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A Look Back: Our Korean Wedding Ceremony
Three years ago at the end of October, my family from the States arrived to Seoul and we made our way down to Busan to prepare for my first wedding ceremony to my husband. Though it’s not our “official” anniversary because we chose our subsequent American wedding ceremony date in January, that doesn’t stop us from receiving a card yearly from my grandmother wishing us a “Happy Anniversary” in October. Every year about this time, the leaves begin to change colors and I am taken back to images of the colorful Hanbok that I wore for our ceremony surrounded by family and friends outside on a gorgeous day with blue…
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Mom, why can’t I understand them?
I met my husband’s family early on in our relationship. Only a few months into the courtship he was headed down to Busan for something or other and he was going to stay at his sister’s house. I asked if I could go to meet his family and he took me and didn’t mention until we were at the door that Korean families don’t usually meet girlfriends and that his conservative family would probably ask if we were going to get married soon. We met and as my Korean conversational skills were pretty low at the time I played with my husband’s one year old nephew for most of the…
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A Korean Deals with Sarcasm
The second time he came home with me, it was summer and everyone was more comfortable. Jae-oo knew where things were in the house and could get them on his own, though he still wanted me to help him find things in the kitchen, and my family was now comfortable enough to wear pajamas in front of him in the morning. With guards let down, it was inevitable that this would be the first time to really see if there was any discomfort between people without the fake ‘nice to meet you’ smiles on. The novelty of dating a foreigner had somewhat rubbed off and people were starting to act…