Unique wedding ceremony in Seoul

I miss the Indian weddings. The colorful clothes, the delicious food, the gaiety of the relatives and friends! It is a wonderful feeling to get together, celebrate the couple, share their joy and indulge in ourselves.Traditional weddings conducted in wedding halls for three whole days, though must be a tense time for the parents of the couple, but a time of delightful cheer for the others. Though I might be missing the most expected weddings of two of my cousins this year :(, I got to witness an interesting wedding ceremony in Seoul. 

It is not a Korean traditional wedding like I would have expected since we are in Seoul for the past three years. It was not a Korean Christian wedding like the one we attended of my husband's colleague before.We were invited to the wedding of the Taekwando teacher of my son, who is an Ethiopian with his fiancee from the US, who is an Eastern Methodist Christian. Now, the odds of me attending another wedding of this nature is probably zero. I was definitely counting on being part of the wedding and was devising ways to convince my boys who are my only link to the groom when, my younger one, excited about the wedding, was all set and ready on time, wearing his collared shirt without any complaints. The elder one was fairly enthusiastic to attend the wedding and was ready at the appointed time with his shirt on too! 

We were there at the church, bang on time. As we knew just one person- the groom- who was super busy, in the entire wedding crowd, it was kind of awkward. But the whole situation was oh! so! worth it. The church was different from the other churches I have visited in my life. Beautiful paintings with  copious amounts of golds on all of them, giving them a royal, venerable air. My elder one did give us a short idea of the Eastern Methodist Christians when the ceremony started. 

The golds and the paintings! 

The beautiful dome.

The altar

The birth of Jesus

The groom all dressed up, in-waiting.

Here comes the bride!

The Eastern Methodist wedding ceremony

The Ethiopian wedding ceremony with a lot of singing. 

And dancing!

Interesting to see the add-ons to the couple's clothing- the white capes and crowns.

There was lavish Ethiopian style feast after the wedding. I really wanted to try it but we were late for another party and had to be off. Surely considering visiting the Ethiopian restaurant in Itaewon! 

All that has been so far... in Seoul

Oh, it has been so long since I wrote in my blog. I blame the awesome food in India, unnatural weight gain because of that and the excellent outdoor weather we are having now in Seoul for my tardiness.

Having said that, the past few months have been so memorable in my life, I just want to preserve it in words.

The India trip was amazing. Met with a lot of people, feasted on all the good things I was missing, spent some time with my parents (and a lot of time shopping) which was so soothing. Bad things did happen, but I am moving on with my life and I will naturally cry about it in the upcoming posts.

I have been keeping myself busy with my new-found passion in life. Drawing. Now I understand all the greats who have said that the Passion is the oxygen of life! Passion is engrossing, captivating and mesmerizing. I really am happy and thankful to have found mine however late in life. Everyday is exciting and energizing! I am learning alertness, patience and humility all over again and I find it satisfying. When your creation is appreciated, loved and rewarded, there is just pure ecstasy. I got paid for a few of my creations and one of it was displayed in a gallery in Jayanagar.

Having at least a 50% claim on the creation of my sons, I experienced bliss from that quarter too. I have never been the President of anything. I have no idea how I would have felt if I became one. Nevertheless, I am positive that nothing comes close to the floating-on-the-clouds feel that I got when my son became the Student council President. I was pushed even more so when his teacher declared him almost unanimously elected among all the contestants and that he is the first non-Korean and first Indian to do so. I was practically in space when I got the recording of his speech from another teacher just a few minutes after he had delivered it. It is quite tough to see him work hard even after I have slept at night and heart-warming to see him get accolades for his sincere work. I am loving the special stride my husband has when he walks into the school as he calls himself the "First Father". I am secretly loving being the "First Mother" too though I have to work on my special walks.

Just when I was claiming to be much fitter than the boys in my home, my younger one gets selected into the school cross country or marathon team and completes running around the football field in a minute and 6 seconds, even on his 7th round! I was able to run 700m before huffing and puffing  down to a heap. And my husband makes 100km on his bicycle every week. And I find it quite sufficient to do 300 calorie workout which measures upto a 10km a day, for 3 days a week (at best) on my indoor bike. But let them try to convince me that I am not fitter than the others... one look from me can kill, baby!