day 9: going to gyeongju (or at least trying to) August 13, 2007

May 29, 2007

In what is commonly referred as his First Law of Motion, Newton writes:

Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight ahead, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.

Inertia is some powerful magic. It keeps my cocktail from spontaneously flying off the bar. It keeps the Patriot Act in effect. It plays a critical role in keeping the satellites that beam the BBC to my car in orbit. It is also relevant when traveling with more than a couple people.

Well past the halfway point of our trip, I was beginning to feel like productive time left in Korea was increasingly limited. Though the wedding was a significant event, it seemed like the vast majority of time we spent in country was either devoted to driving between Changwon and Busan, resting, and eating. I think this is fairly evident in the photos posted to date.

With only a few days left,I was becoming irritated that my plans to explore the island coast and mountains were seeming more unfeasible, as both locations required at least overnight trips. At the same time, every action seemed to have increasing amounts of inertia to overcome. Little things like getting people assembled, deciding what to do, waiting for people to get ready, loading cars, etc. added up to many wasted hours each day. My irritability grew exponentially with every minute standing around waiting for whatever issue du moment to resolve.

This day was particularly full of inertia. After much contemplation, it was decided that Johnson would take us to the ancient city of Gyeongju, about 60 miles NNW of Busan. Mary had to work, so she would stay in Changwon. At first, I wasn’t terribly keen on the thought of doing an overnight trip to what was likely a heavily-visited tourist trap; Especially, because doing so would definitely eliminate a trip to the mountains or costal islands.

So, the plan was to grab a quick, light lunch and drive out to Gyeongju, arriving mid-afternoon to check things out. With the lactose-intolerant Mary off to work, Johnson thought it would be fun to get some bulgogi pizza. He took us to Changwon’s Lotte Department Store. Lotte is quite an amazing spectacle. Uniformed ladies with large hats and white gloves welcomed cars to the parking garage. Every level of the garage had an attendant to direct drivers to an open spot. With high wages and low customer care, we’d never see this in the states. The store is a 5 or 6 story department store, modeled after classic western department stores. On one of the top floors, we went to a Pizza Hut next to the in-store cineplex. I guess Pizza Hut is a pretty upscale operation in Korea. What would be a small specialty pizza here in the States was $20-25. We ordered a bulgogi pizza, which was unique to Korea. Generally, the pizza was quite similar to domestic Pizza Hut. I’d say there was more cheese and less sauce. Also it was a tad bland. However, I haven’t eaten Pizza Hut here in many years, so it could be just as bland here. The bulgogi was nice, but it was kind of lost in the cheese. It was also not as intensely-flavored as ‘real’ bulgogi, kind of like Pizza Hut sausage is bland compared to real sausage. I’d say you could really make a great pizza with good ingredients and some solid bulgogi from Johnson’s aunt. Most interesting was the pumpkin ‘potato’ salad served at the fixings bar. I really got a kick out of it. It is generally a standard, semi-sweet potato salad with chunks of cooked pumpkin. I think I’ll try to tweak this formula once the pumpkin crop starts to come in this fall.

Next to Pizza Hut was the Lotte theater. I thought this promo poster for Shrek the Third was pretty cool:

During lunch, Johnson was trying to straighten out the details of the day trip. He had calls out to a friend of his that has a time share membership in Gyeongju to see if we could hook up a couple rooms for the night. He also landed a ton of calls from his family. I suspected something was up. With lunch completed but plans still a little sketchy, Johnson suggested that the family check out the department store for a few minutes while he straightened out the details. Having seen department stores around the world (all selling the same stuff), I decided to get a couple minutes of quiet on the benches outside the store. A couple minutes later, Johnson found me and joined me on the bench as he finished up the details. Within 10 or so minutes, everything was good to go. We then tried to locate the rest of the family. Both Johnson and I tried to call father’s cell phone. It just rang and rang. We then decided to start scouring the floors. Starting at the top, we walked the perimeter of each floor then descended down to the next level. I figured it’d be easy to spot my white mother and 6 foot tall brother. However, we could not sight them. We kept trying to call the phone. I think I made twenty to thirty attempts myself. We searched each floor three or four times. It was ridiculous. I think after forty-five minutes of searching and calling, he finally answered the floor. They were off in some remote corner of the basement looking at beds. I was furious. They knew that we were trying to get out of there; yet they seemed to be oblivious to these goals and unfazed by the fact that we’d had been furiously trying to locate them for almost a solid hour. Even if you don’t hear the phone ringing, one might think to check it every so often to see if anyone was trying to reach you. So, it was 3:30-4ish before we finally left the stupid department store.

Gyeongju is quite a haul from Changwon. I think the drive was around 1.5-2 hours. I’m not really sure, though. I was so disgusted with the intertiamasters that I decided it was best for me to sleep during the whole drive.

In the following shot, you can see that the sun was already starting to set when we finally arrived in town. So, we essentially wasted 25% of the remaining sunlight of our trip sitting around waiting and wandering aimlessly around a cookie-cutter department store. At some point, I decided to suck it up and try to make the most of things. Rolling into town, I noticed a lot of rice paddies ringing the town. I always found paddies visually stimulating. The light of the setting sun made them even cooler:

I could tell by the plethora of shops and gimmicky eateries on the outskirts of town that this was a bona fide tourist destination. Johnson said that many Koreans like to take holidays in this region. We arrived at the Bonunho Resort condo megaplex. It was a pretty cool place. We got two units. Each unit contained two bedrooms, a kitchenette, sitting room, and bathroom. Apparently, each unit was only $60/night with $30,000 lifetime membership (which his friend fortunately had). These were definitely the most comfortable lodgings we had during the entire trip. The units had balconies that overlooked the pool complex. Across the way, a mass of students had overtaken one of the older buildings and were running around screaming. Luckily, we were put in the newest and nicest building, which was much quieter.

We got settled in for a little while. A huge thunderstorm blasted through the area. Fortunately, it passed quickly, allowing us to do a little sightseeing in the hour or so of remaining daylight.

Gyeongju became the imperial seat of the Shilla dynasty in about 52 B.C. (just as Julius Caesar was doing his thing in Rome). It remained a center of power for a millennium, eventually being the seat of power for the entire Korean peninsula, when the Shilla consolidated the three peoples of Korea. At it’s peak, the population of the city exceeded 1 million. Today, it’s more of a quiet region with a small and unassuming town center, well there are 280,000 people living here, but it feels small. It’s fascinating to see the juxtaposition of modern building and adjacent ancient temples.

We ventured into central Gyeongju to Tumuli and Wolseong Park. Tumuli Park contains 23 tumuli, grassy burial mounds of Korea’s former monarchs. Looking like miniature grassy hills, these tombs contain great treasures along with the remains of Korea’s most powerful rulers. Casually strolling along while gazing at a thousand years of history was pretty surreal.

I kept seeing these grids of stone circles in the fields. After some time, Chris and I eventually deduced that these were foundation stones for support posts of buildings and temples.

We then proceeded to Cheomseongdae, East Asia’s oldest astrological observatory. Built between 632 and 642 AD, this structure was used to track the movement of the celestial bodies. There are 12 stones at the base representing the months. 30 layers of the tower cover the days of the month. 366 stones were used for the entire structure, representing the days of a year. Though looking quite simple, this is an amazing and sophisticated structure, especially considering that it’s almost 1,500 years old.

After the observatory, we walked to a small wooded area of the park, Gyeongju Gyerim. The picture of the placard explains the story. There were some crazy-looking trees, including one that spiraled around a giant stone (see picture). I guess there is some significance to this forest in Korean history, as it had something to do with the forming of the Silla (of of the great three ‘tribes’ of Korea).

Next, we scaled a small hill to what once was the Castle of the Half Moon, Banwolseong. It was mostly just hilly parkland with scattered ruins. However, one part of this designated World Heritage Site was a restored imperial ice house, Gyeongju Seokbinggo. I’m not sure when it was originally constructed, but it was moved 100 meters from its original site in 1741 to what I’m assuming is a more ideal location.

Things were getting pretty dark when we walked back to the van. I noticed that the lights on the observatory were turned on and was granted re-admittance to the site to grab a couple night shots, including some with the full moon in frame. The structure is much, much cooler at night. Something about the structure, it’s position and balance, and the evening sky really projected the power of the heavens and the balance of the universe.

It was time to find some food. My mother’s favorite Korean dish is sundubu jjigae, spicy uncurdled tofu stew. Johnson noted several restaurants advertising this dish on the ride into town. So, we decided to try one out. The restaurant was a pretty traditional building constructed from huge, raw logs. We were the only diners in the place, as it was pretty late.

Johnson ordered a round of the region’s specialty hooch, Gyeongju Gyodong Beopju. It is a drink made from locally-grown glutinous rice and well water. It has a sweet smell that deceives it 18% alcohol content. Unfiltered, there are chunks of rice in the white liquid. I really enjoyed this.

This is dotorimuk muchim, acorn jelly. It’s a beautiful dish with the greens, enoki mushrooms, and red chili paste. The jelly is light, smooth, and delicate. I can’t think of a western equivalent flavor. It’s not the most remarkable dish on the planet, but it is certainly pleasant and unique.

A battalion of small plates were brought to the table, including grilled mackrel, tofu, greens, and kimchi. The tofu stew was great. It came in a red-hot stone bowl that complemented the warmth of the chili-based stew. I think the trick to this dish is getting the tofu’s consistency right. It has to congeal into small chunks, but no chunk can be really defined. It’s sort of an equilibrium between solid and liquid state. Things go wrong when the tofu leans to firmness or liquidity. Johnson indicated that this stew is more popular in the northern regions of the country.

After dinner, we returned to the resort. In the hallway, Johnson pointed out a piece of traditional furniture. He said this is a hahm, or chest. Before the wedding, we participated in a modern hahm ceremony, where the ‘horse’ strapped a suitcase to his back. In the traditional ceremony, the horse would carry a smaller hahm about half the size of this one.

The parents and Chris occupied one unit, and Johnson and I took the other. Chris, Johnson, and I picked up some beers and snacks from the resort’s convenience store and proceeded to hang out and watch some TV. We watched some Shoot Dori (my favorite Korean TV show, I’ll devote a post to this later). Afterwards, I found one of many ridiculous Korean game shows where comedians do stupid things. This time, they had a special guest, Choi Hong-man. Choi is a 7′2″, 360 lb K-1 extreme fighter. He reminds me of Jaws from the James Bond movies, in both appearance and movement. Two nights earlier Johnson, Chris and I were watching an hour-long program on Choi’s career. There was some brutal footage of him kneeing the heads of his opponents.

Well, in this game show, Choi was wearing a sweater and Mickey Mouse ears doing some Korean version of duck-duck-goose. It was pretty funny. I don’t think you’d ever see Chuck Lidell on Sesame Street. Choi was a good sport. It was clear early on that he wasn’t mentally/verbally nimble enough to play the game. So, he became the enforcer dispensing the prescriptions of the ‘wheel of punishment’ that was spun when someone messed up. All in all, it was pretty entertaining.

I’ve been disturbed by this freaky commercial for LG cell phones. It features posed figures with strange expressions. I won’t say much more, judge for yourself:

In the end, it turned out to be a pretty decent day. While things were so painfully slow getting started, seeing 1000-year wonders from ancient Korea was a real treat, and the prospect of sleeping in a proper bed was quite encouraging.

day 8: fan death confirmed July 28, 2007

May 28, 2007

In my previous post, I forgot to mention a pretty exciting finish to the night of day 7. As Jean and I were walking back from E-mart, I heard a high-revving engine coming down the street. Some sort of Kia or Hyundai came flying down the street at a pretty decent clip. A second or two later, a police car skidded around a turn in hot pursuit. I guess we were witness to a rare high-speed street police chase. Pretty exciting stuff… I guess it was a little funny to see a small Korean police car burning rubber.

The day got off to a pretty standard start. Mary came by pretty early to get ready for work. A while later, Jean arrived packed and ready to go. Johnson and I took took her to the airport for her morning flight. I wish I had thought to bring my camera. There was a plethora of couple shirt-clad pairs all over the place.

When we returned to Changwon, Johnson took Chris and me out for some lunch. We decided to go for some bibimbap. Bibimbap is a favorite Korean dish where sauteed veggies, meat, bean sprouts, fried egg, and chili sauce are served in a bowl. A bowl of hot, steamed rice is then dumped on top and mixed well. It really is a great dish, warm, filling, and nutritious. The voracious feeders they are, Johnson explained that Koreans typically accompany the large bowl of bibimbap with a bowl of potato soup. The soup here was boiled beef with sweet potatoes in a slightly spiced broth. Overall, it was an extremely tasty and satisfying lunch.

 

 Mary was a bit cranky today. I think the stress of the wedding, hassles from work, constant exposure to the family, and best friend’s departure started to take its toll. When we returned from lunch, Johnson took off for his dorm. Mary was home from work. We had started to hang out a bit when I commented that there were an awful lot of sirens this day in the city. Mary said that sirens were actually pretty atypical in Changwon. Father had called earlier to ask about all the sirens.  A minute or two later, I looked out the window from Mary’s couch and saw a big, black plume of smoke. Seconds later, we realized it was coming from the roof of a building a couple blocks away.

Mary and I decided to investigate the action from the street. Many people were standing around trying to figure out what was happening. We proceeded up the street in the direction of the smoke. Eventually, we came upon the center of the action. Several firetrucks and ambulances were surrounding the building. People were semi-casually evacuating the building. The funny part is that traffic continued to flow on all streets surrounding the building. In fact, some drivers honked their horns in annoyance when emergency workers blocked the road.

 There wasn’t much action in the front of the building. We decided to check out the other side. There, the extent of the fire was much more evident. Charred bits of aluminum littered the ground 50 meters from the building. The intense heat of the fire caused the building’s metal siding to shatter and fly like bits of ash. A very intense fire started at ground level and had bridged the building’s dozen or so stories and engulfed the roof. Firefighters were all over the structure with their tiny hoses. I was surprised to see the gear used here. Firefighters seemed to be using 1 1/2″ hose. The stream was only marginally better than a garden hose. They had a robotic ladder truck with remote control nozzle at the top of the ladder. Even this impressive machine had a pretty weak flow.  Heh, ironically, one might notice in the pictures of the damage that the fire had burned the building’s only fire escape…

Upon closer examination, I noticed a scary fact. It seems that one of the fan units for the building’s cooling system had caused the fire. I think this is the first conclusive evidence in the truth of fan death! Wow, the Koreans might be right in fearing these modern conveniences…

During my travels in Korea, I did notice a lot of little paranoid anti-fandeath behaviors. Whenever we were in a car, the driver would carefully crack a window whenever he activated the air conditioner. Mary’s window was wide open, even when the AC was full blast and the heat of the day was seeping in. The fans and AC units in the hotels all had built-in sleep timers to prevent a horrible death by fan.

Mary was still a bit cranky, so she decided to hang out with Mother while the boys went out for dinner. We decided to get a classic man’s meal: samgyeopsal. We had previously had samgyeopsal at the dinner after the hahm festival, but Johnson insisted that this night’s place was one of the best joints in Changwon.

Johnson explained that this restaurant only serves pork from Jeju Island. The pork from this region is revered by Koreans for its excellent flavor and marbled fat. The wall had a huge banner with screenshots of a television feature story on the place and hundreds of small paper receipts showing the Jeju origin of the tons of pork bellies served at the place.

When we sat, a skinny fellow with heavy clothes and thick gloves placed a red-hot bucket of burning, natural charcoal into a ceramic vessel on the table. A metal suction hose was lowered over the fire to keep the fumes out of the room.

As always, small dishes were brought to the table. These baby octopus were pretty tasty:

 The waitress came to the table and began to place mushrooms and thick slices of uncured pork belly (bacon) on the grill. The hot blast of the natural charcoal made the pork release heavenly bouquets of fragrance. I think the hardest part of eating samgyeolsal is waiting for that first batch to cook.

 The meat was cooked when the outer surface of the fat browns and become slightly crisped. It is dipped in either light sesame oil with salt and pepper and/or a sweet, light soy-vinegar sauce with raw onions. Often, the meat is then wrapped in lettuce or sesame leaves or eaten with a salad-like dish of raw greens in a light dressing.

This high-calorie dish is a totally awesome example of pork’s wonder. It was clear that this place was serious about its swine. When done right, there is a great balance of smokey charcoal fire, sweetness, smooth richness, and savory character.

We ended up going through two orders of samgyeopsal and galbi (which was also awesome). We were stuffed, but Johnson insisted we completed the meal in traditional style with a bowl of cold noodles. It was tasty, and refreshing, but I was really too bloated to enjoy the soup.

day 7: the day after July 19, 2007

May 27, 2007

Things came together pretty peacefully in the morning. Johnson was called away to help with family matters. The remaining family (mother, father, Chris, Mary, and Jean) headed out for a lunch of seol leong tang, a type of beef soup containing boiled beef cubes in broth with noodles, rice, and scallions. The simplicity and balance of the soup made it very enjoyable in the same way that wang galbi tang appealed to me.

We decided to head to Busan’s famous street markets. The streets were quite crowded on this Sunday afternoon. We tried to convince the parents to get some authentic Korean couple shirts. Dad seemed to be quite enamored with the popular Teenie Weenie store. They featured a great array of couplewear featuring pictures of puppies and the Teenie Weenie bear. Unfortunately, they were even too corny for the parents. Dad did like the bear, though.

On the side of the Teenie Weenie store, we discovered a terrific example of horrendous Konglish:

Teenie Weenie

All That Bears

[TWB] AMERICAN TRADITIONAL

William II, he was come of traditional family in the eastern America. he is smart boy who has sense of fashion in Ivy league. Be a cause of is talents and temper-jack of all trades. A romantist to enjoy music and poetry. All can’t help loving him. Furthermore, we can tell he is a well-known wandering minstrel like Mozart and Goethe. Well, why don’t you learn his legitimate sense of fashion?

Teenie Weenie

Konglish doesn’t get much better than that…. I wish I could learn that ‘legitimate sense of fashion’…

The street market was pretty cool. There was plenty of junk for sale, including tons of dubiously-licensed products. I was surprised by the amount of knock-off Simpsons stuff with no actual Simpsons characters. One of the most unique things I saw was a plethora of Nightmare Before Christmas products ranging from purses and lunch pails to inflatable NBC mickeymousepandas.

Johnson rang and announced that he had wrapped up his family obligations. We decided to send the parents, Chris, and Jean up to Busan Tower while Mary and I went to meet Johnson at the hotel to load luggage in the van. Busan tower is a 120 meter tall observation tower atop of Dragon Mountain in the middle of Busan. It offers a spectacular view of the city.

After loading the van, Johnson, Mary, and I scaled the stairs to the park and Tower. I took a chance to grab a ‘cute’ shot of the newlyweds:

The tower was situated in the middle of a large park. A giant statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin was prominently positioned at the center of the plaza. Admiral Yi is a great national hero, having bravely fought off Japanese invaders in the the 16th century. (I will focus more on Admiral Yi in a later post).

There was also a really cool bronze statue of a dragon honoring the eponymous park & mountain.

The tower hosted many nice vistas of the city, as promised. I grabbed some decent shots, but nothing really worthy of posting. I may throw up some panoramas if I get some time to stitch them together. We eventually met up with the family in the park area and took a few moments to people watch:

Mary, Johnson, and I then went back down to retrieve the van. On the way, we were trying to figure out the best way to pick up the rest of the family. Mary suggested a certain road, and Johnson exclaimed, “Oh Mary, you are so SMART!” I figured that the moment needed to be preserved for posterity.

Not that it matters, but it ended up that Mary was wrong… the road she suggested was actually blocked. We eventually did retrieve the family, picked up some Krispy Kreme, and headed back to Changwon.

For beer o’clock, Chris and I watched the Korean version of Deal or No Deal. It was pretty funny. The idiot playing the game walked away with $40. Every time the contestant messed up, they played music from the Godfather, rather random.

It was Jean’s last night in town. The whole family went to a seafood place that specialized in shellfish. It was an amazing meal. Various shellfish were grilled at the table in their shell. Everything was fresh from the sea. The first course was fresh, whole scallop with peppers, onions, and chilies.

The second course was giant mussel, squid, enoki mushrooms, and chili sauce grilled in a giant mussel shell. At the same time, they grilled clams, and fish with onions, peppers, and chili sauce.

Later on, the manager came by and asked if we’d like a complimentary plate of raw sea cucumbers. Of course, we would never turn down free, exotic food. I’m certain this dish is something that even Fear Factor contestants might have problems with. I’ve had stewed sea cucumbers before in Chinese dishes. Raw ones are a whole new deal. I’d guess one would say the plate looked like a pile of brown snot. The sea cucumber chunks had a similar consistency as they hung from the chopsticks. When bitten, though, they were slimy on the outside but crunchy and tough on the inside. The flavor was mild. It tasted of the sea like a very mild oyster. I really enjoyed it. I think I was the only one at the table that did.

After dinner, I took Jean to E-mart to pick up some Korean treats to bring back to Taiwan. It was nice to get a chance to chat with her a bit and get to know her a little better. I think she was a little shocked that I understood what she does for a living. I guess most people she encounters don’t know about Sarbanes-Oxley. She works for ING in Taipei doing SOX compliance. Actually, her office is in the Taipei 101 building, which was the world’s tallest building until July 4th. We picked out some travel packs of kimchi, crackers, chips, and sauces to bring back to Taiwan.

Mary and Jean had a girl’s night at the hotel, while Chris, Johnson, and I chugged beers and watched Korean TV.

wedding footage July 10, 2007

After finishing up the hahm video project, I discovered there was quite a bit of footage from the wedding ceremony that I had missed during my initial survey. I decided to throw together another video project. The first video took about 4 weeks to complete. This one took 2 1/2 days. I’ve realized that Google Video really degrades the quality of the videos. It’s disappointing to see a lot of the details I spent time tweaking lost to pixilated-lofi-googleniess. I’m considering posting these files somewhere in their original DVD-quality format for download. Post a comment if you’d like me to do that.

If you’d like to get a clue of what is happening in this video, check out the original wedding post. Be sure to watch the outtakes at the end…

(direct link to larger video player)

hahm uncut edition July 9, 2007

As promised, here is the raw, unedited footage of the hahm event:

hahm video July 8, 2007

Well, I finally wrapped up my first attempt at video editing. Mary and Johnson received a video camera as a wedding gift from Johnson’s coworkers. Before I left Korea, I dumped all the video from their camera onto my laptop. The plan was to cut together some footage to share with you all.

I’m certainly no expert in video editing. As I said, this is my first attempt. I decided to cut some footage of the Hahm ceremony that we did a couple days before the wedding. Please click the link to get a refresher on what the Hahm is all about. I thought this project would be some simple cuts, wipes, and splices, but when I finally got into the source material, I discovered that the footage was pretty marginal. Most shots were out of frame, shaky, and obstructed. The audio is really bad. I didn’t have the patience to scrub out key dialogue. So in the end, I decided to toss together a few seconds of footage for your entertainment. I’ve been burdened too many times with other people’s long, shaky, noisy, and pointless home videos. So, this is purely entertaining and comes in around 3 minutes

I think Mary was a little disappointed that the final product doesn’t really use much of the footage or contain any of the dialogue. I really didn’t think I could splice something together that was informative and still palatable. So, I have made another file that contains all the raw footage in its entirety that I will be posting soon. (Google is having some issues with the format of the raw cut).

Click here to see the video in slightly better quality.

day 6.3: the second event June 30, 2007

A quiet moment while suiting down

After the main ceremony and group photographs had completed, we had to move on to a private, family-only ceremony. Mary took a moment to shed a few pounds of accessories. She and Johnson shed their wedding robes and donned another set more plain and comfortable robes. I’m sure their is some significance to these, but I honestly don’t know. Mary had a light blue robe with gold print, and Johnson wore a plain pink/peach robe. The contrast of these light, calm colors to the bold and powerful ones used in the main ceremony probably reflected something about the fact that they were now enjoined.

The immediate family gathered in a small room a short distance down a corridor from the main stage. The bulk of the room was consumed by a raised platform with a small table and decorative screen at its end. On the table, there were two plates. One held a mound of chestnuts and Chinese dates (jujubes). The other contained snacks such as dried fruit and beef jerky. In front of table was a smaller stand that contained several metal cups and a kettle. The family members sat on floor pillows on the platform’s margins. The mood was much more relaxed than in the main ceremony.

One of the ‘fixers’ from the venue’s staff was on hand to manage the ceremony. There were some introductions and photographs. Johnson’s side of the room consisted of his parents, aunts, and uncles. I believe his grandmother was absent. On the bride’s side was the parents, my brother, my father’s cousin, his sister, her husband, and me.

The ceremony officially started with Johnson’s parents sitting at the table. The bride and groom then bowed to them as a couple. Of course, the bride had an assistant aid her bow. She had the embroidered quilt/veil that covered her face during her entrance at the main ceremony.

They then poured alcohol into the cups and offered them to his parents. The parents toasted the new couple. While Mr. Choo drank with gusto, Johnson’s mother seemed to have a difficult time with the booze. They then exchanged snacks from the platter. From what I’ve read, this symbolizes a display that prompts the new couple to copy their parents’ love. The parents also presented the new couple with white envelopes containing a wedding gift.

The parents then gathered chestnuts and jujubes from the platter. I noticed that Mr. Choo seemed to take a lot of chestnuts in his lot. Mary and Johnson sat facing each other holding her veil outstretched like eager firemen trying to rescue a child from a burning building. They threw their fistfuls of chestnuts and jujubes at the couple. Most were caught by the veil, and the parents seemed happy. I later learned that this is a very important part of the wedding ceremony. The number of fruit caught by the couple indicates the number of children they can have. Chestnuts represent boys and jujubes girls. This explains Mr. Choo’s apparent selection bias.

The bride’s parents then were seated at the table. I’m not sure how traditional this is. In my research of this part of the ceremony, I’ve only seen accounts including the groom’s parents. Again, the couple bowed to the parents and prepared them drinks. There was a question if mother would drink the Korean wine, but she fully participated in the toast. This time, though, there was no chestnut tossing.

I enjoyed this smaller, more intimate portion of the ceremony. It seemed to have a little more ’soul’ than the main show. I also think the fact that the heavy lifting was already done let people relax a bit and enjoy the moment. The above photo really expresses the mood of the room. I also cherished the fact that the videographer was confined to the far end of the room and we could appreciate a close and unobstructed view of the happenings.

After the family ceremony wrapped up, we were whisked back to the car by June. The heat was almost deadly by now. An ‘uncle’ came to the car carrying an orange box the size of a 12-pack of beer. He handed June 4 small glass bottles and 4 pills in blister packs. June passed them out to us and told us to drink. The drink was sweet and citrus. After we consumed the drinks, June told us that it was the traditional Korean equivalent to Red Bull. I guess the pill was some super herbal hypervitamin thing. I learned not to ask too many questions.

The guy with the orange box then loaded dad, my aunts, and uncle into his car. We followed them on a painfully slow ‘tour’ of the coast. This was the same tour we took on the way to the ceremony, only with many small stops every few hundred meters. I soon figured out that it was their ‘kind’ way of stalling us. I guess it was imperative that the couple and the groom’s parents arrive at the reception first. It wouldn’t have been too bad, but it was extremely difficult exiting and re-entering the car in the traditional clothing, especially for Mother.

Eventually, we arrived at the Choo family restaurant. There were scores of people hanging out on the street and people carrying large platters of food from the family place another place across the street. The main reception was held at the Choo restaurant for family. Since there were so many guests, they also held a second reception across the street for coworkers and other friends. When we arrived, it seemed that most people were at least halfway through the meal. Mother, Chris, and I snuck up to the third floor residence area to change into our Western clothes. By the time we got that straightened out, most people were almost done eating.

Much of the meal contained all the dishes prepared by Johnson’s aunt on our first day in Busan minus bulgogi. In retrospect, I guess that was a test case to make sure we liked the food. In this feast, they also fired up the beef hot pots that the place is famous for. I was trying to ask what the Korean name was for the hot pot, mentioning the Japanese name – Shabu Shabu. Well, it turns out that the Koreans use the same name for the dish. There were also tempura shrimp and shitake mushrooms in addition to the (always awesome) ginseng and Korean parsley. There were also bowls of green, pink, and white Korean mochi, small balls made with glutinous rice and filled with sweet bean paste. I’m pretty sure that these are a traditional part of a wedding meal.

(Left to right)Jean, Prof. Eddie Lee, Min Wu, June

Mrs. Choo came by with a bucket containing an iced liquid. She spooned a quantity in a bowl. It was sweet and very refreshing. It also contained little chunks of a partially digested grain, I think it’s rice and or barley, in the bottom. I was told that, while the drink is very sweet, no sugar is added. Like malt in beer and Japanese sweet sake mirin, the sugars come from the breakdown of starches in the rice and barley. It was the perfect fix to the heat and claustrophobic conditions. I then realized that this is the real version of a can of ‘Nostalgia Drink’ I bought in Changwon earlier in the week. The canned drink was nasty, but I was fascinated by the name. I was extremely pleased to have the real deal shikhye.

Mr. Choo cracked out a few very special bottles of a Korean wine called Millennium Promise for our family. I guess this was served to President Dubya Bush for a toast at an AEP conference in Korea several years ago. I’m sure this was a fairly special gesture by Mr. Choo, as he sat quietly and modestly as it was poured out to us. (You can also see Johnson’s Krispy Kreme phone charm in this shot)

Where Western receptions typically include speeches, dances, cakes, and bouquets, Korean receptions are typically just a grand meal. There is no further ceremony after the main events. When people finished eating, many simply left. A few close friends of Mr. Choo stuck around and proceeded to get hammered. My sister was concerned about getting roped into some protracted (and potentially embarrassing) thing with the drunk buddies. So she gave the exit orders, and we were quickly loaded into some vehicles and transported to the hotel.

Another Korean wedding tradition is that the groom’s friends take the new couple out on the town in the evening. Breaking from tradition, Chris, Jean, Eddie Lee, his buddy Min Wu and I were invited along. Mary had expressed some concerns that the outing could likely turn into an all-night event if things went according to tradition.

We met at a pretty swanky-looking Italian place several blocks from the hotel. The restaurant looked like any upscale neo-Italian eatery in the states. They ordered a few small plates to share at the table. There was school cafeteria-style spaghetti coated in copious amounts of melted cheese, linguini with clam sauce, and chicken strips on salad. Here, I must comment on Korean salad dressing. All the salads I had in Korea seemed to be dressed with something that I think is a combination of italian dressing, plain yogurt, and the glaze they use for Krispy Kreme donuts. It has little to none of the acid we’re used to in our dressings. Personally, I really didn’t care for it. They also ordered a couple very-decent bottles of wine.

I can’t remember the names of Johnson’s friends [Mary, feel free to leave them in the comments], but they were all very nice people. Of course, June was there. Also attending was the fellow that tried to read the English script in the main ceremony and his wife. Apparently, Mary and others believe that he is my Korean doppelgänger, having a very similar disposition and outlook. I took a liking to him quickly. He and his wife are both physicians in Seoul. He spent some extended time in the States when he was young and spoke English very well. I wish I would have had some more time to hang out with him. Another fellow designs cruise missiles for the Korean navy. I couldn’t hear what the last guy did for a living.

It was an enjoyable time. I spent a lot of time chatting with Jean and Eddie Lee. Eddie and I almost came to blows over my position that Sideways is the most overrated, crappy movie made. We did equilibrate the peace again after I mentioned my love of the Korean film The Way Home. (I seriously suggest all see this film)

It was really funny to see the dynamic of the table change when people learned Eddie Lee’s age. He’s four years older than me, but looks like he just finished an undergrad degree. In Korea, age is everything. It’s really important to know how you stand in relation to everyone else’s seniority. Like in Japan, one actually uses a different set of words when speaking to an elder. The native people at the table were Johnson’s age (two to three years younger than me). So, when they learned Eddie’s true station, things changed instantly. He was regarded as an elder instead of a peer. He also became the center of attention, which is Eddie’s heroin.

Sometime around 11, things at the restaurant were winding down. The plan was to head to a bar. Mary mentioned to me that Jean was ready to head back, and the period between the restaurant and the bar was probably the best window to depart. Since I was pretty beat, I volunteered to escort her back to the hotel.

The rest of the crew stayed out until 2 or so. When Chris returned to the hotel, he told me that things were winding down, but Eddie Lee started a drinking game. The funny part is that he lost his own game and got himself pretty wounded.

day 6.2: the main event June 26, 2007

A quiet moment before the chaos

Note: In addition to my laptop woes, I’ve been trying to delay this post for a while in an attempt to get more information about the process and symbolism of the ceremony. Before we came, they had a Korean script that was translated into English. It was supposed to be read in parallel to the Korean, but apparently, the wedding guy changed things up and departed from the text. Unfortunately, I never got the original script or a transcript of the ceremony. Hopefully, we can clarify some of that later.

After the stream of visitors to the dressing room died down, it was time to start the show. The main ceremony was held in a large auditorium room. The parents of the bride were seated in the orchestra area in two chairs in ‘The West’ (stage left). The groom’s parents were seated on the other, East, side.

The ceremony started when an old dude wearing traditional robes came onstage wearing what looked like a scarecrow hat. He spoke a bunch of gibberish that probably made sense to most of the attendees. While the man spoke, (what I think was a) geomungo played an accompanying soundtrack.

Next, the two mothers went onto the stage and lit two candles on the altar. They then bowed to each other and returned to their seats. I’m not sure the exact symbolism, but it strikes me as extremely similar to the maternal candle lightings in western weddings.

Next, Johnson and his second [name needed] proceeded down the main aisle. Johnson held a small screen of red cloth in front of his face. His second carried a small wooden duck wrapped in red silk. Most Koreans referred to this as a wild goose, but this country boy knows a duck when he sees one.

There is some symbolism in the wedding that I can talk about. One of the most pervasive symbols covering much of the ceremony was Eum/Yang, or yin and yang. This important symbol is at the center of the Korean flag. Marriage represents the perfect balance of the Eum (dark & female) and Yang (bright & male). In the colors of the wedding, blue represents Eum and red, Yang.

In some of these shots, you’ll see two roosters wrapped in red and blue cloth. From what I’ve gathered, the crowing of a rooster marks the start of a new day, much like the new beginning the couple will undertake. It’s also believed that the morning crowing of a rooster wards off the evil spirits. In the same way, these roosters ward off any evil spirits and bad luck for the new couple.

The one point of the ceremony where the old dude’s Korean gelled up with the script was the discussion of the wild’ geese’. The kireogi (gooseduck) is an extremely central symbol in the traditional ceremony. The wild goose embodies several key virtues:

• Wild geese keep the same partner for life. Even if one perishes, the other will not seek a new partner.
• Wild geese understand hierarchy and order. This is especially demonstrated in their V-shaped flight patterns.
• Wild geese have the nature to leave their existence wherever they go – people should leave a legacy for their descendants when they depart the world. (I’m not sure I get this one completely)

When the groom’s procession reached the bride’s parents, the Jeonanrye (Presentation of the wild goose) commenced. Here, the second (gitukabi) handed the wooden kireogi to the groom. Johnson placed the duck on a small wooden table that was placed in front of the bride’s parents. He then kneeled on the ground and bowed twice to the parents. Then, my father stood while the old guy said a bunch of stuff about the virtues of the goose. At some point, Johnson handed the goose to his new father-in-law. He stood there holding the goose for some time before the old guy said something and the entire Korean-speaking crowd started laughing. I guess he wasn’t supposed to stand there holding the duck.

There was no rehearsal or briefing before the ceremony. The direction came from a stern, older lady in a traditional outfit that I called the ‘fixer’. She guided people through the ceremony, and if they didn’t speak Korean, she had an arsenal of stern gestures or gentle shoves to get things moving. She also spent 75% of her time adjusting the little trinkets hanging off of Mary’s head, straightening and squaring things after each of Mary’s movements.

Next, Mary made her grand entrance. In addition to her wedding garb, she now had a quilt-like veil held up by her arms. She was ‘guided’ down the aisle by three helpers. They actually provided a lot of support and balance to the fully-loaded bride.

She was hoisted by her entourage up the stairs to the stage, where they maneuvered her into her spot on the floor of stage left (West). At any time, there were between three and four women assisting her every movement and action. They started with a ritualistic cleansing of the hands.

The Gyobaerye (bowing) followed. With the assistance of her pit crew, the bride bowed twice to the groom. The groom then bowed once to his bride. This two-for-one bowing was then repeated twice more. The bowing represents the promise of commitment. Of course, I don’t think Mary was thrilled with the bride’s obligation to bow twice as much to the man.

The Hapgeunrye (drinking) followed. In this, some alcohol was poured into a small cup, which the groom proceeded to drink.

The bride’s assistants then poured some booze into a cup. The bride, however, only pretends to drink the alcohol.

They then poured more alcohol into a cup made of gourd. These cups are two halves of the same gourd. The drinking signifies the combined destiny and harmony of the new couple. The gourd halves continue the symbolism of two halves forming a whole.

The groom then ate what I think is a chestnut from a small bowl on the table. I guess he did this prematurely, as the old guy made some comment about him being hungry, which gave the crowd a hearty laugh. Mary pretend-ate her chestnut on cue.

Finally, the couple bowed three times together: once to their parents, once to their ancestors, and once to the guests. At this point, the main ceremony completed.

This Korean ceremony had an interesting reversal compared to Western weddings. The bride and groom are silent and are supposed to be solemn and emotionless during the ceremony. Mary received some criticism afterwards for smiling too much. Meanwhile, the crowd was fairly loud and boisterous at times during the ceremony. People didn’t seem to mind the few children running around slamming chairs. In most Western ceremonies, the bride and groom speak, at least exchanging vows, and frequently express emotion while the crowd sits in a respectful silence. At some point, large numbers of people just stood and left during the ceremony. I guess this is like the 8th inning exodus at a baseball game.

Perhaps it was the language barrier, but I felt that the ceremony lacked the emotive powers I’ve experienced in Western weddings. It seemed more procedural without much sentimentality. Still, it was a real treat to experience something like this so full of history, tradition, and symbolism.

There was no receiving line after the ceremony. Rather, a series of group pictures were taken: family, bride’s friends, groom’s friends and coworkers. These photographs were painfully slow. The photographer was very particular. The ‘fixer’ interrupted every shot to make minute adjustments to Mary’s garb.

Eddie Lee and his former student, Min Wu

There was a videographer taping the ceremony. I understand this guy had a job to do, but he had the amazing ability to block almost every key shot. In addition to my camera, I also took pictures from two others. In all of them, the videographer blocked so many key shots.

Coming next – the private ceremony & reception

laptop is back June 21, 2007

Well kids, at 3:53pm today, my mustard and ketchup colored friend from DHL came into the office with a box. After telling him how happy I was to see him, he commented that he was surprised that this took so long to come back. In fact, he was thinking about checking up on it last week because the Dell repairs are usually turned around in a few days.

I showed him the photos of the damage reported by the repair depot, and he couldn’t believe it. Without any prompting, he quickly recalled the pristine condition of my LCD screen when he boxed it up for shipping almost two weeks ago. He then volunteered to make any needed statements to that effect.

It was pretty reassuring to hear this from him. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go down the path of trying to establish where this damage took place, but the DHL dude was the best witness available, especially because I don’t sign his checks.

One lesson I’ve learned is to photograph the heck out of a unit sitting next to the current day’s newspaper as a proof-of-life before shipping out another unit.

Another funny thing happened today, though. A comment came in on this site in response to a previous post about the laptop from a guy at Dell. I guess they are actively combing web logs looking for public commentary on their products and services. 

This experience was definitely a horror story. I think the failures here were from a lack of communication between the repair depot and the Dell mothership as well as the obstacles standing in the way of speaking with someone who can actually help you. I’ve worked with enough large companies to understand the difficulties they face. In this case, the repair depot is run by Solectron Global, a big company that was just acquired by its competitor Flextronics. It was extremely clear through this process that some of the channels between Solectron and Dell needed to be improved.

Even after this, I still support Dell. In the end, albeit with some work, I was able to hook up with the right people who set things straight. The problems I experienced here are the exception to all the other good things the company has done to keep me a happy and loyal customer.

So, with that I am now back in business. We’ll get more photos up and try to complete the wedding posts over the weekend.

day 6.1: the final countdown June 21, 2007

While we were on our morning hanbok adventure, Mary and Jean were busy making their own preparations. Stage 1 of the process started at the Choo Family compound. I really don’t know what happened there, but I imagine them sitting leisurely drinking tea and talking about boys and shopping. At some point, they also dressed Mary in her hanbok. Jean was kind enough to provide me with a dump of her camera, so I have some photos of the preparations at the house.

At some point, they headed to the wedding venue, where Mary commenced Stage 2 of the dressing process. On top of her hanbok, they added two more layers of wedding hanbok. This red overgarment, I think, was traditionally worn by ladies of high station.
Here’s a shot of the 4 or so layers of her outfit and the funky traditional shoes:

At this point, one of the venue’s assistants started the long and complicated process of affixing a braided bun of false hair and about 900 pounds of ornamentation to her head. I’m sure there is much symbolism, but things were too hurried for me to get much background information.
There were side pieces of decorative cloth forming a shape that reminded me of a cobra’s hood. Perhaps, this may serve as a warning to all of the wrath of an angry bridezilla. A decorative, embroidered top piece is clearly a tribute to the power and wisdom of Mr. T. The rig also included what looked to be a dagger at the base of the bun that kept the cobra hood open. I was told it was not a dagger, but I suggested it might be a good ‘exit strategy of last resort’.

As a finishing touch, they affixed two red dots to her cheeks. I was told that, traditionally, these were usually painted on the bride’s face. I suspect that this tradition started in ancient times as an indication of health, but I am told that the dots are intended to ward off negative energy.

Here’s Jean with a completed Pimp-my-Mary. I suspect that the wedding rig increased her weight by 50%, volume by 200%, and bling by 837%.

Johnson’s process was much simpler. Underneath, he wore the innermost layer of his hanbok.

Then, they added a hat that would be the lovechild of a pilgrim and mickey mouse

Finally, he donned a blue robe with an embroidered tiger design. This is the traditional robe of a general. The tiger is the national animal of Korea.

He also wore a curious wooden square with inlaid mother of pearl as a belt. Johnson was not certain of its function or symbolism, but I believe that it is a handle by which the new bride can drag her new husband around kicking and screaming.

By now, many people had arrived and were filtering back to the dressing room. In almost every Western wedding I’ve seen, the bride is kept sequestered in some secretive, estrogen-protected lair. Here, the bride was seated in a small room like pandas at the zoo with lines of people waiting to get their pictures taken with the main attraction.

Meanwhile, the front lobby of the venue was packed with hundreds of people. Some decided to come in their own hanboks, like this little shaver.

I guess bona fide traditional Korean weddings are rare even in Korea, and many people came just to check out the spectacle. There were two tables in the lobby. Guests would come to either the bride or groom table and present a plain, white envelope containing a cash gift for the couple. A quick count indicated the groom’s table collected 400 envelopes. A conservative factor of 2 people per envelope would yield at least 800 attendees to the wedding.

The parents were also posted in the front, complete with white gloves, to receive the guests.