Grace is one of the four Korean teachers I work with at the school. Today I went with the rest of the school staff to her wedding. It wasn’t the Korean traditional wedding, but a “western style” one. Although that’s a very loose term I’ve learned. The fact that the bride wore a white gown and the groom a tuxedo was one of few reasons to call it western.

The Korean version of western wedding has a photo opportunity up front. David, another teacher I work with suggested we get our picture with Grace, who was seated in a small room just to one side of the chapel. She sat on a wide sofa waiting for guests to arrive and take pictures before the ceremony. She was radiant and very beautiful. On the other side of the chapel was the reception desk where you are expected to present your gift. There a team of men will record both your name and your gift (90% were envelopes of cash, which they happily opened, counted and recorded.) I snickered inwardly as they tried for several minutes to read mine which I wrote in English. I’m just being a pest, though, because I can read and write Korean enough. After they record your name and gift, they give you a pass to the buffet reception.

About half of the guests had gone immediately to the reception hall on the 18th floor before the ceremony down on the 3rd floor had even begun. I decided, much to the raised eyebrows of my co-workers,  to stay and watch the ceremony.  I’m glad I did, just to see it for the spectacle.

After a short ceremony with their backs to the crowd, they turned and bowed to their families in the first few rows.  Grace did a curt bow from the waist while her husband bowed on his knees with his nose to the ground. Then they brought out a wedding cake/candelabra set. They flicked on a misting device in it and it rapidly poured out mist. They rapidly did a cake cutting ceremony with the parents and then they wheeled it off stage where the mist immediately stopped again – all within 60 seconds. I almost didn’t get a picture of that whole thing.

Next was a little choral arrangement by some family/friends – I don’t know who they were. But if there ain’t any singing, it ain’t Korean. The noraebang style is ingrained in many aspects here in Korea. These two guys sang some romantic ballad to the new bride and groom. They weren’t very good. Well, ok, they were bad. But it was sweet and I suppose another of the few similarities to a “western” wedding as I would experience it back home.

After the ceremony, everyone moved up to the reception room. Except the bride and groom. I think they stayed for more pictures. My school group stayed long enough to eat and then we left. There was no reception line, no toasting, no cake. In fact, we never saw Grace before leaving. We simply ate at the buffet and then left, some of them without even having watched the ceremony. I was doing my best to do like the Romans, but I was struggling with the lack of  things “western.”  I was expecting at have least some sort of social interaction with new couple at the reception. Shake hands, bow, say congrats – all the usual things one would say. I was even expecting, maybe, possibly some dancing at a wedding. Silly me, to think that a “western” wedding would be something recognizably western in Korea. I’m not complaining, I’m not saying its bad. I’m simply recording the fact that I expected something I did not see.

But it was nice to how they do things .

Being here in Korea, it’s difficult, if not impossible to gauge the impact of the falling dollar. All of my assets are in Korean Won. The price of goods here hasn’t changed much since I first came here in 2004. Even gas is still roughly $5.5-$6 a gallon, although it was less than $2 a gallon back in the US in 2004 and is over $3 now.  (That’s a 50% rise in cost, but the US Government doesn’t include fuel in its inflation calculations.) In Korea, gasoline, although not cheap, has, along with so many other goods remained steady. I have yet to see any semblance of inflation.

The dollar has fallen to new lows recently. The exchange rate as of 10/26/2007  had it at 908 Won to the dollar – a 25% drop from 1180 or so back in 2004.  Just this week its dropped significantly. Do your dollars buy less in America? Have you noticed a change in the price of foreign goods?  Are you worried that your savings may dwindle to nothing because the dollar buys less?

For me, the problem is not a problem. As the dollar goes down, my net worth goes up. That’s only if I convert my Won to Dollars when I return. But for my own personal economics, I hope it goes down even more.  Sorry.

But hurry, send me your dollars now. I’ll convert them to Won and save them for a few months. When the dollar continues to slide, I’ll send them back, worth more dollars than when you sent them here (minus my fees, of course.)
But wait! There’s more! Call now, and I’ll  throw in a set of Ginsu knives! Operators are standing by!