Hanbok-Gown Exchange

A hanbok is a traditional, Korean formal dress.  The Koreans will often wear them for weddings, funerals, during traditional holidays and other formal events.  They are made of beautiful colored silks and often have embroidery on them.

Our General's wife, Mary, had an idea to have a get together with our Korean Marine wife counterparts and trade our ball gowns for their hanboks for an evening.  Just like we never have an opportunity to wear a hanbok the Korean women don't ever have an opportunity to wear a formal gown.  Mary reserved a suite at the hotel here on base and we all gathered to spend an evening trading cultures.  Everything was going really well until about 20 minutes into our event the electricity went out which meant no lights or air conditioner.  The temperature quickly rose in our suite, but we were having a good time and the fun continued in the dark, warm room.  The Korean women took great pride in putting their hanboks on us and showing us how to wear them.  Even though they couldn't speak any English and our Korean was very limited we had a great time together.

Thankfully, the Korean wives brought a photographer along with them who had a fancy camera that could take good pictures in the dark. 

 This is the lady who helped me put her hanbok on.  They were very proud to get their picture taken with us in their hanboks.

This is the ROK Commandants wife Mrs. Lee.  She is always a very good sport getting her picture taken with me.

Here are a few group shots of all of us. 

A few of the Korean women were uncomfortable at first with their arms and shoulders being exposed.  But after some prompting from us they were comfortable enough getting their picture taken.

About half way through the event one of the husbands brought a few camping lanterns for us to use to light the room.  While they added great light to the room, they were really hot and made the room very warm. 

Mary holding a camping lantern.

While we really enjoyed trying their hanboks on and getting pictures taken it was extremely warm in that room and those hanboks are made of silk.  We were all walking around with our arms out so that we didn't sweat in their hanboks and get marks on them.

Since moving to Korea I had some very unique experiences, and this was definitely one of them.  I wasn't sure how this event was going to go, but I had a great time sharing cultures with these Korean women.