Here comes the bride....Korean wedding!

I attended my first Korean wedding this past Saturday and it was definitely an experience. It was the wedding of my Korean co-worker Denise. Her and her fiance (now husband) have been together for over 10 years. All of the foreigners at my school were invited and luckily the school provided us a shuttle bus to take us and some other Korean staff to the wedding as we had no clue where it was. The wedding started at 12:30 so we all met up around 11am to get on the bus. I wasn't quite sure what to wear to the wedding and I was told two different things. One of my co-workers who has been to several Korean weddings told me that you can dress casual and it doesn't really matter. Someone else told me that you should dress pretty nice. So I went with black slacks and a nice top. I really don't have a lot of nice things with me in Korea as the whole point of coming here was to be able to wear jeans and t-shirts and Toms all day everyday!

Anyway, we arrived at the wedding hall which is exactly that. It's a giant building with multiple floors with multiple weddings happening all day. There was a sign up that listed out all the weddings and they were all 2 hours a part. Koreans are all business all the time.

For Korean wedding gifts all you give is money. They had special envelopes already there for you to put the money in and write your name and special note on the side. Apparently you can only give odd amounts starting at 30,000won up to however much you want to give, because even amounts are consider superstitious. You give an amount of money based on how close you are to the couple. Therefore, my cheapbutt only gave 30,000won which was the consensus among all the foreign staff so I didn't feel too bad.

The wedding ceremony only lasted about 30 minutes. It was pretty quick and to the point. We all sang a song (well I didn't because it was in Korean, I just mumbled sounds) and the priest read from the Bible. Then the bride and groom read their 'vows'. This part was somewhat disturbing to me because it felt very stiff and not loving, but I think it's just how things are done in Korea. The bride and groom each held up a piece of paper for each other to read off of and they both spoke in such a monotone fashion that it felt like you were at a military event or something like it. Then there was a Korean singer who sang the 'first dance' song minus the dancing. The bride and groom both turned and faced the singer and stood completely still during the entire song. Then it was over.

Millions of photos were taken after the ceremony as well as during. There was constantly a 'helper' woman following the bride around and fixing her veil, her dress, her hair, etc. Every photo was so staged. They don't like candid photos apparently. Also instead of throwing the bouquet to all the unmarried women at the event, the bride picks one woman who is next in line to get married and they stage a photo of the bride 'throwing' the bouquet to her. There's also superstition around this that if you are the woman picked you have to get married in 6 months or else you will have bad luck and won't get married for 6 years. Koreans are superstitious about many many things.

Food time! We were all super excited about the buffet because we were absolutely starving at this point. So after taking a million pictures we were shuffled outside to walk a few blocks to another building. This building was a giant dining hall where we would be eating. We entered the building and proceeded down the escalator to the 'dining hall'. Wow. I had never seen anything like it. It was a giant cafeteria hall crowded with hundreds of Koreans all fighting for seats and food in the buffet lines. Basically this is typical of Korean weddings. All of the weddings during the day gather in this dining hall and eat the buffet food. It was delicious food, don't get me wrong, just once again no intimate feeling or anything. I felt like we were just sheep in the herd and we were just moving through, eating, and heading out. After we had almost finished eating we spotted the bride and groom. They had changed into normal clothes and were wandering around trying to find people from their wedding. It was almost comical, because the place was just packed of people. We finished eating and that was that. Back on the bus, back to our town. Done and done. Happily Married :)

The beautiful Mia.  She had her guitar, because she had to go sing at another Korean wedding later that day. 

Foreigner co-workers.  Andy, Kelly, Courtney and Emily :)

This was an area set up before the wedding.  The bride and groom were taking pictures with everyone.  So the bride and groom had already seen each other before the wedding ceremony... :(

The mothers of the bride and groom were dressed in traditional Hanbok which is the traditional Korean dress.  It's always brightly colored and looks slightly uncomfortable.

This was the wedding program handed out to everyone.  Couldn't read any of it, but it looked nice.



The row of Ajammas....aka fierce older Korean women with high perms, fur coats, and sharp elbows for pushing you out of the way.



Inside the wedding hall. The priest.

The beautiful bride Denise walking down the isle!

Here they are reading their 'vows'.

Here they are standing and watching as the singer sings their 'first dance' song.

Here is the singer.  Slightly awkward to have everyone just standing and staring at you.

Many pictures with family, friends, etc. were taken after the ceremony.

This was the only picture I got of the 'dining hall' aka cafeteria.  The food was pretty delicious though!

Just Dance - Gonna be ok

A few months ago during one of my many insomniatic (is that a word?) moments, I decided to google and see if there were any dance studios in Seoul or Bundang.  As I expected it wasn't that simple, however, I did find a link to a girl's blog that mentioned a dance studio in Bundang.  It mentioned the name, EZ Dance Studio and it's location 'Ori Station, Exit 3, above the pizza hut'.  It was a Saturday morning and I decided to brave the elements (Korean Hangul, uncertainty about how to get home, the usual) and go seek out this elusive dance studio.   I found the pizza hut and proceeded to ascend the staircase, up, up, up, up.  Finally, I reached the roof (literally) and I felt like I had walked into a garden oasis.  The walls all around me were painted bright green and I walked through these doors out onto the roof that had a stone walkway with pebbles all around, an outdoor patio set, lots of plants and more green paint.  On the opposite side of the roof was the glass door to the studio.  I could see people dancing inside with hardwood floors and wall-to-wall mirrors...just like dance studios at home!!  I walked in, took off my shoes, and walked in.  I was instantly greated by a lady named Yoojin who is the studio manager.  Luckily she speaks a bit of English and she saw me staring at her like a deer in headlights and rushed me into her office. 

Once in her office I was like a kid in a candy store.  She was showing me the list of dance classes offered, showing me dance videos on the company website of styles they teach, etc.  I was so excited!!  It was extremely similar to the dance studios I went to back home and I was beyond myself happy.  I told her I would come back after payday and check out a class.

A few weeks later I returned with my friend Courtney, who I dragged along even though she's not a dancer, but she was a great sport.  We tried a hip hop class.  I left feeling exhilirated.  I hadn't been that happy since I came to Korea.  There's just something about dancing that gets me, it makes me feel like I can do anything.  So I decided to sign up for a month package and start going 3 times a week!
I had only been dancing at EZ for a few days when Yoojin asked me to join their dance performance.  I figured, what the hell do I have to lose?  So I joined Soonae's dance group, which was myself and 9 other girls performing to a Korean Pop song by the Wonder Girls called 'Be My Baby'.  I wasn't 100% thrilled about the cutesy KPOP song, but was in it for the story and the chance to perform on stage for the first time since high school!   We rehearsed for the next month and I felt pretty prepared.  We had a lot of late night rehearsals which were a bit exhausting, but was a great experience because there were only a few people that spoke English so most of the time I had no idea what was going on.  It's an interesting expereience to be in a room full of people who are talking, but you can't understand anything.  You get the chance to sit in silence with your thoughts.  I remember one night we were rehearsing till 1am and then someone had gone out and bought friend chicken for everyone.  Side Note - Fried chicken is eaten a lot in Korea.  There are fried chicken restaurants everywhere.  It's actually really good here, and I don't ever eat it back home so I think that's saying something.  Or maybe I just enjoy eating familiar things in Korea so they seem to taste better...I don't know.   It was so cool to just be sitting around the table eating friend chicken during the wee hours of the morning with all these Koreans who cared that I was there.  Pretty great feeling.

The day of the performance was a chilly Saturday morning.  I was picked up by a few of my dance buddies and we drove to the performance venue.  We had to get there pretty early to have a dress rehearsal on stage and get ready.  Rehearsal went well and I was dressed in my outfit, make-up on and I was feeling pumped.  Then it was about 20 minutes till show time and I went outside and saw my group of friends that had come to support me.  I had 10 friends from work/outside of work come and watch me, which was the coolest thing ever!  One of the best moments I've had in Korea, because I felt so special that I had only been in Korea for 2 1/2 months at this point, but all these people were willing to trek out and see me. 

Let the show begin!

This was the sign hanging above the stage.  My name was also put in the program!! I felt pretty special.

Getting ready backstage.  All done up in my Korean style dress, sparkly tights, make-up, etc.  And don't forget the Korean peace sign!

All of us hanging out during dress rehearsals.

This is my teacher and the choreographer of my dance, Soonae.  She's an amazing hip hop dancer. She doesn't speak any English, but she's still awesome and we have a great time.

One of the dance acts.  There was actually another foreign girl in this dance for only a few seconds.  I didn't get a chance to talk to her though as it was super hectic and crazy.

The Belly Dancers.  Not sure I would ever wear that outfit in public, but who am I to judge. 

The Korean teeny boppers.  These girls are all in my weekly dance class and they are so cute.  One of them always comes up to me and bows everytime she sees me at the dance studio.



These girls were extremely young and scantily clad.  It was like a scene from Toddlers and Tiaras.  They did a great job just should have been wearing more clothes and removed the pound of make-up on their faces.



This was a guest hip hop group.  They were phenomenal. 

Some of us after the show taking pics!! 

Our whole group and Soonae!

The entire group at the end taking pictures. 

So I can't get the video to upload and the Korean internet laws won't let me upload the video to youtube so I can give the link.  Soooooo if you want to see the video it's on my Facebook, or I can email it to you!
Overall one of the greatest memories I will take with me from Korea.  I have continued dancing since, and Yoojin mentioned to me they might do a summer performance and she wants me to be a part of it if that happens.  I love dancing!