Young Hoon's Wedding Weekend

The Wedding

Young Hoon (one of the Korean reinforcement guys that works for MoonKkang) got married this weekend. He was kind enough to invite the teachers. He even arranged for a bus to take us to Busan (the city where the wedding was being held). Korean weddings are very very different than western weddings. The ceremony is very short and there is no real reception, just a quick dinner and everyone goes home. No presents either, people just put money in an envelope and drop it off. Generally it is expected that you give enough to cover your dinner.


Young Hoon greeted us with hugs and handshakes, he looked wonderful in his tux. His bride is absolutely gorgeous and her dress was equally amazing. The ceremony lasts about 20 minutes, the hall was FULL, many people standing in the back and along the side. There was smoke machines, bubbles, the people didn't stop talking during the ceremony...very strange really, but an interesting experience. After the ceremony the bride and groom take pictures with their guests. First was the family members, they all gather around the couple and the photographer takes their pictures. Then it was the friends of the bride I think and then the friends of the groom. And finally...the foreigners...hahaha...for the most part we felt terribly out of place, and were stared at non stop. But after being here for two months I think I'm starting to get used to the constant staring and the kids telling their parents to look at the foreigner.


Anyways after the pictures came the buffet. A spread of all kinds of delicious foods. Lots of seafood, meat and other kinds of things I still don't know half of the things that I ate. The highlight of the buffet for us was the chocolate fondue and the tatter tots...

The entire thing lasted about 2 hrs...I think there is something to be learned from Korean weddings about the time frame in which they do things, cause some western weddings are far too long in my opinion.

After the wedding, the girls and I got into Lindsay's car and went to find a room for the night. Armed with a tourist map, which proved to be quite useless. We eventually found the beach and a place to stay and then we went for drinks. (The useless map also didn't help when we were lost for 2 hrs trying to find the highway that took us home from Busan. But after utilizing my stellar navigational skills, stopping at a gas station for directions, and one u-turn we were finally on our way home)

Saturday night highlights:

- drinking at the 7 eleven
- dinner
- drinking at another corner store
- make-shift kettles
- singing show tunes on the street
- Korean hip hop club
- dancing to Chicken Noodle Soup in the hip hop club
- sitting by the beach at 2 am


Beach Day

On Sunday we went to the beach for the day. Haeundae beach is the most popular beach in Korea. Its very nice but when you look down the beach all you see are umbrellas covering the entire stretch of sand and then people covering the first 10-15 of water...none the less it was fun.


Busan is also a fun city. It is the 2nd largest in Korea and you see a big 'cultural' difference when you are there. People are definitely less conservative than they are in Daegu. Lots of tattoos, piercings, scandalous outfits. I think we're going back next weekend!!!