Spring is Springing! Market and Tombs

A switch has been turned and spring is HERE. Last weekend I spent shivering in Seoul, and this weekend I literally went outside in a summer dress. It is lovely. Things aren't green yet, but there are plenty of buds on the trees.

Speaking of summer dresses, after the wedding Adri and I walked around Hwangsung park in some of our summer dresses because it was over 20 degrees out! The Koreans were all still dressed in winter attire. This includes sneakers, hiking pants, and jackets. Many women also protected themselves from the evil sunlight by wearing face/neck masks and giant visors. Adri and I stood out more than usual as we seemed dressed for completely different seasons.  I was sweating, so I really don't know how they were dealing with their outfits.

Anyways, as we walked by two middle aged women we noticed them staring. As we are now used to this, we didn't think much of it. However, they soon picked up the courage to come talk to us. Sadly, their English was limited to "hi." They were happily chatting away in Korean though, and pointed to my bare shoulders and seemed to be miming something along the lines of "you should protect your skin." I mimed that I was hot, and then pointed to the sun and stroked my arm saying "It's ok, I want a tan!" they sort of understood because they laughed and no longer were concerned. They continued chatting to us despite our attempts to show that we had no idea what they were saying. They were not deterred.  They kept chatting and then start making motions of a woman's figure. While we thought they were telling us we had nice figures, we couldn't express that we sort of understood. So, in order to really get their point across, one suddenly grabbed onto my butt and gave it a nice squeeze while complimenting it. By this point we were laughing so hard we could barely muster a "thank you" before leaving.

I continued to enjoy the hot weather by later heading downtown to the tombs. It was really beautiful, and I got in for free due to being a Gyeongju resident! Hurray! These are tombs of Shilla Royalty. We even got to go "inside" one where we could see replicas of the actual tomb, and some artifacts from tombs. It was neat.

Today was not quite as hot, but just as beautiful. There is a "5 day market" in my neighbourhood that is open every 5 days. Because this is a super random time to be open, along with a sunset closing time and the horrible coldness of winter, it's been a very long time since I have gone. Because today happened to be a Sunday, and warm, I finally went back. I bought a whole bunch of delicious veggies and some strawberries that smell and taste like heaven. Though not my first time, I took a whole bunch of photos to show you guys ! The best part was when we bought our strawberries, the vendor excitedly said "Welcome to Korea!!" and gave us some free tangerines. 

Bondeggi .. silkworm larva. Ew.

Dried fish, shrimp, krill, etc.

Here are some local plants. I had a hard time in winter
when it was only this stuff cause I have no idea
how to cook with most of it.

Pig feet!!

Kimchi kimchi

All kinds of sides. I eat this kind of food
at school all the time. Sadly, I have
no idea what any of it is called
and will probably never
eat it outside of Korea.

Candy

These are the best mushroom I've ever had (the brown
ones). Because it's spring, tons
of recognizable produce is now available
again!

You can smell them from so far.
They taste amazing!!

Dried persimmons covered in powder..

Not only are Korean children
naturally adorable, they are
dressed in outfits like this
ALL THE TIME. 

This is acorn nut jelly. The first time I had it, I was
convinced it was pure animal fat. Now I can't
eat it, even though I know it's not!

The sprouts in here were so fresh they
were actually still growing! I find sprouts
go rotten super fast so I never buy them,
but they're a very tasty staple
in Korean food.

This old lady, known here as an ajuma, was shucking
garlic gloves. The pile at her feet is garlic skin.
It looked absolutely awful. 

Seaweed really is quite popular here.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women
eat seaweed soup a lot due to health
benifits that ancient
Koreans somehow figured
out. On birthdays, people
also eat seaweed soup as
it was their "first meal" through
their mothers!

And there you have it. The five day market!

A Korean Wedding!

Ok readers, bad news. I forgot to bring my camera to the wedding! I had the battery plugged in and all charged up, I just forgot to grab it on my way out. I'm sorry! My phone normally acts as a good backup but it just wasn't cooperating, so very sadly I have only terrible photos of the wedding. Oh well! I will try to make up for it with my descriptions...

The first main different of this wedding was the time. The wedding took place at noon on a Saturday. Adri wanted to come along, so I asked and that was fine. We got all gussied up and were picked up by another teacher (which was super nice since the hotel is about a 20 minute drive away). 

We got to the hotel and were ushered upstairs, where we could see a beautiful wedding portrait of the couple. Mystery solved: the wedding photos taken months ago were indeed on display at the wedding! One was framed, while the rest were showed on a projector while people took their seats. Having done my research, I had come prepared with cash. The wedding venue provided envelopes and a pen in which we put our money, and then we were given meal tickets.

At this point, the bride arrived. She was not kept in hiding prior to the ceremony like back home, in fact she was placed in a room where she sat for photos with her guests. She has a little helper who scurried about adjusting the veil, the skirt, her makeup, etc. She looked so lovely! The dress was a western style white gown, even strapless! Her veil was sparkly and long. There was a distinctly Korean twist to the ensemble: under her dress she was wearing full bloomers! I mean pouffy long pants with a ruffled elastic hemline. She also had adorable lace socks on. It was so cute, whenever she lifter her dress to walk and we could see these adorable modest accessories.

After taking our photo with her, we went and sat down. The room was decorated quite nicely, though minimally personal. The hotel was referred to as a "wedding factory" so much of the decor is used for multiple weddings. Here's a terrible photo of the room.

You can see the slideshow
of the wedding photos.

In the  middle of the room was a long walk way, obviously for the wedding party! At exactly 12:01, the wedding began. First the fathers walked up, and then sat on couches on either side of the walkway. Then the mothers, in matching elegant hanboks, walked up and sat with their husbands. When the groom walked down the aisle, the most manly song ever played. I had to laugh. The song was instrumental, but if it had words they would be something like .. "I am a man ! I am going to marry this woman! YEAH." To add to the drama of it all were smoke machines AND a bubble machine.

 When the bride walked down the aisle, a beautiful feminine song played. It was lovely, but hard to take it seriously with all the smoke machine business.

Next, a lot of Korean talking happened. Oddly, the man on the stage was our principal! I am not sure exactly what his role was, but I will ask. I'm not sure if he actually married them, or if he was the MC. Either way, I was surprised he had such a big role in the wedding! He was wearing his special occasion tie - the one with purple sequins of course. It didn't seem overly formal because he was making jokes and everyone was laughing. The couple bowed to both sets of parents, which looked like the formal "you are now married part." I know that here women are expected to spend the holidays with their husband's family, and to spend most of the time cooking elaborate meals. I couldn't help but feel bad for my co-teacher, who has never lived away from her parents, as she bowed goodbye to them. As times are changing these rules are becoming less strict though, and I'm sure she will still see them plenty!

To solidify the grandeur of this moment, snow came down from the ceiling.

Because I don't speak Korean, I was completely taken by surprise when suddenly a parade of men came in and handed single roses to the bride. There were so many! I later was told just that it was to congratulate her, but I couldn't help but feel it was a line of her failed suitors. 

The next unexpected event was when the principal said "SHIZA" which I have learnt means something like "ready set go!" and I actually use it a lot in the classroom. Suddenly, the groom sprinted down the aisle and back. Everyone was laughing. It was hilarious. He had to do this a few times, when Adri and I were told it was time to go. As we left the wedding room, we noticed the wedding portrait and flowers had changed. Guests for the next wedding had arrived. It was not yet 1:00!

The meal was pretty unexpected - a very informal hotel buffet. We ate in a big room among regular hotel guests, and guests from various weddings. It was very odd. Also unusual, Adri and I were the only foreigners and received the least stares ever. I guess weddings are not a time to gawk at foreigners, but a time to gawk at the bride. I agree! Although the bride, groom and close family did not come to the lunch. Apparently there is a more intimate "hanbok ceremony" at this point for them.

We took a bit of everything of the food, so by the time we got to soup neither Adri or I had any space to grab any. Turns out this is a faux pas and we were supposed to have taken some noodle soup. Because of the informality of the meal though, no one really minded. 

So while we were back home before 2, I am super happy I got to experience a Korean wedding. My coteacher looked beautiful and her groom looked absolutely dapper (the men all wear white gloves and look soooo charming). I really hope they are happy together and have a lovely honeymoon!

It's still super exciting to be in the yearbook!

I was given a grade 6 yearbook. I was happy to have it just as a reminder of all my grade 6's, my first students, and whole bunch of hilarious characters. Imagine my surprise and delight when a friend found this picture in it! Proof that I really do teach!

Seoul visit #2 and back to school

We just had a long weekend and I spent it in Seoul. I have discovered that taking the bus to Seoul is twice as long, but also half as cheap as the KTX. Seems like a fair sacrifice to make as it is still a shorter trip than Montreal to Toronto!

I shopped way too much, went to a Tim Burton exhibition, and finally made my way to Itaewon, the foreigner area. It's quite surreal going there. It must be how Chinese people feel when they go to China Town. Things are definitely not the same as back home.. but really similar in an eerie kind of way. It was unbelievable to see so many options for dinner, and cafes, and brunch, and hockey jerseys!!

Here are some pictures from our visit. Next time I hope to finally make it out to the DMZ!

Running shoes are completely appropriate
and stylish footwear here. This store
was having a 10% off sale and these
ULTRA neon shoes were too
good to miss. I figure I can wear them
as walking shoes here, and
then switch them into
exercise shoes back home.
They're magical.

Tim Burton you so crazy.

POTATO TORNADO. So amazing.
It's a potatoe, twisted and sliced, fried,
battered, fried, then rolled in cheese
powder. Yum. Also I had
sausage encased rice blobs
(ok fine they're actually called
ttokbboki) which was also
tasty.

We were greeted by this unexpected display
exiting the subway.

Inside City Hall

Unexpected!

BRUNCH!!!!

Pretty view at the bus stop. Sadly, my headphones
photobombed the shot.

School is back in session! It's very exciting and I absolutely can't wait to start teaching. I will be doing all the grade 5's, 6's and now also half the grade 4's. I am happy as this will be easier to plan for than that one grade 3 class I had last semester. Because I live on the grade 6 floor, my grade5-nowgrade6 students are all super excited to see me. They hadn't seen me eating at lunch either, which is apparently quite exciting. Anyways they're lovely and I am excited to meet my new students too!

Cutest interaction so far:

"Hello! Teacher! Anne! I will miss you!" (note his CORRECT USE OF FUTURE!!)

"I am your teacher again this year!"

"Ohhhh. Ok good BYE" and cue little boy scampering off.

The new grade 1 babies are slow at eating still (so lost and confused in the big new school) so there are often stragglers when I go into the cafeteria. I swear the way they look at me I honestly could  be a mythical fairy. It's flattering and oh so adorable.

Of course kiddies are always on their best behaviour at the beginning of the year, I'm sure some will come into their pubescent rebellion as the year progresses.. but right now it's just lovely to see them! I also am hoping because they have known me for a little while, they will feel I am on their team when the time comes.

The grade 6 mailbox had gotten a little frumpy so I made this new and improved animal themed one. I can't WAIT to get letters again.

PS I am cooking chickpeas right now and I have never been more excited for legumes.