Intercultural Life

Month: May 2017 (Page 1 of 3)

When there is no kimchi!

No kimchi?!

(The original comic is here).

We revisit a comic from several years ago. This was when we were still living in Australia and I forgot to put kimchi on the table. As we mentioned in the video, Hugh obsesses about kimchi a lot more when he is not in Korea. He doesn’t eat it every day in Korea but in Australia has this desire to always eat it. It might seem like just a stereotype but it’s very important to Koreans!

Many older Koreans don’t consider a meal to be a real meal without rice and kimchi. So if they eat out and eat some type of foreign food they will still come home and eat some rice and kimchi. This type of ingrained thinking is possibly why it’s taken so long for foreign food to become popular in Korea, because there is a very strong cultural thinking of what a meal should be. Although many younger Koreans embrace all kinds of food, they have trouble convincing their parents to try new stuff and when older Koreans go on trips to another country they will try and take Korean food with them, rather than trying anything new.

In Australia it was easy to buy kimchi in Sydney and when we were in my home town I would make it for Hugh. These days we usually have too much kimchi as Hugh’s mother will send us kimchi. We still eat out a lot so we eating it several times a week even if we don’t have any at home. I’ve tried so many types of kimchi I know which ones I like and how fermented I prefer kimchi to be.

Making kimchi can be a lot of work and usually needs to be done over 2 days. If you are making kimchi for the first time I recommend reading a variety of recipes online several times so you understand all the steps. Also be aware that it will give off a strong smell in your fridge!

Snapshot of my day: Our Neighbourhood

Snapshot of my day – Our Neighbourhood

Now that my morning sickness is going I feel I can get out more so I can film more snapshot of my day videos for the Nicholalala YouTube channel. These videos are mini vlogs with no talking, but showing moments through my day. We really love the area we live in and love days when we can organize everything we need to do to be in this area.

Every time we pass by YG Entertainment we can see the construction work that is being done on the new fancy building.  At the moment it’s still just basement and foundation construction it seems. We’ll vlog more of it when there are more interesting things happening there.

We had a meeting for the comic book that if finally coming out for the Korean market. It’s been in limbo for such a long time, but will be coming soon! It’s in Korean but there will be some English as well. We stopped by the new Talk to Me in Korean offices. They are in the process of setting them up but it’s a great space! We had lunch with Hyunwoo and everyone as well. Hyunwoo also gave me their new book, ‘My first 500 Korean words” which I’m going to work through soon. I haven’t been able to do much study for a while and vocabulary is definitely something I struggle with. I’m aiming to get a lot more Korean study in now while I can.

Since Hugh has lost so much weight we really needed to buy him some new clothes. He was surprised to find that he fits into the small size now. We were also at a party yesterday and many people didn’t recognize him at first because he has lost so much weight.

I’ll try to do more of these videos for the Nicholalala channel now that I’m feeling a lot better. As I’ve mentioned in videos, it hasn’t just been pregnancy that has prevented me from doing a lot, but treatment for illness and then infertility treatments to actually get pregnant. I’ll be talking about those things later on the main channel.

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So overwhelmed! Thank you everyone!

We are so overwhelmed!

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO

This video is our podcast style of video where it’s a longer video that can be just listened to, rather than watching it all.

When we uploaded our pregnancy announcement video we were so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and happiness! I honestly thought just usual people would comment and that would be it. But we had thousands and thousands of comments! We wanted to make this video to thank everyone and answer some questions.

Also at the latest ultrasound we filmed a bit so I put that footage in the video as well. I know some people were wondering about how many ultrasounds I’ve had. Korea does more than western countries in general, but also because of infertility, I’ve had so many that I’ve lost count. I was getting ultrasounds before I was pregnant and sometimes 3 times a week. We’ll talk more about that later. My fourth ultrasound while pregnant, which is the one in the video, if often only the first for many women. We’ve been lucky to see our baby so regularly from the beginning.

Hugh has also been lucky to be with me at every stage of this journey. So often men miss out on these moments because of work, but I’ve needed Hugh with me for every appointment. In the video he shows the big book he got about pregnancy, childbirth and babies which has been really helpful. He is really excited to be a father.

I haven’t been able to travel during the early stages of pregnancy but I’m looking forward to going back to the countryside and seeing Hugh’s family again.

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Hugh’s weight loss – big changes!

Hugh updates you on his transformation progress!

Although we haven’t made a video about Hugh’s journey for a while and he doesn’t post much about it on social media, he has been quietly working away. He works out almost every day and does high intensity work outs which are really paying off. He has dropped so much weight that all his clothes are too loose and baggy right now. Time to go shopping!

It’s been amazing to see his confidence grow as he becomes slimmer and healthier. For a long time he believed that his body type would always be bigger, even if he lost weight, that he would still look bulky. But he has slimmed down so much and made such big lifestyle changes that his body shape is changing. His trainer Yoojin getting him on focus on exercise that made him drop weight instead of just bulking up has helped a lot. Now he knows how to exercise by himself at home and how to be motivated to do it.

For me however, I’m just expanding with pregnancy! One of us is getting smaller and the other is getting bigger! I’ve started wearing his big tshirts. I’ve also made it difficult for Hugh with my morning sickness. I haven’t been able to cook and needed a lot of delivery food, but he has been very strong and made his own meals.

Also, Hugh WON’T be doing a naked a photo shoot. But he will be doing one in his underwear. There is a trend in Korea where people get professional photos done when they get into great shape. He has already met with a photographer and makeup artist that will do his photo shoot in 2 months time. In the final video of his transformation he will reveal those photos.

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Pregnancy and Responsibility

Pregnancy and Responsibility

Thank you everyone for all the comments and messages! As we mentioned in our video, we didn’t know if we would ever be in this situation. We didn’t want to hope too much because we were trying to avoid disappointment. That meant not thinking too much about actually having a baby and the responsibility that comes with that. Letting us hope too much was a risk. It’s also why we asked people to not ask us when we were going to have a baby. Now that I’m actually pregnant we realised we have to be responsible adults!

Once the elation of finding out that I’m pregnant calmed down a bit, that was my next thought. Oh no… now we have to care for a real living baby! I’ve killed at least a third of my house plants before… Wish us luck!

We’ve been enjoying starting to look at baby stuff and make decisions, things that we couldn’t allow ourselves to do before. We are in a good apartment, and in a wonderful area full of other young families so it’s an ideal time for us. This is one of the main reasons why we moved to Seoul. I needed to be near a major hospital for this to happen. When we first moved there were sometimes comments like, “Why did you move from the countryside??? The countryside is so nice!!!” Yeah, the countryside is nice, but not convenient. There are always things going on in a person’s life that others aren’t aware of. I love the countryside, but Seoul is great too. Not only it is better to be here for health/pregnancy reasons, but it’s opened up a lot more opportunities career-wise.

I still have morning sickness at the moment, which I’m not sure is fading or if I’m just getting used to it. I’ve been told it just disappears one day. Looking forward to not feeling sick all the time!

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