A hot summer day in my Korean life

Karryn Duhaime
Spotlight

It is hot, not just hot, it’s stifling. So, humid you get those little beads of sweat on your upper lip and the backs of your knees start to make miniature wading pools. I am dressed in jeans and a black shirt, my standard pseudo dressed up outfit for all occasions. Camera in hand, I am standing in the harbour area in Seogwipo City on Jeju Island awaiting the arrival of the bride and groom. My Korean boyfriend, Lee Sang-gin’s parents are renewing their wedding vows today and I am in attendance as the family photographer. The ceremony is being held during a festival, one of many in the summer season, and there are over 2 hundred people in attendance. Not sure what to expect, I am squatting on the pavement along with 20 other photographers, all men. Their cameras, with long zoom lenses and expensive digital bodies, are all pointed at me and I feel as though I’ve sat down on the red carpet of some movie premier and my personal paparazzo has begun blasting away. Finally, the music begins and we see the long progression of attendees striding toward us. I am engrossed by the colours and costumes. I am mesmerized by the smells and the heat and am suddenly being yanked off my bum and pulled down the aisle by the oldest looking woman I have ever seen in my life. She is dressed in a lovely pink Hanbok (traditional Korean dress). I am placed beside my boyfriend and we follow the box that contains his omoni (mother). That is when I see her hand reach out the side of the box, “Karon-ah! Karon-ah!” she shouts out my name in the form of a term of endearment. I step to the side of the box where the little window is and peer in. She looks like a doll. Dressed in a traditional multi coloured wedding Hanbok, with ribbons in her hair and red dots on her cheeks, she holds my face in her hands and says, “yeppudah”, it means pretty and is something she calls me often. I pull my head out of the toaster oven that is her bridal box, take her photo and reclaim my place in line. Eventually we all make it to the end of the aisle and his aboji (father) rides up on a traditional Jeju pony. Jeju ponies are a breed of Mongolian horse which was introduced to the island during Genghis Khan’s occupation of Korea. Khan sent ponies over on barges to the farming island of Jeju to have them pastured there. The attendants and guests take their seats on the cement bleachers overlooking the venue and the warm blue ocean water and the ceremony begins. It is lovely. The bride keeps her face covered from the groom’s sight until nearly the end, when all is revealed. Afterwards, there is a massive feast to be eaten and traditional Korean Shoju (rice whiskey, not unlike Japanese Sake) to be sipped. During the feast I am once again pulled aside and this time I am placed in between Lee Sang-gin and his younger brother, Lee Sang-hoon. We are made to kneel and bow three times to his parents and then are each offered a shot of Shoju to drink to his parents’ good fortune. I down my shot and immediately find myself thrust in front of a news camera. They are asking me, in English thankfully, about myself and my role in the ceremony. They seem very excited to find a foreign woman dating a Korean man as it is usually the reverse. I am interviewed and finally the day is over. I am drenched with sweat, exhausted from the confusion of participating in a culture and language I barely understand and am now half drunk on wedding spirits. All in all it has been a good day.

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