Korean Wedding

I wasn't planning on blogging about this, but it's been awhile, so here goes. One of Marc's Korean co-workers invited us to his wedding last Saturday up in Seoul. We were told it was going to be "Western-style" so I curious to see what their version of a Western wedding would be like. Just so we're all on the same page, this is not Western as in cowboy boots and mechanical bull rides. According to them, anything not Asian is Western!
We arrived at noon to a large judicial building where many weddings are held.

Prosecutor's Office. Romantiiiic!

Somehow we figured out what level to go to and entered a lobby area with a table on either side and two receiving lines for the bride and the groom. The groom and father in suits and the mother in a traditional Hanbok dress took our hands and greeted us very sweetly. Marc wrote our names in a book and then we were given a blank envelope and four meal tickets. The envelope is for money. Instead of gifts, guests bring cash. The amount depends on how well you know the couple. We gave less because I had never even met the groom, let alone the bride. At first it seemed rather impersonal to give cold, hard cash, but really it's for the best. Instead of having a dining room table covered in crystal vases, the couple gets a nice chunk of change to put towards whatever they like! I would love to know how much they raked in! It also solves the predicament of how many people to invite. Invite every single person you have ever known, met or passed in the street because they all have to bring money!
Once we stuffed the envelope, they gave us the four meal tickets. It kind of felt like, "Give us the cash and we let you eat."

The lobby

Blue tickets for the groom, pink for the bride. This is curious because from what I've been told, Korea doesn't have "gender colors". Baby boys wear pink as much as they wear blue and vice versa. So now you know. If you ever dress your baby boy in head-to-toe blue and someone asks, "What's her name?" you can then reply with, "By any chance, are you Korean?"

As we entered the wedding hall I could see a little room off to the side with a flock of women hovering around a seated bride. But I only saw a corner of her dress! She was still a mystery!

Theater-style seating

We didn't have to wait long for the ceremony to begin. First, the mothers walked down together, climbed the stairs, each lit a candle and then there was a lot of clapping.

There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen, just these helper gals who I think work at the building.

They bow and we all clapped.

Then the radiant groom enters with more clapping.

Bowing and clapping.

AND NOW...the moment we've all been waiting for. The bride in the blingiest dress I've ever seen. Looking at her dress was like standing in front of the paparazzi with their flashing cameras all pointed directly at your face.

With her father.

Another random attendant helping her not trip up the stairs.

There was a long Christian sermon. The only way I know this is that I heard a lot of "amens" from the crowd. Other than that, I didn't understand a single, solitary word.

He did well considering he would normally be napping at this time of day. Jonah, that is.

The couple exchanged vows and rings, then turned to face a piano where two girls sang a song to them, then turned to the crowd for lots of clapping. There was no kiss! They walked down the stairs to the brides parents and hugged each one, then across the room to the groom's parents and hugged them. Then the couple and their two sets of parents faced the whole crowd for more clapping.

Reading their vows.

Hugging the groom's parents.

And it was over! Without any ceremony of exiting from front to back, everyone got up and made a b-line for the elevator or stairs. With Wedding Day Food Coupons in hand, we made it to the dining floor and found a cafeteria-style room with a very long line of food and people. There was no seating chart and definitely not enough tables for everyone. Somehow we squeezed in at a table with some other folks.

They had sushi, Korean food and their version of "western food".

My good eater.

After the eating it was pretty much over. From beginning to end it was maybe two and a half hours. There was no cake cutting, no dancing, and no reception to speak of. Their posed pictures had already been taken, printed and were on display. From what I could tell there wasn't much of a personal touch from the couple. It felt more like a generic wedding package: preacher, flowers, food. Maybe that's the norm here or maybe just what this couple wanted. Its the first Korean wedding I've been to so I really can't say. But it definitely looked a lot more simple and easy to plan than the elaborate, very personalized weddings going on in the US. We did see the couple on our way out already changed into their getaway clothes. I assume they were making the rounds thanking people for coming but we didn't hang around. Instead, we hit the road for home and let the boys finally take much-needed naps.

I'm not sure if this was a Korean wedding with Western influence or a Western wedding with Korean influence. I wonder if traditional Korean weddings still happen. That would be really interesting to witness! 

P.N., R.N.

My mom's cousin (my first cousin, once removed!), Paulette, came to visit us for a week. She was our first out-of-town, flew-across-the-ocean guest. The plans started back in June when I went home for my cousin's wedding. Paulette spontaneously (as she does) asked if she could use her vacation time to visit us and of course I gave her a huge YES. Korea is one of the few places this seasoned traveler has not seen so it made perfect sense. She graciously offered to take the bus from the airport since its almost a 2-hour drive one way for us. With anyone else I would be worried. How would they know where to go? Will they figure out how to make an international call to reach us? Would they get on the right bus? Will they be totally overwhelmed? With Paulette, I knew I had nothing to worry about. She's smart, savvy and self-reliant. I gave her the bits of information she requested and she took care of the rest. NBD. Even Marc questioned how this was all going to work to which I simply shook my head and said, "she's got it." And she did. She had it all figured out and we met her at our local bus depot on Wednesday evening. Yippee!! A familiar face! A blood relative! Here!

Upon arriving at our house she unzipped her rolling suitcase and, like Mary Poppins, began removing an absurd amount of gifts and Trader Joe's treats for all of us, including wine! Among other things, the boys each received big pencil cases full of colored pencils, pads of paper, sharpeners, stickers, and markers. It was getting to be bedtime for the boys so I did the routine and then thoughtful Paulette took over the book reading with some Ballpark Mystery books she brought herself. Jonah went to bed that night with his pencil case. As I turned off the light he was proudly removing each item one at a time saying, "I have this. I have this. I have this..."

Playing with his new Magformers shapes.

Helping to carve the pumpkins. Jonah says, "Ew".

At Toby's soccer game.

On Friday we picked Marc up early from work and got Toby at 11:30 after school, then we headed to Seoul. The plan was to shop, eat all the foods we can't get in Pyeongtaek and get Paulette on a tour to the DMZ. That night, of all things, we ate at an Austrian restaurant very close to our hotel that a friend recommended. It was super shmekt and nice to eat something other than Korean food at a restaurant.

I'll never tell who let him taste the beer bubbles.

Ehh...maybe not.

Now we're talking. Real Austrian hot chocolate.

Saturday was the big walking/shopping day so we took her to our favorite corner of Seoul - Samcheong-dong, a cute, artsy/trendy area of restaurants and artisans. Its kind of a refuge from big, loud, crazy Seoul. Anyway, it was perfect for Paulette, who likes to find unique jewelry and bags. The only disappointment, since she kind of has a "thing" for shoes, is that the biggest size in Korea is an 8 and she's an 8.5. Boo. I already know not to bother trying to find 9.5/10 for myself. I would need to custom order shoes. I guess it would be like a woman in America trying to find size 14. Good luck.

Slightly disturbing flower pot.

Thai noodles for lunch. Just break open the box and share!

One of those candid photos that turns out kinda cool. Thanks, Marc.

We were both successful in finding a few cute things for ourselves and Christmas gifts for others. I don't go shopping very often mostly because I'm exceedingly indecisive. I can stand there comparing two items for 30 minutes, arguing with myself about which one is better. And then after I decide and purchase something, I almost always immediately regret it and feel like I should have bought the other one. Paulette can look at two things, ask a few questions, and give me good reasons why one or the other is the best decision. Its so simple! I need that single voice of reason to make the squabbling voices in my head shut up. She just knows what she's talking about. She's also dangerous to shop with. She will convince you that you need something. But I think its just fun watching other people spend a little money on themselves especially when they really like what they've found.

I needed a new bag and wanted to find a cute backpack. I like what I have now but its basically a big shoulder sack and I get so frustrated digging around for my ID, keys, a diaper, chapstick, etc. Whatever I need seems to be at the deepest depth of the bag. A backpack has compartments, feels nice and even and doesn't bang the heads of little ones next to me. We went to a few bag places and I wasn't feelin' it. Then we rounded a corner and I found Cute Backpack Store! That's what I'm calling it. It came down to two different styles of the same pattern. (A huge predicament, for me.) Paulette quickly helped me resolve the issue and I'm so pleased with it. She was right. Plus it was waaaaay cheaper than I thought it would be.

I don't always shop, but when I do, I should shop with Paulette.

This backpack screams "AMY"

After a day of casual strolling, we finally had dinner at Vatos Tacos, the legendary, hip Mexican food restaurant that every ex-pat-who's-anyone in Korea knows about. We had a 45 minute wait and it was worth every bite. OH! I have been craving these flavors and was ultimately satisfied and stuffed. 

Some kind of beer-margarita concoction. Obviously what Marc needed after a long day.

On Sunday, Paulette hopped on a tour bus to the DMZ and Marc and I took the boys to Children's Grand Park...again.We met her that afternoon and drove back home.

Have I mentioned that Paulette is a nurse? A real, live nurse. We could ask her any question and she would have an answer faster than Google. She just knows stuff. She's been doing medical research for several years and that's what takes her all around the world. She even visited me in Paris back in 1999. How cool is that? She's the perfect house guest because she gets up early to make the coffee, doesn't need to be entertained, offers to help out and is just really enjoyable and interesting to talk to. I guarantee you would love Paulette. She's fabulous.

One of the most memorable parts of her visit, for me, especially because I got sick on Sunday, was that she offered to cook. (And she's a really good cook, too.) In one day she made chili, stuffed peppers,  veggie lasagna and chicken soup, then potato pancakes the next day. Anyone who's sick needs someone to take care of them, but it was especially meaningful to me, as a mom, who usually still has to take care of everyone else even when I feel like Death. I got to rest, take naps, eat her delicious food and basically take care of ME for a whole day. I think that's why I got well so much faster than I usually do. And I've barely had to make anything since she left because we're living off the leftovers. Love it!

Weeeee! Paulette is fun!

Learning colors with the help of 99 Birds

Saying goodbye

After dropping her off at the bus depot, poor Jonah kept asking, "Where Pa'ette go?"
We loved having you, Pa'ette. Thank you for using your time and money to visit lonely, little ol' us in our corner of the earth. I wonder where we'll meet again?? XXOO

COEX Mall & Aquarium

On Sunday we made our second trip up to Seoul. Since its still too chilly to walk around outdoors, we ended up going to another mall. This is not my idea of site-seeing but better this than sitting at home all weekend or freezing outside. But this wasn't just any mall. Coex is the largest underground mall in Asia and located in Gangnam. I really want to see Gangnam and hopefully next time it won't be the underground! This mall is HUGE. It's all on one level so it just goes on and on forever. The upper levels above ground are for a convention center, exhibition halls and a musical theater. The mall itself has 2 food courts but dozens of other small restaurants all over the place. Our first stop was for lunch.

This was Toby's lunch and one of the few things I've found so far that doesn't taste the same as everything else and doesn't contain anything that scares me. It was just rice, tofu, bean paste, dried seaweed flakes and chopped kimchi. Ok, it kind of tasted like everything else but at least it didn't have the ubiquitous red sauce that coats most Korean food. Its a good thing I can handle spice, because the red sauce is spicy! Anyway, below are two restaurants we did NOT go to.

Here are a few things we saw while wandering around...

BONGZI...That's the place made by Jesus. Hmm.

Hello Kitty store

An information robot (with a face) that rolls around

I'm not sure if this is one of those Korean-trying-to-use-English-word-logos-that-doesn't-work banks or if it actually holds humans.

Foreign countries always have such interesting and funny bathroom diagrams.

Is that Bruce Willis or...m-m-my DAD???

After all of this fun, we headed to the Aquarium - also huge.

There's a room with fish in all kinds of appliances. Fish in a fridge, fish in a vending machine, fish in a toilet.

 What will they think of next?

He didn't quite get what he was supposed to do.

We saw turtles, seals, manatees, sharks, rays, jelly fish, a gator, penguins and fishies of all species. After awhile I couldn't wait to get out of there because it was so crowded and hot! Koreans like WARM spaces. And we noticed that very few people take their winter coats off inside. I normally run cold, but this place was sweltering and they all remained bundled up. Something else I've noticed is that Korea is a baby-wearin' culture. Most people don't bother with strollers because they're too bulky and public places are usually crowded and don't always have ramps or elevators. So moms and dads wear their little ones in Ergos or Ergo-like carriers. It's really great! I've never seen a parent lugging a heavy car seat around or a baby in a car seat outside of the car. They even have these carriers with a "shelf" for a baby to sit on with or without straps. It requires a picture if I can get one some day. We've also seen a lot of moms (and dads) wearing terry cloth "robes" around the carrier to keep the baby warm. It's wonderful to see.
Next we faced the challenge of walking all the way back to our car, wherever it was. I am terrible about noting where I park in parking garages, so its a real good thing that Marc has that GPS brain thingy because I would still be there searching for our car. We hit a lot of traffic on the way back to P-taek but it was a good, fun-filled day!