Hello, friends!

hello! I have been slacking on the blog lately. As it gets closer to October, the busier I have become. I am making plans and trying to figure out my next move! I will be departing Korea for Vietnam on November 11 and traveling through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. If you have any tips for me while I am visiting those countries, please pass them along! I will be home December 23rd. :) I am SO ready to come home and see you all. I am definitely ready to be home for a bit. My tentative plan is being home in the US until the end of March and finding some sort of job while I'm there. Then, coming back to Korea to teach for another year. AHHHH! I said it out loud. We'll see how everything comes together. I will start looking for jobs in October. I can't believe how fast this year as gone and I know the next 2ish months will go even faster!

I have come to my senses and I will NOT be running the half marathon. Enough said.

I went to Jeju at the end of July for our summer break. Jeju is an island south of South Korea. It is Korea's largest island. It's a volcanic island covered in volcanic rock (go figure). I would describe it has the Florida or Hawaii of Korea. It is beautiful- but the city isn't that wonderful.


We went to one of many waterfalls that are located on Jeju. perdy.


wimpy waterfalls.

The girls.

THE waterfalls.

The reason Korea makes me cringe.

I shall call this summer "the summer of dragon flies." They are EVERYWHERE. I USED to like them.



We took a ferry to a small island off of Jeju called Udo. We rented bikes for the day and rode around the island to the different beaches. It was gorgeous. I could stay there for a week. Bliss.




Seaweed was scattered everywhere along the coast. Grandmas and Grandpas were seen picking up the dried seaweed and placing them in piles to be picked up and then sold. I'm hoping they do some sort of cleaning process before we get them on our plates. Grody. Korean grandparents are hard workers. I don't think they retired until they are 80. Hopefully, I will remember that when I am their age. You can do anything, health permitting of course. It doesn't matter how old you are, it's how you feel.

Seaweed covering the ground. yum.

Grandma searching for sea creatures to eat or sell.


We went hiking up Mt. Halla. It was soo beautiful. I am not a fan of hiking, but I brought my ipod with me and zoned out to wonderful bumpin tunes. I have never been in a place that felt so mystical. The fog would come out of nowhere. Sometimes i couldn't see anyone in front of me because it was so thick. I felt like I was in the movie. I was hoping that I wasn't about to get eaten by a vampire. Let's just say I survived. We didn't have time to make it to the top. I was devastated. NOT. We hiked for about 6 hours that day and spent the first 2 hours running up the mountain trying to reach the halfway point before it was closed. Mission unsuccessful. Oh well.





tata for now. Off to watch my first soccer game in Korea. I can't wait. Speaking of sports, I am very angry about Brett Favre signing with the Vikings. They are lame. Brett Favre sucks. Traitor.

Hope you all are wonderful and enjoying the last few days of summer. Relax. Play outside. Have fun. :)


xoxo


ps. Congrats Eryn and Jeff!!! <3 love you!

Korean Wedding

Hello! Hope you are all fabulous. It has been a hectic few weeks here. I can't believe it is August! July always goes by so fast. I hope you all are enjoying your summer thus far and are able to enjoy the weather. The rainy season was said to be over here, but now we are expecting a typhoon to hit Korea in the next few days. I am not exactly sure what that means for us city-folk in Seoul other than ruining any plans we had for enjoying sunshine over the weekend. I swear, the Korea Weather Gods like to mess with us here because it has been raining so much over the weekends. ANNOYING.

Anyways, I attended a co-worker's wedding a week ago. Peter is from Wales and his new wife (Susan?) is from Korea. It is usually very difficult for bi-racial couples here. Most parents want their children to marry a Korean to keep the "pure" bloodline going strong. People are slowly starting to become more accepting of bi-racial couples, but they have a long way to go. I have another co-worker here who has been with a Korean woman for a few years and wants to marry her, but her parents forbid it. Basically, the relationship will never go anywhere. Most Koreans do exactly what their parents tell them to do, mostly because of the high respect for their elders.

ok, back to the wedding.

We were greeted by Peter when we entered the church. I almost started laughing because he was wearing so much makeup! He said they had been getting beautified since 7 am and it was now 11:45. HOLY COW. He doesn't have any hair, so I have no clue what they could have possibly been doing for that long. Although he had ridiculous makeup and it was really distracting, I have never seen someone look so happy before. This is a guy who barely said 5 words the 9 months that I worked with him and now he wouldn't shut up. Ohhhh, love. The strange things it does to people.

I had never met Susan(?) before the wedding. I walked into the sanctuary and was shocked to see her sitting on a chair surrounded by cameras. She welcomed us and then we took a photo with her in her photo shoot, which she did with all the guest. That would be my worst nightmare. It was all very strange. I then realized the need for all the makeup. They wanted their pictures to be flawless. If you hadn't picked up on it, Koreans are very self-absorbed. They are always taking pictures of themselves and are very fashion conscious. They must look perfect at all times, especially for their wedding. They have a professional photo shoot months in advance of the wedding where they spend 8 hours taking crazy pictures. The bride and groom have multiple outfits changes (wedding dress/suits) in the pictures, but the clothing is always borrowed from the photographers studio. I guess it would be somewhat similar to engagement photos that most people in America take, but taken to levels no one should go.

During the ceremony, people were very rude. No one was really listening to what the pastor was saying. People were on their cellphones or talking to the people next to them. I was warned before hand of people's rudeness, but I didn't really believe it. Clearly I was mistaken. I wanted to stand up and in my best teacher's voice tell everyone to pay attention, but I thought I would get a few strange looks and cause more disruption than good.


The bride and her father.

There was no " Kiss the bride" at the end of the ceremony. The couple bowed to both sets of parents and then to us. Peter bowed all the way down to the floor to both sets of parents and us, which is the utmost respect. The lower you bow, the more respect you are expressing to someone. Of course, everyone cheered when he did it.



When the ceremony was finished, all the people at the ceremony got together and took a photo together. Then the bride and groom threw the bouquet and finally kissed.

The ceremony was over in about 30 minutes total and then we went up stairs for a buffet lunch. I thought we were in the wrong dining area because there was about triple the number of people there. However, we were correct and most people usually skip the ceremony and only go straight to the food. WOW. I'm so glad people aren't selfish or anything. At least they still give the couple money for their wedding present. Gifts are not common. Show me the money, duude.