Intercultural Life

Month: May 2016 (Page 1 of 3)

Dingle Dingle Dingle

Dingle Dingle Dingle

If you are unsure of what a Jjimjilbang is, click here.

When you are in an intercultural marriage, you can’t always pick and choose what aspects from our own culture your partner adopts. I don’t particularly like that Hugh has picked up this Australian aversion to communal male nudity but that’s how he feels after living in Australia. I don’t like the narrow idea of masculinity in Australia and find a lot of things in Korea to be refreshing. But I guess when something is an aversion, it’s easy for others to absorb that thinking too, and Hugh changed a lot in his time in Australia. He very easily slips into a more Australian/western way of thinking sometimes.

Although he grew up going to jjimjilbangs in Korea and being naked with his friends was completely normal, he now feels odd because of reverse culture shock. I wonder if a few more years back in Korea will change that. If not, perhaps he should spend some time in European countries with naked saunas so he can get over it haha.

“Dingle Dingle Dingle” was the best way he could explain what he was seeing in English.

Where we had our traditional Korean wedding

We happened to be passing through Jinju fortress recently so we took the chance to make a little video about where we had our traditional Korean wedding.

Most of the day was just a blur, but it was really worth it. I’ve mentioned before how much I dislike these modern rushed Korean weddings in Korean wedding halls, and although our Korean wedding felt very long, it was completely worth it. It felt special doing the rituals in front of everyone and feeling a connection to tradition and the past. Although the weather was hot, I was so pleased to have a beautiful sunny day for our wedding day.

There were some big cultural shocks on the day, but I enjoyed the feeling of being carried in a gama and all the other elements of it.

Moving next week!

In this video we talk about finding somewhere to live in Seoul and moving next week! We looked at a bunch of places and the best place ended up being in Hapjeong, which is a really cool place to live. Very hipster now. While Hongdae has the night life and clubs and that more commercialized type of vibe now, Hapjeong has cool cafes and bakeries and small venues for musicians. We are very close to the Han river and in a residential area, as well as being weirdly close to YG, which is interesting considering how much I like and always mention YG artists.

As we said in the video, our deposit seems huge but is actually on the lower end in Korea. You are just expected to put down these huge deposits for places, and in some cases, the bigger deposit you have, the less rent you actually pay. People borrow money from the bank, or parents or save up for these deposits. What we are paying monthly for rent is very cheap compared to Sydney. While Koreans might say our rent is expensive, for us it’s a pretty good price. The place is small, of course, but it’s a good space and we like the layout. You’ll see it in a house tour video later.

We are really excited to move to Seoul! We can’t wait to make videos about all the stuff we are doing in Seoul and the area we’ll be living in. Stay tuned!

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