Woori ot Dasom and Hanbok Day

I bought a hanbok around Chuseok time last September, and the lady who made it for me made it really beautiful. We hesitated a lot with the colors but we found the best combination and I like the result a lot. I wish there more occasions to wear a hanbok, but I'm okay with making my own occasions to wear them. 

After Chuseok, that had been really warm this year as well, however, I knew having only my hanbok would be too cold. I decided I'd get the outer jacket - dooroomagi - to wear it in cold weather. I just can't get enough of that shiny silky fabric. 

BEWARE: There is a reason no one ever gets dooroomagi done, even for men who wear hanbok for their wedding photo shoots. It's more expensive to get a outer jacket done than get a hanbok done. Even if you hanbok is of good quality. The dooroomagi has a thicker type of silk and is a very long piece of clothing that basically goes all the way down. The work is different as well, so is the lining. In any case. Think of the price of a ball gown. 

I planned on wearing it with two friends I met when I did an interview about foreigners liking baseball in Korea. When I mentionned that I had gone around a few time to hang out in a hanbok just for the sake of wearing it, and was planning on going to Giheung's Traditional village, they said they wanted to come too, so we set a date and there we went. If you wear a hanbok, it is half price for the entrance fee. Which is kind of cool. 

It took me a long time to get there, and they were already there when I finally arrived. We sat, and had maggeolli and Korean veggie pancakes. Yummy way to start a Hanbok Day.

What I like about the Ginheung's village is that it is a very wide area fill of trees, far from the big city, where the air and surroundings are easy to get lost into. At the entrance, there are lost of small stores, but after that all you see is traditional stuff and you feel like in another era. 

Especially when you wear a hanbok.

I have always liked these go-back-in-time moments of relief from the everyday life, when you can wear nice clothes and feel like a princess. I must have been a princess in another life, for I am so comfy in those clothes, even if most of the people I know usually tell me how uncomfortable they are.

We stopped at a tea place, made in an old building, that served all kind of traditional teas. I had gon in the summer so we only had benches to sit on outside, and the front of the tea bar, but we found out that in the winter they open up some small traditional Korean rooms that have heated floors for people to sit in. We took some time to hang out there and it was a blissful toasty feeling to sit on, while breathing the crispy fall air. The wind was very light and it was a great day out. The following pictures were taken at that time, that's why I am not wearing the Dooroomagi: it's hung behind us. There was a traditional coat hanger so I made it look pretty by adding my personal touch while we were there.

One reason I was really excited to wear my hanbok was because I wanted to try my new hair accessories I had ordered specially for this hanbok. I don't have many pictures where we see them well, and the pictures I have are not that good quality, but they still look cute :)

So many people asked to take pictures: either they liked my hanbok on me, or they thought it was odd to have a foreigner wear one of them, but I felt like I had the right to have a picture with one of them, too. That's why I took this one. Cute kid.

I sort of suck at getting myself to go high while standing, lack practice, but I love that the Korean swings are meant to be stood on. It feel much cooler. 

John's Wedding.... and Weddings in General

So I'm quite late on the news, but I went to - yet - another wedding this year. It's my third western style Korean wedding. This time, my friend John, from the first workplace I was in when I got here - A-Class. He had the sense to leave such a shitty place around the same time as I left, and now is focusing on making his own English-related stuff. He met his wife last year at the end of last winter, and they decided to get married quite quickly, Korean culture pushing on them the stress of age (people in their 30s should apparently not be single).

To be honest, I think they are an amazing match. While being really nice and considerate at times, he still is sort of a douchebag, and is really whatever about many things. She is a beautiful girl with a strong personality and she whips him back to him place. I guess they must have plenty of small fights, but I think she brings the best in him. 

They got married in a super far-ass place. Actually not far if you live in Gangnam, but I don't. So after a long metro ride I got there and met up with Heather, that I hadn't seen in ages. It was great because ironically, John had been at the center of most of the acquaintances I have made in Korea so far. 

At least before I started liking baseball. 

But that is another story.

Anyways, while I seldom see or hear from John at all lately, I have met lots of nice people that I still hang out with thanks to him. From all different fields. I have also met assholes thanks to him, but well life without assholes would cumulate the crap in good people. We need assholes to get the bad out of the people.

Amen.

The wedding ceremony was in a really pretty place, as usual, but what impressed me most was the variety of good food they had at the buffet. Something pissed me off at the buffet time, so I didn't eat as I should and that was a mistake. Food comes first. Then you can care about pride. Anyways. They had every single thing you could think of, just needed to look for it. And it was fresh. Food-wise it was my favorite wedding so far. 

Would I want a wedding like this? I don't know.

Those weddings are focusing about taking pictures of the bride and groom. Every single time the bride moves, a lady comes and put the dress back to a perfect position. Everyone is just a fake smiling acquaintance of either the bride or the groom, and they are only there to be humans beings that add up to the feeling of "completeness" that a married couple should feel. The wedding part is beautiful, and the couples are always adorable. I love seeing them get emotional in front of all the mess their life is about to become. Because weddings are about changes. And about giving you a big slap in the face in front of your whole family, just in case you didn't realize it before.

After the ceremony, people go to the assigned buffet site, and eat food. In small groups, usually the groups they came with. No mingling. No crazy talking. Just eating. And then they all leave. 

The End.

That's where I am not fond of Korean style western weddings. Here is what a western wedding is:

People gather in a church (if religious beliefs are there) or at the Law Court, but that's not what I'll focus on with, and get the boring part over with. In a church, photographers try their best to take good pictures, and get pissed at family members who are stupid enough to use their phone and flash to take pictures by putting themselves right in front of the professional's camera (if I get married in Canada, I will absolutely forbid the taking of pictures during the ceremony; I'd rather have 2 or 3 photographers to have more pictures, than having people stand stupidly in the walkway to take pictures of me and ruin the pictures by professionals). 

Then after the horribly boring ceremony that basically tells the woman to give her rights away and shut up and work for the happiness of her husband (I don't know if the speeches changed since I was younger, but I swear it is true) and the husband to do all the work and be the pillar of the household, everyone goes to a different place, usually a rented room decorated by the couple and their families, not that glamorous, to have a party.

First, people eat, either the food prepared by the bride and groom's family, or a catering service. I have seen both cases being both amazing or horrible. It's the most hectic part of the evening. Everyone is frigging hungry and most of people, at least me, have headaches for sitting hours at church doing nothing. But there is usually only a tiny ass table with all the food, so people are made to sit at their tables, usually equipped with numbers, and people get to go according to their table numbers. 

Then people are free to go at their paces until they are full, or unable to eat more if it's disgusting. A wedding I went to once had mashed potatoes made with potato powder that was super liquid and gross, with parts not well mixed, that still had powder in it. 

During the dinner, without fail, people will, at some point, start knocking on their cups with their utensils. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. Until the couple starts kissing. Usually, In good weddings, people try not to let the newly married couple eat a bite. Always making them kiss. However good a show they put on by kissing, there is no use. They have to kiss until their food is cold. Because that is every single's way of showing their love and letting go of their jealousy at the happy couple getting married (that is, actually not the real reason. I just decided that it was).

Then people start drinking.

Everyone dances.

The DJ usually is super good or super bad, with no middle ground.

While the ceremony is entirely focussed on the marrying couple, the after party is mostly focussed on everyone meeting each other after an eternity of having each their own lives. You get to hang out with your favorite cousins, or meet the new boyfriends of girlfriends. You get to sweat you life out on the dance floor without caring for getting hit on, because you're with family. You get to talk until the little hours. You usually sleep over at some family member that lives near the party site, and enjoy loads of sweet nothing. The unconditional tacky love you can get from family.

After reading both descriptions of my wedding experiences one might not want do to either. Well I'm just being honest. What I like of the Korean wedding is that you stay with amazing picture of an event, however emotionless and overly sanitized out of humaneness. But for the wedding experience itself, I like the human side, the unpredictability of the event, the proximity of the people who mingle and mix up. The fact that all those people who traveled a long way to meet the couple are not seen as spectator to the sanitized happiness of the new couple, but part of both of their lives.  

Anyways. Poor John, I used his wedding to make an analysis of the wedding thing in general. I guess he won't know cuz he doesn't read this blog so I'll be okay.

Here are Matt and John, before the wedding. John sang a song live to his new wife at the ceremony, so he was dead stressed at that point. But he sang well. Below are his childhood friends of whom I hung out many times even without John.

Met co-workers from Sanbon :)

CONGRATS TO THE NEW MARRIED COUPLE!

Boat Ride on the Han River

So I was given free tickets to go on a ferry that cruises the Han river by a friend with whom I watch baseball games, and I kept pushing back the date because I had no one to go with. Finally I asked a coworker to go and we had an amazing boat date on the water, slow, smooth and timeless. It was a great day out for a fall day too and the warmest day since a long time. I feel very lucky in Korea because lately everything I plan outside usually falls on a nice day out. Thank you heavens for that, with all the weird stuff that happens, at least I get some good back.

Yay for no make up boat ride!

We went to the mall while we waited dfor the time to ride the boat and wandered about for an hour ish. It was fun. We saw Ecco boots we could have won had we guessed the right combination, and got free gifts for taking a picture with the boot and uploading it with the tag #ecco. Clever marketing strategy I thought.

Then we were hit with the marvelous Ghibli store in the middle of nowhere, where there was actually a line of people waiting to enter. We looked at everything, bought nothing. One of those good days where you don't feel the need to buy.

Halloween 2014 at Fortis

So I wore a Hanbok on Chuseok at my school and was the only one wearing it. But for Halloween they went all out with candy and costumes and prizes for costumes. I had already spent money for my Hanbok so it was not in my plans to dress up wearing anything new. I needed to find somethings to make my costume with at home. Then I thought of the countless costumes I could make with everything I had back in Canada, including my short bob wig and mourned my lack of raw material. 

Then I looked at my bookshelf. And saw my dolls, wearing old style classic little girl dresses... And then I just decided on getting a petticoat to wear under a dress I had made before to be one of those dolls. Nothing in particular, just a country girl. And it did the trick alright for what I needed it for.

I expected to see Elsa and Anna. I was not surprised by that. What surprised me was that where were only one of each. Everyone had a different costume. Then, thinking about it, I realized that those moms all talk to each other, of course they wouldn't have made their kids wear costumes that were the same, so people would compare.

My favorite was my favorite kid's dress. Cuteness overload of Snow White. The bottom part of the dress was so much like Belle's dress I had a feeling they mixd two dresses. But I think it must be the prettiest Show White dress I've seen. Who said Snow White's dress had to be thin and straight. It's still a princess dress. 

And there was mister popular, AKA Aiden Kim. Or Minsung Kim (because his Korean name is the same as our Nexen player :P). 

We went to an English Village around Anyang and got the kids completely freaked out with the haunted walk around the school, food and trick-or-treating at the end. The say was good but honestly tiring. I had to come early for the outing with the kids, but still finished as late as my coming-in-late schedule. 

I'll end this quick blog entry with a few pics of my favorites that were taken there.

Belle, love this kid's name, even though it it like...... really not an English name... has a weird mom. I mean, she has a normal mom, in a country where moms are crazy. Her mom does not care about being compared to other kids and does not care about what other moms think. She forgot to dress her kid for halloween and she showed up with nothing on Halloween Day. So we looked for a costume in the boxes at school and dressed her up as a vampire. She was actually the coolest costume. I mean, she is already such a gorgeous looking child anything would look nice on her, but this just makes her look amazing.

Andrew. This kid is a pain to teach. He's such a little snot. But I love him as a kid. If I were not his teacher he'd be one of my favorites.

Yvonne. Because I just love Yvonne :)))