6 months in Korea-A wedding (not mine) and Namsan Tower

Wow...6 months. I can't believe it. In some ways, it seems like I've been here forever but in others it feels like I just landed. These have been 6 of the most difficult yet joyous months of my life. I've learned so much about myself-mostly that I still have a lot to learn. I've learned who I can lean on no matter what (my family) and who I couldn't trust after all. I've learned that despite feelings otherwise, I'm an incredibly blessed person. The last four years have been difficult. But they've led me to where I am now. My co-teacher and I were talking about fate, destiny, and karma today...I truly believe that I've been led to Korea for a reason. Right now that reason is healing. I've got a lot of scars on my heart from difficult work situations and people that have betrayed me but I'm working so hard on getting rid of that scar tissue.


But anyway, today was a wonderful day :-) A teacher at my school had her wedding today, so 3 of us met at Guri Station and went into Seoul for the wedding. This wedding was different from my other co-teacher's wedding and definitely different from anything we do in the States. There were colorful rotating lights everywhere and instead of a regular aisle down the middle of the chairs, there was a clear catwalk with designs etched into the glass and lights below to illuminate it. Her students sang and did a wonderful job-some of those kids have amazing voices! The highlight of the wedding was when the groom picked up his new mother-in-law and carried her down the catwalk and back! After the wedding, they took a few family pictures and then it was time for all of the couples co-workers to come up and take a picture. We took 3 or 4 pictures of all of us clapping, then it was time to eat. They had a HUGE buffet, which thankfully included a large selection of fruits and vegetables. So I feasted on a large salad, pineapple, and delicious honeydew as well as some Korean food. The bride and groom came by to greet us before we left, looking stunning in their traditional Korean clothing called hanboks.

After leaving the wedding, my co-teacher and I headed towards Namsan Tower. I've featured Namsan Tower in a lot of my pictures, but not from up close! We decided to take the cable car up instead of taking the stairs. In retrospect, a VERY smart decision. The cable car workers packed in as many people as possible and then we floated up towards the top of the mountain!

 Once the car arrived at the top, we unfortunately still had a ways to go. To get up to the tower area, you have to climb a series of obnoxiously steep and unpredictable in depth stairs. Not fun. We reached the top of the stairs and discovered a group of young men dressed in Joseon dynasty era clothes, which we were of course curious about.

We were in luck! They were minutes away from performing. I managed to get several videos of them. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!