meat. The other dishes that accompanied the duck though were fantastic. All the restaurants we went to were major tourist trap type, absolutely huge. Dinner was served with Jasmine Tea as that was the big thing in Beijing - to wash the oil down (seriously). We went to a Chinese acrobatic show afterward. I swear some of the things that they do there were inhuman. It was ridicously how they twisted their body - and the balancing! A lot of the performers were children - even in the second show we saw a couple nights later. I wonder what kind of schooling that they get, academically, because the training for their stunts would take up so much time. After the show we were introduced to our hotel. A phenomenal 5 star. It was like I should have been wearing a fancy dress to get through those doors. We were so tired from the long day we just wanted to sink into bed - and thats what we did becuase the pillows and duvet were like fluffy clouds. Heaven. I wanted to take the bed home as a souvenier.

630am wake up call. Time to get ready, eat breakfast and start the day. We hit another tourist trap first, a Jade factory. I love the 5 minute demonstrations and then the 40 minutes in the gift shop. Subtle. They had some interesting things, but it was expensive. I'm not in the marker for jade, thank you. I was excited for the Great Wall. We got to climb a section of it. It was beautiful. I made it most of the way, but I was hauling myself up because the steps are so uneven. Some stairs were small, others quite large. I was worried about my knee, but really, how often am I at the Great Wall of China? I got up there, and bought myself a tacky tourist shirt saying "I Climbed the Great Wall". I love it. We were lucky the day was cloudy, because it would have been so hot, it was warm the way it was. We were given a certain timet o be back at the bus, and everyone was there in plenty of time, minus one. So we waited. 40 minutes later, he still hadn't shown up. And apparently, just before we were supposed to be back at the bus he was spotted super close. We were all secretly hoping he had hurt himself, or had some good excuse for being so late. It's incredibly rude to hold up something like that, when he had a huge watch on his wrist. 45 minutes later, he was spotted on a lower level getting into a car, which took him to the bus. He had no excuse. He is one of those kind of people who just annoy you fromt he get go, by the way he spoke, and so this put him over the edge for a lot of us. One hour late, we finally move on to our next destination, lunch. At every restaurant we went to, we sat at large circular tables with lazy Susans. I think every table should have a lazy susan, that was such a brilliant invention. Loads of food were always brought out, and there's no way anyone could finish it all. This restaurant was situated ontop of an enamel factory. They have huge spreads of wares to buy, and there were so many people buying.

After lunch, we made our way to the Summer Palace. This is where the royalty went for a couple months, and I could see why. In the middle of the grounds was a huge man-made lake. We walked all around, snapping photos, and enjoying the scenery. There were paddle boats all on the lake, and so many people. There was a super long corridor that we walked and at the end was the Marble Boat. It was beautiful. Then were went across the lake on a boat that had a big dragon on it. Right after we made our way out of the palace, we were thrown into another tourist trap (that you wouldn't know existed had it not been for the tour, they put these places in the middle of nowhere). We went to a Pearl Factory, and had our 5 minute demonstration and 40 minutes inthe gift shop. It was neat, they opened up an oyster there for us, and gave some on the pearls to people. Unfortunately, I never got one :) Pearls aren't my thing anyway. We then headed to a Mongolian Restaurant. It wasn't bad. When we were finished, we were supposed to have a show, but it was an hour late becuase of a function on another floor of the restaurant, and it wasn't very good when it started, so we ended up leaving. People were so pooped because of the early morning, and the intensive exercise climbing the wall. It was nice to get to the hotel, have a bath. Oh how I miss baths, that is something that Korea has done wrong. The whole shower/bathroom in one is cool, but give me a bathtub. I wanted to go in the pool, but you needed a swim cap, and I didn't care that much to bother.

Another 630am wake up call and we were on our way to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Everyone's legs were sore from the day before and we had a 3 hour walk in front of us. There was security check to get into the Square, and it was jammed with people. It was neat to learn that the Chinese People don't know what happened in 1989, they know there was a protest, but they don't really know much more because the government won't release any information about it. In China, you cannot go on the internet and research about these kind of things, many websites are blocked. Thank you communism. So guess who got lost again – that’s right, the same dude who got lost at the Great Wall. Honestly, you’re in a group tour, stick close by and make sure you can always see the group. Anyways, Tiananmen Square was a part of the Forbidden City, which is where the emperor lived. It is now a huge open museum, just like the palaces in Korea. It was large and historical and all, but I felt like I had seen it all before as it looked just like those in Korea, just in a different colour scheme. When we had made our way out, there were people trying to sell us the fake Rolexes (it actually happens :D ) and Beijing 2008 gear. They swarm from all angles and come at you many times. How can you tell us apart? All Westerners look the same. We had Shanghai cuisine for lunch and then headed off yet again to another destination. On the way we passed by the Birdnest and Watercube, and had a brief glance at the burning Olympic Torch. Currently, the Paralympic Games are on. It was pretty neat to see it in person, though we were on a tour bus and never stopped because of the traffic control.

Our last major destination was Yashow Clothing Market. It is here that you should be able to swipe sweet deals of any kind of clothing or souvenier. They start out at a ridiculous price, and you coax them down to something lower. Sometimes, you get the better or them, and other times you do not. There were so many people “Hey Lady!” –ing me, I was getting stressed out. I’m not a haggler. And when they take you buy the arm and drag you to their stand, it gets a little tiresome. Luc and I managed to walk away with a few souveniers and some clothing, but I needed an ice cream after that experience. There was a place that is just like Marble Slab Creamery, so I was there in a flash. Our final dinner was Hot pot, where you throw meat and veggies into boiling broth to cook it. This was my least favourite meal by far. And it was especially bad when I woke up and spent a couple hours super sick in the bathroom. After dinner, we went to a Kung fu Show. The things they did in the show were super awesome. We all styles of King Fu – Monkey, Mantis, Tiger, etc. And they broke cement, wood, and steel over their heads. There was a bit of a story that went along with it, but that part was sooooo cheesy.

After the Kung Fu show, it was time to head back to the hotel for our last night in heaven. I didn’t want to say goodbye to that bed and room. Knowing that I had to wake up at 430, I wanted to get to sleep right away, but then BAM, I felt super sick, and spent the next while in the bathroom. I didn’t get to sleep until about 2-230. Nothing I could do about that, I was just happy that I packed the Pepto – and I think that’s only reason I was able to get to sleep at all.

I was sad to leave China, but this trip made me appreciate Korea so much more. China seems inaccessible in many ways, and there is no way I would even be able to be begin to learn the language and the writing. Its so complicated. What is nice, is that there are so many bicycles pedaling the city. I think a lot of it is also due to the clean up for the Games, but still, the city is huge. How do you get from A to B conveniently?

So here I am now, at home, with only a few of the photos. At least I have something, thank you Lucas, but it can’t replace what I had. I’m going to try and go to a camera shop, but I feel hopeless, I wish I was home, it would be easier where I could speak English to someone and have them understand. I’m not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Luc and I have our observation by the foreign teachers manager. This is one of the big observations, and it makes me and the kids nervous, so you don’t get a feel for how a class really is. I just want to spend a day in bed, drinking my authentic Chinese teas that I bought. I’m sore and tired, but this trip was so well worth it. Now I will spend my next two weeks trying to plan my Japanese vacation. Here we have to do everything on our own, we don’t know where to start. Might be a bit bumpy.

Sorry!

I'm sorry, it's been an incredibly long time since I have written anything Please don't be mad, but Luc and I haven't had anything to write about. It's been pretty lame around here lately. Luc's been playing his new games constantly, since he got X Box Live, and I have been reading, fiddling around the house, and not much else. I took off my brace on Sunday, and have felt such a wonderful feeling of freedom. I still walk a little funny, but I'm sure that will decrease with time. My knee is going to be sore for a long time I think, but it's another thing that will go down with time. I'm just working on practicing to walk normally again, and to do squats to make the muscles come back. When the physiotherapist told me to do them at first, I thought he was kidding. I couldn't do them BEFORE the surgery. Koreans do squats without lifting their heel when they go down, and I can't do that. Koreans are crazy :D But I'm not doing physio anymore, and I have been meaning to get to the doctor for the past week. I will go today.

But tomorrow....


I'M GOING TO CHIIIIIIINA!

I'm a little bit excited. We have to catch an 8:43 train to Busan in the morning because we fly out of there, and so I'm hoping I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. Luc is going to go to a friend's going away party, so he's not going to be getting much sleep I think.

We won't be able to blog while in China. Being a communist, etc country, there are restrictions on the internet. You cannot even reasearch China in CHina. The Internet is super slow because it goes through so many walls to make sure you're not doing anything bad. So hopefully, I'll be posting lots of pictures on Monday when we get back.

I wonder how my knee will hold up. Whatever.. I'm going to CHINA.