Time travel.

I don't know much about Seoul's dynasty's or past... but I was curious to see Gyeonbuokgung, or the Palace of Shining Happiness, in the center of Seoul. This was the principal palace in Seoul until it was burnt down by the Japanese in the late 1500's (strike one Japan). Nearly 300 years later one of Korea's rulers decided to restore the palace to its current state. It was a hazy June day on my visit to the palace with some friends. The mountains in thebackground and the surrounding fog seemed to give an added stillness to the palace grounds.

No palace is complete without its guards. Much like the famous guards at Buckingham palace, these Korean guards

kept there cool and didn't move more than a blink. To give the guards accurate

period attire they wore fake beards and mustaches for the part. I don't think I have seen a Korean man with a real beard yet.... I'll keep my eyes open.

The Korean eye for detail, order and precision is not a new phenomenon.

I love to see the change between the generations in Korea. It is so vast in

many ways. In the 1960's much of Seoul was still developing as shacks and huts lined the rivers and surrounding areas were comprised of thatched roof buildings. Now some of the technology in Seoul out does what I see in most of America. What a whirlwind of change.

The old, the young, and the palace.

Kids enjoying the fountains at the palace.

The mountains frame most of Seoul and most of Korea.... in fact mountain climbing is one of Korea's biggest past time. Daemosan mountain is a 20 minute walk from my apartment. On the weekends hundreds of Korean's, most of them middle aged and up, strap on their hiking boots, their backpacks and hiking poles and head to the mountain for the day.

The Wedding Show

Soon after arriving in Korea I found out that one of my Korean c0-workers was getting married, and that all employees were invited to the wedding. "Even me?" I thought, doubting that I would be included because I had yet to even meet this co-worker. However, after putting my name on the list of people wanting to attend I found an invitation in my box just a few days later.
Thinking that this was a rare opportunity to have one of those "in" moments in a foreign culture (a thing that has actually proven to be a bit of a challenge here)... I let my mind get creative with all the possibilities of what the "Korean wedding" might be like.



The first thing. The first thing that threw me off was that we were told that this would be a "western-style" wedding. It would have been fun if that meant cowboys and cacti, but it just meant veils and bouquets. A bit of the cultural wind was taken out of my sails but I still had hope that this would prove to be uniquely Korean somehow, in spite of outward appearances. Indeed it was.



The second thing. The wedding took place in a sort of a, "wedding factory", a three story building with a Bridal showcase room, a ritzy glowing 'chapel' room, a traditional Korean room (rice paper walls etc.), and two floors of Korean buffets and dining areas including t.v.'s with cameras recording the wedding ceremony in the rooms below. When we first arrived we also realized that there was more than one wedding in this building and we were arriving early to view the bride and eat while another wedding finished. The bride to be sat in a velvety room with her mother and mother-in-law and other family members and posed for dozens of pictures before the ceremony.



There was no need for the family to decorate, every detail of this building is 'wedding ready', including the clear flower petal
floors. No need for variety or personal theme. The theme here is just 'western'.

Even more interesting was the sort of lack of "specialness" during the ceremony. If this was truly a "western" wedding there would have been some crying, perhaps some heart-felt toasts and of course and overall reverence for the event. This wedding had more of the feel of well, a business conference or a seminar on health insurance. I'm not trying to be harsh, just expressing the casualness of the whole affair.



Costume change. About 15 minutes after the the western ceremony finished the bride and her husband moved to a different part of the factory for the next show... "Korean Wedding". Here the Bride and Groom wore traditional Korean wedding dress (rented) and bowed to both sets of parents, received monetary gifts and and caught some nuts and fruits on a cloth to symbolize the wish of fruitful offspring. A good deal more photos were taken and the bride amazingly and gracefully posed flawlessly time and time again.


In the meantime.......the staff of SLP (my school) did some posing of our own. Our boss remarked about how well we all looked. I can tell you I think there was excitement just for the opportunity to dress up and maybe have some respite from our routine and in some way feel a little bit like we were back home again... in the land of white weddings.