Three Weddings... and a Funeral?

I came back from the wedding in South Korea only to attend yet another wedding on the 12th; this time at the Arbutus Club in Vancouver. And this banquet party was huge in comparison. There must have been over a hundred and fifty people in attendance; family and friends all together to celebrate the union of Imelda and Sameer. Su was the maid of honour and was sitting nice and pretty at the head of the table with the newly weds. Su

They’d hired a team of photographers who took pictures and HD videos with Canon cameras. There was a guy editing videos on a MacBook Pro on the fly as well. The high quality video of the actual wedding ceremony in the morning was made into a well edited, full featured film for the banquet in the evening. Amazing...

After chowing down on a buffet of delicious morsels, followed by drinks at the open bar, it was dance time on the dance floor! The evening wrapped up with more drinks and a colourful piñata being beaten to death. Little children gathered around the bride and groom, who each took turns beating the shit out of it, blindfolded, waiting to pounce on it’s innards. However, it just wouldn’t die. Someone commented that the piñata should be made in China next time.

After several more blows to this docile creature did it finally spill out what the young children were waiting for... candies. Except that there were more than just candies: candy fruit favoured condoms as well. The kids were going nuts, but so were their parents, I’m sure. It’s all fun.


The third and final wedding was on the 18th for Jay and Morgan, affectionately hereby now known as Jaygan. This was held at Milner Gardens at beautiful Qualicum Beach on the island. As Jay was Norm’s best man when Norm and Lucy got married last year (also in September), it was only appropriate that Norm be Jay’s best man. It was supposed to rain this weekend but the sun came out instead, casting its ray of light on us all. Echo, Ieda and I stayed at the newly built Beach Club Resort with a balcony overlooking the boardwalk along the beach. Couples young and old walked hand in hand while dogs ran after their master on the beach at low-tide. At the end of the boardwalk was a small gazebo where another small wedding was being conducted.

In the evening, Tim and Kemila, Echo, Ieda and I decided to crash someone else’s wedding party by gyrating on the dance floor. Although we had kept to ourselves and was clearly having fun, we were asked to leave by a hotel staff informing us that this was a private party and not a public club. No one else seemed to mind, but whatever... we acquiesced.

Three weddings in as many weeks. Whew! Now that it’s all done and over with, I think it’s time for a funeral. Here’s hoping that it wouldn’t be mine.

Seoul Searching.

Yes, I know, I know. I just couldn’t leave that pun alone!

So here I was off to South Korea to participate in my brother’s wedding not knowing if they’d be someone to greet me when I arrive at Incheon International (ICN). In any normal situation, one would think that the basis such as exchanging names and contact numbers of people, information about flight arrivals and departures, and where and when to meet would have been covered. Not so when you leave it in the hands of Stanley. Even mom and dad, who took off on the first of September, the day before I did, didn’t know what to expect the moment they wheeled their luggage through the arrivals gate.

Emails to Stanley for information went unanswered. The best we could do was to send him information about flight numbers and arrival times along with a subsequent update on their six-hour delay due to hurricane Earl back east, and hope that if would get to him in time. It was under this uncertainty in which my folks flew out of Vancouver International (YVR).

Because I had procrastinated when it came to booking my flights until the last minute, economy class was all filled up I had no choice but to fly Executive Class on JAL (boohoo). And even still, I had to catch a connecting flight at Narita International (NRT).

As requested and granted, I had no one beside me on the first leg of the trip and comfortably sat by the window in my fully automated clam shell seat that transformed into a bed with a push of a button. My in-flight movie was Letters to Juliet a sappy spineless film which followed a well used Hollywood formula and concluded with a predictable ending. My bad. My inflight meal, however, was delicious! Foie gras and port wine jelly for hors d’Oeuvre and a fillet of beef steak with port wine sauce accompanied with ratatouille and fresh salad. With my meal, I had a selection of champagne, whites and reds to choose from. I went for the Louis Jardot Bourgogne Rouge Couvent des Jacobins 2008. For snacks, they served traditional Japanese osembe (rice crackers) and JAL’s original Sky Time Yuzu drink. “Airline food” have most certainly come a long way.

Arriving at NRT, I went straight for the internet cafe hoping to get information from Stanley. That was a negative. I spent the rest of my two-hour layover reading Douglas Coupland’s The Gum Thief in the airport lounge.

Arriving at ICN, disturbingly hot and humid at 29ºC, I was glad to see familiar faces. Stanley and his wife to be, Hyejung, escorted me out of the airport to the car waiting out front with her father at the wheel. We drove over to the Koryo hotel in Bucheon where I was reunited with my parents once again. Not a moment too soon, they’d asked me about my flight over which I gladly went into detail about until I was abruptly told to stop the moment I said the word champagne. It turned out that their economy flight on Air Canada served cup noodles for dinner and water for drinks. They had to ask for tea.

The wedding, which was on the fourth of September, was nice and simple. It was my first time seeing my brother in a tux. News of the wedding itself came by surprise. It was a western styled wedding with a Korean twist. It took place in Korea where Korean food was served and consumed by friends and family of the bride and groom who were mostly all Koreans. Though they didn’t speak much English, my new extended family were very nice and hospitable. Mom looked really good in her kimono.

The next day, we went to visit the Korean Folk Village. The weather turned on us while we were in the van and we’d witnessed our first tropical thunder shower with water droplets as big as marbles got us drenched from head to toe in a few seconds. It didn’t stop us from venturing outside, however. I was even bold enough to take my DSLR out, though in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have.

It was mom’s birthday on the sixth and we helped her eat her cake at our hotel suite.

After seeing my folks off at the bus station for their journey back home, I checked out of my hotel and made my way to visit a friend of mine, his wife, and their nineteen-month old son on the other side of Seoul. They were kind enough to host me for the next three nights while I explored Seoul on my own.

An art district called Heyri located about ninety minutes north-west of Seoul caught my interest while I was looking at places to visit. It turned out to be a wonderful place with art studios, galleries, cafes and residences all housed in very unique pre-fab structures. It was architecturally amusing and I’d spent about five hours there just walking in and out of structures and discovering new things. This whole area was a quiet place, not frequented by a lot of people. It’s nothing to complain about, as I came here to get away from the tourists, but is gave it a slightly eerie feeling. I walked through many galleries there, fully lit and air conditioned with music playing, but there was no one in sight. It was a delight.

That evening, I met up with Jiyun, another friend of mine I hadn’t seen since leaving Beijing. We got together for dinner at Hongik University and briefed each other on our lives. She’s as beautiful, cheerful, and fun as I remember her to be and her laughs and smiles are so affectionate, it’s genuine. What great friends I have!

The next day, I ventured back into the city and explored the Deoksugung Palace and the Gyeoghuigung Palace. It was a place steeped in history and the architecture was very similar to that of ancient China’s Forbidden City with structural columns and beams in crimson red and rooflines ornately decorated with splashes of yellow, green, blue and orange and motifs of clouds and floral patterns. While strolling the grounds of ancient Korea, a view of new world Seoul came emerged from behind. The building beside the glass tower was under construction and had a blue G20 Seoul Summit banner covering the entire façade. The juxtaposition of Seoul’s glass towers from the pottery roof shingles of the palace was poetic.

At the Seoul Museum of Art, an exhibit titled Media City Seoul 2010 was on display. What caught my eye was that this exhibit was supported in part by the British Columbia Arts Council. Entrance was free and I was even given a device that gave audio tours. I was instantly captivated by artist Sara Morris’ Beijing; a video montage of the sights and sounds of Beijing. I sat there on the floor for well over an hour waiting for the end of the video which I never got to. There was another video installation by Rainer Ganahl titled I Hate Karl Marx, of a German woman yelling and ranting at a statue of Karl Marx in a park... in fluent mandarin. The video and still images from this video can be found on the artist’s website here: www.ganahl.info/Ihatekarlmarx.html

Visiting Seoul was a nice experience, even when I was caught in a torrential downpour twice. I can now add another country to the list of countries I’ve travelled.

Things that I noticed in Korea:

- Little rectangular block of foam padding on car doors. Almost every vehicle had them! Is this to avoid door dings and dents?

- Barcode labels on car windows. Is this a remnant of new vehicle identification as seen on dealers lots? Koreans seem to like to keep it on regardless of how old the vehicle is.

- Old vehicles in Seoul are few. Most on the roads were produced within the last five years, dominated by Kia and Hyundai badges.

- A section of highway along the Han River were scored so that the tune Marry Had A Little Lamb could be heard while the tyres drove over them. How novel!

- SPAM is considered as gourmet food. Of course it is; it’s IMPORTED! They come in fancy packaging, typically as a box set of eight cans, and is traditionally given as a gift. The power of marketing.

- The kimchi fridge. A top loading fridge (like a deep freezer) specifically for storing kimchi. Only in Korea.

- Fashionable young Koreans. Between China, Korea, and Japan, Koreans display a good sense of style. Good looks to boot.

- When approaching an interchange station on Seoul’s metropolitan subway, a 10-second clip of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A Minor is played before announcing the name of the next station. With 13 lines criss-crossing each other, this tune quickly became an ear-worm tune.