The Most Happy Wedding Day

This Sunday I was invited to a mandatory Wedding of So Yeon, the secretary at my work. She always greets me with a smile and a double wrist wave so I was excited to support her on her wedding day. My boss set out a envelope with all of the teachers names on it which were checked off after we gave 30,000 won. It was nice to have the gift covered stress free but I became wary when I realized everyone was forced to pay. Even those not attending the wedding.

On the big day we arrive at the Wedding Center. It is a six story ugly building in the middle of a nondescript neighborhood. I had seen these buildings before. On Sundays they swarm with men in suits and women in dresses. I walked in wondering how all of these people knew So Yeon. This was my first mistake.

The wedding was on the 5^th floor. One of three devoted to ceremonies and the other half dedicated to buffet dining halls, more on that mess later. The floor was crammed, I saw a bride in a voluminous white cupcake walk by but she was not So Yeon. We were reunited with the Korean staff who (as always) were disproportionately shocked to she me dressed up. Unlike many Korean women I have a different wardrobe for weddings then I do teaching eight year old's. It seemed we had almost missed the main event. No not the ceremony, but the chance to take pictures with the Bride. Taking pictures seems to be the most important part of a Korean wedding. People show up a hour early to snap pictures. Also all Koreans have professional wedding photos taken before the wedding to display at the actual event.

Next to the photo-op platform was a small “chapel” with the doors open to the rest of the floor. I put chapel in quotes because I have no idea what to call that place. A discothèque mashed up with a fashion show catwalk would be more appropriate. Their were lights on the ceiling and a white piano in the background. I think George Michael of WHAM might have created more subtle décor. The room had about twelve tables each full of talking guests. We squeezed into a corner next to the open doors. Then the Mothers of the Bride and Groom started to walk down the catwalk in traditional Hanboks and I was shocked by what happened next. Nobody stopped talking. In fact people chatted the entire time. The banal chatter was made worse by the fact that the doors to the main floor remained open allowing all the guests of other weddings (or guests who didn't care to watch) noise to leak in.

The Groom walked down the aisle followed by the Bride and her father. Their was no groomsmen or bridesmaids. They bowed to each other and a man, a prominent friend of the grooms fathers (the perfect tool for business kissup) gave the lecture. He spoke for about 15 minutes and although I didn't understand a word, I was never bored. I was horrified by the videographer shoving the camera into the Bride and Grooms face. The ceremony was also projected on a large screen about ten feet from the real thing and had a distracting amount of camera angles. Before I knew it the speaking was finished and the Grooms friend sang a love ballad to the new couple. After that the sound-track strutters to a stop and everyone climbs on stage to take a group photo. I'm lurking in the back like a freakish tall person. The bride tosses the bouquet to a assigned person (also a photo-op) and we all wander out of the room.

I walk out feeling a bit punked. Do Korean's think they can take all the cute symbols but none of the mean of a western wedding and still create meaning out of it. It took less than 30 minutes. What is the point? Well the couple now changes into their traditional Hanboks and moves to another room. It looks like the inside of a traditional Korean house except for the fact that there are three of these rooms next to each other. I wanted to watch this ceremony but was told by my co-workers it was much too long, about 45 minutes. We then went to downstairs to the reason the majority of guests come. The buffet, I imagine this is what my 30,000 won went to. I hope not because the food was nothing special and didn't include booze or cake. My friends and I ate in silence. What was that? How does that rushed flashy show reflect of Korean marriages and most importantly, why did I spend two hours getting dressed up to spend only a hour watching a show and eating bad food?

In the end this hour/day is nothing about me. So Yeon looked gorgeous and her husband couldn't stop smiling. I, on the other hand will get married in Tunisia. Its much more fun.

Halfway Point

Last night when I was watching a horrible (then horribly funny) gore-fest titled Ninja assassin staring Korean boy-band singer RAIN. It dawned on me that it was December 2nd and I had been living in Korea for six months. My contract is half over!
Sometimes I feel like I have been living here forever but more commonly I feel like its only been weeks. I every time I think I have my Korea figured out it surprises me again. Sometimes in a quirky "is that a Cafe where couples pay to spend time with cats?" and other times in a depressing "I can only be called fat and ugly so many times" way. Korea is a place strange place to live. On the surface it looks allot like home, the brands and stores are familiar. Under the surface however Korea is more alienating then Tunisia. The lack of diversity and being the constant other is difficult to adapt to. There is one place in Korean society for people of my age and background which is a ESL teacher. Unfortunately this comes with negative stereotypes that many Koreans will use when interacting with me.
Despite all this I have met wonderful friends in Korea. I feel more at ease socially then in my last two years of college. I have more money saved then I ever had before and I am able to finance my own global adventures. I am having the time of my life in land of (stone stupas?) pickled vegetables. I have to make some important choices in the next few months. Will I resign, teach in another country or move home?

Whatever I chose in the future, I know it wasn't a mistake to come to Korea. It was opened up my world and this is the first time I have fully supported myself. I am motivated to continue live a international lifestyle and to meet the challenges of everyday.

Cappadocia Day Three

As the Sun rose on our last day in Cappadocia, Carolyn and I felt like we had done all of the major things we wanted to do. Cappadocia needs weeks to explore but if you only have days you can still see the key sights.

Our last day in Cappadocia was Republic Day and even the small city was decked out with large scale banners of Ataturk and the flag. I was a bit disappointed that I missed out on the celebration in Istanbul but I managed to make do with watching these school children put on a play.

We then decided to walk to the highest point in Cappadocia, Uchisar Castle. It is called a Castle for tourist reasons but a central government figure was never held here. More likely it was another mountainous village. It took about a hour to make it from our hotel to the top of Uchisar. The view from the top was almost as good (and much cheaper) than the scenes from the hot air balloon. We had a really nice girl from Canada traveling with us that day and she had a blast taking modelish shots of us. I could never manage to keep a straight face but still manged to look presentable in a couple of shots.


After our photo-op at the local peak we walked back to the hotel through beautiful Pigeon Valley. Named after all of the ruins of pigeon houses that scatter the landscape.




When we arrived back in town it was time to catch our flight back to Istanbul. I was ready to return to the big city. There was still so much I wanted to see and with only one day left in my trip, I was feeling a bit antsy.

Cappadocia Day Two

Sorry its been so long since I've written. Jill visited last week and I traveled to some new interesting places in Korea like Suwon Fortress. I am going to finish my Turkey blogs ASAP so I can get back to talking about Korea.


The second day in Cappadocia was the day of our Hot Air Balloon ride. It was extremely expensive (Won doesn't convert well into Euros) but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity I wasn't about to turn down. We woke up at dawn and drove out into the fields. There are many balloon companies in Cappadoica and the early morning colors were accented by the blazing flames.
Carolyn and I where copying the exact trip of friends of ours. He proposed during the balloon flight. A wise idea on his part, as it would be impossible to turn down any romantic idea hovering over the desert waves of history. The flight was just over an hour and we all were suspended in breathlessness. Except our pilot, who liked to spit over the side of the basket when he was not preforming daredevil sweeps next to rock faces. I felt like a wandering spirit as we peeked into cliff homes turned unusable by time and that can be seen only in flight. I will never forget that feeling.




After we descended back to earth we ate the worlds best breakfast. Turkish style yogurt, figs, dates, goat cheese (this is difficult to write about now that I'm back in the land of Kimchi and Rice). Carolyn and I still had the full day ahead of us and we decided to travel to Kayamkli underground city. After a delightful sketchy bus/air-porter van ride we arrived at the city. The city was carved over a thousand years ago for persecuted Christians. Only six floors are currently open but the city has over twenty floors not yet excavated. We explored the city with a keep of our guide for had no problem handing us a flashlight and then pointing us down tiny holes leading to churches, jail cells and general claustrophobia. It was mesmerizing to think of 3,000 people living in these human equivalents of ant hills. The richest living in the upper levels with the freshest air. We saw what remained of winery's, kitchens and large round doors.


After exploring the local village we returned to Goreme for a rained out mountain bike ride. I was a bit disappointed.



Stay tuned for my last two Turkey blogs. Coming soon I promise!

Happy Pepero Day

I would like to wish all of my readers a happy Pepero day. (Or as many heathens know it, Pocky) And you thought valentines day was too corporate...

I think its just harmless fun and maybe my students will buy me cookies? I think this guy is contracting this all wrong. I'm not concerned with Koreans eating enough rice. I think that's pretty well taken care of.


Thank you for being so patient about the Turkey trip. I'll finish that soon!

Cappadocia Day One

Cappadocia is a central state located in the middle of Turkey. It's famous for its stunning geography and its rich history and as the center of forbidden Christianity. The moment our van pulled into a view of I of Goreme my breath slowed. If there was was a place that deserved the title "pictures don't do it justice", this was it.

The stunning rock formations are contributed to a 2000 year old volcanic eruption. The tuffs of ash form soft rock with is later capped with denser rock. As the years go by the tuff erodes and the "fairy chimneys' are seen. Carolyn and I arrived at our gorgeous hotel (The highly recommended Kelebek) and this is the view from the hotel patio.



Our first adventure was to explore the open air museum. This is a group of homes, churches and monasterys craved out of the rock in the 300's but the frescoes that stand today are from the 11th century. Saint Basil was the active bishop and redecorated the ancient red ochre geometric designs with more extragalactic colors. There are so many churches to be seen in the museum that I saw both forms of decoration. Cave Church after Cave Church all mysteriously preserved and mine to explore. It became a little overwhelming. And the frescoes oh, I can barely describe it. It was like stirring in a dream but never fully waking up. If you want to see the frescoes in detail please look at Carolyn's website as she has a much better camera than me. Here I am in the entrance of a mausoleum. A skeleton is beside me roped off.




After we left the museum Carolyn and I started to play on the only jungle gym socially acceptable for adults, the rock pillars of Cappadocia. The homes that were once encased in rock are now open to the atmosphere. We were free to climb and explore this historic village that looked more like a science fiction set. It was easy to get swept away by the history of it all and grow disconnected from reality.

The height of my explorations came when I was stumbling over rocks and unexpectedly found myself inside a chapel. Some frescoes remained and a cross was craved into the wall. I said a quick prayer at the alter and sat in the priests chair for a long while (I'm sure they would understand) in a futile attempt let everything sink in.



The sun was setting and it was time to return to our picture perfect hotel. The next morning we had booked a hot air balloon ride over paradise.

Interlude

Something about customs always make me nervous. Perhaps its a fear developed from watching too many spy movies. I know I have nothing to hide yet for some reason I always begin to sweat at the beginning of the line. This means that after waiting 20 minutes to be interviewed by a surly looking Turkish man, I am a wreck.

I hand the man my passport and that little yellow card. It must be apart of the chemical in the yellow that blocks memory, I can never seem to remember my social security number. By this time its 1:30 in the morning Turkey time and 8:30 in the morning in Korea. I didn't know if I could answer a single question correctly. This habit of not sleeping on planes and then slurring answers at customs almost landed me in Korean quarantine. The surly Turk opens it and looks me up and down. He glares at me and asks "Kalk?". I slowly begin to process the question. "Kalk?" he asks again this time much louder like he has recognized my name from a most wanted list. "Yeah, Kalk K-A-L-K" is all I can think to say, I'm just glad I didn't go into my Callll-K me on the telephone routine.

After I introduced myself the officer looks me straight in the eye and says "Stand up". Silence, then he repeats himself with no change of expression "stand up". All I could manage was a muttered "I am standing..." It must have done the trick as he stamped my passport and sent me on my way.

The next day I related the story to my friends who had the idea to run the word "kalk" into a English to Turkish dictionary.

Kalk- To demand a single person to stand up.

Who would have guessed the last name commonly mispronounced as cock in English could have its own quasi-popular song by the Turkish spice girls?



And who can forget "Olgan Olgan Kalk Gidelim"?