Endings and Beginnings

Today is classless Monday, where, as you may have guessed, I have nothing to do but update my blog.

This weekend was another great one, a weekend of endings and beginnings. Friday I said my final goodbye to Aine and Gareth over dinner with 12 other great people. It was sad and happy, but mostly happy. I also met their good natured replacements, Duncan and Lana, who hail from England. Pork was eaten, laughs were had, poetry was read, all in all, it was a beautiful fond farewell.

Saturday, CR hosted a movie/lunch day at his swank college pad. He made jambalaya, I made cornbread, and after we stuffed our faces and watched Elf, six of us climbed in his gigantic bed and snuggled together for a few hours. It was lovely, and the endorphins were free flowing. The high of proximity and human touch lasted all day and night.

Yesterday I was lucky to be able to crash a Korean wedding!! It was so exciting. Though I personally had never met the groom or the bride (a co-worker of Annie, Eoin, Duncan and Lana), I snagged a "plus one" spot with Eoin and scampered along. It was supposed to begin at eleven: we arrived at a very strange hall in an otherwise unmarked building, at ten after, and the wedding was already almost over. I'd say the entire affair lasted no more than twenty minutes. It was insane, best described as a jumbled up Vegas wedding in fast forward. The weirdest part was, during the ceremony, no one was really paying attention- everyone was talking, talking on their cell phones, walking around, etc. Some guests were dresses quite fashionably and expensively, some were wearing hanbok, and others jeans and sweaters. There was no rhyme or reason. A friend of the couple was singing a song while a bunch of women in the room brought the bride roses. The bride and groom were dressed in your typical wedding dress and tux at the altar, already cutting the cake together, and the next thing I knew, they were rushing down the "aisle" (catwalk) through exploding confetti and streamers for pictures, and back up again, and back down again. During the ceremony, there was another bride already waiting at the back of the room in her wedding dress for her twenty minutes.

the wedding party

the hanbok ceremony

The photographs easily took four times as long as the ceremony. Though, like I stated previously, I had never met either of these people, they made me get in group photographs with them, haha. They photographed a staged a bouquet toss (twice!). Minutes after it was over, we followed the bride downstairs to a different floor to view her and her husband in their traditional Korean hanbok, which was beautiful and deeply ornate. After that, it was off to the "reception," which was a huge delicious buffet, in the next room, haha, that undoubtedly cost a fortune. The bride and groom showed up shortly thereafter in matching jeans, sneakers and hoodies, capping the insane outfit count for the hour at three. they came around to each table and thanked the guests for coming, and then it was over.

Another good one :)