Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Wedding Clashers


Greetings...

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend my first (last?) Korean wedding. My principal's son was tying the knot and an open (mandatory?) invitation was made to myself and the other teachers at the infamous Dong Myeong Elementary School. I say "mandatory" because I got the feeling from Mrs. Lee and Lucy (above) that attending was more a show of respect than anything. I didn't feel the slightest bit forced into going by some administrative propriety because 1) I love weddings and 2) I was darn curious to see how Koreans get down with their bad-selves.

I got dressed up in my one and only suit and met Mrs. Lee down at the wedding hall (Lucy arrived a bit later). This wedding hall is a building directly across the street from Busan's City Hall (one subway stop away from my place). While church weddings do exist in Korea, apparently most weddings take place at these wedding halls. It took place on the third floor of a 20+ floor building and it was not the only wedding happening at the same time. In fact, this place hosts a plethora of weddings in a day, in 30 minute ceremonies from 11am or so 'til 4 or 5pm. So, this means that the decorations, seating and facilities are setup generically--this does, of course, take away the "individuality" of weddings but I'm sure it's a heck of a lot cheaper. It's a long ways away from a "Vegas wedding" but I'm sure many American women would disapprove of this for themselves.

PAY THE PIPER!

It's customary to give money to the bride and groom--since there was no reception (a.k.a. no Dollar Dance), people simply slip some cash into an envelope and drop it off upon arrival. I gave 30,000 won (a little over $20) and I know for a fact that that's on the cheap end of things. Lucy told me that since these ceremonies are so short and plentiful, many people can't stay for the lunch afterwards so, in that case, you get your own envelope with 10,000 won in it. I was under the impression that we'd be staying for the lunch but I got handed my "No Lunch Refund" without being asked.

We all waited in a lobby area adjacent to the ceremony room. The groom and his parents (my principal and his wife) stood near the entrance greeting people as they came in. My principal is usually somewhat of a wet blanket but he was absolutely beaming on this fine Sunday. You could tell he was tickled to see me there (he publicly thanked me for coming on Monday at lunch). I didn't get pictures of them but they also had these elaborate floral arrangement/easels with ribbons and writing on them--I had seen these before on the street one day in front of a store and I thought someone had died on the sidewalk or something but Mrs. Lee told me that they were a congrats/good luck for opening up a new store.

Video #1: Here Comes The Blide.

We finally got things rolling and when we stepped around the corner into the actual ceremony room, it was jam packed. There must've been at least 200 people there and seating for maybe half of those. We stood in the back and I was able to scramble for my camera as the bride made her way down. You'll notice that you can hear everyone gabbing and gawking during the ceremony which is one of things that I couldn't understand. They hired a small string section to play the famous song but you could barely here it. You'd think in a culture where you have to bow 34,287 times a day that they'd show even more respect in a situation like this but you'd be wrong. Notice the bubbles: this was a surprising and cheerful touch. You'll also notice the groom shaking his soon-to-be father in law's hand while putting his free hand under his business arm. This is a custom the occurs many times during the day: when someone pours you a drink, hands you change, shakes your hand, etc. It goes back to the olden times when people wore big sleeves and they wanted to keep them away from the food or the fire or what have you. Sometimes I remember to do this and sometimes I don't.

(I intentionally misspelled "Blide" and "Clashers" not to be culturally insensitive--Koreans will fully acknowledge their inability to distinguish between "L" and "R" and it's just too darn funny anyways.)

Video #2: Singin' Fool.

Immediately after the official ceremony ended, this guy got up and sang a song in tribute. This is yet another example of just how much these Koreans love to sing.

Video #3: Eat Your Heart Out, Spinal Tap!

The bubbles are a nice touch--it definitely adds that oft-desired "fairytale" factor to the proceedings. But when I saw artificial fog coming out, I knew that this wedding was not messing around. If you've seen the film This Is Spinal Tap, then you might remember a certain iconic scene when their attempt to be "Grand and Theatrical" by using a life-size recreation of Stonehenge ended with a minuscule model being danced around by midgets (see for yourself here and sorry about the tiny little "F-bomb" in there) After seeing this, I have decided that a fog machine is a must for my wedding. Check it out!

Video #4: Swords and Push-ups.

They cut the cake with either a small sword or the largest cake knife ever. I was hoping for the bride and groom to take turns throwing ninja stars at the cake until everyone had a piece but I'll settle for a sword. Then you'll see the groom get down on his hands and knees and do some push-ups with his new bride riding side-saddle. Again, after the bubbles, fog machine and excessive crowd noise, I shouldn't have been surprised by this little display but I was. I inquired about this later and, while it's mostly just a funny thing to do, it's also meant as an example of how "strong" he'll be as a husband.

I've since decided that at my wedding, my "feat of strength" will be to have a knife-fight to the death with my (late) father-in-law.

Video #5: Take A Bow.

You'll get to see my principal as the parents bow with their newly-fused kids. He's on the far right.

Video #6: Man And Wife.

So, they finally walk back down the aisle. The one other thing to point out here is a little pop followed by some "oohs and aahs" at the 22 second mark. On the video it just sounds like someone popping their gum really loud but it was in fact a "party popper" thing and it was kinda loud and right next to me. If you know me at all, you know that I was probably the only one in the room who jumped at this like a beaten down dog. Perfect.

And that was that. The group of Dong Myeong teachers that were there went out to our own lunch down the street. This was of course another "sit down" meal but I'm proud to report that I'm getting a little used to living in the dark ages before they invented the chair. I still have to shift my legs back and forth to avoid a complete loss of circulation but it's no where near that excruciating first lunch on our way down to Busan some 2 months ago.

I hope you enjoyed this little window into another fascinating facet of Korean culture because I did.

Coming soon...Seoul this weekend!

Stay tuned...

-Brent

Monday, April 20, 2009

K.S.F.








Greetings...

Above you will a video of what happens when your friends discover how easy and entertaining it is to scare me. It's a short video but it speaks volumes about me, my friends and the thin ice I seem to let them walk on without consequence.

You'll also find some photos from our recent trip to a most idyllic Buddhist temple and some introductory shots of two of our new best friends, Soo and Gina. For a very thorough summary of our adventures in the past week, please see Rob's blog:

http://kimchikoontz.blogspot.com/2009/04/korean-networking-101.html

Thanks, Rob!

I'll just start where he left off.

Rob posted some links to some videos of Korean's latest and greatest pop sensations. These are all solid hits, I must say. But he neglected to leave out my absolute favorite of the bunch. It's a song called "Honey" by a girl group called Kara. I've been searching low and high for some awesome Korean music ever since I touched down 2 months and one day ago--of course, I was/is mostly interested in finding some Korean heavy metal but that seems to be a "fountain of youth" kinda search. It feels like a fruitless adventure but I have a feeling that it will pay off with the most heavy, the most metal and the most face-melting band no one's heard of. I'll keep you posted...unless my face gets melted first and then you'll have to ask the doctors. Tangent, sorry...

The point is, Korean pop music (or K-Pop) has somehow become my surrogate for Korean metal. I haven't been a pop music fan since my unfortunate Vanilla Ice/Milli Vanilli/Janet Jackson days when I would dance up a sweat in the living room while Mom was at work. Is it a renaissance? Am I nostalgic? A mystery indeed. Regardless, I find myself drawn to the Korean versions of Britney Spears, N'Sync and all the rest. Perhaps it's because I can't understand the words or maybe it's an "okay cuz it's foreign" kinda deal. Whatever. I'm really lovin' this stuff and some would say I've listened to a lot worse.

So, check out this video and tell me this is not the catch-iest, pop-iest, sexiest thing you've seen in a while:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeyuMPCo0KY

Don't get me wrong here. I understand that any brand of pop music behaves in the same way: hit singles are the norm and hit albums are practically non-existent. For example, "Honey" is an instant classic but if you pursue Kara any further, like their other video for "Pretty Girl," you'll find that they are not a great group, they just had a great song. In other words, my consumption of music has to be modified--I can't expect to go CD shopping but you bet your bottom dollar that I will (and plan to) purchase these single gems right and left.

There's a significantly vicious feud at school amongst the 6th grade girls over who is better: Super Junior or Big Bang (another boy group). I like to stir the pot when I side with one group or the other and watch them freak out in protest.

Speaking of 6th grade girls, I've developed quite the fan club. Just about everyday when we come back up to the classroom from lunch, there's a group of them hovering around my desk. They fall on the floor laughing as I try to speak Korean and they all ask me questions at once. Last week, they asked me for my cell phone number. I promptly shot that idea down--I don't need 10 missed calls and random, broken english text messages launching my phone bill like a north korean missile! Of course, I'm also not the brightest crayon in the box...They finally conceded to the "no phone number giving" rule but they asked to see what my cell phone looked like. Like the oblivious person that I am, I said okay. I took my phone just to show them but they grabbed it and ran like the devil was chasin' them! I felt like a supreme dunce and half-heartedly went after them. They were huddled around my phone like the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl and there was no way I was getting in. By the time my phone emerged, they had all called themselves with my phone, thereby obtaining the secret numerical code to my personal life. Great. Within an hour, I had 4 missed calls and two text messages. On the brightside, they haven't gone too crazy with it so far. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

Real quick...these girls have given each other some of the greatest nicknames ever. Here's just a sample: Carrot Lady, Dog Hair, Cat Hair, Monkey Hair and, my personal favorite, Toilet Water.

So, onto our Korean friends. Rob and I have met some of the coolest people in the form of Minsoo (Soo), Ji-won (Jeany) and Jin-ha (Gina). Over the past 2+ weeks, we have hung out with these girls in some combination at least 10 times and we've had a blast everytime. They all met in the past 2 months or so while attending classes at an English Institute here in Busan. It's truly amazing that they've only been friends with each other a few weeks longer than we've known them but they already seem like life long friends. When asked about this phenomenon, Soo simply said, "Duration doesn't matter. We're just friends immediately." I'm not surprised because there's something about these girls, and Koreans as a people, that exudes friendliness, community and connection. Rob mentioned meeting another family at that business dinner we went to--the wife wanted us to help teach her son English, take us to some museum and classical concert performances and beyond. While they might seem like a lofty, impersonal group on the street, when you get a chance to sit down with them, they want us to be part of their family. Without getting ahead of myself, I can say that Koreans are generous and openly giving people. We've heard some horror stories from other English teachers in our program so I feel very lucky to have this experience and not theirs.

On Saturday, Rob and I did a little shopping at Home Plus (E-Mart is so February). I got some essentials and even got my 2nd Korean haircut. We wanted to check out the theatre in the Home Plus because we thought Vicky Cristina Barcelona was playing (it wasn't). We did, however, stumble upon a screening of Knowing that started in 5 minutes. This was quite exciting as almost all of our movie going has hit some snag (it starts in 2 hours, it's sold out, no good movies playing, etc.). We knew we had plans to see Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona later with Soo but we couldn't pass up Knowing beforehand. It was a fairly solid flick--director Alex Proyas showed some of his Dark City roots with some creepy aliens. That night, we met up with Soo and saw Vicky...Woody Allen's latest exercise in romantic futility. I had seen it already back home but both Rob and Soo were newbies. I enjoyed it (again) but was surprised and disappointed that the English subtitles for Javier Bardem's and Penelope Cruz's Spanish were replaced with Korean only. Those are some electric and hilarious scenes that forced Rob and I to struggle between our limited knowledge of "car wash Spanish" and our complete lack of Korean words.

On Sunday, Rob, Soo, Gina and I went bowling (see above and here: http://www.youtube.com/solertia33). Gina actually beat us the first game and, as you can see, she looks like a pro. We then wandered the streets in search of ping pong. No dice. Then we switched to pool but all 4 places we found only had the Korean version with no pockets in the table. All this walking and disappointment worked up an appetite so we had dinner at a noodle house which is where the pics above were taken. A little Baskin Robbins after to seal the deal and we called it a day. It's a bit of lame that our new friends will be leaving us very soon. We're going to have to fend for ourselves again. Hopefully, our one remaining friend, Jeany, will keep the fire burning and simply introduce more friends and we'll never skip a beat. So this is what they call a social life, eh?

Finally, it has been long overdue but I had to introduce everyone to the KSF. Rob and I discovered this shadowy group early upon our arrival in Korea. This is an organization, a gang if you will, that patrols the streets of Busan riding various forms of motorbikes. KSF, of course, stands for "Korean Strike Force" and they are not to be messed with. Anytime you see a Korean on a scooter (minion) or an actual motorcylce (lieutenant), you avoid eye contact and pretend you're not on their turf. When you see a Mr. Pizza delivery guy, racing down the sidewalks, you know he's part of the "Food Service Division." When you see an elderly man on a bike, you know he's one of the founding fathers. Like any respectable organized crime family, the cops (Public Enforcement Division) are even in on the take. There's even a Pedestrian Division that includes people NOT riding a motorbike! We've been lucky enough to avoid this gruesome bunch so far...we hear the initiation rites involve doing a wheely on a scooter for 100 yards and slicing car tires while in motion...but we're still very much in danger. I'm a little nervous about posting this as they undoubtedly have their Web Division up and running after KSF.org was shut down by the JSF (Japanese Strike Force) in retaliation for the '08 Scooter Wars. Beware and pray their empire doesn't spread to America!

Stay tuned...

-Brent

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Solar Powered Buddhists



Greetings...

Above you will find a quick little tour of my apartment. I took a video of it the first morning I was here but it was a bit lengthy and had trouble uploading it ever since. I finally broke down and did another one. As you can see, moving to another continent has done nothing to improve my cleanliness.

It's been awhile since my last post but I've finally accrued enough material to justify another writing marathon. Let's begin:

Two weekends ago...

One of my new Korean friends, Aron, called me up one night and asked me if I wanted to join him for a little volunteering at a local orphanage. It was the last thing I was expecting to hear but the more I thought about it, the more my interest grew. I thought of cousin Leah and how cyclical this whole thing was. For those of you who don't know, my cousin Leah was adopted from Korea when she was just a little tot-tot. In fact, she is from Busan specifically. Before I left, I was instructed to do some research about the orphanages here and to see if I could find the one where our beloved Leah called home. Besides these instructions, I felt compelled to go. Obviously, I have a personal connection to the orphanage system here in Busan and I wanted to do my part, in honor of Leah and those before and after her.

I don't have any pictures of my trip. I took my camera with intentions of capturing images/video of this place but when I got there, I just didn't feel comfortable about it. I'm very sensitive when it comes to taking photos of people. Especially in a situation like this, I fear that it might border on exploitation (get over yourself, Brent) and it just didn't feel right. I had a great experience and I'd really like to go back so maybe I'll feel better about it then.

So...Aron heard about this little humanitarian mission through a website where there are forums for things to do. Someone suggests something to do and puts out an open call to those interested who either show up at the meeting place or not. We meet with about 15 other strangers (all American or Canadian English teachers like me) at a subway station and we took some taxis to the orphanage. We first met with the directors of the facility, an elderly Korean couple who just look like those people who dedicate their lives to helping others. They explained the facility and what we were expected to do. I was anticipating doing dishes or taking out the trash but all we did was sit in a room and play with toddlers. We broke up into groups of 5 or so and each went into a room where about 8 1-2 year olds were frolicking. They were a bit intimidated when we first walked in--one boy in particular got one look at us and started crying. We settled in and just let them come to us. I picked a corner and just sat and watched. Little by little, these kids came around and got more and more friendly.

They had a set of geometric cushions with velcro on the sides so you could build stuff with them. These became our ambassadors of friendship as we rolled them across the floor or tossed them in the air. The kids ended up gravitating to one volunteer and becoming inseparable. This was quite amusing--two of the female volunteers ended up with a kid in each arm with a third trying to climb a leg. Luckily for me, I ended up being paired with one boy. This little guy was a lotta fun and when I discovered that he was ticklish, it got even better. All these kids has runny noses as they were undoubtedly in some stage of a shared cold. I tried to keep my mouth closed and avoided rubbing my eyes but things got a little out of hand when this little boy decided the zipper on my sweatshirt was something edible. Every time he'd go for it, instead of pushing him away, I'd simply throw a tickle-finger into the side of his neck and he'd go down like sack of potatoes.

We were there for about 2 hours and, even though we were all done getting climbed on, I left with a heavy heart. While I was there, I did my best to not think about the situation very much. This was my first experience like this and it gave me a nice, cold glass of perspective. If I had stayed any longer, I probably would've tried to adopt that little boy.

The next day, Rob and I went on a hike with his co-teacher and her friend. I almost died. Some people define "hike" as "a walk outside" and some define it as "traversing mountains and entering a secondary layer of the atmosphere." I now know first hand that Koreans prefer that second definition. Mrs. Sung, Rob's co-teacher, has asked us to go hiking everyday and I couldn't decline more emphatically. Despite my reputation, I don't avoid exercise like the plague (maybe malaria) but it's all about context. "Hey Brent, do you wanna go to the batting cages?" "Sure." "Hey Brent, do you want climb a 1,000 foot mountain in your Vans? Everyday?" "Umm..." You know what I mean? I've been walking to school everyday lately so I'm getting at least 1.5 miles a day in (3 miles if I walk home) but I've been in some process of muscle damage/recovery ever since I set foot in Korea. Honestly, my feet and legs are constantly being worked and I've developed a soreness in my left Achilles and, just recently, my left knee's been singin'. Okay, I get it, I'm out of shape and that's why this is all happening but do you want me to permanently injure myself to prove this point? As I explained to Rob, I could either play baseball for 20 years and end up with "Catcher's Legs" or just live in Korea for 12 months.

This past weekend...

Friday, Rob and I went out for dinner and exploring. We had Outback again because by the end of the week, I just need a meal that is 100% satisfying. There's always one side dish or something in the school lunches that ends up ruining the whole meal. Rob finally admitted to understanding the term "comfort food." I told him, "Welcome to my world." We tried to see a movie but nothing but crap was playing. We ended up playing pool. This pool hall we went to had one official pool table and the rest were "pocket-less." Koreans don't actually play pool, they play some weird version where there are no pockets and they only use three balls on the table. We've kinda figured out how that's played but it doesn't look half as fun. Could you guess that the table with the pockets was the only one open when we walked in?

Saturday, I didn't do much because I was kinda under the weather. My sinuses have been on a dry streak and it just wipes me out. I'm considering purchasing a humidifier. That night, Mrs. Sung's friend, Mrs. Hwang, invited us over for dinner. If you've read Rob's posts about these dinners, you know how good they are. He was right. We met a girl there whose mom is friends with Mrs. Hwang and Mrs. Sung. Her name is Min-su but she goes by "Soo." She's 21 (Korean age--see below for an explanation) and speaks really good English. She offered to take us around and show us cool stuff to do which is exactly what we've been looking for. So, after dinner, she took us to play...pool! Two nights in a row! Mrs. Hwang's daughter (forgot her name again) went also. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, Mrs. Sung offered to take us to see flowers. It's been "Cherry Blossom Season" the past couple weeks so everyone and their grandmother was out seeing flowers. We drove north to Tongdo where we visited a Buddhist temple. I'd show you pictures but I left my camera battery at home. Rob took some so they'll be coming soon. We saw solar panels at the temple (hence the title of the post...and the title of my next band) and we even caught a monk INSIDE the prayer room on his CELLPHONE!! Total Buddhist burn!! We wanted a pic so bad but he saw us and quickly removed it from his ear. This was our first official trip out of Busan since arriving and it was nice to be around more nature than concrete. Then we kept on our trek north to Gyeongju which is a very famous city in Korean history. Many moons ago, Korea was divided into 3 Kingdoms but they were finally united by one of these and its capital was Gyeongju. There's also lots of ruins and dead Kings buried here. We stopped at a lake that was lined with cherry blossoms and the sun was setting (Rob took a couple amazing pics). If we hadn't just spent a good 2 hours in traffic to get there (...everyone and their nana), it would've been even more spectacular.

Yesterday (Monday), Soo took us out for our first exploration. She took us to the Busan National University campus because that's where you're guaranteed to find cool stuff to do. It was a large and cool looking campus. Of course, it's built into the side of a mountain so you better believe I'd have a scooter if I was a student. We had dinner at a chicken restaurant and found a bowling alley with our name on it. It was Soo's first time but she started to get the hang of it by the end. We got some roadside smoothies (fruit and ice in a blender...simple but delicious) and did some more walking.

Korean age...

Korean's actually count your time in the womb as part of your age (a nice thought but very confusing at times) so when a Korean says, "I'm 21 (like Soo did)." She was actually born in 1989 so her "American Age" is only 19. As Rob pointed out, Koreans can always revert back to their American Age when they want to shed a few years but us Americans actually get older when we get here. I'm actually 28 here, soon to be 29.

That's enough for now, what do ya say?

Stay tuned...

-Brent