Weddings, Punks, and Russian Spies
It is 11:30 pm, my new bedtime, and a wiser person would be getting ready for bed.
BUT I JUST HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT KOREA, RIGHT? Because it'll be over in 3 weeks!
Last week began the first of the 60 hour work weeks. I did just fine. Here are the stages of exhaustion:
Monday: A bit of a rough start, but coffee keeps everything going smoothly.
Tuesday: Adrenaline kicks in in high force, bringing with it bouts of dancing and over-emphasized excitement. Sleeping is difficult.
Wednesday: Adrenaline rapidly begins to drop. Crankiness ensues. Typical body functions such as the use of vocal chords and the sensation of hunger begin to deteriorate, overpowered by a desperation for a bit of a mental vacation.
Thursday: A quiet, sort of zen tiredness overpowers the senses. I found myself dozing off while squatting beside a student's desk. The world is a bit blurry, as is the mind.
Friday: The zen migrates over into a tired-drunkenness that leaves you feeling just fine but completely unproductive. Coffee keeps the body dancing about, but vision, judgment, and decision-making are severely impaired.
AND THEN IT WAS THE WEEKEND! AND THEN THE WEEKEND ENDED! Here is the weekend ending!!
Let's just stop right here and mention that if it were not for Jesus Christ I would not be as happy as I am in this situation. Mentioned.
Saturday morning Meagan and I went to a wedding of an old co-worker. Korean + Canadian. When she (Korean) first told her parents they were dating, they threw all of her belongings out onto the street. I watched him bow to her parents, and saw her dad give him a hug. I cried. I saw his mom in a hanbok, all the way from Canada. Weddings in Korea are in wedding halls. A wedding hall is a large hotel with a large room with tables much like a conference room would have. There is a sparkly runway, ever-changing fiber lights, various midi-files playing in the background, and an MC announcing the whole thing. People are chatting with each other as the bride and groom are saying their vows, stick-thin girls in nightgownish doll dresses breeze among the tables, and Kate was wearing a glittery veil that stretched to the floor. After the ceremony (which lacked all of the respect, admiration, and civilized conduct the word "ceremony" generally implies), we went in the next room to a buffet. This was the part where we sat down with some friends of the groom and chit-chatted about university and high-school jobs, and declined the offer to join them on the party bus for the after party. My first buffet plate was covered in things that were enjoyable to eat: Chinese sweet and sour pork, and a cookie. My second plate was more for aesthetic appeal: raw salmon, lychee still in the prickly shell, something that looked like a bamboo stick and tasted like it had lived a long and happy life in the depths of the ocean, a crab leg (with no utensils to extract the meat- I gave up), a smushy green root that left the aftertaste of nailpolish remover, and some sort of gourd.
BUT I JUST HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT KOREA, RIGHT? Because it'll be over in 3 weeks!
Last week began the first of the 60 hour work weeks. I did just fine. Here are the stages of exhaustion:
Monday: A bit of a rough start, but coffee keeps everything going smoothly.
Tuesday: Adrenaline kicks in in high force, bringing with it bouts of dancing and over-emphasized excitement. Sleeping is difficult.
Wednesday: Adrenaline rapidly begins to drop. Crankiness ensues. Typical body functions such as the use of vocal chords and the sensation of hunger begin to deteriorate, overpowered by a desperation for a bit of a mental vacation.
Thursday: A quiet, sort of zen tiredness overpowers the senses. I found myself dozing off while squatting beside a student's desk. The world is a bit blurry, as is the mind.
Friday: The zen migrates over into a tired-drunkenness that leaves you feeling just fine but completely unproductive. Coffee keeps the body dancing about, but vision, judgment, and decision-making are severely impaired.
AND THEN IT WAS THE WEEKEND! AND THEN THE WEEKEND ENDED! Here is the weekend ending!!
Let's just stop right here and mention that if it were not for Jesus Christ I would not be as happy as I am in this situation. Mentioned.
Saturday morning Meagan and I went to a wedding of an old co-worker. Korean + Canadian. When she (Korean) first told her parents they were dating, they threw all of her belongings out onto the street. I watched him bow to her parents, and saw her dad give him a hug. I cried. I saw his mom in a hanbok, all the way from Canada. Weddings in Korea are in wedding halls. A wedding hall is a large hotel with a large room with tables much like a conference room would have. There is a sparkly runway, ever-changing fiber lights, various midi-files playing in the background, and an MC announcing the whole thing. People are chatting with each other as the bride and groom are saying their vows, stick-thin girls in nightgownish doll dresses breeze among the tables, and Kate was wearing a glittery veil that stretched to the floor. After the ceremony (which lacked all of the respect, admiration, and civilized conduct the word "ceremony" generally implies), we went in the next room to a buffet. This was the part where we sat down with some friends of the groom and chit-chatted about university and high-school jobs, and declined the offer to join them on the party bus for the after party. My first buffet plate was covered in things that were enjoyable to eat: Chinese sweet and sour pork, and a cookie. My second plate was more for aesthetic appeal: raw salmon, lychee still in the prickly shell, something that looked like a bamboo stick and tasted like it had lived a long and happy life in the depths of the ocean, a crab leg (with no utensils to extract the meat- I gave up), a smushy green root that left the aftertaste of nailpolish remover, and some sort of gourd.
On the way to the wedding our cab driver was (cringe) extremely talkative, and I was rather proud that we had a conversation in scraps of Korean and English for about 15 minutes. We talked about religion, popular music, the health benefits of laughter, alcohol, food, and our differing opinions that the popular singer Rain has an ugly face.
Meagan and I joked that we were the Beverly Hillbillies who got dumped off at the wedding. We are always the Beverly Hillbillies in Korea. The American Hillbillies.
After that enlightening experience, we dashed home to get ready for a punk rock concert. I bought some jeans that couldn't be more ripped up and bleached if they were caught in a man-eating sized blender. We put our converses on and morphed into phase two of the day.
It was the punkiest punk I've ever heard. I figured it would be. In case you're wondering if I like punk music, I don't, but you have to take what cultural experiences you can get. I cowered in a smoky den, looking from under my eyes at combat boots, foot-high mohawks, stud-covered jackets, and eyeliner-wearing boys. I bobbed my head and leaned back in panic every time the gleefully kicking dancers came too close to my shins. Keep in mind that I'm taller and probably heavier than all of these angsty rockers- one was so cute he looked like a little rooster with his sky-high mohawk and skinny-jean-painted chicken legs. It was all entertaining enough, but things started to go downhill when the punks refused to admit the sound system had limits, and turned their guitars up so high that the moniters were screeching every time they weren't strumming. I felt a little lame plugging my ears in between songs (and during bass solos, drum solos, or any other time the guitar wasn't roaring through the speakers) and eventually the pain won out. Jamie and I took one last look at the rainbow-array of hair colors, studded belts wrapped around too-skinny waists, and profanity printed tee-shirts, and dashed up the stairs.
Then we all ate samgyetang (ginseng soup with a whole chicken stuffed with rice) and came back home! What a wonderful evening.
Today was full of nothing. Jamie and I talked about cleaning and Meagan cleaned. We ate sandwiches, I took a nap (so many weird dreams- at one point I was being charged a hefty fee for playing a Dungeons and Dragons game which I didn't even want to join in on!) and then we went to the movies. I told my Korean friend goodbye because she's moving to Texas. Appropriate, I think, that we watched Salt- an Angelina Jolie action movie that has a dippy president and Russian spies blowing up the US. Let's get Seyong ready for the real America.
Remaining teaching days: 15
Remaining 12 hour days: 10
Remaining days in Korea: 21
Woot!
Traveling alone has been eventful to say the least. If you want to here about them maybe we can sit down and have some soup with a whole chicken in it??? interesting.. im in Hiddleburg, Germany for 3 more days and then i am coming home for a short time.
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