Last weekend I went to my first Korean wedding.  It’s a modern Korean wedding, so not nearly so much bowing and ceremonial stuff that I wouldn’t understand without a narrator.  Also no traditional clothing - at least not for the bride and groom.  Well, traditional clothing was involved, but not until after the ceremony and the photos.  The wedding was in a pretty large church, and she wore a beautiful white dress that had a long train and was all beaded and glittery, along with a veil that also followed the beaded and glittery theme.  She looked gorgeous, and both of them seemed so happy.  I felt so privileged to have been invited to be a part of her special day, and I wish them all the best.  A couple of photos for your enjoyment:

Yesterday, I worked over 15 hours straight.  I am surprised I was able to string a sentence together by the end of it.  Why in the world would I do such a crazy thing, you might ask?  Well, I wasn’t the only one.  Our boss (or our boss’s boss’s boss’s . . . boss’s boss) was in town for a special event.  Seems to have been a success, though.  Yay, us!  Now we can try to get some sleep.

You don’t get someone to just sit and be companionably still with.

You don’t get to have a hug or a sympathetic glance from across the room when you’re having a really hard day.

You only get a couple of hours a day of contact with the person who matters so much to you, and sometimes you don’t even get that.

You don’t get a companion to go with you to parties or dinners, or even to share a quiet home-cooked meal.

You don’t get to walk down the street, taking in your surroundings, holding hands with someone you love.

You don’t get a pair of welcoming arms at the end of the day.

But you do get this (it came in the mail today):

Well, overnight between Thursday and Friday, we were told Chennai is out. So the long, long, saga continues, and now the verdict is this:

Yep, they’ve changed the whole thing to be destination MUMBAI.

So Chennai is out, Mumbai is in. Timing, we’re told, remains the same, and prospects for us being together also, so say the powers that be, remain the same. Now all they’ve got to do is find us some actual job slots to move into, assign us to those slots, and redo all the preparations I’ve already started on for Chennai. Sigh.

Fingers crossed that this is indeed, as they assure me, the final word.

5 weeks and counting…

It’s rare that I am driving to work and turn a corner and literally gasp in complete shock at what I see in front of me. It’s particularly rare in a city like Seoul where the rules of the road are not always followed and accidents are relatively common. However, today that is exactly what happened.

Because today is the day that this:

… became this (I took this photo just after recovering from that great astonished gasp):

Namdaemun, or “Great South Gate” is (was?) one of only two remaining gates from the city walls that protected Seoul back in the old days. Years ago, the Korean government designated it as National Treasure #1, and it is (was) probably the most famous landmark in all of Korea. It represents a deep connection to their history, and a great pride in their country - indeed some colleagues today called it the symbol of their country.

There is some speculation as to the cause of the fire that led to the subsequent collapse of the top part of the gate. Knowing what I do about how Korea works, it is doubtful that Namdaemun will remain in this state for long, and it is also doubtful that the timbers now lying charred atop what remains of the gate are anything close to the original 14th century timbers. But people here in Korea are nonetheless, quite understandably, completely appalled.

I left Seoul over the Lunar New Year holiday, and went down to the 2nd-largest city in Korea. Pusan (or Busan, as it is sometimes written) is in the far southeast, about as far away as one can get from Seoul and still be in mainland South Korea. We took the KTX (fast train) down there and stayed one night, explored the city some, met up with some Seoul friends, had the traditional Korean New Year’s repast (Ddeokguk, or rice cake soup) at the home of a friend’s friend, and wandered around a seaside temple and what remains of a hilltop fortress. Just a few of the highlights…

. . . there is a verdict. A firm one. An *actual* verdict. After four months, we finally have a real plan.

I’m going to be able to live with my husband before our first anniversary.

I’m going to be leaving Seoul early, and I’m going to be in Chennai, India before summer (this summer, that is).

I’m so, so happy that we can finally plan for the future in a real sense. I’m relieved that I now have an actual date after which my husband and I will at last be able to really feel like we’re married, and act like a real married couple, and finally live together. We’ve been waiting for this for so long, living in a constant state of agonizing separation for so long, that it almost doesn’t seem real even now that it actually is.