Hooray for field trips. They give us a chance to play away from school and also a chance to take loads of photos with our new camera.
Today we took the morning classes to a random farm in the middle of nowhere. We all hopped into the buses with our classes and drove forty minutes into farm country. We went to see a kiddie-geared tomato farm with lots of beautiful covered gardens and places to picnic and play. The kids got to run around and be outside in the gorgeous spring weather and we got to play, too. We took a little tour of the tomato fields and got to feed some fenced-in chickens and a rather fat rabbit.
We all sat down at picnic tables and had a delicious and incredibly healthy lunch. The school provided great packaged lunches that were made by caterers. We all got some baked chicken wings, cherry tomatoes, loads of gimbop (which is mostly vegetable sushi with some small slices of ham; lots of carrots, cucumber, radish and mushroom sprouts), a tangerine, a banana, and grape juice boxes. It was awesome.
After our wonderful outdoor lunch we had a talent show on the little stage that was there. Each class has been practicing something to show off to the other classes. My class sang "Witch Doctor" and did a little dance. Nick's class sang Mr. Sun and also did a dance. All the classes were super cute and it was a lot of fun.
When each class did their part in the talent show the kindergarten classes went to make topiaries. We were given a little kit with eyes, a nose, a mouth and "ears" made out of balls of mushy plants and sod that had metal spikes sticking through them. Each kid was given a small mountain of more mushy plants and they had to beat them flat. Then a sprig of ivy was placed in the middle and we formed our "mat" of mushy plants and dirt into a ball around the ivy. We used some twine to ensure it would keep shape and then decorated our ball with the previously mentioned eyes, ears, etc. When we were all done and our hands were nice and dirty we had mouse-y bear shaped little heads made out of plants. It was sort of cute, but overall a frustrating activity to do with six year old children. By the end of the activity I had heard "Teaaa-chhuhh help me!" too many times and I was ready to go home.
As many of you know, Nick and I are getting married in May of 2011. We have been planning our big day while overseas and some time ago I started looking into having my dress made here in Korea. I've been sketching and saving pictures of dresses I like and compiling them all into a little wedding sketchbook. When I was looking at wedding dresses online I was deterred by the US prices of the dress styles I liked. I had been looking at wholesale wedding manufacturers online and I was struggling with the idea of buying a dress without seeing it or spending more money than I wanted to on my dress. Luckily, I have some amazing friends here who were more than willing to help me break into the world of Korean weddings. My Korean teacher made an appointment for me to consult with some dressmakers. It was a very exciting day!
First, I went on my own to "Wedding Street", In Ahyeon-dong. I walked past many wedding dress shops and took some pictures with our new camera :). I went into a few shops to talk with the dressmakers and figure out how much I could expect my dress to cost, what the quality of materials and craftsmanship were like, and how easy it would be to work with these seamstresses. While some of the display dresses were stunning, I left most shops feeling disappointed. The shops all had three or four dresses on display and that was it. Few had books or images for me to see, and many spoke little to no English. Most of the better fabrics were wildly expensive and the ones that were in my price range felt and looked cheap. I figured if I had been able to find a place I loved I could have brought my Korean speaking friends to talk with them, but ultimately I left Ahyeon-dong doubting I would ever buy a dress from there.
I met my friends at Hak-dong station not too far from Gangnam and together we went over to Yulianna Wedding Consultants. Our appointment was at 4 pm and it was just a short walk from the subway station. We were right near Furniture street and large, expensive displays of Scandinavian couches and French antique furniture were in classy, over-the-top stores all around us. We turned onto a little side street, entered a building and went up to the fifth floor. Our consultant was waiting for us. She led us into a little room with purple velvet couches and MOUNTAINS of wedding albums. We sat and talked and sketched for hours. We went over every detail of the dress, with my friend patiently translating so nothing was left unsaid or misunderstood. We poured over pictures and photographs and discussed fabrics, bead work straps, hem lines, where the zipper would be...everything you could imagine! The woman was wonderful, thorough, and kind.
After an exhaustive examination at what I wanted in my dress, I was whisked out of the purple room to the pink makeup and hair room. They pinned up my hair in twists and braids and tacked a tiara onto my head. I was told that a wedding is my day to be a princess, and that they would make me look like one. Now, most of you know I am NOT the princess-y type, but I wasn't given the option to not be a princess, haha. They took off my smaller earrings and clipped on some huge, sparkly monstrosities. I was told it would look good from far away. They powdered blush on my cheeks (Too pink! I argued, but was told it would look good in the lighting) and smacked gloss on my lips. My eyelashes were curled and mascara was layered on. I was not comfortable playing the girly girl.
Next I was whisked onto a raised rectangular stage. In the middle was another raised section, this one was a circle. I was directed to stand on the circle. Mirrors flanked me on three sides, golden curtains were hiding me from my friends. Three women stripped off my clothes and pinned me into a dress that had some of the elements I liked for my own dress. I slipped on some heels they provided me and then they put a bouquet of flowers in my hands. Suddenly hot stage lights were turned on and the curtain swept back, presenting me to my friends. It was surreal and very amusing. I was paraded about in a few different dresses, discussing with my consultant about what I liked, what I didn't, how things felt, etc.
The price was right and with all the attention to detail I knew that this was the place for me. I went for it and signed a contract. My dress will be hand made and I will go back May 15th for my final fitting. At that time the dress will be complete and we will make sure no further alterations need to be made. If there are changes that have to be made, I will most likely be shipping the dress home the first or second week of June. I am so excited that everything ended up working out so wonderfully, and I am eternally grateful for my beautiful Korean teacher for helping me with the most important dress of my life! I couldn't have done it without her, and I am so happy to have her as my friend. I still can't believe that I bought a wedding dress today!
HOLY FISH.
Today we went to the Noryangjin Fish Market for the first time. It was an unbelievable, overwhelming experience.
First thing's first, I must describe the smell. It is the most potent, overpowering, completely saturating smell I have ever experienced. Now, I have never been to a trash dump, so I cannot imagine what that smells like. But the stench of fish was so complete in this hangar that I gagged a few times during our adventures and almost lost my appetite by the time we were going to enjoy our own seafood feast. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
The fish market in Seoul is gigantic. On the second floor there are several restaurants that will cook your fresh seafood. On the main floor, hundreds and hundreds of vendors are lined up in a huge hangar selling all sorts of seafood. Seafood like we've never seen before. There were buckets and bins and Styrofoam boxes full of creatures that none of us could identify. Octopi trying to escape only to be pushed back into their buckets, inky water swirling. Sea snails and worms wiggling and fluttering in water that was constantly replenished by hoses. Liquid fish guts, old sea water, and fish blood ran in rivulets off every surface, forming a rather unpleasant muck for us to walk through. I bought new shoes on the way home - my ballet flats were soaked through and I knew they were ruined beyond repair.
Unpleasantness aside, the fish market was an amazing sight. Once we got used to seeing unbelievable sights and the smell became tolerable (for me anyways, Nick and Brad did not have as much trouble acclimating) we marveled at the bustling, chaotic order that was the fish market. This was a serious place of business. Auctions were going on over a loudspeaker. Vendors would yell and motion for you to come close, pulling a fish out of their tanks to show off. Men, women, and children whirled around us buying all sorts of seafood...we watched live octopi thrown into black plastic bags to take home or fresh sashimi cut up on old wooden chopping blocks. And when I say fresh, I mean the fish was wiggling a minute ago. The vendors would take the chosen fish, throw it mercilessly on the ground (in the delicious looking muck, mind you) and smack it's head with a wooden stake that had a spike at the end. Half the time it would sever the fish's spine and they would immediately stop wiggling, their gills split open with a sickening thwack. We were taken aback at the nonchalant brutality. We don't get to see how the meat gets on our plates...but at the same time, we watched with a serious fascination. We couldn't wait to have one killed for our own feast.
After a few hours of examining each type of fish and random seashell filled with some random squishy creature, we decided it was time to choose our meals. We picked some enormous prawns, a king crab, and a "small size" sea bass. We picked our prawns first, had them weighed, and then unceremoniously dumped into a black plastic bag. Our crab was handed to us alive, in another black plastic bag filled with sea water.
Our fish we had to pick live out of a tank. The gentlemen who sold it to us was a pushy man. After we made our choice and he murdered our fish, he shoved us down the little alley that he had thrown our still twitching feast (we named him Flipper!) and a woman with large rubber gloves swiftly chopped off Flipper's head and ripped out some of his guts. She hosed the body down and then we argued with the man about taking the fish with us. We wanted to go upstairs and have it cooked in a restaurant of our choice. He wanted us to go to his friend's restaurant. Ultimately, we were the ones paying, so we got our way. The woman threw the body in one bag and the head in another. We went upstairs with our bags and found a restaurant that would cook all our seafood for a very nominal price. It looked clean and was crowded, and so we slid off our (now disgustingly foul) shoes and padded onto the heated wooden floors to sit traditional-style on the ground.
We indulged in our steamed prawns and king crab, dipping the fresh meat in soy sauce or red bean paste with freshly chopped garlic and parsley. We had Flipper "barbecued" crispy. The fish was flaky and had the most perfect mild taste. We also had Flipper's head thrown into a very spicy pepper soup. The soup had potatoes and onions, greens and mushrooms. The entire head (eyeballs, flippers and all the juicy parts) was boiled in the soup for over an hour as we ate the first three courses of our meal. By the time they brought it to our table, piping hot, the succulent meat was flaking off the bones. Four hours after we arrived at the fish market we made our way back to the subway, feeling full and satisfied. It was an amazing day.
