Cousin?

I have discovered that when I mention a relative such as aunt, uncle, or cousin, people want to know exactly how they are related to me.  Then I have to try to remember how second cousins and removals work and describe the relationship.  This is because in Korean, every type of relative has their own name.  Your mom's sisters are a different name than your dad's sisters.  "Cousin" is not even a word they can really understand since your aunt and uncle's children have a different name depending on you mom or dad's side.  I don't know how second cousins work, but I suspect they have their own name too.  I have not memorized these at all since none of my family is Korean and I just use to opportunity to describe my family.
Another confusing aspect of naming relatives specifically comes in siblings.  Since I am a girl, I would call Laura (my older sister) Unni.  If Laura was Riley's older sister, she would be Nuna.  To Ruth, Riley (her older brother) would be Oppa, and if she were a boy, he would be Hyung.   Younger siblings are less important, so they are usually just called by name. 
If you have a friend more than a couple years older than you, you are supposed to call them by these names as well, not by their actual name. 
This gets very confusing.  I miss just calling everyone "kinfolk."

Rainy Season

A couple weeks ago I was woken up at 5 in the morning to FLASH! BOOM BOOM RUMBLE RUMBLE...  Welcome to the rainy season!  Even though that has been the only loud thunderstorm thus far, it rains almost every day.  Its one of those steady rains that is less than a downpour and more than a drizzle. 

The good thing about all the rain is, its almost always cloudy so the sun doesn't come out a lot to make the world into a sauna.  There are breaks in the rain.  Yesterday we woke up to a steady rain, but by the time we were ready to go to work it had stopped.  Then, it rained again that evening, stopped for a while, and started raining again this morning. 

It also doesn't help there is a typhoon on the way here weaving its way around Japan to hit only Korea.  Daejeon is in the middle of the country, so we will just get more rain and probably won't even notice its a typhoon.

The rivers are very happy and some of our rock bridges have disappeared.  But even then, its not as bad as we were expecting, we just take our raincoats with us where ever we go.  Raincoats are not the fashion here.  People only use umbrellas, they even bike with them.  Koreans get very concerned when we start to walk in the rain with only raincoats.  I think historically the rain may have carried bad things in it during the war, and this idea carried on in the minds of the adjumas and adjushies.  The rain is fine now, but raincoats are still "American style" rain protection!

Middle of Nowhere

Last Saturday I got the opportunity to join a group from my church and travel to a corner of Korea to help fix a floor.  Our church had a mission training course that Riley and I attended for the past 11 weeks.  Also in attendance was the pastor of this small country church.  When our church found out he needed help getting a new floor down, they organized a group to go fix it.
We drove 2 hours, 1 down the highway and the other weaving around mountains.  As we got closer, we went up and around a mountain, and a beautiful valley appeared.  It was a drizzly day and everything was green, it looked like a cloud rain forest with rice fields. 
We tackled the floor by putting plastic squares down to raise the floor so the damp wouldn't get in.  Then we layered it with plastic and vinyl and put all the furniture back.
They fed us delicious home cooked Korean food for lunch that had lots of fresh vegetables like zucchini (know here as "green pumpkin"). 

Misty mountains over rice paddies.

Just being in the middle of nowhere was so beautiful.  I got to catch little green frogs too!  I don't know how to get back there, but if I had a choice that was where I would live in Korea.

Kam Ja Tang

Kam ja tang

I have tried a new Korean dish lately and thought I would share.  Its called "Kam ja tang" with "kam ja" meaning potato.   Its main feature is the meaty beef backbone that is boiled with potatoes, mushrooms, dumplings, and greens (I think these were radish tops).  It has a soup in the bottom that is delicious, but the dish can't be called a soup since the food sticks up over the top of the bowl.  You get a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce to dip the meat in.  I like the potatoes dipped in it too. 
Yay for Korea to create a delicious dish out of leftover parts of meat!

Things people say

If you ever go to Asia, one of the first challenges you face it telling people apart.  Everyone here has dark eyes and dark hair.  People also have similar hair cuts to match the current fashion.  It takes a while to figure out how to tell people apart.  You would think it would be easier for them to tell Westerners apart since we have a variety of hair colors and eye colors, but they feel the same way about us as we do about them.  Everyone with brown hair looks like they are related.

This makes for interesting conversation.  In Korea, couples looking alike is a good thing (I don't really know why, their standards of beauty are very uniform).  People say Riley and I look alike all the time, and they don't seem to realize its not really a good thing since it implies we are related. 

By Korean standards I am beautiful because: my nose has a bridge, my eyes are wide, and I have blue eyes.  They would be surprised to know that in the US I am not considered a "beautiful person."

Koreans tend to call the odd things foreigners do as "cute" which is why lots of Koreans told me my dad was very cute (they call Riley cute too).

A Chinese friend told us that my mom sounded British, but my dad didn't.  We were also told that my parents were very calm people.  I was confused until I remembered this person used to live in New York City.

One other thing someone said, and I haven't had the chance to get her to explain more, it that she was very surprised to see how proud my parents are of Riley and I.  She said that Korean parents would never tell people they were proud of their children. 

Traditional Korean Wedding

Last weekend Riley and I got invited to a wedding for a friend of ours.  She is from China and she married a Korean guy.  We had heard the Korean weddings were strange combinations of Eastern and Western culture, but our friend insisted on a traditional Asian wedding. 
The beginning and ending of our journey was a long bus ride full of Chinese students.  It was strange not understanding a word anymore.  Not that we know Korean, but we can pick up words.

Once we got to Seoul, we drove into the War Museum parking deck.  We were very confused until we realized the wedding was going to take place in the War Museum courtyard.  They had everything set up for traditional weddings near all the missiles and tanks parked outside.  Luckily we got there early so Riley and I could look around the yard some at the tanks, airplanes, and boats.

Our friend had decided on a Royal wedding where the bride and groom were dressed as the prince and princess of Korea.  The dress was really elaborate.  The groom's hat kept getting in his eyes.

The bride and groom.  The colors of Korea are red, blue and yellow.

The first part was getting the bride and groom into chairs to be wheeled to the top of the aisle.  This took a long time for the bride since it meant getting her headdress off and on again.  Then the bride walked down the aisle first.  There was lots of yelling in Korean and drumming.  Then the groom joined her with more yelling and drumming.  They also brought the two wooden ducks down the aisle and set them on a table.  Speaking of tables, there were tables of fruits, candles, and incense arranged at the front. 

After the drumming and yelling (translated "Congratulations"  "May you live a thousand years") they walked back down the aisle.  Then they came back and took a lot of pictures.

We then went to an all you can eat buffet with sushi, fried mushrooms, fish, potato salad, and ice cream.  The bride and groom came back in more comfortable looking traditional Korean clothes (Hanbok) and greeting everyone.

It was really interesting, but the odd part was all the attendants were from the wedding set-up.  They were basically actors helping the couple through the ceremony.  They had really neat outfits, but I think I would prefer knowing the people who helped me get married.

I loved the colors, though, everything was really bright!  It was a beautiful wedding, and the couple looked really happy (especially when the groom got to change his hat).

Mom and Dad's Trip Concluded

After a whirlwind 10 day tour of Riley and Margaret's favorite places in Korea, Mom and Dad made it safely back home. 
We took them to see our work place and what a traditional market looks like.  The we took them for Sam Gap Sal that evening, but I think they were too jet lagged to enjoy it too much.  The next day was rainy, so we went to the Natural Science Museum so I could show them the Korean wildlife and how to make Kimchi.  Then we went to the Arboretum to see Korean plants.
The next few day we went to Gyeongju.  This is a town that used to be the capital of one of the three kingdoms, and it has huge tombs for the kings and queens.  There is also a famous temple and many famous Buddhas.  We climbed a mountain that was very steep and rocky, but the views were worth it.

Mom and Dad on top of Namsan

 Back in Daejeon, we visited the nearby national park for some hiking and souvenirs before heading back to get ready to have our bible study. 
We then visited Gong-ju to see the old fortress and some more museums. 
The next day we went to lunch at a Korean household.  The guy who had us over is our small group leader for our mission training classes.  It was delicious!  They even had cheesy pasta!
The rest of the time was just visiting and packing.  It was a great visit!  We didn't even have time to get to Seoul.  They wore Riley and I out!