When will we eat noodles for you?

If you ask this in Korean, it means more than an inquiry about your lunch plans. The meaning: When will you get married?

We went to our first Korean wedding today. This is my soup, which is a traditional kind of noodle soup served at weddings.

Austin's student Julie graciously invited us to her lovely ceremony. Plenty of the wedding was quite similar to the traditions we follow in the States, and other parts (bowing to parents, for example) were distinctly Korean.

Julie, Austin's student, also happens to be a professional model, and she was a knockout, as were plenty of her guests. The bride is sitting with her mother and mother-in-law, who are wearing traditional clothing called "hanbok." The mother usually wears pink, and mother-in-law green:

Here we are with her:

The happy couple:

All the friends of the bride and groom cheering on a smooch:

The reception was shorter than receptions in the U.S., and there was no dancing. The food was more lavish than any wedding I've ever attended, though, and of course there was lots of fresh fish (that's a shrimp in my chopsticks looking right at you in the picture below). This is us at the reception table with Anna and her hubby:

왓치맨! (Watchmen!)

As I was strolling through Jongno the other day, on my way to a Korean lesson with my friend and tutor Juil, I saw this...

and I have to say I got pretty excited.  

In anticipation of the movie coming out, I read Alan Moore's highly acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen over Christmas break.  But until recently, I wasn't sure as to whether it would hit the screens here in Seoul.  Guess I should have known it would.  Just about every Hollywood action movie does.  And comics are far more popular here than in the States.

I never got into comic books as a kid, and from my limited skimming of them as an adult, I'd never been impressed with the writing.  Until Watchmen.  Though rather disturbing and violent, the complexity of Moore's characters and story arc, and the brilliance of Dave Gibbons' artwork won me over.  

Anyway, so I went into the theater, checked out some of the movie posters, and snapped a few pictures.  That was last week.  Tonight, after my Korean lesson, Juil and I are going to watch the film.  I'm stoked.   

Who watches the Watchmen?  I will!

Adoption in Korea

This isn't about anything we're doing in Korea. It's just a subject I find interesting.

Korean star Park Jung Ah in a photo by Cho Sei-hon.


A few months ago, I saw a multi-page spread in Vogue magazine (Korean version) featuring Korean movie stars and other celebrities holding Korean babies who need homes.

The photos are part of a huge government campaign to get Korean people to adopt their country’s orphans. An old Korean proverb is literally translated as “one shouldn’t take in a hairy animal,” and it means parents should not adopt, according to info in a recent article by Limb Jae-un in the JoongAng Daily.

Korea is the fifth largest exporter of orphans. China, Guatemala, Russia and Ethiopia exceeded it. Out of the 30 countries in the OECD, Korea is the top exporter of adopted children.

But those statistics, as well as the stigma, are changing.

The government has started paying parents for medical and child-rearing expenses for their adopted children, as well as for fees paid to adoption agencies. And May 11 is now Adoption Day.

The effort is paying off: 2007 was the first year that locally adopted children outnumbered international adoptions. Koreans adopted 1,388 children, and foreigners adopted 1,264. Even among fertile couples, adoption rates are increasing, which is a big divergence from Confusion norms.

Most parents who do adopt prefer girls, the article states, by a more than two-to-one margin. That’s because girls are easier (obviously ☺) and traditionally because of inheritance issues, according to the article. Thus, foreign adoptions from Korea are almost always for boys.
Here's another article in the NYT on the subject that's really interesting.

I'm HUGE (in my office) in Korea! (Part VII)

So, in addition to getting a new apartment, I was also moved from my old office into a new office on campus.  It's comfortable and quite large, so I can't complain...much.

There's just one problem:

New apartment

We're back to the blog.

This weekend we moved into a new apartment in a different neighborhood, from Hyewha to Sungshin Women's University. Our new, fifth-floor apartment is fantastic. 

Here are a few pics:

Bedroom:

View from the bedroom to the closet (yay! we have a closet):

Living room from door to window:

The kitchen, which is along the wall of the living room. It's small, but surprisingly usable:

And the sweet balcony that runs along the two walls of the apartment. It's practically long enough to be a bowling alley:

Here's a close-up of the view: