First Birthdays and Buddha's Lanterns

Here are some shots of Na-hyun, Anna, Pamela and me tooling around in Seoul on Children's Day. It's a "Red Day" here in South Korea, which means all schools and many businesses are closed but, of course, not my hogwan! However, we worked from 9am to 3pm (instead of the usual 4:45 until 10:45pm) which allowed us to head out and see the sights! We are in Insadong, an adorable area of Seoul.

This section actually reminded me a lot of Los Angeles, and this outdoorish shopping center more than anything else screamed Southern California.

Buddha's birthday is in May (the 21st, if I remember correctly) and there are paper lanterns strung all throughout the city in commemoration. This was early in the month of May, and it was twilight, so all the lanterns were lit.

Here's Pamela in the foreground, and behind her you can see scads of the paper lanterns in front of the buddhist temple.

Here's little Pammers again in front of King Sae-jong, who is very respected here in Korea. He is most celebrated as the creator of Korea's written language, Hangeul.

This was DYB's founder and president's 1st birthday celebration for his newest offspring. First birthday's are quite a big deal here in Korea, and if you're an employee at a major company, they're apparently mandatory-attendance shindigs.

Here some DYB employees are signing the book of well-wishings, and leaving presents and/or money.

The first banquet room (we were in the overflow room, which was awesome, because we could chat without censure! All the goings-on were on huge monitors instead of happening directly in front of us. We were thus not subjecting to lots of "shooshing".)

My DYB Yeong-tong branch homies!

The spread was amazing, and so was the view. It's strange eating lunch at 11am, though, when we all have to get back to our respective branches for work in the afternoon. DYB can only schedule meetings in the mornings on weekdays since everyday is a workday.

Love these girls. From left to right: Kyung-hee, Anna, Na-hyun, and Jeong-hyeon.

I entered the shot!

Birthday Celebrations and Seoul Tower

Here we are in the staff office at DYB, and ALMOST all of my co-workers are in the shot. They surprised me (though I shouldn't have been surprised since I'd seen them do this for other co-workers) with a chocolate cake and a lovely spread of fruits in honor of my (gulp) 34th. I was really touched that they actually obliged for the photo. Sometimes my they can be very camera shy. This will be a keepsake for me, since I've never gotten a pic of them all together before.

Kyung-hee and Jeong-hyeon bought me some "bling bling" - which is an inside joke since one of my previous lessons had been on hip-hop culture and one of the new words I taught the kids was "bling bling" - and I was obviously in shock. You'll also notice my tiara, which I bought that morning at Home Plus, and thought, "When can you rock a tiara if not on your birthday?" Plus I thought it would make the kids laugh. This is clearly not the US, though, where most students would just laugh at me, and tell me how lame I was, because most of my students here just thought it was pretty. Guess I should have tried to find a princess dress to reiterate the fact that I was NOT being serious!

One of the only classes I've had the whole year I've been here (they are now 3rd year middle school students and are absolutely brilliant - it is an honor to be in the same classroom with them) made me a cake out of choco pies and surprised me at the end of the class. I will pretend that I don't know it was Yu-jin teacher who actually arranged the whole thing and wanted me to believe it was the kids' idea. ;-)

After work, we had a little "after party", and Kyung-hee ordered a pizza, I got some spicy chicken with dokh, and we had some wine and Pepsi. The girls stayed at my place until around 2am, which isn't as crazy as it sounds considering we work until 11pm.

Mmmmm... pizza. (Yes, I am a total dork.)

Here is the view from the cab of the 63 Building in Seoul where I made reservations for some friends of mine from church to celebrate my birthday on the following Saturday. It's one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, and has incredible views from the rooftop bars and restaurants. We will be going to the "Walk on the Clouds" wine and whiskey bar. I was so excited about the view, and then it happened to rain all day. Ah, well. It was still quite beautiful.

Pamela and me mugging for my camera in the cab.

Here are Yeong-ho and his wife Kelly and Pamela.

Here is that famous killer view.

The whole group! From left to right: Yeong-ho, Kelly, Pamela, me, Erica, and her husband Mike.

This is so retro-chic in my opinion. These are numbered cases where customers can store the whiskeys they purchase. One of the rules of the bar I learned upon making the reservation was that you had to buy one bottle of wine or one bottle of whiskey to reserve a table, and I remember thinking, "Who's going to down a bottle of whiskey in one sitting?" Hence the cubbies. There were some expensive collections in here, too.

The following day, Kyung-hee and Un-mi planned an outing to Seoul Tower (or, Namsan Tower). It's the highest point in Seoul. You could say my birthday weekend was one of scaling new heights, not the least of which was the very high number of 34... I'm still reeling.

Here is the last place your car will go, and the rest is either by cable car or on foot. Koreans love hiking, and there are so many different places to trek up. This one was gorgeous and fully paved, though it will still do a number on your calves, particularly if you're wearing heels (note Un-Mi's feet).

Here's a lookout point about halfway up.

Un-mi and Kyung-hee.

Could she be any cuter? And the answer is: no.

Here is the view from the base of the tower.

Before going on the elevator ride up the the 360 degree view at the top of the tower.

Kyung-hee and me at the top.

The windows all around the top show you how far you are from a specific world location. This window proved just how far I am from home.

You can buy souvenir tiles and decorate them, and then superglue them onto the wall. We decided to buy one, and to come back and visit it someday when we're older (I think we decided 10 years or less)! It makes me teary-eyed to think about it. Oh, and I discovered that Kyung-hee is quite the little artist!

Here is the home for our tile.

The journey is complete, and we're about to head back down the mountain and find some dinner.

There was a fondue restaurant at the base of the mountain! It's hard to find anything cheese-related here, so this was very exciting. Here we are on our appetizer course, and the cheese came later. We were very, very stuffed at the end of it.

Earlier in the day before meeting Un-mi, Kyung-hee and I went to Suwon Station, and I saw bundaegi again, which I hadn't seen or smelled since the summer, and HAD to take a picture even though it embarassed Kyung-hee to no end. It is the discarded chrysalis a caterpillar sheds when becoming a butterfly, and is served in a paper cone and eaten with toothpicks. I cannot describe the smell... It's something like a fermented, salty, brown, earthy scent, and to my American nose, it's just awful. I really wish I could tell you that I tried it, but I didn't. All I could do was take a picture. I guess if Kyung-hee really liked it and bought some I would have tried it, but Kyung-hee thinks it's gross. However, most of my students and co-workers really like it, so maybe it's not that bad.

Here is my birthday presents from the aforementioned class that made the choco pie for me. I love them. Two students were coerced at the last minute into dancing for me and for the class. It's adorable.

Nearing the end...

I now officially have 6 weeks and 2 days left in this wonderful country of South Korea. It is a very strange and complicated state I am in emotionally and mentallly. On one hand, going back to the States is exciting and full of promise, the emotion-laden and tear-filled reunion with family and friends already warmly expected in my heart, the promise of living another glorious summer by the beach, instead of in the oppressive and damp Korean heat, the beautiful thought of not working 6 days a week, but taking a much-deserved "time out" to enjoy all that I've "missed" while being away from what is comfortable and familiar... All of these things and more I am and have been awaiting for some time now.

On the other hand, there is everything that I leave - the friends that I've made here, the peaceful culture I've come to embrace, the hours of solitude that have been at times frightening, but once the fear passed, have been the hours I've best come to know myself and my God, the moment-by-moment sensory overload of living in a new place (such a beautiful pendulum swing from some of the monotonous "tape loop" of life that I had been stuck in before coming here), the vulnerability and then the new courage I've discovered in myself through this experience... It's all so difficult to put into words... I wonder sometimes if there is an Old Vanessa and a New Vanessa, and if the Old Vanessa awaits me back home, and the New Vanessa stays here, or if bringing the New Vanessa back into Old Vanessa's haunts will be a somewhat catastrophic experience. Or if may be a wholly cathartic one. I have no clue.

Here's what I don't want: The Same Old Thing. And I can't help but realize that whether any of us is in another country, another job, another relationship, another state of mind, this is probably true for all of us. The heart cries out to move forward, not to relive the past. I didn't come to Korea to escape anything, but now that I've been here for almost a year, I realize that subconsciously I needed a new mind. So many times here I have been hit with the verse from the Bible, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." God has been renewing my mind, and I believe I am being transformed. This is central to the message of Christianity, that we are ALWAYS being made new, we are ALWAYS moving from glory to glory, and I think for some of us (like me) that transformation of the mind requires a bit more jostling than other people. Some of us need a thunderbolt like another country to learn to hear God's voice better. I think by coming here, I was heeding His call, even though at the time I made the decision to come, I couldn't tell you exactly why I was doing it. I just knew that I needed to.

I have been repeating so often in the last few months, "Life is so weird." I can't help but shake my head and laugh. It really is. I think Korea has helped me to chill out. Helped me to realize there is so little that I can control, and once over the panic of that realization, there is a peace that has come to seep in slowly but surely, and now I'm learning to live in it. There is great peace in realizing that life is weird, and unpredictable, and that the world is vast, and there is more to it than I can ever fully wrap my brain around, and that today, and yesterday, and for all eternity, God has His plan, and I am living my part of it.

Oh, it's so difficult to put into words... In short, I am thankful, so deeply thankful for this time. I am thankful for the struggles I have had here, because they've broken chains. I am thankful for the beauty and the warmth I have experienced here, because they've shown me the depth of the human heart. I am thankful for having been removed from every former comfort, because it has shown me how to find my comfort in God, and proven true words in scripture that were hollow or mysterious to me before. I am thankful that God has answered my prayer to reignite my love for songwriting - something which had been dead for a few years. I am even thankful that I haven't dated anyone for a year, because I think that may have been a distraction from a deeper work in me.

I am thankful for you, Korea. I vow to spend this next 6 weeks appreciating you, and know that I have no desire to run away from you. I truly love you. Who knows, I may even return to you... But definitely with a different job!

And, America, I have been forewarned about the changes in you, but I'm pretty sure you're still home. And though we've been estranged for some time now, I hope you'll still have me and make a place for me. If nothing else, you have a lot of people whom I really love. And, of course, you have a lot of sorely missed fish tacos. So I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.

Another Wedding, and Spring's Blessed Appearance

So spring has finally sprung! And not a moment too soon, either. It is blessed jacket weather, and I have even worn sandals! As is Korea's pattern, things here are sudden, and it literally just all-of-the-sudden lost its chill. Hallelujah.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend my second wedding in Korea, and this was for my gorgeous co-worker Keira. This was a very different experience from Gina's traditional ceremony, in that this is a modern, common Korean wedding. The weddings here are very fast, and this one in particular was held at an establishment I can only think to describe as a "wedding mill". Each room conducts about 8 wedding ceremonies a day lasting about 30 minutes each. When we arrived, the wedding before ours was already in progress, running through exactly the same routine as the one we would soon witness. Pretty perfunctory, with some cute, Vegas-style embellishments, no bridal party, everything perfectly timed and orderly. We were then all ushered down to the buffet floor, where the establishment has a constant flow of food, and wedding party after wedding party comes and goes throughout the day. We were eating and co-mingling with those from the wedding party before ours, and the wedding party after. No wedding cake, no standing in line to greet the bride and groom. And this was all very normal. Before attending this wedding I had already heard that Korean weddings are surprisingly different from Western weddings in that they're very short, and people eat, and then you're done. My co-worker Un-mi who was sitting next to me told me she wants an "American style" wedding where the ceremony has more depth and lasts longer. There are some Koreans who opt for that, but the standard is still the wedding mill.
Kyung-hee and I traveled to the wedding together. She looks oh-so-hip in those shades. She's always stylish, though. She just got back from a vacation in Japan and brought back the coolest clothes.

Here is Kyung-hee again posing by the framed wedding pictures that were unbelievably gorgeous. They take some seriously outstanding wedding pictures here in Korea - 'course, it doesn't hurt that Keira is drop-dead gorgeous and her groom has one of the most charming, contagious smiles I've ever seen.

See what I mean? Straight out of Modern Bride.

Here is the beauty in person. She is posing in a room outside the ceremony hall where people can come in and take pictures with her (see below). I can only imagine how tired here cheeks were by the end of the day.Here is the DYB Crew! I work with all of these lovely ladies at my branch.

This is the ceremony hall before the Vegas style lights and magic. The saxophone player was very good, but looked so bored the whole time. I can imagine it gets old playing the same song for endless weddings!

Here are the groom and bride's mothers dressed in traditional hanbok. Usually, the elder women on both sides wear hanbok, and the men wear suits. The most touching part of the ceremony was when Keira's mother cried after being bowed to my her new son-in-law, which then made Keira teary-eyed. It was very sweet.

Here is the groom!

The bride and groom both walked down the aisle through this heart-shaped flower thingie, which the employees then parted. A little corny, but cute nonetheless.

Now announced man and wife... I think. I don't understand enough Korean to have had much of an idea of what was happening, but methinks these things are pretty standard.

This was my favorite part - the cake. They don't actually eat it, they just ceremonially cut it. As I said, there was no cake at the "buffet" reception, no dancing, none of that Western stuff. But the best part was the multi-colored lights and the dry ice! If you look closely you can see it coming out of the bottom.

I had to miss church to go to the wedding, but I wasn't about to miss my Pamela Time. We met up later in the evening and enjoyed a bottle of wine in this little cafe near my house that I recently discovered. It was open-air, and it was really nice to enjoy these first notes of spring.

Below, I've included my amateur-as-all-get-out video of the traditional wedding song sung to the couple at the end of the ceremony. I thought it was very interesting. You can also see how most of the attendees aren't really paying attention, which was true throughout the ceremony. There was a hum of conversation from start to finish, which, again, is very common. Please enjoy my silly mug at the end of video - if you are not amused, at least I know that I was. :-)