Lucy and Danny's Wedding

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go to a Korean wedding! Two of our coworkers, Lucy and Danny, were married at a large wedding hall in downtown Ulsan. The building is about 7 floors high, with a different wedding occurring on each floor. It was such a fun and different experience for us since we've only been to weddings in the States.

It began in a large foyer area where the groom and parents mingled with the guests. The picture above is of Danny with his mother.

Next to the foyer, is a small room where the bride sat to have her picture taken with each guest before the wedding. We thought this was a good idea, but kind of takes away from the initial excitement of seeing her walk down the aisle.

Melissa with some of the Korean teachers we work with.

It was then time to be seated in the wedding hall. Frank and John, along with some of our coworkers, talking before it starts.

The wedding began with the mothers each lighting a candle and then bowing to each other. The groom then walked down the aisle by himself and waited for Lucy to enter the room. They didn't have any bridesmaids or groomsmen.

Then all of sudden we saw multi-colored strobe lights flashing, fog from the floor filled the room and we heard a fast-paced, almost "rock" version of Here Comes the Bride as Lucy walked down the aisle with her father! It felt like we were in a sci-fi movie. Needless to say, the three of us were trying to control our laughter!

After the rock concert ended, Lucy and Danny greeted each other with a bow. The wedding itself lasted 15 minutes and of course was all in Korean. The STRANGEST thing was that the majority of the guests were all talking during the ceremony. There was a constant chatter in the room and people were coming in and out, even walking around. Also, some of the guests went ahead and ate at the lunch buffet during the ceremony. We weren't really sure what to think.

After the couple spent a couple of minutes bowing to their parents, they proceeded down the aisle where people threw confetti all over them. During the ceremony, the couple wasn't asked to repeat any "I do's." Also, there was no kissing involved.

After the wedding, pictures were taken of the bride and groom.

This is a full family shot.

Lucy and Danny with their parents. The mothers are in their traditional Korean dresses.

ELC company photo! Frank and John on the left, Melissa on the right (second row down) We were the only non-Koreans at the wedding.

After the pictures were taken, the guests who had not already eaten went up to the seventh floor for the lunch buffet. This was a huge room which guests from all the different weddings ate at.

The wedding overall was a really fun experience. It was beautiful and we're really happy we could learn about this part of the culture.

Korean Beaches

For the past couple of weekends, we've been trying out some of Korea's beaches and enjoying the nice Spring weather.

Haeundae Beach- Busan
Last Sunday, we went an hour south into Busan's Haeundae Beach with our coworker Dan. The beach was really nice and reminded us of Ft. Lauderdale. Along the beach, they have an Outback, TGI Fridays, Starbucks, Bennigans, Dunkin Donuts, Papa Johns, Baskin Robins and KFC! It was unbelievable! We ate lunch at Fridays, which was incredibly expensive, but good.

Having a drink on the beach.

The beach is actually a cove and is quite small for being the most popular beach in S. Korea, only a mile long. The town in the distance on the mountain was really beautiful.

Large apartments and hotels are along the shore...pretty upscale and very Western.

Frank and Dan

Dan taking it all in and wishing he lived in Busan.

Jujeon Black Pebble Beach- Ulsan

Yesterday we went with Ramin, Tahereh, and John to check out another beach. Jujeon's shore has no sand, it is completely covered with black rocks. It was pretty and unique, but made it difficult to lay out or walk along the beach.

Group shot!

John and Frank

Frank and John practicing their Tai Chi moves on the rocks.

Us with Tahereh and Ramin

John found a huge shell among all the rocks.

Fresh seaweed being dried before it's cooked in our food. Mmmmm, appetizing right?

Yuka Comes to Visit!

One of our best friends from Japan, Yuka, came to visit us for a few days last week! She was one of the Japanese teachers that we both worked with. Yuka and her husband, Taka, took us on many hiking and road trip adventures in Japan, so we were really excited to get to take Yuka on somewhat of a Korean "adventure."

The first night we took her around a popular area in our neighborhood, Mu Ga Dong, which is down the street from our apartment. This is a restaurant, shopping, bar area with tons of college students since it is directly in front of Ulsan University. We ate at a delicious Korean BBQ restaurant and had coffee at our favorite coffee shop. We had a lot of catching-up to do...

A Trip to Gyeongju

The next morning, our Korean friend Michelle, picked us up at 8am and took us an hour away to Gyeongju. This city was once the capital of Korea from 57 BC-935 AD. The Silla Dynasty lasted for 992 years and most of the sights Gyeongju has to offer date from the 7th century! Gyeongju is known as 'the museum without walls,' and has more tombs, temples, pagodas, and rock carvings than any other place in South Korea.

First Stop: Seokguram Grotto (a Unesco World Heritage Site)

We began by driving up the side of a mountain, then walking along a path for about 10 minutes to reach a famous Buddha statue that is considered to be one of South Korea's most important national treasures. The Buddha is actually in a cave and is constructed from slabs of carved granite. It's 11.5 feet tall and is supposedly similar to cave temples found in China and India.

This is us walking along the mountain path to reach the Buddha.

Outside the Buddha cave, Yuka took a sip of natural spring water.

A pagoda on the mountain. It was so foggy up there!

Next Stop: Bulguksa Temple

The next stage of our trip took us to South Korea's most famous temple, Bulguksa, which means 'Buddha Land Temple.'

Yuka and Melissa in front of the Bulguksa Temple.

Walking towards the temple, we first passed a couple of lotus ponds on both sides of a bridge.

At the front of the temple complex is a large stairway known as Sokgyemun, it has 33 steps signifying the 33 steps to enlightenment, which symbolically lead to the 'Land of the Buddha'.

We couldn't resist trying some deep-fried corndogs!

Us with Michelle enjoying the Cherry Blossom trees.

At the front of the temple, 4 huge statues were built to guard the entrance of the temple.

A huge drum at the temple.

Inside the Bulguksa Temple.

The three storied stone Dabotap Pagoda, which was built in 751.

A view of the temple complex.

Last Stop: Driving around Gyeongju and the resorts

We ended our trip to Gyeongju by driving around and exploring the city some. We drove through a lot of family resorts where guests can play golf, rent bikes, etc. We also drove past the Gyeongju tower, which is probably one of the coolest buildings we've ever seen. In the middle of the building, a pagoda is carved out where you can actually walk/see through the building.

A Korean Lunch
We ended our time in Gyeongju with a traditional Korean lunch. The funny thing about eating in Korea is the amount of dishes they bring you! We could only eat about 1/2 the food they brought us. The restaurant is famous for it's tofu, so we had a few different varieties of that, plus some veggie dishes, a couple soups, and some kimchi-pork. Oh ya, we can't forget the fish they served us with it's eyeballs protruding out...we passed on that dish!

Bye Yuka!

After a few days with us, Yuka had to head back to Japan. We had a great visit with her and are hoping to see her again before our year here is over!