Amanda Takes Off...

Tonight Good Man and I were practicing the -기 때문에 form of Korean. It's a reason form, though nobody can explain to me how it's different from -서 or -(으)니까.

Anyhow, Good Man said, "시헙 다가오니까 같이 공부하다." Since the test is coming soon, let's study together.

"미안해. 포주를 위해 일하기 때문에 공부하면 안 돼. 포주는 화가 날거야."

"What?"

"포주 is 'pimp,' right?"

"Yes," Good Man shook his head.

"Is the sentence correct?"

"Yes, but you're crazy."

I'm sorry. Because I have to work for my pimp, I can't study. My pimp would get angry.

A draft I started (and never finished) 15 October 2006, after my first taekwondo tournament:

While I was sitting there, looking at everyone, taking photos and so on, I was reminded of some discussions we had in my education graduate courses (my program was very big on multicultural education) about the other-race face problem. This problem often comes into play with eye witnesses. In short, people more easily recognize and identify faces of their own race than those of other races.

When we started student teaching, some of the (white) women in class complained that all of the kids looked the same (we were teaching in primarily black schools, some with a high percentage of Latino students, as well). Of course, after teaching for a while, the white teachers started to recognize black faces.

But today I was looking at these Korean faces, seeing how different each one is. And I wondered how much of the other-race face problem could be overcome by where one lives, and what one experiences.

I want to preface this by saying that the fact that I'm even posting this annoys me. But I need to get this out of my system, even though doing so makes me annoy myself. ㅋㅋ

The bold type hits the main points, so you don't even need to read my annoyingness. If you're interested at all, you can just skim. Isn't that nice?

So... a week ago, I was freaking out about planning a wedding and wedding porn was really, really consuming me. Wedding porn, for those who have not consumed it, is pretty evil. (I will save my rant about the diamond industry for...well, I'll just save it unless someone says they want to hear it.)

In the last week or so, a bunch of stuff just sort of fell into place.

Budget, done. And more importantly, doable.

We're getting married 11 July 2009 in the early afternoon at Mark's Lover's house. He has hosted two weddings before, the smaller one four times larger than ours, the larger one six. Our wedding will be smaller than his parties. Hee hee.

We are having a Quaker-style ceremony (Mark has agreed to MC it) followed by the pyebaek (Korean bowing into the man's family ceremony, though we're doing it to both sets of parents, his parents will probably get a slightly longer, more formal ceremony). We found a place that says they can do our Quaker-style certificate bilingually. And if it turns out they can't, we can do it ourselves and get it printed.

Rings will be these Claddaghs. (My engagement ring is the Claddagh I wear, but that's a post for another day.) Note to self: 7.5 and 11.5 probably.

Dress? We're wearing our hanboks!

Guest list is done, and we're limiting invitations to immediate family (inclusive of grandparents) and close friends only, which means the list is 30 people.

Flowers, we've decided on this idea. Good Man thinks it's cool that we can save the flowers forever, Mom likes that it looks "Asian."

Centerpieces, we're (trying!) to get photos of all of the guests at various ages and putting them in inexpensive, simple black frames, labeled on the top and bottom with the guest's name(s) in English and Korean. If they want to take them home afterwards as favors, go ahead. If not, whatever.

Music, MP3s, and we can hook the iPod straight into Mark's Lover's speaker system. Good Man and I have already started making music lists on our private wedding wiki (yes, a private wedding wiki. I know. We are geeks).

We're probably doing casual bilingual photo invitations. Otherwise just a written letter! (By the way, trying to get anything bilingual with a different alphabet is a major, major pain in the butt.)

Food, mostly figured out, heavy appetizers. Cakes, cup- and rice-.

Oh, and rentals? Mark's Lover has friends who own a catering company, so that's done.

Sister has agreed to read "Love is a Green Life," and Johnny has, too, though he has no idea what it is.

Vows, will be bilingual (that will be some sort of practice, I tell you), and nothing to worry about now.

The only thing we haven't really figured out is a photographer, and we're just not worried about that yet.

And we need to block off hotel rooms for guests, but we'll do that closer to the date.

We've started researching visa matters for Good Man. We've discovered that since we got engaged on a student visa, he probably shouldn't leave the country now. Oh my...but that's OK. We have a clearer idea of what that mess will entail.

I know a bunch of people getting married in the next two years and they think we're nuts for deciding so much already. Well...they'll have their weddings their way, and we'll have ours our way.

My wedding library books are getting returned soon. I'm done with wedding porn.

굿 맨! 생일 축하해! 사랑해!

Yesterday was Korean Saturday. After dealing with the car, I was trying to figure out if we were going to go to the Korean language Meetup, or if I was too tired to go.

Good Man asked, "혼자 가고 싶어?" Do you want to go alone?

I teased him. "새 한국 남자 친구를 만나고 싶어해?" Do you want me to meet a new boyfriend?

He laughed, "걱정하지않아..왜냐하면. 나 제일 잘생겼어." I'm not worried, because I'm the most handsome guy.

Later I ended up watching the "Say Uncle" episode of CSI. It's about a shooting in Koreatown, and I was tickled at how much Korean I understood, how I "got" the "culture" before the CSIs did, and how I could tell a Korean-Korean accent from an American-Korean accent.

When Master insisted I get a Cyworld page, he also insisted I install NateOn. NateOn is the most popular Korean chatting program (which I'm sure installs tons of spyware on my system). I installed it, but when we used it, I couldn't see Korean. I simply saw boxes. Oddly enough, I could copy and paste the boxes into a text file and the words would appear. And when I typed in Korean, I couldn't see anything...but Master could.

Good Man fixed this problem by doing some computer magic. At last, I could chat. And then, a few months later, they released an English version. I'm stubbornly sticking with the Korean version since it helps my Korean.

One of the great things about NateOn is that I can chat with Sister. And chat we did last night.

I told her about Good Man setting the jjimbbang (vegetable bun) on fire.

Later, she showed me how to choose different avatars to go with my name, including a jjimbbang avatar! I love NateOn's little avatars, because they're so Korean: a soju bottle and shot glass, fish cakes on a stick, rice cake, jjimbbang.

We had a lot of fun over Good Man's microwave madness, and since I want to write up that story in Korean, it was nice to chat with her about it. I now have a base written.

I also asked Sister to do something for our wedding. (Note: ㅋㅋㅋ and 하하 and 히히 are all forms of laughing.)

Me: [Sister], 우리 결혼식에서 읽어줘.
Please read at our wedding.

Sister: 어떤것을?
What kind of reading?

Me: "사랑은 초록빛 생명," 김소엽이야.
It's "Love is a Green Life," Kim So-yeop.

Sister: 와우! 아만다 대단해요~ 그 시인도 알고!
Oh wow! Amanda, wonderful~ you know that poet!

Me: 결혼식때 읽어줄래요? 한국어 읽고 내 남동생이 영어 통역 읽고싶어요.
Will you read it at our wedding? We want you to read it in Korean and my little brother to read it translated into English.

Sister: 좋아요! 기뻐요~ 그리고..감동적일꺼같아요.
[Something] is good! [Something] is happy, and...it will be very touching.

[I have no idea if she meant I am good/happy, the poem is good/happy, the idea is good/happy, or she is good/happy with the poem. Korean is a high-context language, and this sentence is too high-context for me, apparently.]

Me: ^^

Sister: 아만다의 아이디어 맞죠? 오빠는 이런거 잘 몰라요ㅋ
Amanda, this your idea, right? [Good Man] doesn't know much about these sorts of things.

Me: ㅋㅋㅋ

Me: [굿 맨]도 "복종" (한용운) 좋아하자민 읽으면, 내 엄마가 걱정해. 왜냐하면 "복종 복종 복종" 많이 있어. 난 미국 사람인데 미국 친구와 가족...아...불편한편일거야.
[Good Man] wants to read "Obedience" (Han Yong-Woon), but if we were to read that, my mother would worry, because it has "obedience, obedience, obedience" so much. I am American and my American friends and family...uh...it would be rather uncomfortable.

Sister: 하하하하하! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ