Mmmm, Korea.
Happy Korea Foundation Day! Today is the day that Korea was founded, in 2333 BCE. Here's what happened.
The King of heaven, Hwanin, had a son, Hwanung, who wanted to live on earth. So he and 3,000 followers went down to earth, under a sandalwood tree, and lived in the area that is now North Korea. Now, in that land, there was a tiger and a bear who wanted to be human. So they both prayed to Hwanung, who said, ok here's the deal. Go into that cave for 100 days. You are only allowed to eat vegetables (garlic and mugwort) until the 100 days are up. If you can handle that, you can be humans.
Well, the tiger was mad hungry and couldn't take it anymore so he left, but the bear made it through and thus became a human woman. The bear-woman then prayed to become a mother, and she did. She gave birth to Tan'gun, who ruled the kingdom Choson (which means "morning calm") from 2333 - 1122 BCE, at which point he turned to spirit and the legendary ruler Kija took over.
Yay! Today is ALSO Mountain Day, apparently.
Today I used my toaster oven for the first time! I made...wait for it...
toast.
Yesterday David Lee called me and invited me to a wedding...so today I went to a wedding. Being invited to a wedding is a big deal in the US, but in Korea, not so much. Here is how it works here:
3 PM, wedding ceremony starts. It is held at a wedding convention center, which is eighteen floors high and has three other weddings going on simultaneously. There's a sign out front telling everyone where to go. The ceremony room is quite lovely and non-religiously affiliated, though it smelled like Easter lilies (there were a lot of flowers) and that made it feel like a church to me. The bride is dressed to the nines, the groom is all snazzy too. The family members are all wearing traditional Korean clothes (called hanbok), and then everyone else looks like they just came from a business meeting. You know, suits but no ties, businessy navy dresses.
3:30 PM, the ceremony's over, everyone takes pictures for ten or fifteen minutes.
3:45 PM, reception starts. You pay for a meal ticket, but you don't bring a gift, so it kinda evens out. It's not a buffet, the waitresses just bring you bowls of soup and tons of side dishes on little carts like you see at dim sum.
4:30 PM, they kick you out. The waitresses come around and take your plates and say goodbye. No speeches, no cake (I hear sometimes there's cake).
And that's it! If you want to keep hanging out with your friends, you go somewhere else with them and have coffee or whatever, like you would on any normal day.
So after that, I went to see another Korean friend, Kevin, and we walked around Gangnam station and had Korean barbeque, as per my request:
And then we went to Jamsil and walked around by the Lotte World lake and talked about communication problems between men and women. It was a little weird, but mostly fine. Kevin reminds me a bit of Jacob Gagnon.
Tomorrow! Pavi and Leah! Italian food! Maybe hiking! Oktoberfest!!
The King of heaven, Hwanin, had a son, Hwanung, who wanted to live on earth. So he and 3,000 followers went down to earth, under a sandalwood tree, and lived in the area that is now North Korea. Now, in that land, there was a tiger and a bear who wanted to be human. So they both prayed to Hwanung, who said, ok here's the deal. Go into that cave for 100 days. You are only allowed to eat vegetables (garlic and mugwort) until the 100 days are up. If you can handle that, you can be humans.
Well, the tiger was mad hungry and couldn't take it anymore so he left, but the bear made it through and thus became a human woman. The bear-woman then prayed to become a mother, and she did. She gave birth to Tan'gun, who ruled the kingdom Choson (which means "morning calm") from 2333 - 1122 BCE, at which point he turned to spirit and the legendary ruler Kija took over.
Yay! Today is ALSO Mountain Day, apparently.
Today I used my toaster oven for the first time! I made...wait for it...
toast.
Yesterday David Lee called me and invited me to a wedding...so today I went to a wedding. Being invited to a wedding is a big deal in the US, but in Korea, not so much. Here is how it works here:
3 PM, wedding ceremony starts. It is held at a wedding convention center, which is eighteen floors high and has three other weddings going on simultaneously. There's a sign out front telling everyone where to go. The ceremony room is quite lovely and non-religiously affiliated, though it smelled like Easter lilies (there were a lot of flowers) and that made it feel like a church to me. The bride is dressed to the nines, the groom is all snazzy too. The family members are all wearing traditional Korean clothes (called hanbok), and then everyone else looks like they just came from a business meeting. You know, suits but no ties, businessy navy dresses.
3:30 PM, the ceremony's over, everyone takes pictures for ten or fifteen minutes.
3:45 PM, reception starts. You pay for a meal ticket, but you don't bring a gift, so it kinda evens out. It's not a buffet, the waitresses just bring you bowls of soup and tons of side dishes on little carts like you see at dim sum.
4:30 PM, they kick you out. The waitresses come around and take your plates and say goodbye. No speeches, no cake (I hear sometimes there's cake).
And that's it! If you want to keep hanging out with your friends, you go somewhere else with them and have coffee or whatever, like you would on any normal day.
So after that, I went to see another Korean friend, Kevin, and we walked around Gangnam station and had Korean barbeque, as per my request:
And then we went to Jamsil and walked around by the Lotte World lake and talked about communication problems between men and women. It was a little weird, but mostly fine. Kevin reminds me a bit of Jacob Gagnon.
Tomorrow! Pavi and Leah! Italian food! Maybe hiking! Oktoberfest!!