Jeju Half Marathon

Check out more pictures here: http://www.jejumarathon.com/data1/photo_2011/photo_test.asp?photo_name=2118

Love being here, too!

The Girls

Foggy Finish

Last Friday, four friends and I headed to the famous Jeju Island for the 3rd race I've run in Korea. Although the weather wasn't perfect beach weather, we had a really good time. Since we were only there for a couple of days (and Sunday was race day), we weren't able to do much. Nonetheless, the half marathon gave me the chance to see a lot of the coast, which was really beautiful despite all the fog!

Finished my 2nd half in 1:48, taking 8 minutes off the Seongju Half Marathon I ran 3 weeks earlier !

Korean Weddings

I am aware that this is my second post on Korean Weddings, however there is news to report. I teach Korean English Teachers twice a week, and last week's lesson was on weddings and dating. As I'm sure you can imagine, the topic was a hit. Most of the people in my class are dying to get married (as is pretty common with Korean women in their mid-twenties), so they had a lot to say.

I opened with the question, "Would you rather have a large or small wedding?" It was no surprise that most of them wanted a small wedding, but what really surprised me was that a "normal" sized Korean wedding is 4-5 HUNDRED people! Luckily, they don't have to feed all those people, but how do they even know that many people? Well, apparently they don't. The bride groom only invite around 100-150 people, and the rest are friends of their parents. None of my students were overly thrilled about the idea of having 400 people they don't know at their wedding, but they accept it as the way it is.

What was even more surprising was that if you (or your parents) don't know that 400-500 people, then you have to hire what they call "part-timers." Part-timers are people who come to your wedding and pretend to be you friend. They are prepped with details about you before the wedding, such as, where you went to school, whether or not you were a good student, who your parents are, etc. And, part-timers make good money. In fact, my student has a friend who is a part-timer, and her friend is able to live quite comfortably on her part-timer salary. Qualifications of a part-timer include being good-looking, clever, personable, and fun.