A Korean Wedding

I went to a Korean wedding today! One of my friends from work, Ceilia, got married to "her skinny man" (my nickname for him.) Everyone from the school was invited and in attendance, and we all ate dinner together after the ceremony, so it was quite a fun morning! When we arrived, we were directed to a tiny room where the bride sat perched like a frosted white cupcake on a settee, and people could take pictures of her, or have their picture taken with her. Poor thing, she looked so nervous! I did not envy her. People in the wedding hall lobby were milling about, meeting and greeting one another, mostly in business attire. To me, it looked more like a funeral than a wedding. A lot of black, and not too much festive color to be seen anywhere! It is not traditional in Korean culture to give gifts to the bride and groom, but rather to give money in a white envelope, which was collected by a group of hired staff at a long desk in the lobby. Friends and coworkers usually give about $50, family members give more. The ceremony had started before everyone was seated, in fact, there weren't enough seats for everyone, so most of our crew hung about near a side wall. The flowers, candles, and cake decorations were all fake/plastic, but looked elegant, and there was a giant photographic poster of the bride and groom in casual clothes on one wall (which was far too cheesy for my personal taste, but whatev.) The whole decor had a bit of a "wedding factory" feel, not so much the carefully planned and chosen details typical in weddings at home, where each wedding denotes the personal style of the couple. We listened to their vows and their parents words to each of them (that was the most beautiful part to me, the mothers were dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, and each gave their parting words of advice and wisdom to their son/daughter) and then a song was sung to them by a friend (a bit Disney-esque, to be honest.) Afterwards we all took group pictures together... first the family members, then the bride's friends, then the groom's friends. (The bride had a lot more friends than the groom, which was kind of funny to me, especially when he started calling up some of her friends to stand with him and fill in some obvious gaps.) As we left, there was another wedding party coming in to set up...

Eyes and Ears

we are all ears
but do we hear?
or have we forgot
how to listen?

and covered in eyes
do we yet see?
or in all the wrong places
still searching?

-Fi

Books. Books. Books.

i read books. not many, just a few books.
there are 1061 books in my house.
there are 274 books in my room and 787 books in my brother's room.
i counted all the books.
it took me 30 minutes.
my father and brother like books.
this year they bought 134 books.
my brother's room looks like a library...

... hilarious excerpt from a student's journal this week!

Speaking of books, what are YOU reading?
On my shelf these dayz...

1. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
3. Under The Overpass by Mike Yankoski
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
5. The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Estatic Poems by Rumi

And true to scatterbrained form, I'm reading them ALL, at once, in bits and pieces...

Deceived by an Apple

I bought a new cleaning product from the mini-mart close to my apartment. They didn't have the one I usually buy in stock, and as I couldn't read any of the labels, I chose the one with a green apple on it, thinking it might have a nice fresh scent. Oh, Eve, will you never learn? Spent some of Saturday morning cleaning, and I'm pretty sure this product is high-content, if not pure, bleach. My bathroom smells like a swimming pool, and my head feels like it's swimming now too... from inhaling fumes in an enclosed space, while scrubbing tile grout on my hands and knees. Whew... strong stuff. But the bathroom is sparkling!

Oh, and more about my bathroom (I can't believe I haven't blogged about this already)... it has been quite the experience! My shower is open-concept... as in the shower head is mounted on the wall beside the sink, and there is a drain on the floor beneath the sink. So everything gets wet. I mean everything... the walls, the floor, the sink, mirror, toilet, and my towels if I forget to take them out. The toilet paper has a little plastic flap that protects it from getting drenched, and the power outlet also has a cover. But let me tell you... it is not pleasant to use the bathroom after showering.... for a while the toilet seat just stays wet. It kind of feels like a not-yet-trained child was there before you!

In winter, the tile floor is icy cold, as the bathroom's back wall is adjacent to the unheated hallway, and has none of that nice in-floor heating that is in the rest of the apartment. So I would stand, shivering, in the center of the circle of warmth that the hot water makes on the floor around me, and then scurry outta there as soon as possible. I guess it was good for water conservation! And I understand now why Koreans love their saunas and spas, in winter especially. You see them out in the streets most mornings and evenings, carrying a basket of toiletries, on their way to or from the public bathhouses. I haven't made it there yet, as I am told bathing suits are not permitted (men and women bathe separately, but together with their own sex) and I'm not sure I'm quite brave enough for that! A pleasant feature in my bathroom, however, are the seahorse stickers on the floor, which I think are supposed to be grips for your feet. Most are missing parts of their fins or tails, but this one is perfectly intact!



I don't think any shower experience could be as bad as that time in an Ecuadorian hotel, when I electrocuted myself (twice) in the shower, by trying to change the position of the shower head, with my wet hand. The shower head had unenclosed wires wrapped around it, and I felt a current of electricity, in my fingers through to my elbow! Conversely, I don't think any shower experience could be as wonderful as biodegradeable shampoo in the lake in summer at home, or as peculiar as showering in a solar-heated makeshift bathroom in Fiji, with cracks beneath the door wide enough for a rooster to stroll in and have a look, and numerous geckos flitting around the ceiling above my head. Or... as beautifully simplistic and memorable as that gorgeous sunny last day at camp in Ecuador, when three of us showered out of a bucket drawn up from the camp's well. Really, my bathroom here is relatively quite sophisticated!

The One-Year Mark

I know I said it was only a one-year contract, but I've extended my time with the school here for a few months more... the plan at present is to be home to Nova Scotia for Christmas!!!

The Cultural Cringe

There are three things I don't think I can ever get used too, no matter how well-adjusted I've become to Korean culture over time...
1. Children that bow to me. I'm all for respecting your elders, but something about these little guys bowing their heads to me, makes me very uncomfortable. It always catches me off-guard, whether it happens on a street corner or in a school hallway... I get the cultural cringe. I do admit I've started bowing to my elders here, out of respect for them and this cultural custom, but I guess I just don't feel worthy of such a display of public submission myself. I'd rather a high-five or a "Hi, teacher!" or even just a shy smile, but some of these children have been taught to be very respectful of their teachers. Others, of course, are little rugrats, of similar breed to those found in every other country I've visited! Don't worry, there's always an element of craziness in my classroom.
2. The parasol-carrying women.


Au contraire to the deep, nut-brown tan craze of white North Americans, Korean women do their utmost to protect their skin. It's probably a healthier way to go, but carrying these frilly sun shields reminds me of an 18th-century English novel... I've even seen skin-whitening sunscreen and face bleaching creams here! I am personally quite fond of the intoxicating feeling of sunbeams kissing my face, and will probably pay for it, in later life. I get scolded by women here for standing in the sun instead of the shade at bus stops! It's really quite amusing. But hey, I've always thought wrinkles were beautiful, they are like storylines, displayed on faces.
3. No seatbelts. I always do a double-take to see babies bouncing on their father's knee while he drives the car, three monkeys (children) tumbling around in the back seat, or two crammed together on the front passenger seat, no belts. It just amazes me, especially with the number of traffic accidents around here. How many times do we have to make mistakes before we learn from them? Seatbelts, people... seatbelts!!!

Summer Nights

Campfire last night at Gujora Beach with friends. We even managed to make s'mores! Although the marshmallows were pink and the cookies were not quite honey grahams. It's all about improvisation when you live in a foreign country and attempt to recreate your own culture...