Culture Shock: Korean Wedding

One Friday, after lunch time, I get handed a cute little envelope with my name on it, and inside, an  invitation to a Korean wedding. Great! A first, and I can put this down on my 'Been there, done that' list. "So when is it?" I say, "Tomorrow." my colleague responds. Oooowkay. That's great. I don't even have shoes, my hair looks bad (and so my thoughts went, in true South African pre-wedding style). Jasmine kept telling me how unimportant it is and that Koreans weddings are no big deal. I believed her, but a wedding's a wedding, you know? It's a huge thing so I wanted to be prepared.

A little last minute ensemble, and I'm ready to go. Meet my co-teachers at school (they have to work on Saturdays) and we drive about 30minutes out to the venue. The parking lot was full, so that seemed like a good, normal wedding type of welcome.

Fast forward to the horror.

The bride is sitting on a chair in the entrance hall, getting pics taken with every guest. The groom is standing nearby, chatting to his buddies like it's an ordinary day and people are just all over the show.

The ceremony was about 30 minutes long, the guests walked around and chatted freely while the MC was talking and there were none of the formalities I'm used to seeing. The only thing that was similar to vows, was the sports fan-like cheer the MC made the groom do as a joke.

I stood against a wall at the back, while people were out in the entrance hall joking around as if they were forced to be there. I was soooooo confused, and half annoyed.

The highlight of the wedding though: This lady gets up to serenade the newly weds and she sings Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." THAT was when I cried. Laughing.

It was the first time that I realised what the song was about and that a wedding was NOT the place to be singing a 'goodbye my lover' type song.

Allow me (via lyrics 007) to quote the lyrics:

If I should stay,
I would only be in your way.
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you ev'ry step of the way.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
You, my darling you. Hmm.

Bittersweet memories
that is all I'm taking with me.
So, goodbye. Please, don't cry.
We both know I'm not what you, you need.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.

(Instrumental solo)

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of.
And I wish to you, joy and happiness.
But above all this, I wish you love.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I, I will always love you.

You, darling, I love you.
Ooh, I'll always, I'll always love you. 

Hilarious, neh? After that, we headed downstairs to eat the buffet food we PAID for and found half of the guests already well fed 'cause they had spent the entire time down there (they did pay for the food though, so I don't blame them for choosing the time it'd be good to enjoy their purchase). The food was great, regardless of the fact that we sat on normal, unassigned chairs, with no fancy table decoration to set the mood.

It upset me that they whole idea of marriage was executed like a quick factory process, but I learned that they have a smaller, more meaningful traditional thing with just the family. That, and a nap, gave my mind a rest from all the "what on earth is happening? why do they bother?".

Foyer photo area with the bride (pre ceremony)

Venue 

Groom (white gloves) and his mom (traditional attire) also chilling in the foyer

Pre wedding photoshoot done and dusted, on display in the foyer

Guests not even interested in the their walking down the aisle. hehehe 

Not even 30 minutes later- tada! (Still, the guests couldn't care less)

Despite the HUGE culture shock this gave me, I had to remind myself that there is lots I don't know and what we find important, is never the same in Korea (and vise versa). I was just glad I didn't go and spend a cent on getting my hair fixed and buying appropriate shoes for the occasion ^^. Culture Shock doesn't explain it enough!

Korean Ageing

Forgot to share pics from my Korean birthday. A surprise dinner at Die Torte (Uh huh!) downtown, drinks at Kush and laughter at Urban. 

Nothing better than hand-writtens to make my heart smile

Ha! Look at the curves on that thing! I love kids' honest eyes. Heee

And how can I forget to mention that a free present was an extra year to my age, since Koreans count your day of birth as year 1. 

An awesome 21 going on 23, indeed.

Blame It On The Lice

My friends and colleagues here have not stopped hearing me complain about it, so to give them a break, I'm gonna jot it down and vow to stop moaning about it from here on. Here goes:

I've put on soooo much weight since arriving in the land of Lice and Bling. I would love to blame the Lice alone, but I've certainly been over-excited by all the amazing restaurants that call my name on every damn corner. With perfect pronunciation and all, I hear them "Keke! Yess. You! Ke-ke-tso. Come hither!" in a British-Australian accent even. How can I resist??

I could make the issue something light and irrelevant, but the fact that I talk about it so much is something that set off a 'uh-ow' alarm in my head. I was so obsessed with this old me, that I was seeing new Kex as a lesser being. Ridiculous, I know. Simply put, the challenge I've given myself is to refocus my 'what gives me value' energies on the only thing that will never change, and that's my Creator. Real talk. It's too easy these days to sum ourselves (and others) up by kg's and cm's so I'm going back to basics and reminding myself of the straight and narrow. Of course, it requires constant reminding, but I'd rather that. 

BMI calculations say I'm over my height's healthy weight (oh dear!) and being in Korea where the women are soooo tiny, it's easy to get lost on that 'if only' train of thought. 

As a result, I've taken up swimming lessons (3 times a week), invested in a blender for my fruit smoothies, and shoved my gluttony hat away. It's not cool to be eating the way I've been. But amidst that, I always have to remind myself of what's really important: I can't let the weight consume me when my Creator loves and uses me As I Am. (Yes, I said it.)

All pics from weheartit

No more blaming it on the lice. 

x

We Heart Long Weekends

Weeehaaa! It's a long weekend here in the land of Lice and Bring, and I'm having a great time doing absolutely nothing :D While most of other teachers are visiting nearby cities countries (Japan, China, Taiwan) for their 5 day weekend, I am sitting at home and literally pantsula dancing on my refresh button. It's awesome.

It's Chuseok here on Korea, which has been compared to the American's Thanksgiving, but because I'm just a little South African girl, I'm still not sure what that means. Who better to ask, but Mr Google himself?? Wiki says:

Chuseok..., is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar... As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such...


Building up to this holiday, there have been sales for Africa, especially in the food stores with the strangest gift packs, from well packaged and ribbon bow tied cans of tuna to bulk packs of tofu. Awesome. I got a lovely body wash thing from one of my colleagues (because she thought the whitening face wash she got for the others wouldn't be suitable for me. Spot on! hee). 


I can imagine all the Koreans are having a lovely time with their families coz the shops are closed (this NEVER happens) and the streets are a tad more peaceful (also NEVER happens). 


While they do that, I'm catching up on Season 4 of Brothers and Sisters, chatting and laughing with Raquel, watching Trevor Noah's Crazy Normal (I died!). Yesterday we also got to watch the Boks vs Wales game at a bar downtown and there were so many South Africans there, I wondered if there are any left back home o_O I'm not complaining, just saying. 


Here are some pics to fill you in :)

Google does Chuseok

My nice Chuseok gift from Mrs. Jeong. 

Coffee from Missouri (where our new English teacher is from). Interesting flava, huh?!

September babies (Gabi Boy, Mingki Tipton and Greg Boy) celebration on Friday night

The work of the awesome Sarah Watt

On my calender this month (gift from Legend Tlale Matseke)

Pointless post, right? A girl's aloud to yap yap yada yada mkay.