Boom. I Wrote Something.

I heard it stated on Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab on VH1 a couple of years ago that women "love addicts" spent hours as children fantasizing about their knight in shining armor, coming to rescue them someday.  Or, they fantasized about marrying a prince and living happily ever after, or something along those lines.

I never fantasized anything like that as a child.  When I was little, I used to fantasize I was Pippi Longstocking.  I think about that now, and what it means.  

Let's take a quick look at Pippi.  Even though she was only 10 years old, she lived all by herself in a big old house.  She had no parents to boss her around (her father was alive, but busy being a pirate in the South Seas) so she called all the shots and did whatever she wanted.  She missed her father terribly, but wouldn't let that get her down too often.  She had good friends and would take them on adventures.  Even though she had loads of money from her father, she didn't really need it because it was more fun adventuring without it.  She was really strong--she could eat nails and lift 10 men in the air at the same time, or her polka dotted horse.  She could even fly--whatever she imagined she could do, she could do it--until someone told her otherwise.  And even then, she would laugh it off, like, "Oh yeah!  I forgot I couldn't fly!"  But she sure had fun doing it two seconds ago.  Pippi was a terrible student.  She took everything too literally, kind of like Amelia Bedelia.  But it didn't matter, because she had real-life experience, and street smarts.  She was excellent at dodging pesky policemen and that annoying orphanage lady.  Sometimes, times got tough for Pippi, and she would get sad...but she always pulled through in the end.  She made her own rules.

I think it was just the other day when I realized that all of my childhood dreams have come true.  But that's not what I want to write about.

So what should I write about today?  I have so many random little topics on my mind that nothing is coming together as a cohesive story.  Maybe you can help me out.

Should I write about my children's lunches?  It makes me chuckle to see the things my Korean kindergarteners eat on a daily basis.  Things that would make any American child cringe and say, "EW!!!"  Of course, the food here is MUCH healthier...cooked fresh in the kitchen downstairs from real, whole foods, and no additives to speak of.  But can you imagine a child from back home saying, "More seaweed, please!"?  They do here!  These 4 year old kids here slurp it right up--tiny little fishies with the eyes in them still...tofu soup with slimy, unidentified leaves...spicy kimchi...radishes...strange mushrooms...and plain white rice.  

Or maybe I should write about riding the bus to school every morning, and home again at night.  Riding the bus is like a sport.  Really, it's almost an art form!  Sometimes, I get a seat--but usually I don't.  Standing on the bus is not like standing on the subway, which goes in only one direction.  No, I cram in that bus at 8:30am with all the other people going to work.  If I get a bar to hold on, I'm pretty lucky.  Usually it's just a hanging handle, though.  Sometimes I'm awkwardly squished in front of a seat with my ankle twisted at a funny angle and someone's elbow digging in my ribcage.  Then the bus rocks its entire contents from side to side, left and right, up and down, forwards, and backwards.  I'm armpit to armpit with men in business suits and briefcases and women in clean pencil skirts and stiletto heels. We're all just trying to stay off the floor of the bus by anticipating its movements, bending our knees, and holding on tight!  You have to use your muscles...strong!  I think my arms are getting more toned, actually.

Crossing the bridge every day is "fun."  At the end of it is a roundabout which really tests the passengers' ability to balance and hold on for dear life.  It's a double decker bridge--the only one in Seoul.  I went on a city bus tour about a month ago that said the two layers of the bridge represented the "morning sun and the dynamics of life in the city," or something like that.  My friend and I absolutely busted out laughing when we heard that.  What it really represents is that nothing bigger than about a speed boat can travel down the Han River (because that's all that would fit under the bottom road of the bridge)...but, whatever they say! 

On my way home it's usually dark by then...so going across the bridge I get to look at these two large buildings, built right out into the water on docks, that are lit up with rainbow colors at night.  One of them is just the regular LED-looking lights, that flash and change color every few seconds, in unison.  The other is something very different...something I've never seen before.  The entire outside of the building, which during the day just looks like plain glass, lights up in different animated psychedelic rainbow patterns!  I never get tired of looking at it.

Maybe, though, I should just write about the wedding I went to in Busan weekend before last!  That was fun!  My new friend and coworker, Ashley, got married to a Korean man from Busan, so I got to see my first Korean wedding.  Busan is a beautiful city, as far south in Korea as you can go.  It's quite big (not nearly as big as Seoul though!), and it's on the beach.  I took the bullet train with my other friends from work and Oh My Goodness...that's the only way to go. No creeping traffic, and we were to the bottom of the country in about 2 and a half hours.  We went up Friday night and stayed in a Love Motel, where they give you a real bed, large mirrors, a huge TV playing hilarious Asian porn where they don't show the crotch, free condoms, and a remote control to control the ridiculous lighting concepts. 

The wedding itself was fun, too!  Ashley didn't have to plan any of it, by the way...it was all arranged by her husband's parents in just over a month.  When we showed up, Ashley was of course all dressed up in a beautiful gown...and sitting in the "Bride's Room," put on exhibit like she was in the zoo!  Of course, we went inside to see the beautiful spectacle and pose for pictures with her.  Then we stood out in the main room and stared at the amazing view of the beach.

Ashley and I in the Bride's Room, where she was sitting on display

View from the wedding hall

You don't bring gifts to a Korean wedding--you bring money.  You must give it to someone sitting at the front table, who counts it and puts it in an envelope and labels it how much and who gave it.  And it has to be in increments of $50.  Anything else would be back luck.

The beginning of the actual ceremony was quite different from regular Western weddings.  The bride and groom's friends danced down the aisle to techno club dance music!  Then came the bride and the groom, who read their vows to each other in their non-native languages (Ashley read hers in Korean and Tae Hyun read his in English), which was very cute and crowd-pleasing.  I was actually sitting at a table next to my boss, who informed me that Ashley had, indeed, done a very good job.  It sounded perfect to me, that's for sure!  After bowing respectfully to both the bride and the groom's parents, the Koreans of course popped colorful streamers over the newly married couple as they walked back down the aisle.

At the end, after almost fainting because of the heat in the building, Ashley threw the bouquet.  Gene caught it and, in doing so, impaled her thumb, squirting blood all over the flowers.  It was pretty awesome.

Battle wounds!  Check out the blood on the ribbon :)

After the wedding we went to a huge Norebang, which is a Korean karaoke room.  They are quite popular in Korea.  You rent the room by the hour, go inside, drink with your friends any alcohol you've snuck in or purchased at the Norebang itself, and sing karaoke songs alone amongst yourselves.  There are plenty of familiar English songs, as well as Korean ones.  There's always a huge screen with all the words, microphones, a place to enter the number of the song you want, and disco ball lighting.  It's really fun...especially when your friend's little brother keeps you entertained the entire night by helping you sing "Bills, Bills, Bills," and tons of Bon Jovi songs on his own, delightfully out of key.  Anyone who can do that and will help me pig out on nachos later is okay in my book!

The best part of the evening

I also chose to sing "Doo Wop (That Thing)" by Lauryn Hill.  I rapped the lyrics with almost perfect accuracy...to which my coworkers looked at me incredulously and asked, "Who ARE you?  You've been so quiet this whole time!"  I was proud to show off my mad rapping skills!  Too bad there were no good Snoop Dogg or Notorious B.I.G. songs available...I could have completely blown their minds.  Oh, well.  After singing "The Thong Song," my coteacher Amy was convinced our preschooler's Christmas song performance would be the best, since I was teaching it to them.

The next day all my friends were sick after a night of partying, except for me, who refused to drink anything but water all night.  So that morning, I slept in a bit and then walked around the beach for a while.  Later, my friends woke up, and we went to the aquarium, where we saw some strange sea creatures and watched sharks with scary overbites swim overhead from a glass tunnel.

But I can't do the whole wedding trip justice right now...I'm too tired!  But my mind is racing.  I ate a whole lot of broccoli today.  Maybe I should just write about walking all the way from Dongdaemun to Insadong the other day, accidentally.  I was with Amanda, and we did some wandering and wandered farther than we had planned!  We saw some cool sights along the way, though.  First, we braved the incredible Dongdaemun Shopping Complex labyrinth to look again at the wildly vast array of crafting items.

Then, we crossed the canal...

...and found the light fixtures district.  Everything seems to be districted in Seoul.  They like having districts for things.

 Next, we got hungry and ate a fried potato pancake on the street...

Then we saw a bunch of nice hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) stores...

Children's hanbok

More children's hanbok (because it's the cutest)

TONS of children's hanbok!

Then we passed by a Buddhist temple, as we got closer to Insadong...

And then we found two girls in their hanbok willing to pose for a picture!

And then there's the fact that I'm going to St. Louis for Christmas in a couple of weeks...I'm having visions of my adorable baby niece and a huge shopping mall with clothes AND shoes in MY size...aaaaaaaah!  I just don't know!  What should I write about???  

Oh, wait!  I already did.