Lee's wedding

I had never been to a Korean wedding and was very curious how things might be similar and how they might be different. So, this past Saturday my friend Lee got married and I finally got to attend a wedding here and see what it was all about. Funny story...I knew that Lee was dating his (now wife) girlfriend all the way back in August, when we first met. For whatever reason they kept it a secret from all of their church friends (Dana, my director and friend goes to church with him and introduced me to him last summer) but he told me they had been dating. He asked me not to tell, and so of course I didn't. The rest of their friends didn't even know they were dating until maybe February or March. So Dana told me that Lee had a girlfriend, and I told her "I know, I knew back in August" HAHA! Anyway, Lee's a cool guy, speaks English very well and lived in LA for about 6 months.

So, Saturday was the big day for him. I met with Dana at their church and rode the church van down with about 12 other people. I had met one or two of them just going out to eat before with Dana, and just hanging out and what not. It was funny, Dana and I talked almost the whole way there (it was about a 45 minute ride) and most of the other people were just quiet. At one point I said to Dana "Man, we must really like to talk!" HA! It was like I finally noticed how much we had been talking and how quiet it was. So...we got to the wedding hall at around 12:15 and the wedding was at 1 PM. One thing I'll give Koreans and weddings...they are very efficient. At the wedding hall (it was about 4 or 5 stories tall) there is a wedding chapel, a beauty salon, a coffee shop, and a restaurant all together...makes pretty good sense, right? I also found out that a lot of Korean girls just use a wedding dress from the wedding hall...Lee told me that his wife Sami took about 15 minutes to pick out her dress! Amazing! And so much smarter than spending $1000-2000 on something you'll wear once and then store away in a closet for 70 years. So...we met Sami first and took some pictures with her. She looked really pretty...she usually doesn't wear makeup so she looked a little different than I had seen her before. Lee looked very excited when I met him and we chatted for a few minutes. Dana told me that usually they are only allowed 30 minutes (yes, 30 minutes) for their wedding ceremony, and then there is another couple that comes in right behind them. Saturday however, Lee and Sami were the only two getting married so they had as much time as they wanted. Dana likened it unto a factory...which I'd have to say I agree. 30 minutes...I mean, I can just imagine if one's preacher is telling you all the do's and don'ts of being married and then the coordinator comes in and says "ummmm, we need to wrap this up! We have another couple coming in!" HAHA! So, anyway, the place looked really pretty. The ceremony itself was actually about the same as western weddings, and after their preacher talked to them Lee played Sami a song on his saxaphone. I thought that was really cool and they both looked really happy. So after their wedding, it's custom for the bride and groom to go off, and dress in 한복 "hanbok" (traditional Korean clothing) and have a short meeting with the groom's parents, where they talk and make promises I guess, and then the parents throw food into a cloth and wish them well. Lee asked me if I wanted to see that and of course I said yes. They got all dressed and I thought it was so funny...Lee said that was the first time that he had ever worn hanbok, so he needed help getting dressed! I just assumed all Koreans wore it on special occasions, but he and Sami both said it was the first time they had ever worn it. I thought that was pretty cool and more interesting to me than the actual wedding since it was about the same as in the States.

So after all of that, the guests can go upstairs and they have a big restuarant and people can line up and eat. The food was really good...most of it traditional Korean food, and then some other types of food as well. There was one very intersting dish I did try. My friend Kevin (well, that's his English name) told me I should try some 소꼬리 (so kko ri) or cow's tail. I thought he was joking, but he was totally serious. I tried it...it was very intersting tasting. It tasted kind of fatty...sort of like the fat around a steak or something. The texture was kind of like dumplings. Anyway...he said it was popular at weddings and special events, although most of my Korean friends said they either A) had never tried it or B) don't like it. HA! It was decent though...

Ok, in answer to Greta's post...I will try and answer briefly on my plans (and then add more details when I really do know more)

Yes, crazy as it seems, I've been here almost a year already...my plans for now are to end my contract with Kids College at the end of June (well, actually July 3rd...there are some teacher issues and my boss asked me to stay a few more days) and then I'll probably be headed back to the States around July 8th. I'll probably be there for a few weeks, and then hopefully if everything goes well, I'll be back here in Korea around the 1st part of August. So...as I said, when I know 100% I promise I'll let you know more. I just hate to tell people something and then be wrong. So...that's the skinny! :)

Asan City Tour

This Saturday I went on a city tour of Asan, which is the next city west of Cheonan. In Korea it is quite popular to have these city tours...people all get on a bus and just go from place to place in an area and have a person (on a microphone of course HAHA) telling about all of the different areas. It's kind of nice, and it's easy and cheap...so I did that this weekend. Of course, 2 minutes into the tour the woman started talking with her microphone, and pretty much talked the entire time. I'm sure it was some useful info for all the Korean folks, and yes I can understand some Korean thesedays, but it was pretty useless to me. We went to four different spots: The Asan Folk Village, a botanical garden, and old Catholic church built in 1890 and then to the Asan Folk Museum.

I had been to the folk village before, but to a different area, and so this was still a new experience for me. It is cool because at the village, some of the houses are just for tourists, and then some of them people actually live in. I thought that was really cool, and I think it would be fun to live in an old traditional house. Maybe if I'm rich someday, I will buy one! :) The weather was actually really cold in the morning...almost felt like fall, and then by the afternoon the weather was pretty nice. The folk village is a famous area for some traditional Korean movies and Korean TV commercials. So...I took a few pictures of one of the most popular roads there.

The botanical garden was pretty cool too...although the location was RIGHT NEXT TO a dairy, and so since it has been raining a lot, you can imagine the smell was like...ummmm...well, not so nice. Once inside the botanical garden though, it was nice and the smell was gone. There were about 5 or 6 huge buildings that had all kinds of beautiful flowers and plants/trees/shrubs from all over the world. It was really nice, and I really like photographing flowers, plants...so it was cool. The coolest part was lunch though...they sold 꽃비빔밥 (kkot bi bim bap). Bi Bim Bap is kind of like a rice, mushroom, meat mix, it's really delicious. And kkot means flower...so they had this rice dish with flowers in it, and you could eat the flowers. So...it was really beautiful and also delicious :) After eating I went to an area where you could go inside a little area and buy bird feed and the birds would come and eat out of your hands. I thought the botanical garden was really cool.

The third stop was an old Catholic church. It was really cool and unique because it was built in a western style architecture...so it looks different from most buildings in Korea. It was built as I said earlier in 1890, and all around the outside there are statues of Jesus and of course Mary, Joseph, etc. I often see Catholic nuns travelling around on the bus here, but I had no idea that place even existed. It was very cool though, and it was also neat that the sun came out by the afternoon and so I got a few good pics of the church with the sun shining.

The last stop was the Folk Museum...it was OK, it had some really good Korean cultural things, but since I've been here a year, I knew most of them. The best part though was our guide. As I have said before (and I love Koreans, so I'm not being mean here, it just makes me laugh) Koreans love microphones. So...at each stop she got off the bus and even had a little portable microphone with a speaker around her neck, so people could hear her talking. So...in the museum, most people split off and just looked around at their leisure, but I was walking around where our guide was. The funny thing is there were literally 4 of us and her...and she was STILL talking with her microphone. I wanted to get a pic, and should have...HAHA! Anyway...it as a good time, and I had a cool weekend.

I'm excited, my friend Travis (he's from NC, but living in China with his wife) is coming to visit in two weeks, so I get to hang out with him for the weekend. We're planning to go to the DMZ, so I'll try and get some great pics if we go there.

Doosan Bears again...

Well, last Tuesday (May 5th) is Children's Day in Korea, and so I had the day off not only at the middle school, but also at Kids College. I was so happy to have a full day off, and as I said in my last post, I was planning to go to another Doosan Bears game, it was a day game and I was exciting to go back to Jamsil Stadium and watch the Bears. So, I got up around 9AM, hit the subway station and rode on up to Samsung Station which is close by the stadium. There is a Buddhist temple there (Bongeun Sa) which I stopped at last summer. It's a really cool temple and with Buhha's birthday just passing, I had heard that the temples were decorated really cool with many colorful lanterns. So, my plan was to go by Bongeun Sa, snap a few pictures and then head over to the stadium and settle in for some afternoon baseball. Well, after getting my pictures I walked on towards the stadium (it's maybe a 15 minute walk) and as I was getting close to the stadium I saw a whole bunch of people wearing Bears stuff walking AWAY from the stadium and past me back to the city. I thought, "Hmmm, that's strange" and keep walking. Well, as I crossed the river I could see into the stadium and the place was PACKED and it was like 1:30 (2 PM start) So, I keep going, and got up to the ticket window. There were 1000s of people all over but not many in the line to buy tickets, so I thought "This is great, I can get tickets in no time!" So I walked up to the window and the lady said "Sorry, Sold Out!" Ugh! I was bummed out and felt like an idiot. I didn't realize they were playing LG Twins, who is a huge rival, and they both share the stadium...plus with it being a holiday, and baseball being very popular in Korea...NO DICE! So, that sort of took the wind out of my sails, the air out of my balloon, (insert your favorite let down cliche here) I hadn't really planned much else, so I went by COEX, a huge mall, and then just came back to Cheonan. I was pretty bummed about missing the game, but it was on TV and Doosan lost 0-12, so actually I didn't miss much.

So...I had to have a rebound game and so I went back again on Saturday, this time with more success, not only for me, but also for Doosan as they won 4-3 and are now 3-0 in the games I attend this season! :) HA!

It was a great night for baseball Saturday...the weather was nice in the evening, a little breeze and it just felt great!

PS: If you're curious why my t-shirt says "OB Bears" and not Doosan, well...OB was the previous name, so this is sort of an old school t-shirt, and I got it for 10,000 Won! ($8) So, maybe you didn't notice, but I know Becca will notice! HA!

Everland and 이순신 Festival

This past weekend was really cool. This time of year is holiday time...Saturday was Buddha's birthday and then tomorrow is Children's Day. So...I had several days off of school (including tomorrow) and so I tried to get out and see a few more sites. Friday I went to Asan to the 이순신 (Lee Sun Shin) festival in Asan. I don't know if you remember in my first ever blog I went to his house in Asan (Hyeonchungsa) and posted some pictures. Anyway...he is really famous in Korean, he was an Admiral of the Korean navy and fought bravely against the Japanese in the Japanese Invasions during 1592-1598. His birthday was April 28, 1545 so I think that's why they had the festival this past week. He did some really amazing things. He designed the "Turtle Ship" which was an amazing war ship which sometimes featured over 20 cannons, versus the Japanese ships having 1 or 2. At the Battle of Myeongnyang Lee Sun Shin commanded 13 ships versus 133 for Japan. The Koreans were victorious and forced the Japanese to retreat. He grew up in Asan (near Cheonan) and that's why the festival is there. It was really cool...I went to Hyeonchungsa again (his boyhood home) and then they had 100s of exhibits set up along the river in Asan. They had a portable bridge across the river since the festival was on both sides of the river. It was a little windy late in the afternoon, and it was kind of funny watching people try and cross the floating bridge. As the wind picked up, or course it was moving the water and then people just walking across the bridge too...hahaha, it was swinging all over the place! HA! It had been nice most of the day...and then around 4 PM the sky turned black and the rain started pouring down. I was glad I had been there long enough to enjoy it before I got soaked! :)

So on Saturday I went to Everland! I had been waiting to go here for quite a while...it's the biggest amusement park in Korea and has the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the WORLD! It has a 77 degree drop...unreal how scary this thing was. I've been on some pretty scary rollercoasters over the years, but the T-Express was by far the scariest. The first drop it literally feels like you're going straight down! It was scary, and I thought my stomach was going to come out of my mouth! HA! The only thing I was a little disappointed in as that they were working on two of the rollercoasters in the park, so the T-Express was the only coaster I got to ride. There were still some other cool rides though, so it wasn't a wasted day or anything. The park in HUGE. There are some really pretty areas with flowers and fountains, and the weather was perfect for a day at an amusement park. It was nice and sunny but not hot.

I had a great weekend, and tomorrow I'm planning to go back to another Doosan Bears game...they are having a day game since it's Children's Day. Hopefully I can help them go 3-0 this season! HA!