Concerning tulle and temples

Friends and loved ones, we are gathered here today in cyberspace to celebrate the ridiculousness of Korean weddings. Oh my dear lord. I was invited to my first one on saturday and it was certainly an experience. But first- last week was pretty good, sorry I haven't posted sooner. Work was work as usual, still getting everything together. A highlight included the two nights where Asteria, one of the other teachers, and I got pizza and watched the new Sense and Sensibility. That was really nice, especially now that we have discovered the Domino's 3 minutes from our apartment and with it, normal pizza without sweet potato paste (although it's still offered, of course). Hooray! Another interesting development is that I am starting to be bit by the grad school bug. I've started some internet research and am beginning to pull together a rough list of colleges I want to look into. A lot of it really appeals to me- most of the doctorate programs require two languages before graduation so I'd get to study Latin or Greek or something fun like French! I have been paying special heed to what research the faculty is conducting, because I would be limited by that, and privileging those with any Victorian focus. I like that kid in a candy shop feeling I get when excited, I haven't felt it in a little while. Though this is SO so very far from definite, it is nice to feel like I still have passion for English.

Anywho, back to the weekend. We all got dressed up and went to the 'Crystal Wedding Hall' which is 3 floors up this random building. We are greated inside by an explosion of pink and slikscreen flower designs on the walls. Many of the older women walked around in hambow (traditional Korean outfit that is a sort of tent beginning about 3 inches above the boobs) which was really interesting to see. Ere long, they marched (or shuffled) out the bride and perched her in this bizarre little room with a tulle arching canopy and tea lights and a fussy little chaise, on which her considerable skirts were displayed. She looked pretty but Korean fashion seems prone to excess, it was hard to see her and not be blinded by bedazzled embellishment. Lots 'o sparkle. We took a picture with her, ensconsed in her little princess area, and then went upstairs for a lunch buffet. This was really cool because they had a huge variety of foods to choose from, of which I tried quite a few. They had good sushi, corn salad, fried spring onion, sashimi, meat ball things and a lot of other stuff that I couldn't identify but ate in good faith. Pretty nice. Afterwards, we went back downstairs for the ceremony which was bizarre. It was cabaret style with a plexiglass aisle up the center with fake flowers and string lights underneath. There was also a fake champagne glass mountain and even a fake cake. The bride walked up the aisle to a compilation of odd western romance ballads (Celine made a cameo) and then everyone promtply went back to what they were talking about before she came. From what I was able to hear over the din, the ceremony was pretty short. A choir sang them a song and they bowed to their parents (in the groom's case, a full on floor prostration) before coming back down the aisle and being bombarded with streamers. Throughout the whole thing, the wedding planner hovered like a pesky fly, even butting in during inappropriate moments to tug at some insignificant thread or make the couple hold hands or something...even when they weren't taking pictures. I think this is a cultural difference, but the whole thing seemed displayed. They never looked affectionate (even hand shakes were forced by the wedding planner) and there was no kiss in the ceremony. Oh well, she looked happy enough so I think this must be normal over here.


Then...yesterday. I got it into my head that it would be a great idea to get out of the city and explore a national park nearby. It did turn into a spectacular day but took its pound of flesh. We bussed to a Buddhist temple called Dongkhasa, had a look around at the really ornate and colorful roof and eaves, and started up the trail. UP being the operative word here. Precisely 3 hours of unrelenting up, in fact. This was compounded by the fact that the trail was not forgiving dirt but more like a loosely arranged avalanche of rocks that was meant to be some sort of a staircase. AND, Koreans don't seem to understand the value of a switchback so it was essentially 3 hours of clambering straight on up one of their very dramatic mountainsides. Once it got bad, we literally had to stop every fifty feet. Along the way up, we there was a stone pagoda thing with incense and recorded chanting that had a really nice view of the altitude we had gained and looked into the surrounding mountains. We continued, and I was basically crawling up the rocks at this point and seriously considering turning back when we hit the ridge and went down just as drastically as we went up. This part was much more fun, we literally flew down the mountain with the aid of some handle rails where the rocks got steep. The last of the trail descended along this pretty little creek to the temple of Gapsa, and there we were, a mere 5 hours after setting out from Dongkhasa.


This temple was better, in my opinion, because one of the buildings had hundreds and hundreds of mini golden Buddhas behind a bigger version. That interior literally glowed from them, it was so pretty. I couldn't resist a taboo and likely disrespectful picture. There were also all of these orderly prayer flags or lanterns or decorations covering quite a chunk of the interior ceilings. They were even writing prayers on each new shingle used to upkeep the roof. It was cool seeing people chanting and praying and prostrating themselves, I have never really seen this religion enacted and it was a nice introduction. I did find it ironic that Buddhist doctrine seems to have become engrained in the very landscape surrounding the temples, however-- suffering before enlightenment, indeed. We hopped a taxi back to Daejeon, in which I promptly fell asleep, and had sausage, potatoes and beer for dinner at Weisenhous, at which I also promptly fell asleep. Sheer exhaustion made a grumpy dinner companion out of me and made my bed feel like paradise. I borrowed Asteria's camera for it, so expect facebook pictures soon! Today, my calf muscles have conducted a full scale revolt against my nervous system in protest of yesterday but not a bad weekend.

Love, me