Wednesday = 2 months in Korea! Say whaaaaat?

New pictures HERE and HERE in webshots!

Last Saturday I went to my Korean coworker Sunny's wedding. It was about an hour and a half south of Seoul, so some of the teachers from Froebel took a van down. Sunny was marrying a British guy so we weren't sure if it was going to be super traditional or not. From what we gathered it was a bit of both. I received my invite to this wedding about 3 weeks in advance (which for a wedding invitation seemed a bit last minute) but apparently weddings are usually not as big of a production here as they are in the states. The actual ceremony lasted a little less than an hour, and in general was pretty casual. She wore a traditional white wedding dress, and he was in a tux, but his mom and her parents were dressed in traditional Korean clothing, with the mothers wearing a hanbok. After the ceremony we all gathered in a giant cafeteria like place that had an all you can eat buffet with about 50 different dishes. I got to try jellyfish! All in all it was a fun experience to be a part of!

Jimjilbang. Something we were determined to try when we were here...but one of the experiences we were more apprehensive about. These are the bathhouses where everyone just takes it all off and enjoys the spa (separated by gender at least). We went with a few of our Korean girlfriends and it was a lot of fun! We relaxed in a green tea water hot tub and went to the sauna where we had girl talk and ate some traditional Korean spa food (yes they even are able to eat in the sauna...its ridiculous!) and drank some traditional rice drink as well. These places have everything...massages, scrub downs (more detail about that in a minute), an outside deck (at least at the one we were at), a place to sleep/watch tv, some have a place to get your nails done, and even a bar. Rach and I decided to get a scrub down since it was our first time and we had heard so much about it. Basically we had to lie on a table while a middle aged Korean woman (in her underwear nonetheless) put on two exfoliating gloves and scrubbed down our entire body. It was absolutely disgusting all the dead skin and dirt that came off of my seemingly clean body! Afterwards I had never felt so soft and radiant and just clean. We will definitely be going back for another scrub at some point, and probably a massage in the near future!

This past Friday I went on a retreat with some of the Froebel staff. We went to a nearby island called 강화도 (Gangwha-do). When we drove there on Friday night it got so dark we were all amazed. It reminded me of MN and Wisconsin (particularly the cabin) and I got pretty homesick for about 20 minutes. It was just an interesting realization that I hadn't seen it that dark in quite a while living in such a big city. Once we got there though I started feeling better. The Korean staff made us a huge home-made dinner which was phenomenal! After dinner we played some games and went to bed. The next day we got up and went hiking at a nearby temple in the mountain. The air was so fresh it was a very nice break from city life.


That's about it for now - we have ALOT of fun things planned though so hopefully we will be able to keep up with the blog while they all happen! One of the biggest trips is coming up in just a couple weeks....TOKYO! We have an extended weekend so we booked a trip to Tokyo and also plan on visiting Mt. Fuji. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is the world famous fish market/auctions that happen at dawn and where you can get the freshest authentic sushi you will probably ever eat! Sushi for breakfast...what a wonderful concept :)

Also we are going to the DMZ on an overnight trip and bunjee jumping on that trip as well! Here is a link describing this trip in more detail: http://www.adventurekorea.com/ (click on "Overnight DMZ Trip and Bungee Jump")

Through the same people we are going on a hiking trip to Seoraksan National Park. To look at this trip go again to http://www.adventurekorea.com/and click on "Seoraksan National Park."