Seoul (1/5): Wedding Photos, Thai Food and Cleaning

We ended up waking up around 10:30 or 11:00 and after a bit of getting ready we headed down the block to a cafe for some sandwiches and coffee/tea. The weather was so warm it was possible for us to eat outside on the patio area the resataurant has. I’m really getting gyped on this Korean winter, but I figure it’s payback for the hellish winter I had in 2002/2003 where I had to walk about 5 miles in the snow uphill (both ways) at 1:00 a.m. on New Years Eve/Morning.

Jisue drinking her coffee

After lunch she went to get her hair done and I went to shower and change. We were going to head out to her friend’s wedding photo shoot. Apparently this is fairly standard wedding event fare. The bride and groom spend the good part of a day having their photos taken at a studio and their friends and family drop by during the day to say hello and take pictures with them. Since Jisue will be out of town for her friend (actually “Best Friends”) wedding on the 15th, she wanted to be sure to drop by.

It was a good thing I had brought my newly tailored suit from Shandong too since I had something decent to wear. We took a cab (via Ehwa University to buy a gift) through rush-hour traffic and hung out while they had their pictures taken. One of the bride’s friends had spent a year at a University near Wu Da Kou in Beijing (not Bei Da but some other school) so we chatted in Chinese. It was nice to find someone to practice my Chinese with in Korea.

The bride in “Victory” mode

The bride having her veil fixed. You can see the groom behind her

Jisue and her best friend

Jisue and the girl who can speak Chinese

Taking pictures. You can see the photographer there too

After a while it was time to go. On our way to grab a taxi Jisue stopped to use the restroom at a small restaurant and I spied this rather funny typo on their sign outside:

I certainly would not like to get a mouthful of THAT.

We grabbed a cab to Itaewon to our favorite Thai Restaurant, Thai Basil. I have yet to visit Seoul without visiting this restaurant with Jisue and one or more of her sisters. It’s pretty much a tradition now. This was, of course, a less seedy part of Itaewon, not to be confused with the part of Itaewon that Kevin and Raffi spent an eventful night last month.

Dinner was great and it was nice to see Jiheun again. She’s filled out quite a bit since last July when I saw her — but then she is now 5 months pregnant, so that tends to happen.

Jisue and Jiheun at Dinner

We grabbed a taxi back to Jisue’s place where I did some work on posting Jet’s blog and Jisue worked on cleaning up her apartment. Jiheun watched some TV and the rest of the evening was pretty relaxing with us just hanging out and putzing around. I’m also trying to help Jisue pack for her move to New York, but to be honest it’s a bit of a challenge since she is adamant about not being able to throw things away, and that is pretty much what needs to happen if she wants to move to New York.

Jiheun at Jisue’s House

I’m hard at work blogging while they watch TV

Jisue’s “Blue Steele”

After a while Oppa came to pick up Jiheun and then Jisue and I watched “Starsky and Hutch” on DVD.  Before I left Shanghai I hastily put together a small binder of my “favorite” movies — movies that I don’t mind watching over and over or that I have a special connection to, or that I just happen to enjoy or reference a lot in my daily life (i.e. “LOUD NOISES!”) — and that was one of the movies I happened to have in there.  I didn’t put it together with a ton of thought, but will probably try tot refine the binder a bit more when I have time.  There are a few movies which I didn’t include which I wouldn’t mind having with me.