Got a 3 day weekend? Why not crash a wedding?

So my school decided to give everyone the day off last Friday. I found out about it a month ago, and I was super excited for the long weekend because it would mean the perfect chance for me to hop on over to China. When I told my co-teacher, though, she said I couldn't leave the country because of swine flu. (The government's enacted a policy were you have to be quarantined away from public schools for a week if you leave the country.) I was super bummed. My co-teacher, seeing how disappointed I was, wanted to make a up to me...

So she invited me to experience a Korean wedding :D One of her friends was getting married, and she got her to sent me an invite, lol. I love weddings in general, but I was super excited to see how this wedding would be different from ones in the States, even though Koreans rarely do traditional weddings anymore.

It turned out to be really nice. We when to this really gorgeous wedding hall in Gangnam (the rich, nice part of the city), and it was absolutely beautiful. The theme of the hall was kinda a winter wonderland decor, so there were white trees at every table, snowflakes and crystals hanging from the ceilings, and beautiful flower arrangements. I was very impressed.

The wedding was very Western, but there were some interesting parts.

Instead of a church, the wedding ceremony took place in this wedding hall. They set up a runway and a main stage for where the ceremony would take place, but instead of guest seats lined up in neat little rows, the seats were arranged around dinner takes. AND we actually ate during the ceremony! Right when they were saying their vows, the waiters came and brought us our own set places. I felt kinda awkward eating during the ceremony, but everyone else was just eating and chattering away like it was any normal restuarant.

The most random thing, though, happened after the vows. The couple were at the front of the stage watching the chorus sing a song, and then all of a sudden, the Shreks run up the stage and started dancing for the couple. They made dance motions to fit the song. It was really random but kinda cute. You could tell it was a surprise from their friends though cuz of the look on the couple's faces. But hey, they enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

After that, the doors opened, and my heart lept. It led to gorgeous buffet. Even the food was beautifully made to fit the occasion. There were 7 different rows of all types of different foods: cold sides, sushi and sashimi, soups, meat and seafood, and of course, desserts. Some of the food was so pretty that I didn't want to eat it, but of course, I did, lol. The food was excellent.

Oh, and another really interesting thing... You know how we have a prime rib/ham station in US buffets where the chef stands there to carve it up for you? Well, instead of that, they have a live octopus station. The chef stands next to a tank of like 50 or so small live octopuses and serves it right then and there for the wedding party. (Live octopus is a popular dish here, but I was just surprised to see it at a buffet).

I can't wait to go crash another wedding ;D

The Rest of the Gwangju Trip

Although the love motel incident was the most outrageous incident of our weekend trip to Gwangju, it was by no means the only part worth mentioning. Here's everything else that happened on the trip...

The main reason we decided to go to Gwangju in the first place was because it was the site of the Kimchi Festival. I had heard good things about it, and I really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately though, we arrived in Gwangju pretty late in the date and at the end of the festival, so it was kinda a dud. Almost all of the cool events, like the kimchi-making contest and the make-your-own-kimchi area, were already closed. We did, however, get to see some really pretty-looking kimchi on display and some interesting kimchi art...

The next morning, my co-teacher brought me to Soswaewon Garden. It's a traditional garden where sitting pavilions are constructed in a way that's "in harmony with nature". Basically, it's positioned well and hidden within lots of beautiful trees and by a nice stream. We were really lucky because we caught it right at the nice part of fall, so all the fall leaves painted gorgeous colors of red, orange, and yellow all around us. It was really beautiful.

After that we bussed on over to Damyang, a city right new to Gwangju. It's home to one of the most famous roads in Korea: Metasequoia Road (담양 메타세쿼이아 길). Metasequoia Road is a beautiful tree-lined road made famous by dramas and movies because it's a wide pedestrian path flanked by towering trees. It also runs along the main river of the region. It's a main tourist attraction among Korean locals. It was very pretty because of the fall leaves, but unfortunately, it was a bit crowded. The best part, however, was that we got to rent bikes and go biking all around the area. It was so nice biking with such a gorgeous backdrop that this was definitely the highlight of the weekend. I forgot how much I missed biking...

After Metasequoia Road, we had a nice lunch where we tried Damyang's specialty: bamboo rice. Then, it was back to Seoul. The 3-hour train ride was a bit exhausting, but it was definitely worth it for a great weekend. :D

My Night at a Love Motel with My Female Co-teacher

Several weeks ago, I read about a Kimchi Festival that was going on in the southern Jeolla province of Korea, and it sounded really interesting. I mean, come on, a whole festival devoted to kimchi? How could it not be interesting, not to mention the prospects of eating all that kimchi, lol. Anyways, I mentioned it to my coteacher, and she was nice enough to arrange the trip for us. And so, last week we took a 3-hour long train ride all the way down to the southern tip of the peninsula to Gwangju.

When we got there, we decided that neither of us really wanted to spent the money for a decent hotel room. Neither of us are particular when it comes to living, so we decided to ask tourist information for a recommendation. That was not a good idea.

Apparently in Gwangju, the only motels that are available are love motels, and the one that tourist information recommended was this UBER cheesy one called Motel Opera. Think of the worst, most stereotypical love motel from Asian soap operas that you can imagine; that's what Motel Opera was like. No joke. The moment you walk in, you can hear really cheesy jazz music being played in the background. There's tacky vases with fake flowers all through the narrow hallway. The hallway leads to a small glass window with a super sketch guy behind the counter, and right beside the counter is a poster with pictures of three different types of rooms, all of which boast of a big queen size bed with red velvet covers.

My Female co-teacher and I were speechless. We didn't really know what to make of it, but it was cheap: 30,000 ($25) for the night, a third of the price of any hotel. We considered it, and we figured that neither of us really cared all that much; we just need a place to crash. So we payed. As we got to the elevator, though, we saw this couple come out, and that did it for us. The reality of the sketchiness of Motel Opera sank it, and we couldn't get in the elevator. We quickly asked for a refund and bolted out.

Later on in the taxi, she told the cab driver about our experience, and he just laughed. He said it was common knowledge that that was the way motels are in Gwangju. He told us we were better off getting a hotel in this one part of the city, but we still weren't ready to pay for an expensive hotel. We decided to check out the motels around the area that the cab driver mentioned because we heard that there would be better quality motels there.

Finally, we ended up in this dinky little love motel in the downtown area. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as Motel Opera though. The only thing cheesy about this place was the pink hallway lights. It was an older building, so there didn't seem to be other guests there (which in this case was a great thing). Later, my co-teacher told me she was okay with this place because the manager was a woman, lol. Unfortunately, the room was older so it was kinda gross but still tolerable. At least though it turned out to be even cheaper than Motel Opera.

So there you have it, only two months in Korea and I end up in a Korean love motel with my co-teacher. The things you'll do to save a couple bucks... ~sigh~

Buddhist Temple Stay at Hwagyesa Temple

A few weeks ago, a bunch of other English teachers and I decided to experience a temple stay where you live the life of a Buddhist monk for a weekend. We found a nice temple right here in Seoul that accepted foreigners, and we went. It was an interesting experience, which I myself enjoyed, but unfortunately, most of my other friends did not share my sentiment.

We got there Sat. afternoon, and first thing on our agenda was lunch. What better way to start an experience, right? Well, it turned out not to be entirely true because lunch was basically boiled vegetables with rice. Now, I've had some really great vegetarian dishes before, but this was not the case. This meal was completely bland, and it turned out, we would get the same meal 3 times a day for the duration of our trip. I was a bit disappointed by the food, but food is food, and under the right circumstances, I can basically eat anything, so it wasn't a big deal for me. For some of my other friends, however, they couldn't bear it, so they ended up sneaking out of the temple grounds to by food from a local bakery. It was really amusing because we all made a joke about the "contraband goods" that they brought back, but that kinda set the tone for the weekend.

After lunch, we met the head monk. He was an interesting fellow, to say the least. He had spent years in the States, so his English was really good. That also meant, however, that he was comfortable saying basically to us, and he had a really weird sense of humor. He tried hard to be cool, but his references to 70's and 80's pop culture left us all confused, lol.

During our session with the head monk, he taught us the proper way to bow (which we would be doing a lot of), how to meditate, and gave us our homework for the weekend: a question about the meaning of error that we should think about during our meditation.

For the rest of the day, we did several meditation sessions, which proved to be quite difficult (Sitting still Indian-style for an hour at a time is not that comfortable). We also went to a general chanting session. That was really interested because we got to here the monks sing the chants, but that was also tiring because it was the beginning of many, many bows.

The day ended at 8:00. Lights out was at 9:00, and we were all in bed by then. That may seem early, but we needed to wake up at 3:00 in the morning so...

The next morning, we started the day with another meditation session (which for most of us meant extra naptime, lol). Then we had to do the ceremonial 108 bows. For this, you were given an hour and you have to bow continuously in that hour. They stressed no breaks allowed, and the number of bows you did reflected your devoutness and sincerity. Thankfully though, this was done at our own pace, so I think we each averaged around 40 bows.

After the bowing, we went to another chanting session (which unfortunately meant even more bowing), and finally, we did the morning chores. These people have got it down! I don't know how they managed to come up with such a sweet setup, but they basically get foreigners and tourists to pay to sweep their parking lot for them!! But needless to say, we had a bit of fun and goofed around with our brooms, lol.

Anyways, all this was done before breakfast at 5:00. Can you believe that??? I still don't know how we managed to do so much. But anyways, after breakfast we did one more meditation session, and then came the really fun part. They took us on a mini-hike up the nearby mountain and we got to "meditate" and chill up there. It was such a great view. It was nice and warm and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. You could see all the fall leaves. Oh, it was by far the best part of the trip.

The hike was the official end of our trip. The head monk invited us to stay for lunch, dinner, and more sessions for free, but as you can imagine, we were all ready to leave as fast as possible to get some real food.

So that was our Buddhist temple stay experience. It was definitely an interesting one, but it was pretty exhausting. So much, that afterwards, a few of us definitely to reward ourselves by chilling out with some wine in the park. :D

Kayaking in Gangwon-do

Two weekends ago was Chuseok holiday (the Korean version of Thanksgiving or Mid-Autumn Festival), and my school gave us 5 days off. What do you do with such a rare break? Road trip, of course! A bunch of other native teachers and I decided to take a trip to Gangwon-do because one of them found that it's apparently THE place to do whitewater rafting in Korea. All eager to get away from the city for a bit, we hopped on a bus for three hours and made it out to Inje in Gangwon-do.

Getting to Inje was an experience because we had to take a regional bus that's kinda different from cities buses. We went to a major bus terminal, and this being Chuseok (a time when almost every single Korean visits their hometime) the terminal was absolutely packed. It was a madhouse just getting the tickets, and afterwards, there were so many buses that we weren't really sure where to go. Of course, not a single one of us spoke Korean, so we were handicapped in asking. Fortunately since the majority of our group were obvious foreigners (they were white), one bus driver parted the sea of Koreans for us and led us to the right bus. To top it off, the other bus drivers all started clapping and yelling, "Welcome to Korea!" What a great way to kick off the weekend.

Anyways, when we finally get to Inje, our rafting guide picked us up and brought us to our cabin (which btw turned out to be gorgeous and quite spacious). But the surprise was, when we got there the river was about 2 feet deep!! Apparently, we went right at the end of the rafting season and near the beginning of the dry season... So we were told the river was too low for rafting (obviously) but that we were going to go kayaking instead. Bummer, right?

But kayaking actually turned out to be way fun! Before we headed out, they suited us up with lifevests and helmets. We all laughed because we were all thinking, "Are we looking at the same river? Is all this equipment really necessary??" But actually it turned out to be quite handy. Since the river was so low, it was actually a bit tough at some parts because our kayaks would get stuck on the rocks if you didnt' follow the exact course (which of course happened to me and my partner quite a bit) and some people in our group would accidently knock someone else's head with their oar, lol!

It was my partner and my first real time kayaking through rapids, so it was quite an adventure. We eventually got the hang of it and was able to navigate through the end of the course, but that took quite a while to get down. The beginning and middle, however, was tough. It seemed like we were getting stuck or going backwards every two seconds, and at one point, we got so hopelessly stuck at one of the bigger rapids that we had to get out and haul our kayak.

Moving the kayak from the rocks was okay, but me being me, I actually fell into the river while trying. :( It was then that I realized that the seemingly tame river had quite a strong current. I tried to swim back to my kayak, but it was hopeless. I tried to get a foothold or handhold on the rocks as I passed by them, but that too turned out to be futile because they were too smooth and slippery. Finally, I was so tired I just let myself drift down the current. After I finally grabbed hold of a rock, one of our guides had to come and basically drag me back to my kayak. (I grabbed a handhold on the back of his kayak while he rowed.) I felt so bad for him!!!

Overall, the trip was a blast! Kayaking was much more fun and exciting than we first thought when we arrived, and it was really nice just chilling with everyone in our cabin later that night. Also, it was a really good deal!! 50,0 00 won per person for the kayaking tour and overnight at the cabin. Where could you possibly get such a good deal in the States??

It was so much fun that we're already planning to go back for a true rafting trip after the rainy season in April. Can't wait...

Seoul Drum Festival

One thing I absolutely love about Seoul is all the random festivals that they have. So far since I've been here, there's been at least two or three festivals going on for each weekend. The main event for last week was: the Seoul Drum Festival.

Drumming is big here in Korea. It's a big part of traditional culture and performance, and there's many, many modern re-interpretations of the traditional instruments. So needless to say, when I found out that there was going to be a Drum Festival in Seoul, I knew it would be good, and it didn't disappoint.

The Drum Festival is an annual event that highlights the different drum styles of Korea and abroad. It took over Seoul Forest by setting up a huge stage in the middle of the lawn, and jsut going in was kinda interesting. Because of the whole swine-flu precautions, everyone that enters the festival first has to walk through thermal sensors to see if you have a fever. Then, there's at least 3 staff people standing by the entrance to give you hand sanitizers. It was quite high-tech for a random lawn festival.

Upon entering, there were lots of booths set up for free promo stuff and drums for you to play with. There were all the different types of Korean drums, and it was really cute watching the little kids play with the drums. Some were actually really good and knew what they were doing.

After messing with the drums for a bit, the show finally starts. Again, there were two M.C.s, and they kinda made a big deal out of the opening ceremony (apparently, they made the world's largest drum for this festival and so of course they needed a lot of pomp and circumstance when the major or whoever he was made the first strike). They tried to make it sound so dramatic that it was quite comical, and for a bit I was a little skeptical as to the quality of the performances.

The rest of the show after the opening ceremony, however, was really great. There were 8 or so different groups that performed, a couple of which were international groups. There was one group from Mexico, and another really flashy group from Brazil. The Brazil group was the only one to not play the drums. They just did different Samba and Salsa numbers to a beat, but they costumes and performance was so out there, that it didn't really matter they didn't play the drums themselves.

The other 6 or so groups were Korean. They all featured different kinds of drums and all had their own unique styles, so every performance was unique and did a great job. There was one group that used metal fans to hit the drums, and there was one performance with the traditional drum dance with the ribbon hats.

Overall, Ning and I were both pleasantly surprised by the quality of each of the performances. The only downside to the entire experience was that since it was for 3 hours outdoors, it started to get quite chilly outside. And of course, me being the pansy that I am to the cold, I actually got sick by the end of the night, so poor Ning, he had a sick host for most of his visit. : /

My First Korean Concert --- with Big Bang and Super Junior!!

This weekend, I went to my first concert in Korea: the Asia Song Festival. The festival featured Big Bang, Super Junior, Girls Generation (3 of the 4 biggest pop star groups in Korea. If you walk around anywhere here, you'll hear their music coming from every which direction), and other various artists from around Asia. I don't know how they did it, but the entire concert was free and open to the public. You just had to go online and download a ticket. So of course, I didn't miss out. The show was awesome, but getting into the show was quite an adventure...

First, was getting the tickets. Luckily, there was an English version to ASF's website with a special section for foreigners to reserve tickets. Unfortunately, we had missed the deadline to get through the English site, so I had to register through the Korean site, lol. Luckily, my friend who I was going with speaks Korean, so she walked me through it. No problem.

The fun part, though, was that ASF's English site said that the downloaded ticket wasn't an actual ticket. It needed to be exchanged the day of the show for real tickets, and the ticket exchange opened at noon. (The concert started at 6:00) My friend and I figured if we lined up at 10, we'd be able to get tickets for good seats.

So, we meet up at 10 on Sat. We go to line up, but there's a million different lines. We try to ask the staff which line we need to be in, but no one seems to know what's going on. We finally decide on the "Foreigner ticket exchange" line. After an hour of sitting in the blazing sun, though, we realize that our ticket print-outs look different from the people around us, and then we figure out that we've actually be lining up in the wrong line!!

So we move over to the right line, and after another hour of waiting, the staff starts to come. We think, finally, we can exchange tickets and go home for a few hours. The staff, however, divides us into sections from our print-outs. Soon, I start getting the feeling that we're actually in line to go in...

Unfortunately, I turned out to be right. It was 12:30 by the time we figured this out, and the people around us were waiting to be let into the stadium. The concert doesn't even start for another 5 and a half hours!! So after waiting in line for over 2 hours, my friend and I decide to leave and just come back nearer to the show.

When we get back later that day, it's completely packed. Getting in was a madhouse. There were thousands of fangirls pushing and shoving to get in. Not fun... But when we do get in, we luckily get some great seats facing center to the stage! It was pretty high up, but much better seats than I expected for showing up so late.

I went with 3 other people: Jenny, TJ, and Dan. Jenny's like me in that she watches Korean dramas and knows the basic K-pop stars, so we had a blast!! The other two guys, however, had never heard of any of these groups before and were basically in it for the experience. We felt bad in the beginning, but after a few beers (which btw were in the funniest cups. The outside of these cups are printed to look like a glass with beer and foam in it, lol) and seeing the craziness of all the fangirls around them, I think they had an enjoyable time.

The concert itself was a lot of fun. ASF did absolutely a wonderful job. I still don't know how they managed to make it free. One funny thing to note is that it's meant to be a concert, but they randomly decided to throw in an awards show in between the performances. That was amusing.

The groups also performed really well. Each did 2 or 3 songs. Of course, Girls Generation did "Gee"; Super Junior did "Sorry Sorry"; and Big Bang did "Lies". I'm not gonna lie. When Big Band did "Lies", Jenny and I shared a super fangirl moment. We ran down all the way to the front of our section and just danced and sang to our hearts' content. It was way fun, and I'm sure Dan and TJ were super amused by us, lol :D

The stars...

Girls Generation

Super Junior

And of course... Big Bang