Standing room only on the train, giant pizzas, coastal temples, taxis in traffic, pictures at the beach, rosemary-garnished margaritas, Irish Pubs, green beer, midori sours, shamrocks, naked underwear dude (this is why people should not drink in excess!), spilled wine, smelling like a bar...St. Patty Day in Busan. 

This weekend is a 4 day weekend compliments of the lunar new year.   According to Wikipedia, Korean New Year, commonly known as Seollal, is the first day of the lunar calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day.  The Korean New Year holiday lasts three days.

At school, we were given some gifts  for the holiday.  I received a package of tuna & canola oil, rice cakes and socks.  Love it.  Such different gifts than I've ever received in the states.

I'm heading to Seoul this weekend.   Not sure if there will be anything going on for the weekend, as it appears that Seollal is a holiday that is spent at the home with your family.  If there is anything of interest, I'll be sure to report back.

My friend Carrie taught in Seoul a few years back.  This weekend, her former co-teacher was getting married and I had an opportunity to attend the celebration.  We headed to Seoul on Friday evening so we could enjoy the entire weekend.

On Saturday, we did a lot of walking around and people watching...always interesting!!  We then met up with some friends and went to a wonderful Korean BBQ place for lunch.  We continued touring after lunch then went back toward our hotel area for dinner.  We found a great curry place.  The best part, however, was the Gorgonzola cheese naan.  DELICIOUS!!  Have I mentioned that the cheese in Korea sucks???  I've never considered myself a cheese snob, but when the only option is yellow, rubbery stuff, you really appreciate a taste of real cheese.  A+ on the Gorgonzola!!!

Sunday was the wedding.  We headed out early as we needed to get to a subway station to lock our luggage in a locker before taking the express bus to the wedding hall.  After fumbling around with the locker (instructions in Korean only), we headed to the bus.  Oops, we locked the directions in the locker.  Good thing we also had directions via subway/cab.  

We arrived at the wedding location.  As we stepped in the building, it basically looked like a department store...lots of shoes, gloves, hats for sale.  Seemed a bit strange to me, but as the escalator approached the 7th floor, it was clear that we had found the right spot.  Music was playing and people were chatting in the large, open area.  For a moment, we wandered around lost, until we were rescued by one of the bride's sisters.  She directed us to the location to leave our monetary gift, then shuffled us over to a little room where the bride was sitting.  Apparently the bride sits in this little room until the wedding starts and takes pictures with friends and family members.

At noon, the ceremony began.  It started with the mothers of the bride and groom walking down the aisle.  They did something at the front of the room and bowed to the audience.  Then, the groom waited at the back of the room for his bride to enter through a little door (connecting the main hall to the little room she was in).  After she approached the groom, they headed down the aisle together.  

During the ceremony, people would come and go as they like, people chit chatted, and enjoyed each others company.  I'm not sure that anyone was listening to the speaker.  Interesting.  After the ceremony, the family took pictures then the friends took pictures.  All were group shots.  Then, Carrie was selected to catch the bouquet.  We're not exactly sure why she was the chosen one, but in front of all the family/friends, the flowers were tossed and she caught them.  She will apparently be married in 6 months.  :-)

After the photos were finished, we headed for lunch.  This was a huge buffet where everyone in the wedding hall ate...from the wedding we attended and other weddings.  It was massive.  While we ate, there was another ceremony going on across the room.  This time, the bride and groom were in traditional Korean attire.  Unfortunately, we didn't really have an opportunity to check it out.  After we finished our meal, we said goodbye to the couple and headed back to the subway station.  After another struggle with the lockers, it was time to return to Ulsan.

It was a beautiful ceremony, I just wished I knew more about Korean wedding traditions and such.  There was a constant stream of questions going through my mind and I may never know the answers.  Enjoy the photos.

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a birthday party for the daughter of one of my co-workers.  Now, this wasn't just any party, we were celebrating the birthday girls first birthday...known as Tol in Korean.   In the past, due to a lack of medical information and many childhood related diseases, the death rate for children was extremely high in Korea. Many children died before their first birthday. After the age of one year, the survival rate steeply increased, making this milestone a very happy one for the child's parents.  Although this is not the case anymore, the tradition continues.

Tol is celebrated with lots of friends, family and food.  We had Korean BBQ where duck was served with a variety of side dishes...kimchi, salad, egg souffle(!), radishes, soup, etc.  After dinner, there was a traditional Korean ceremony called Toljabee.  During this part of the event, a blanket was placed on the floor with 3 items on top: a roll of thread, some money and a pencil.  The birthday girl was set at the edge of the blanket and she was to select an item.  This item is supposed to predict her future: thread=long life, money=wealth, pencil=scholarly.  Today the birthday girl selected the thread.

After the toljabee, happy birthday was sung in English and in Korean then dessert was served.  Oh, and did I mention that my co-worker is American?  This meant that we ended the party with a slice of home...Costco cake! :-) 

This was a holiday weekend in Korea.  Chuseok is basically like a Korean Thanksgiving... where everyone goes home to visit their families.  Schools and businesses were closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I enjoyed the long weekend.

On Saturday, I went with several friends to Busan.  We took the slow train, so the ride was about 45 minutes to Haeundae Beach.  It was raining when we arrived so we headed indoors to to have lunch at a "Mexican" restaurant then headed to the mall.  The food at the restaurant wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't Mexican food as I know it.  The best part was when my vegetarian friend discovered that the potato in her burrito was actually tater tots.  LOL!!  As for the mall, it was huge...I believe it was 9 stories tall and it had everything you could possibly need.  In the afternoon, the rain stopped so we had a chance to walk along the beach and take a couple of pictures.

On Sunday, I joined a couple of the gals at the local foreigner bar to watch a Rugby match between South Africa and Wales.  We have a couple of die-hard fans here.  Until this day, I have never really watched a rugby game before...I must say that it was much more entertaining than football or baseball.  After the game, we walked around the old downtown area and grabbed dinner.

Monday was Chuseok day.  We were invited over to a Korean gals home for dinner.  Five of us went and enjoyed the afternoon/evening.  Our host, Heidi, is a sculptor and lives in an artist colony.  Her workshop, with kiln, is across the street from her home so we were able to take a tour.  Everyone in the neighborhood is artistic.  One of her neighbors works with metal, the other works with stone and metal.  I took several pictures of dinner, the neighborhood and Heidi's work.  It was a very enjoyable evening.