Screen Golf and Soju Don't Mix

Today is Sunday, and I am about to leave for church soon. I thought I would write about my adventures yesterday, attending my first Korean wedding.  We arrived at the wedding hall by taxi, and once inside, had to make it to the fourth floor where Sunny's wedding was taking place.  There were other ceremonies happening on the first, second and third floor so we caught glimpses of those as we walked up.  There are many rules that accompany a Korean wedding.  When you finally make it to the correct floor, you will see that it is required to put 30,000 won ($30) into an envelope with your name on it, and trade it in for your meal ticket at a counter outside of the wedding room.  Then you can go and sit down at one of the banquet style, pre-decorated tables.  We got there 10 minutes early, and the previous wedding was still taking photos as we were coming to find our seats.  Imagine 40 round tables all scattered around a room with a giant, blingd-out, bejeweled catwalk in the middle. Like literally, it was the length of the room, it looked more like a fashion show than a wedding.  It was beautiful.  It is customary for the bride's coworkers to sit in the front, why? I'm not sure, but we did.  It is also customary for the bride's coworkers to sing a song during the ceremony. So we did.  But first, we sat at our tables at the front of the stage, and waited only 5 minutes for it to begin.  First the mothers came out wearing their traditional hanboks (silk robe type thing), they each came down the catwalk and then bowed to each other and exited to the sides where there were two silk sofas waiting for them.  Then the fathers came out, doing the same thing.  No bridesmaids or groomsmen like we know of in America, instead there were 2 flight attendant looking women and two tuxedo wearing, silver masked, white sparkly glove wearing men that were to make sure the ceremony ran smoothly.  The two tuxedo men came to the middle of the catwalk and drew swords to signify that Sunny and JJ were about to enter.  They came in together, through the back door and down the catwalk, where they then walked to the front where the "alter" was located.  It was all happening very quickly.  The Titanic theme music was playing at this point.  Then we watched the ceremony, bride and grooms backs were toward the audience, where a priest read from the book of Genesis and it was broadcast above their heads on a huge screen.  The purpose of the screen is so that those that went straight to the buffet and skipped the ceremony, could watch it while they stuffed their faces.  They said some prayers I think, lit a candle, and cut the cake all right there in a matter of ten minutes.  Then they walked mid way up the catwalk and waited for us to sing our songs to them.  We entered the stage and made a formation, sang the song "Way Back Into Love" from the movie Music and Lyrics, and then another Korean lovesong.  Sunny was very grateful for our work and effort, event though the sound was mediocre at best.  Once that was finished, they walked off the catwalk as the tuxedo men blew trumpets and confetti popped out, and everyone went to eat unless they wanted to stick around for the SECOND ceremony which was traditional korean style. I of course, wanted to see that happening, so we waited.  We had to move to a different room next door where a small table and teapot were set up on the floor.  Ten minutes later, Sunny and JJ came out wearing traditional clothes and sat on the floor.  She poored the tea and they fed each other some weird prune looking thing.  That was it! The photographer took a million pictures and we went downstairs to the buffet.  The buffet was a sight to behold.  They had about 10 different lines of food with huge varieties of Korean food as well as some American, but the best was the sushi.  After getting my plate I sat at our designated table and could see on the TV screen that the other wedding was already starting.  Amazing! The food was great, and the drinks were never-ending, so my coworkers were satisfied with that.  Once we had sufficiently gorged ourselves, we decided to go for a walk to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  We walked to a nearby park where they drank beer and an impromptu game of cherades broke out, so that was very fun.  I thought my rendition of "The Legends of the Fall" was spot on because I used my friend Kade as a prop to describe "The Legend" and then I just fell down. Everyone guessed it instantly.  After the park, it's around 6pm at this point, we decide to go check out a screen golf shop.  Screen golf is exactly what it sounds like.  Golf that you play and it shows up on a screen. It's kind of like Wii.  You hit an actual golf ball with an actual golf club, and it shows you how far it "probably" went.  We had our own private room, complete with alcohol and snacks.  I watched as the drunkenness continued.  6 people were playing screen golf.  They signed up for 18 holes, and it took 2 hours to get to the third hole.  Needless to say, I did not stay to witness the end of screen golf, but took a taxi home around 9 and crashed.  It was another good day in Ansan!