Normal is Safe
This week our officetel bought SkyLife, which meant that we could have all the expensive channels at a cheap rate as the whole building shares the satellite. More importantly, it means that I can watch BBC for the first time in nearly 3 1/2 years (except my visits to the UK), and Songsu can get more exposure to the British accent.
Today we will be planning the honeymoon and the design of our wedding cards. There is so much more to do and it all feels overwhelming. Most people have the usual wedding stresses of organising wedding venues, the honeymoon and so forth, but we have to organise all of this with the added stresses of visas, my parents visiting, a language barrier between the two families and trying to turn the Korean interpretation of a white wedding into a British one. The latter is impossible as half of the features that are traditional in a UK wedding are impossible to create here in Korea. We even have to write our wedding vows as they do not exist here.
The honeymoon is difficult to do too; in Korea they have 'honeymoon packages' at the travel agencies, but all of them are just 3 day tours of a bunch of islands at twice the price of a week's holiday at just one location. When we first approached the travel agencies we did not mention that it was a honeymoon, we just said that we wanted to relax somewhere quiet with a nice beach and good service. At all the agencies we visited (and the websites too) this was 'impossible' as it 'doesn't sell'. In the end we had no choice but to mention that it was in fact a honeymoon, which opened more options for us but put the price up. (" Bloody hell, I just wanna relax on a beach for a week" quote Songsu).
Anyway, we have spent the past two weeks researching the places featured in the brochures, and basing our choices on the opinions of the English-speaking, French-speaking and Korean holiday-makers that went there (as these are the languages that we understand, and it gives us a more international opinion of a place). We have finally settled on a couple of resorts, but even organising the honeymoon without a travel agency may put the price of the honeymoon at the same price as the wedding.
In two weeks we will need to sign the wedding contract 3 months in advance of the actual wedding as my teaching contract finishes soon, and I need to change my E2 teaching visa over to an F2 residency visa, just to keep me in Korea without the added expense of flying out of the country and coming back as a tourist. It's a miracle that we have not had a single arguement about the wedding.
I suppose my life was never meant to be normal. As my housemate at uni once said: " God Lou, why do you always have to be different?". I don't intend to be different, it just kind of happens that way.
posted by Louise @ 6:02 pm
WOW that sounds complex!!!!
The new E2 visa regulations suck so it's good that you will change your status to F2, which will give you a lot more flexibility.
I enjoy reading your blog as I am also an English teacher in Korea with a little Korean sweetheart too.
Best of luck with the planning
Hi,
Thanks for visiting my blog. I paid a quick visit to yours too-yours looks fun.
It seems that your fella likes sports...mine's too lazy to get up off his arse...though he did make noises about going ski-ing this weekend...stranger things have happened.
Why do you need to go through a travel agency? Why don't you go to Bali or Fiji for a week or so?
We did not use a travel agency when we booked the honeymoon, of course
oooh, where are you going for the honeymoon?
Malaysia...can't remember the name of the island...will mention it in a post sometime in the future. Thanks for visiting again!!!