Wedding photos

...so i finally added photos to the 'Laura Teacher gets married post'... scroll down and take a look. It was beautiful x

Things I have been meaning to show you...

My desk/bookshelf... I dream of having more books... so few depresses me.

My fridge....I made it pretty

The place where I look in the mirror and do my hair and make-up... that cupboard is full of random rubbish... the black hole area.

Clothes rail and television....

Some of my favourite jewelrey...

My mobile phone... its pink and shimmery

Korean military boots....My Korean military boots.

Two new purchases... a rucksack and a tshirt...

Kyobo

So the other week we decided to end wasting our Sunday's in Munsan and head into Seoul. Our first (and only) hit was Kyobo bookstore. An international bookstore in the basement of the Kyobo building. After receiving directions form the Holy Grail (Lisa Teacher) we headed off excited about the possibility of an proper bookshop. Essentially Kyobo is amazing, if a little pricey i stopped myself from buying British Vogue (it was 27000 won, around £14) which was a good thing as I found another place which sells it cheaper they just don't have the new issue, the red one with Georgia Jagger on the cover, in stock yet. I did managed to pick up New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight set and scored myself a membership card. The area Kyobo is set in was also really interesting and managed to get some random snaps... just random things that caught my eye. I will definitely be heading back to Kyobo come pay day, it was like a little slice of heaven...

I like this photo...

Me and Shauna in Ilsan....

Laura Teacher gets married!

Today I attended a Korean wedding and it was sooo beautiful! The lucky lady was one of my Korean co-teachers Laura who was getting married to her boyfriend of 4 years ( he's charming however i never managed to grasp his name!) The wedding took place in Seoul and Laura has been preparing for a rather long time. Korean weddings are totally different to 'English' weddings on almost every level but both are still amazing!

For a Korean wedding there are two ceremonies, a western style ceremony where the bride wears a traditional white western wedding gown and the groom a tuxedo. This is followed by the traditional Korean ceremony in which the couple change from their western clothes into traditional Korean outfits and also 'switch' locations (within the same building) from the modern wedding hall to the the traditional wedding room which is far more intimate.

The wedding was starting at 11am at a wedding hall near the War Memorial in Seoul, myself Lisa and Jenny all headed down together in our lovely wedding outfits and arrived with just enough time to go into the 'Bridal room' and get our photos taken with Laura in her western dress before she got married! I'm not sure how long she was standing in the room for but as soon as we had had our photos taken the wedding co-ordinator rushed her around the corner into the wedding hall. The wedding hall was a huge room, white with gold decorations a beautiful floral 'altar' and an amazing lightshow going on (lots of pink light going on) Laura and her hsband walked down a red velvet carpet aisle to the altar, but not before the mothers of both parties did some kind of ceremony which involved candles and bowing to the couple and the other end of the red carpet! What was the maddest thing was the noise. Unlike western weddings which are incredibly silent, everyone sits still and listens the back doors were wide open and the noise of chatter from everyone was constant throughout the service. Our other co teachers shouted with joy when Laura came past and Laura just bantered back... as she was walking towards the altar.

Now I have missed out to major aspects of the western ceremony and that is the official wedding 'entourage of assistants' aka the co-ordinator and two 'air hostesses'. There are no bridesmaids, maids of honor, groomsmen, bestman just the officials and these officials were leaving no stone unturned in their mission to create an incredible performance. As Laura walked up the aisle the co-ordinator was at the back frouffing the train and as they reached their positions she was there creating a perfect arrangement of lace in a perfect position for the perfect photos, tweaking hair, straightening the grooms tie and various other forms of prodding and poking (and she didn't stop with to be married couple, she was tweaking both sets of parents as well!) Once the train was in the perfect position the smoke machine started up (yes smoke machine) and it started slowly blowing smoke from a vent that was under the train so that couple looked almost like they were standing on a cloud!! The dude at the altar (not sure of his official title - master of ceremonies, ringleader) was saying his thing and then the most bizarre thing occurred as 'the entertainer' appreared and sang a love song to the newly married couple. After this the tears started from alot of the congregation and from Laura as the couple thanked their two sets of parents (presumably for letting them get married?!) which was so romantic. They didnt walk down the aisle and there was no confetti after they started the photos. Now there were the official group photos, all through the ceremony the photographer and camcorder guy were taking shots, like proper close ups, at one point about three inches from the couples face whilst they were 'getting married' in order to get the 'perfect shot...' they were like wedding paparazzi! After shots with family groups we then got pulled up to be part of the 'friends' photos and found ourselves right at the front! After the photos the couple then walked down the aisle accompanied by the airhostesses with what looked like golden guns blasting streamers at them! It was genius, i want these girls at my wedding, their outfits were FABULOUS! Little pink and white suits and hats - like air hostess'! After Laura and her husband left the main wedding hall they went up to the traditional wedding room and got changed. Laura wore a super glamorous and utterley beautiful hanbok with the most amazing headpiece and her husband had a gorgous traditional male wedding outfit on accompanied with an uber cool belt!

The traditional wedding ceremony was great to watch and very colourful. It was all about traditional rituals, wear the newly married couple bowed to and shared food and drink with different members of the grooms family. There are also some rituals involving the grooms parents specifically which involve the parents throwing nuts? and the couple catching them and the more they catch the better their chances of childbearing are! After they have had several cups of a traditional alcoholic beverage ( a bit like soju) The groom then gives the bride a piggyback around the room and they have their photos taken clutching the envelopes of money that they have been given! Laura and her husband then dissapeared but the fun was not over as we headed down to the buffet!

Food at a Korean wedding is plentiful, and is available for when the guests want. There is no real schedule of what you have to do and when and essentially you could turn up, eat, and leave. The bride and groom therefore don't actually eat with the guests but go out with immediate family to a restaurant! Although in this case Laura's new husband had some major exam he had to take so they were going off to do that before heading off on honeymoon to Australia!

Anyway back to the food. All i can say is wow and that I apologise profusely as I was too busy eating it to take photos it was the most amazing buffet I have ever had and included around a hundred different dishes of different Korean food. We had an awful lot of seafood, different types of chicken, salads, rice, sushi, kimbap, raw tuna, raw beef, soup, snails, seaweed and a barbecue. It was all washed down with beer, soju and coke. It was amazing.

What was more amazing that despite the fact we arrived at 11am, watched two fairly intense ceremonies and filled our plates twice we were over and out by 1.30. A mere two and half hours after we had arrived. It was amazing how quick everything was! All in all it was an amazing experience Laura looked incredible in both outfits and well i'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.

ps Id like to thank fabulous Lisa Teacher for letting me steal some of her photos. THANKYOU!

Mt Bukhansan

So I didn't think the day I voluntarily agreed to climb a mountain and actually go through with it would ever, ever come however Saturday 17th October 2009 was that day, and the mountain was the Baekundae Peak in Bukhansan National Park, apparently the world's most visited National Park. Bukhansan is situated just north of Seoul, South of Munsan so is fairly 'local' - despite this fact it somehow took us 3 hours to get there - longer than it took to actually get up and down the peak itself. Baekundae Peak is the highest peak in the park at 837 metres (above sea level??) and climbing it was possibly the most terrifying experience of my life and the closest I have actually come to death.

To cut a very dull 'Why it took us three hours to get there' story short I'm going to cut to the chase and explain that thanks to the detour via Seoul and having to take a bus from Seoul, we managed to meet this great Korean dude called Sonny who became our voluntary guide for the journey. I don't think he realised what he was letting himself in for. Essentially he gave us our route, and helped us navigate our feet into the right place. The first half was steep but dealable. The second half was hell, the rough terrain turned into sheer rock face which we had to pull ourselves up with the aid of ropes and steel fencing that was attached to the mountain, luckily there were several Koreans around to give us a much needed boost, and to grab us so we didn't slip and splat ourselves on the ground. It was like rock climbing but without the harness. The views we got from the top were worth it, incredibly beautiful, we could see all of the National Park, and most of Seoul that was stretched out infront of us. The route down was far less stressful and thanks to our Korean guide, we were able to go through a 'No Entry sign' (all the Koreans were doing it) and through Guknyeongsa Temple and see The Grand Buddha, a giant Buddha that sits within the temple grounds and is an incredible sight. After the hike, we headed to one of the outdoor restaurants for Korean Pizza, Barbecue Pork, beer and Soju with Sonny to say thankyou to the poor guy for the stress we put him through. We then went to another retstaurant (now sure how this happened) where we had more soju and beer, this very bizarre almond jelly salad and a potato pancake... again traditional Korean dishes. The salad was great, it was the most salad-like thing I have seen since arriving in Korea although the Almond Jelly was rather odd... Climbing the mountain was amazing and I am going to go back at some point and climb one of the other three peaks. We also had and idea of climbing Seorokasan, which is towards the East coast - its a great adrenalin rush and it made me feel amazed... if a little pained the next day!

I'm a happy climber....

In climbing mode....

The team! Our Korean friend Sonny, Me, Kyle, Amanda, Shauna, David, Jenny and Jesse!!

Rewarding ourselves with food a, beer and Soju....