SoKo Wedding

I like his sparkly suit jacket!

I had the honor of being invited to my coworkers wedding this past weekend, and I jumped at the chance to see a Korean wedding in action.

When we arrived at the wedding hall (Koreans don't usually get married in churches) we took pictures with the bride in the "Bride's Room", which was basically a public room where wedding attendees and whoever wanted to could gawk at the lovely lady. I felt like I was intruding to be in a picture with her right before her ceremony, but according to my Korean friends, that's how it's done.

The wedding hall.

The ceremony itself was super short. There wasn't a bridal party, and the bride and groom walked down the aisle both ways together. Probably the most unusual part was during the wedding, people were talking and milling around like they were just at some party and there wasn't a solemn exchange of vows happening. One woman behind me answered her phone and had a nice little chat. It was weird.

After the ceremony, there was a huge buffet, which we all paid to eat. Instead of wedding gifts, you give an envelope of money prior to the ceremony and get a meal ticket in return. Not exactly romantic, but I guess you don't have to worry about gift receipts, either.

Let's eat!

During the buffet, the bride and groom literally jogged in, lit something resembling an Olympic torch for the cameras, cut the cake for the cameras and held up a glass of champagne for the cameras... then left. No dancing. No greeting the guests. No enjoying their dinner. And promptly after eating, everyone left the banquet hall, too.

Although it was a beautiful wedding, I think I'd like my sacred ceremony to be a little more... sacred. No cell phones. No cash for food ticket deals. And there will most definitely be dancing.

Things I Miss Most

Missing the North Carolina Mountains

Here's a random list I thought of while I was enjoying a cup of tea (one of my daily half-dozen) and just reminiscing about home.

• Seeing Friends and Family- skype is great and all, but man, I miss you guys.
• Whole wheat products- they don't exist here. I saw what I thought was some wheat bread, but it turned out to be the regular white bread with brown food coloring. No lie.
• Cottage cheese- not sure why I miss this, but I do. Korea doesn't have much going on in the dairy department.
• Understanding my surroundings- oh, how I took this for granted!
• Amelies French Cafe in Charlotte- I miss meeting friends there, doing art, reading and sampling the many tasty pastries.
• Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa- My favorite restaurant in Charlotte.
• Art stores that carry my printing supplies- can't find them here, so I'm at the mercy of friends and family back home to send me supplies I need. Kind of frustrating.
• Shoe shopping- they don't carry anything over a size 7 here... so I can look at all the pretty, inexpensive shoes, but I might as well be Cinderella's stepsister. *sigh*
• Feeling like a normal-sized person- not some ridiculously tall behemoth of a woman.
• Lack of crowds- too. many. people.
• Driving where I need to go- taking the subway is okay... but it takes forever and is packed with throngs of people at any time of day or night. Standing room only for an hour trip? Yay.
• Trader Joe’s- oh, how I mss thee!
• Target- I took Target's awesomeness for granted all these years... never again!
• The mountains of North Carolina- they're just way better than the mountains here. For one thing, you can actually get away from people and enjoy a scenic overlook. Not so much here. It's literally like the sidewalk just extended up a mountain and people are just continuing on their daily lives.
• Autumn activities with my family- pumpkin carving, apple picking, cooke decorating... sigh.
• Magazines in English- that don't cost $15 and up at the one English bookstore over an hour away from where I live.
• Really good scented candles- I don't know why, but they just don't have quality scented candles here. Over the weekend I saw some "scented candles" that smelled like car fresheners and a small one (think votive) was 20,000 Won (about $18). Crazy.
• Baths- I just have a shathroom (shower/bathroom combo) with no tub in sight. Oh how I miss my bubble baths with a nice book...
• The Farmers Market- I just love the Charlotte Farmers' Market. Sure, there are markets here, but they're just not the same.
• Machine drying my laundry- So many of my clothes are crispy and crinkled from line drying. Sure, I feel green and all, but sometimes I'd just like a nice, fluffy towel instead of a body-size piece of sand paper.
• Baking- no one has ovens here... and I miss baking so much! Especially with Autumn here, I want to make my mom's famous pumpkin cookies.
• Fires- especially this time of year; I love a good fire in the fireplace or out at a campsite.
• Feeling like I belong- I really like it here, but I am still very aware that I'm an outsider, a foreigner, a waygook or however else you want to say it. I'm at the mercy of kind bilingual Koreans and while I have my little niche of friends, I still know I don't really fit here.

Of course, out of all of these things, the ones I miss the most are my family and friends. I dream about you guys a lot and I hold you in my heart.

Who wouldn't miss this? Me and my snuggly little buddy, Grady.

Noraebang!

Noraebang in Seoul!

I was never really crazy about karaoke in the States. Call me boring, but standing in front of an audience of total strangers while my voice cracks like a choirboy going through puberty is just not my idea of a good time. Nevertheless, when I heard about the popularity of karaoke in South Korea, I decided to give it a whirl. Maybe my hoarse and raspy vocal stylings would sound delightful in Korean! (Side note: they don't.)

After a tasty Thai dinner, a group of friends and I went out for some noraebang, which literally means "singing room" in Korean. While the idea of frightening away all my friends wasn't particularly appealing, at least my humiliation would be in private. We checked into our private room and all my inhibitions immediately flew out the door... it was awesome! It was karaoke on steroids; big screen TV, strobe lights, disco balls, tambourines... you name it! One interesting addition was that the TV/karaoke machine had all these random silent movie clips in the background of the song lyrics; everything from Korean ministers preaching to a sappy love scene with a boy and girl running through a field and then crying. It really added a certain... something.

While I'm fairly certain I did, in fact, frighten everyone else present, I had a great time! I sang (read: croaked/shouted) until I practically lost my voice. I'm hooked.

My friend Monica rockin' the tambourine!

Yes, we were singing Kris Kross "Jump"...

Korean Fare

Korean side dishes, called banchan

Before coming to South Korea, I had never heard of Korean food. Ever. When I told people that I was considering moving here, everyone said, "Hope you like kimchi!" I had to look it up online to see what it was. Honestly, I was frightened.

Since moving here nearly three months ago I have fallen in love with Korean food. Not only is it colorful and delicious, it's very nutritious. Some sources say Korean food is the healthiest cuisine in the world. I'm pretty sure those sources are Korean. Still, it's quite good.

I'm sure I've only tried the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many varieties of Korean fare, but some of my favorites so far are bulgogi (Korean BBQ), naengmyeon (cold noodle soup), lotus root, dok bok ki (similar to a rice pasta, though they're called rice cakes) and - yes - kimchi. Kimchi isn't really a main dish, it's pretty much always served with banchan (side dishes) which come with all Korean meals. In Korea, there's no tax on food in restaurants, no tip and all the side dishes are gratis. You can eat an amazing meal for less than $8... and I've even had amazing meals for less than $2.50!

It's quite a relief that the food here is amazing, and I'm looking forward to all the new dishes I have yet to try. Luckily I get to try a lot of new things since I basically just point at the menu and hope whatever they bring me didn't used to be someone's pet. It's always an adventure...

Seafood soup. I found out later that some of the weird, brain-like things in the soup are "warty sea squirts". Appetizing, huh?

I'm learning how to make some Korean food... and this is my first attempt at preparing lotus root. It turned out really well!

Dok bok ki from a street vendor. You stand at the cart and spear the rice cakes with a long toothpick, and to drink, they pour you hot fish juice broth out of a vat of boiling fish cakes. Mmm... refreshing?

SoKo Signs

One of my favorite pastimes here in Korea is reading all the misspelled, inappropriate or misused English. If I wasn't so embarrassed about being an obvious tourist, I would take pictures of some of the English shirts that people wear, which say things like; "This is very many", "San Flanklin", "Little Dartling" and some that I won't post here due to their graphic and profane nature.

Luckily, there are plenty of other funny signs that aren't being worn by people who would probably glare at me and tell me to move back to "San Flanklin" if they saw me taking their picture.

Enjoy!

This is a little button in some public bathroom stalls... an "ambiance" button if you will. In English it says, "Press PUSH button, then it sounds flushing." If you're feeling a little self-conscious, simply push this button and either a loud flushing sound or classical music will come out. Granted, as soon as other people here a concerto coming out of your stall, the jig is up anyway.

Poor advertising strategy.

Nobody tells ME where to approach my hands!

This sign was after three previous flights of stairs, and I think it's pretty obvious that the steps continue on ahead... but who knows, maybe some people just think "Well, I'm pretty sure that was enough steps" without looking and plummet to their death.

This sign made me happy (seven times, actually) until it left me hanging there at the end. WHAT will I happily become...?! ARGH!

When you want to appeal to a truly International clientele... O'Kim's Brauhaus.

Hanbok Day at School!

One of my favorite students... Flower! She kind of reminds me of a little Korean me. :)

Yesterday we had a special Chuseok day at school. Chuseok is the Korean harvest holiday and it's a time for visiting family, eating yummy traditional food and paying homage to one's ancestors. I got a hanbok specially made for me for the occasion (yes, even though it's a tent, it required measurements!)

All the students wore their hanboks and we made traditional Korean rice cakes and played traditional Korean games. It was so fun to see all the kids in their festive garb! I even went to school early so I could take the bus to pick the kids up (usually the Korean teachers pick them up and the foreign teachers stay at school.) I greeted the mothers "ohmonim annyeong hasseyo" and the fathers "ahbonim annyeong hasseyo". The kids were delighted to hear my Korean... as were their shocked parents!

Teachers: Monica, Sue, Sheila and Me

Standing Students: Andrew, Anny, Hoya, Jeff, Ryan, Jenny, Nana, Kim, David and Flower

Sitting Students: John, Daniel, Justin, Sam, Emily, Stella and Alvin.

After we picked the kids up, we had a few "regular" classes (teaching in a hanbok was anything but regular!) Then it was off to make rice cakes. Rice cakes are made out of dok which is basically rice powder and water thats steamed to make a very sticky, chewy dough. We rolled and flattened little dough balls to make little crescents and filled them with edamame seasoned with sesame oil.

I'm pretty sure this was the only rice cake that came out the right size and shape!

After rice cakes, we played traditional games; tug-of-war, yut (a game played with four sticks) and archery. Even though the arrows had suction cup tips... it's still a risky game with a bunch of kids, if you ask me. Luckily, everyone left with eyes and limbs in tact.

I had a great time learning about Chuseok and I felt honored to be given a hanbok and showed the traditions of a culture so different from my own. I'm excited about the next holiday when I get to wear my hanbok: New Years!

NoKo/SoKo

This is supposed to make me feel safe...?

Since I've been here, I've heard South Koreans talk about North Korea exactly two times. The first time, I asked one of my Korean friends about North Korea, to which she basically shrugged off my question by asking me why I wanted to know anything about North Korea. It was like North Korea was on a different planet.

The second time, a man randomly decided to tell me a "funny story" about a time when a North Korean saw someone opening a can of soda and ran for cover, thinking it was a grenade. This story didn't make me laugh, it made me sad. What must it be like to live in a world where all you know is seen through war-tinted glasses? To be so fearful and vigilant that a soda can makes you run for your life?

In South Korea, there is rarely mention of our northern neighbors... but there are tiny traces of their existence here and there. This picture is from the subway system in Seoul. There are tall glass cabinets through the subway stations that hold little brown sacks with bright orange safety masks in case of an attack. I'm not sure what is more alarming; the fact that there may be an attack, the fact that you're supposed to literally tie the bright orange mask around your neck, or the fact that there are about twenty sacks per station... and millions of commuters every day.

I'm planning a trip to the DMZ with some of my friends, so I'm sure I'll have some more insights on the NoKo/SoKo thing afterwards. I'll keep you posted. Until then, be thankful that you don't have to dive for cover when someone opens a Coke.

Note: I am perfectly safe here and not in danger. This post is not meant to alarm you, mom.