Korean Life 7

Things continue to go well for me over here!

On Friday after work, my coworkers and I went out for my first Indian dinner here in Seoul. It was fantastic although it made me feel a little home sick. It’s funny how familiar smells and tastes can spark your memory and elicit emotions. It was a very cool restaurant in the neighbourhood of Hongdea. The décor was very authentic and we had to sit on the ground around a large table. The atmosphere in the restaurant made it feel how I had imagined it would be like in India. After dinner we went for a little walk around the neighbourhood which was very lively as always. Before heading home we stopped in the park to have a drink and listen to some live music. There were a couple of guys playing funk with a break dancer accompanying them and another group who had about 8 different drums and were playing some Caribbean sounding beats. It was pretty cool.

On Saturday the school was holding a ‘sports day’ for all of the students and their fathers. The school rented an area near a river and bused everyone to the location which took about an hour to get to.  All of the dad’s were very friendly although most of their English was pretty limited. I was told that the students don’t typically get to spend a great deal of time with their father’s given both of their extremely busy work weeks and it seemed as though everyone was really cherishing their time together. We competed in a variety of activities throughout the day with kids facing kids and dads and teachers facing one another. The highlight of the day for me was a 60 on 60 tug of war match that I competed in with the dads. It was funny how competitive the dads were and how skilled they were at tug of war. It must be something they do in their mandatory army training because they had all clearly played before.  It ended up being an 8 hour day at the park and by the end everyone was pretty wiped.

On Sunday I went to the wedding of a Korean teacher from work as he had recruited us ‘foreigners’ to perform a song at the ceremony, which is apparently a tradition at the school.  We did Nate King Cole’s L.O.V.E. along with accompanying actions for a group of over a hundred Korean strangers and co-workers. Needless to say it was pretty painful! The wedding itself however was pretty similar to weddings at home with a few exceptions. There was of course more bowing, no kissing of the bride and the ring exchange had been done weeks before. At one point the groom piggy backed his soon to be mother in law up to the front of the concession and performed 3 bows with her on his back thanking her in Korean each time for having a beautiful daughter. Thankfully no one here is overweight or that could be a tricky part of the ceremony at some weddings. After the ‘western style ceremony’ the bride and groom get into their traditional clothing of a ‘hanbok’ and there is a bowing ceremony in a different room. The bride and groom then bow to elders who take turns coming into the room and the elders wish them luck and throw walnuts on them for luck with conception. Then there was a buffet dinner which had a huge variety of fantastic food and the whole thing was wrapped up by 6 p.m.!!

So long till my next post!