Over the Weekend

So Friday, one of the guys in my dorm took me and a couple of his friends to his home town for the weekend. He lived in a small town about two hours away from Seoul called Chuncheon. He had been describing his town to me for the last couple of weeks and he would always use adjectives like "small, clean, rural, and even quiet." One thing I forgot to consider was he was comparing it to Seoul. On an American scale it was none of the above. Saturday morning two people from his church had a wedding and we were able to make it to both of them. It was really neat. In many ways it was much like an American wedding, but it was also different in many aspects also. John, the guy who invited me, conveniently forgot to tell me that we were going to a wedding so I had to borrow one of his dad's suits for the day. One of the things that I thought was pretty funny is that they played the Pomp and Circumstance as well as The Bridal Chorus. I wasn't sure if it was a wedding or graduation. In Korea, most weddings are taken place in wedding halls that are especially made for weddings. Very few Koreans get married in churches, but this trend is actually starting to change with the younger generation. The neat thing about these wedding halls is that since they're built for that particular purpose it makes the wedding that much more exciting. When we first walked in, I saw this room that had an opening and people were crowded all around it taking pictures. As I got closer I noticed that it was the room where the bride and her bride's maids were standing. No one was able to go in the room, but everybody was able to walk by and take pictures before the wedding. It was the neatest thing because other than the opening where people came to take pictures, on the side there was this huge door that opened up to the sanctuary. So basically, the bride would stay there and let people take pictures of her until it was time for her to walk down the aisle. On the other side of the door there were ushers, or more like bodyguards who stood post at the door until the exact time for her to walk down the aisle.
After the wedding started, it kind of got crazy. As the bride walked down the aisle, lights started flashing, the floor started lighting up, and fog started coming out of the floor. I never been to a Vegas elopement, but in my mind that's exactly how it would look. At the end of the ceremony, I was able to take part. Since my friend was one of the singers in the wedding, they gave him these "poppers" to pop as the bride and groom came down the aisle. He gave one to me and showed me how to use it. It was neat.