Some more cultural experiences in my travels...

Hi All,

I feel like I've forgotten to blog about a lot of things that have happened. Mostly surrounding different cultural experiences within the last month or so. I'm going to correct that now.

This Sunday my host parents took me to two weddings. I did not know about these until Sat. night around 11:00pm when we were drinking beer and I was eating fish/squid jerky (ick). But my host parents invited me and excited about a new opportunity I said, "yes". So, I woke up on Sunday and my host parents told me to get ready- I didn't know what to wear so I pointed to a suit and my host om shook her head "yes". And off we go- we walk to a nearby subway stop and take the subway across Daegu to the wedding site also known as, "Wedding Castle". Which is a huge tacky wedding hall. Think of happily ever after and such- a Disney wedding essentially. Now, Korean wedding halls are interesting because there are literally weddings booked back to back- which means the place is crowded with tons of people- plus most wedding halls have more than one wedding going on at one time (in different rooms). We literally stayed at the wedding less than 5 minutes. Enough to watch the bride and groom walk down the isle- after they made their entrance on a carriage apartatus that was on tracks suspended on the ceiling! I'm not too sure why we didn't stay longer- I don't htink my host parents knew them all that well. Almost like they were boliged to go an show their faces and give a gift. But, we did manage to eat at the buffet- which is a really interesting experience. Instead of a nice reception hall- there is a buffet area for the whole wedding venue, which means you eat at a cafeteria like place with evryone else who there for the other weddings. Very informal and interesting- the food wasn't all that good either. Now, as I mentioned before, there were two weddings- I only thought we were goign to one, but at lunch my host parents announced that there was "another wedding". So, we hoped into a cab and went to another wedding. We didn't even stay to watch any of the ceremony, but dropped off ou gift, said heloo to a few people and came back home. I have a feeling that if my host parents actually knew these people well we would have stayed longer. Oh, the second wedding hall was a lot more understated and nicer than the first one. Much more traditional. I wish I had pictures, but I think my host mom deleted them off her camera. :(

Another cultural experience I forgot to blog about is a funeral I went to. One of the first year teachers at my school had her father pass away. I think it's tradition for the co-workers to pay their respects- so I went with my co-teacher and other teachers to the funeral home. I'm pretty sure the funeral home was attached to the hospital- like in another wing or something. As we were driving my co-teacher was explaining how it is tradition to bow twice to the person who died and once to their family members. This isn't just a bow, but a full bow to the floor. He explained that Christians usually do not participate in this, but bow their heads instead. Since he's a Christian, he said he'd just do a head bow and tht I should do the same- because I am a Christian and because he didn't want me to offend anyone with a sloppy bow. So we went into the building and went into a room that was reserved for this family. We took off our shoes and went in and bowed to the father- there was a picture- I didn't see a casket or anything. Then the family members (sons) came in and we bowed to them. Then we we went to another little room where we ate some food and talked to the teacher from our school. All in all, it was a somber event, like in the states. The women were dressed in blakc honbok (the Korean traditional dress) and the men were in black suits. Everyone also gave 3,000 won ($3.00) in an envelope to the family. I'm not sure what the money goes toward, but I'm guessing the ceremony.

The third cultural event I forgot to mention was the fact that my host brother had his black belt testing. I kept asking him when it was, but he didn't know until the night before. He tol dme the testing was at 9:30- so I made sure I was up and left the houe with him. I thought it was strange that his parents didn't come, but clearly something was lost in translation. The testing wasn't at 9:30, he had to be at his gym at 9:30 to get ready! I had to hang around for like an hour and a half waiting for kids to get ready. Then, the testing wasn't at my host bros' gym, it was at an elementary school like 20 minutes away. Which means, I got to sit in the very back of a tae kwon do van with like 9 little kids! Note: Tae kwon do vans can be seen all over Korea. Generally each tae kwon do gym has a van that they drive kids around with. I never want to be in one again! The testing went well- it turns out that they test all the kids at one time from many different schools- there must have been like 50 schools- no joke!!! The test wasn't that difficult, but my host bro did well. We're still waiting for his belt.

Okay- a quick update on things that happened this week. Nothing new really happened. Although I did get to go to Pohang this Saturday and see my friend Alison, which was great! I'll post pictures soon. I also have some funny pictures, video of Korean teachers singing the Carpenter's song, "top of the world" for the singing contest at our school! SOOOO funny! I'm heading up to Seoul this weekend for some sightseeing and a Thanksgiving dinner athte Embassy. I'm super excited for turkey and some time by myself.

One more exciting piece of news, I/my school was selected for the Alumni Youth Partnership Program in January, which means I finally have some solid winter break plans! AYPP is going to let me take 5 students from my high school to Seoul for 6 days where they will learn about domestic and international affairs (mainly Korea-US realtions). It's super exciting for the students because a. they get out of class and b. the entire program is in English. I have to interview students today for the program, since I can only take 5 :( Still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my break- I'm still hoping for the Embassy internship!!!

AH! One MORE thing- please check out www.dong-moonhs.blogspot.com This is where my students will be posting their blogs! Actually- I think I might have to do most of the left work, but we'll see! Exciting stuff all around! I'll let you all know when you can hear them!

-me :)