Our friend's standard sized Korean Wedding

Back in the chilly depths of mid February, Rowan and I attended our first Korean style wedding. The wedding was for our old university mate Dean who was marrying his long term Korean girlfriend, the lovely Choon Wha. The wedding took place on a cold Saturday afternoon in a rather grand wedding hall in Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi province (the province where we live). 

We were a little bit nervous ourselves as Rowan and I had both been given special roles. Rowan was the best man and I was the MC. Being the best man didn't seem to involve much really although Rowan did have to make a last minute dash back to Choon Wha's apartment to get the all important wedding DVD showing pictures of  the young Dean and Choon Wha and telling the story of how they got together. He managed to make it back just in time and saved the day - good job! Dean didn't want a stag do so Rowan didn't have to sort any of that out. 

My role was a bit more unusual. I was the English speaking MC and had a Korean counterpart who was unbelievably nervous at the responsibility that had been given to him. Our job was to stand at the side of the hall at the front and read out the directions and announcements for the order of service, me in English and my Korean counterpart in Korean of course. We had to use microphones so everyone could hear but that didn't worry me as I have to make an audio broadcast to the whole school every Thursday and Friday morning so I'm used to it. Weirdly, we were also made to wear these little white gloves which looked pretty funny. Dean and Choon Wha's parents had to wear them too. 

My Korean counterpart and I stand at the edge of the room with our microphones and little white gloves.

Suwon Hwaseong (Fortress and Walls)

We didn't just get drunk and watch football, sorry "soccer" while we were in Suwon. We also did some cultural stuff and took a look round Suwon's Hwaseong (Fortress and city walls).

Suwon is the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do, the province we live in and we'd already been there once albeit briefly to get our alien registration cards sorted out. Since we didn't see much beyond the immigration office that time we thought it was worth coming back to check out the sights beyond that exciting office.

The view from the Suwon city walls over the city, you can see Suwon world cup stadium in the distance.

The bright lights of Suwon

Rowan and Choon Hwa posing by a statue of Korea's first woman western style artist Na Hye Seok

Suwon is the only completely walled city left in South Korea and it is famous for its large, beautiful Hwaseong Fortress and the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace contained within it which was built on the orders of King Jeongjo in 1796. Unfortunately, most of the fortress was destroyed during the Japanese occupation as they had a policy of liquidating Korean culture and history and it was further damaged during the Korean War. However, luckily for us, the fortress has since been restored to its former glory if not its former size. The walls are about 10m tall most of the way round and are dotted with sentry posts and ornate entrance gates.

The east gate of the old city walls

Castle on top of the hill within the fortress walls.

The 'Hwaseong Train' that we unfortunately didn't manage to catch.

This is Suwon's 12 ton bell which is rung for special occasions including New Year and Chinese New Year.

An archery range just by the walls. Apparently the Koreans are extremely good at archery so don't mess with the man with the bow!

The palace itself was really beautiful and we happened to arrive in time to see a recreation of a traditional Korean dance and music performance in the main courtyard which was a good excuse for me to get my camera out.

Suwon palace is set on the side of a mountain.

Beautifully painted roofs in the palace

Yes, they're not real, they're cardboard cut-outs of characters from a Korean historical drama that was set in the Joseon Dynasty era and filmed in the Hwaseong Palace.

Korean traditional dancers performing nong ak (farmers dance).

Dancers again, the dance was traditionally performed to ensure a good rice harvest.

Every now and again one of the dancers leapt in the air and threw themselves round 180 degrees on their side.

The drums they're beating are called chang ku.

The two lead dancers facing each other.

Within the palace there were various traditional cultural activities that you could pay a few won to do including pottery making, fan painting and paper making. Rowan chose to go down the traditional costume route and was dressed up in traditional Korean armor. As it was an incredibly hot day and the armor was pretty thick he was boiling alive under it all but it was worth it! Once he had it on he became a magnet for Chinese tourists who all wanted their photos taken with him. In Korea the excitement of seeing a westerner is enough for lots of people to want to take your photo or have their photo taken with you and seeing a westerner in Korean traditional armor just increased the level of interest.

Getting fitted for the armor

Rowan stands guard in a doorway of the palace.

Rowan posing with some Chinese kids.

With the guards at the palace.

Attack of the Korean ninja!

Suwon is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety" (caring for your parents) and according to the Rough Guide to Korea it has "what may be the world's greatest concentration of high quality public toilets - armed with the relevant pamphlet from the tourist office, it's even possible to fashion some kind of toilet tour." Wish we had known that before we went, that could have been an interesting tour to take! However, our friend Dean has reliably informed us that though Suwon's public toilets are very nice they never have any soap, hot water or toilet paper which is a shame (though standard for Korea). Still, we definitely plan to go back to Suwon at some point to ride the dragon train, see the martial arts performances at the palace and maybe to check out some of those palatial toilets too!

Fighting for Korea - World Cup 2010

Well the World Cup madness is over for another 4 years for England and for South Korea but we had fun "Fighting" for (supporting) our adopted country while it lasted. The world cup has provided us with plenty of amusement and material for lessons but its not just the action on the pitch that has been amusing.

Take the Korean World Cup advertising campaign for instance. The advertising campaign shows a group of foreigners standing around looking annoyed with their fingers shoved in their ears as they are shouted at by a stadium full of chanting Koreans. The slogan "Shouting for Korea" seemed to be an attempt to encourage the Koreans to shout even more than they usually do to cheer their team on. Presumably, this was in the (mistaken) belief that if they did it enough they might be able to annoy the other teams into losing. There were also loads of funny/irritating World Cup songs including the insanely catchy World Cup Song No.1 by K-Pop boy group 2AM which I played as a prize for my 2nd graders - by the end of that teaching week I was waking up humming that bloody song! And of course who could forget the 'Shouting Dance' by Big Bang.....

Imagine trying to get the English fans to learn that many moves!

About 3 weeks ago we were visiting a Korean friend of ours in Suwon (the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do) for the weekend and we just happened to be around for South Korea's first big World Cup game against Greece.Our Korean friend lent us South Korea t-shirts for the night and we went down to a sam gyop sal (bacon barbeque) restaurant to cheer on the "Red Devils", stuff our faces and drink plenty of soju (of course).

Sam gyop sal, delicious pieces of pork belly, cooked on a camp stove at your table nom nom nom!

Are you busy? In Korea is polite to wait to have your drink poured for you. The youngest person does the pouring apparently. But if you get bored waiting just ask "Are you busy?"!

We were wearing the old Korea football shirts that said "Be the reds!" (whatever that means). The new ones say "The Shouts of the Reds!" as the Korean team are the reds and "shout" seems to be a popular Englishee buzzword over here at the moment (as if the Koreans need any more encouragement to make loads of noise all the time!).

We were given these inflatable plastic thingys to bash together whilst shouting "Dae Han Min Guk" - they make a hell of a lot of noise

Rowan inflates the plastic things.

There were loads of Koreans there, mainly families with excited young children but also groups of young men hitting the soju hard and young couples too. The atmosphere was fantastic and the crowds were rewarded with an entertaining game and a Korean victory.

Spot the waygook! (foreigner)

We foreigners joined in the cheering too - "Dae Han Min Guk" (I think it means Republic of Korea)!! In fact, the Koreans in the restaurant were so impressed with our "Shouting for Korea" that when the game was won a group of men came over to our Korean friend and gave us a load of money and explained that it was to pay for our meal to thank us for our support! Best football game ever!

A happy Korean fan strikes a pose!

Some crazy Korean fans wanted to celebrate their country's win by having their photo taken with us in Suwon city centre! Say "kimchi"!

We engaged in a bit of celebratory, post-match, deep-fried cheese munching - delicious!

No, that's not a bloodied dismembered finger that Rowan's eating, it's just a deep-fried breaded lump of cheese dipped in ketchup!