Grace and I returned to Michigan (on the same red-eye as last week – ouch) this past weekend. Grace’s parents hosted a dinner reception to celebrate our marriage for our parents friends who were not able to make it to California for the wedding. It was mostly Grace’s parents’ friends, but there were several of my parents’ friends who I have not seen in a long time. Jen and Dave also made the trip.
After a nice dinner, Grace and I changed into ham-boks to perform a pae-baek, which is a traditional Korean wedding ceremony. It generally involves a lot of bowing, to pay respect to each other’s family. In return, we received words of wisdom from our parents as well as generous gifts from them and aunts and uncles. Grace and I resisted doing this during our actual wedding weekend, mostly because of timing and logistics. However, we both had fun and I’m sure our parents were pleased. I think my mom mostly wanted pictures. Thanks to Auntie Park, who not only guided us through the ceremony, but also explained the significance of each exchange.
Late in the evening, Grace and I met up with Dave in Ann Arbor. We had just missed Art Fair, so there was still a lot of cleaning up going on, even past midnight. We ended up at Charlie’s because Grace was craving Count Twists. Being in Ann Arbor brought back many fond memories of college. I know it’s different for Grace because it’s her hometown. I always love being back there – hopefully we can make it back for a Michigan football game this fall.
