Pink Pants

I’ve uploaded the photos from the wedding, with the “costumes” that everyone has been asking to see. I’m not sure if people believe Brad wore pink pants… well here is the proof! Enjoy.

  We all arrived in style to the wedding…However we did get alot of looks when walking through the hotel to the taxi!

  Nice pants Brad…nice gloves too!

  Trent and Maya

More photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77936547@N00/page2/

On my way home

Well I am in the Hong Kong airport again and thought I would update the site. I’ll post tonnes of pictures when I get home. It was a very good trip to Korea but I admit I am looking forward to getting home to see Carter.

The wedding was alot of fun: Trent and Maya had a traditional Korean wedding. On Friday we went to pick out our hanboks (traditional dress). I am not the size of a teeny tiny Korean woman, and despite the language barrier, I understood that my arms are very long, my feet are very big, and I am very tall… so the hanbok I rented had never been used before! Anyway while we are there and the “girls” are trying on our hanboks, Mike (Shawn’s youngest brother) is somehow convinced to try on the male hanbok. Mike tried it on, but chose blue pants and refused the pink pants at first. It is traditional for men to wear pink for weddings! Anyway, by the time we left Mike and Brad (Shawn’s dad) both had rented hanboks, with yes, PINK pants! So what this meant was that the two remaining brothers, Shawn and Dan (who had not arrived in yet) had to also wear hanboks. Yes we were quite the crew, all seven of us (parents, brothers, sister-in-laws) in very colourful hanboks. All the men some component of their outfit being pink. Something we never thought we would say is: “Brad’s are the brighter pink pants”, when we were trying to figure out if they were Mikes or Brads pants! We do have a great deal of photos of us in our “costumes”, which is what Brad has opted to call the hanboks.

The entire ceremony was in Korean so we had no idea what was being said, there was alot of bowing, drinking of tea, traditional dancers, trading of birds between the couple and mothers, and throwing of rice and beans at the end. It was amazing that  Maya had to hold a large silk cloth over her arms, the entire 30 minute ceremony, which meant she had to hold her arms at 90 degrees the whole time. She had two of her aunts that stood next to her during the ceremony to help her hold her arms up and help her get up from bowing since her dress was so elaborate. After the ceremony we all ate, then changed out of the hanboks and headed to a bar to party until 5am!! Was very fun.

The day after the wedding, the girls (Maya, Shirley, Suzanne and I) headed to the spa for massages. It was a experience to say the least. They split us into groups of two. Suzanne and I were together, and of course we had the staff who did not speak English. So first we stripped naked, put on the disposable underwear they handed us and climbed on the massage table next to each other. Yes, Suzanne and I have now officially bonded! There were two little ladies that came in and rotated between us: one doing the upper and one doing the lower body. These ladies poked and prodded us until it hurt, there were to be no tight spots or knots by the end! Then at one point the little lady tried to tell me something, and next thing I know, my boobs are being massaged. This bring a whole new meaning to “full body” massage!

Next we headed off to Jeju, a small island off the tip of Korea. This was great since it was very hot. We went to a few beaches, did some snorkeling, toured caves and waterfalls, and even did some deep sea fishing. I have to mention, (since it annoys Shawn…and Brad) that I caught five fish and they caught none! Then back to Soeul for the DMZ tour. It was pretty interesting to learn about the war between north and south korea. We even got to walk the equivalent to 25 stories below ground, in one of the tunnels. It is amazing that they have turned some of this into tourist sites while the country is still divided and the military is enforcing this. We also did a little shopping at one of the big markets (tonnes of purse shopping!), and visited a huge fish market. We also ate a tonne of Korean food, which yes is vey different from Chinese food. Spicy, spicy, spicy! But I actually got used to the spice and by the end I was eating food much spicier than I normally would. Kimchi is served with every meal, which is cabbage (or raddish or cucumber) fermented in hot sauce. By the last day I was eating the kimchi even without the rice buffer. Spicy soup, seafood soup, bean soup, spicy rice dishes, tofu soup, sushi, cold noodles, and sweet potatoe noodles… all delicious.

Very fun trip. I’ll post photos from home, I’m sure some of you are anxious to see all of us in the “costumes”.