We received our 100K Silver Play Button from YouTube… and Yul helped us unbox it….
Big thank you to all our subscribers!
Whether you recently subscribed or have been with us from the beginning: thank you! It’s been a long road to this milestone but we wanted to do it with with making genuine content and positivity.
I’ve been wanting to do this video for a few months and finally we had the time to film it. Often online, couples present this really perfect image of their relationship, but of course no relationship is perfect. We wanted to talk realistically about what has been hard in our marriage, in particular what it was like last year.
It’s no surprise that work/life balance, having a baby, and money all impact a marriage a lot. Even being aware of these stressors, it’s difficult going through it. We talk openly about our experience and working through the difficulties of the first year of having a baby.
As we mentioned, Hugh has quit his job and is going free-lance so he is in control of his time and can make family life a priority. We will also be doing a lot more YouTube content, which is great for creativity but also great for spending time together as a family.
I hope us talking openly about this will help people realise that no one has a perfect relationship and that you do have to work on your marriage. Being comfortable enough to talk about issues is important in a relationship. Also, knowing that you can argue and things will be okay.
We also want to be open about the reality of life. We aren’t living some wealthy, high-flying life in Seoul. We have a great life in Seoul, but we don’t want to pretend it’s more awesome than it is. Unfortunately some people do try and project that image on YouTube and Instagram but really their life isn’t as glamorous as it seems.
We’ve been doing YouTube part-time and somewhat of a hobby for years now, but now that we’ve reached 100K it’s time to get serious! Well… serious enough to publish regular weekly content.
One series we have started is looking at news and trends from Korea every week. Hugh will pick a few topics in Korean news and we will discuss them. Often what is happening in Korea news and what gets translated internationally can very a lot, so this should give a bit of a glimpse into what people are talking about in Korea.
I’ll also share something from Australia and try to find the weirdest thing that has happened. Usually something weird going on in Australia!
We are going to be doing a lot of experimenting with other videos too, so we can find out what content we like making, and what videos people want to watch. Unfortunately Hugh’s body transformation viral video negatively affects us because we gained a bunch of subscribers interested in fitness and health content, but that’s not what our main content is about. That looks bad in the YouTube algorithm, even though we have great comments on our video, because YouTube is showing our videos to the wrong people. We are trying to flip the balance so that our videos show to people interested in Korea and intercultural content, rather than just…. dudebros… haha.
We talk about dating in Korea! What is the truth about dating in Korea? While we didn’t date in Korea, we were part of the Korean community in Sydney and of course now live in Korea. And Hugh, being a Korean man, has lots to talk about the dating culture and cultural differences.
What sparked this video is that Keith from Seoulistic has written a book about dating in Korea. He interviewed us about our experiences, and some other people too. Korean dating culture can be difficult to navigate for people who have moved to Korea, so he goes into a lot of detail about important things to know.
Also in our video we talk about some of our experiences navigating cultural differences and we talk about when fetish comes into play and what usually happens. With BTS bringing so much attention to Korea and Korean men there are sure to be some people coming to Korea with unrealistic expectations.
When nonKoreans do start dating in Korea and end up in a serious relationship, there are many cultural things to navigate! Having a guide helps a lot, and I wish I had more info when Hugh and I first starting dating…. back in the stone age.
The worst thing people can do in this situation is not pay attention to cultural differences and assume that “love conquers all”. They may make the mistake of thinking since this person is now their boyfriend and girlfriend that everything is “safe” and they can relax. As we mention in he video, the terms boyfriend and girlfriend may not even mean exactly what we assume in Western countries.
There are a lot more topics in the dating category we can talk about. Especially being an “old married couple” now, we can hopefully give some people some insight into what it takes to have a serious relationship with someone from a different culture.
You can leave questions and comments here, or over on our YouTube channel where most interaction is.
We’ve wanted to make some videos like this for a while and saw the opportunity with this product. For years there have been these shoe inserts that people put in their shoes in Korea, but they were a type of foam one. This silicon one called “Height Up Band” seems to be a new type and we wanted to try it out. Instead of it just sitting in a shoe, it attaches to the foot and is hidden inside the sock.
We also decided to try a cheaper version of this product to see how different it was. The brand we saw advertised sells the product for about $30, but the cheap version is $6.
Are they really worth it? Do they make you appear that much taller? Hugh tried both and you can see his reaction in the video!
The obsession with height can get a bit ridiculous. I’ve always told Hugh that I prefer to be able to look him in the eye easily and wouldn’t want him to be taller. There are much more important things in a relationship!
If you have hair like mine (western, dyed hair) it can be a bit worrying when you move to a country like Korea. How do you know which hairdresser to go to? Do they have experience with western hair? Especially dying fine hair?
When I first came to Korea and we were living in the countryside, I had some bad experiences with hairdressers. This wasn’t even for dying my hair, just a haircut! The hairdresser would automatically get out the thinning scissors and thin out my hair. My hair is already fine, it doesn’t need thinning out! Unfortunately there are many hairdressers in Korea who have no experience with nonKorean hair. My friends have had some dying disasters in Korea. It’s even harder if you are black, as the options are even more limited.
However, there are several hairdressers in Hongdae that are good with foreign hair. Today I want to talk about Dean who is at The Day’s Hair Salon in Hongdae. Dean reached out to me because is passionate about doing western hair and wants more and more experience. He offered to do my hair for me so more people will know about him.
It has been a while since I’d had my hair done (busy mum life) but I did want it a bit lighter, especially as we are coming into Spring and Summer.
This is the before:
During:
And after:
Dean was super lovely and I was really pleased with how my hair was after. If you’d like to go to him at The Day’s hair salon the info is below:
Most people will have heard of Marie Kondo and her tidying methods by now. I do actually use some of them! But I also know what life is like with a toddler… so we made this video for fun.
How to tidy up WITH a toddler? Yul needed no encouragement to be his “best” in this video. A small apartment with a toddler means lots of challenges. I’m constantly trying to organize things and tidy up. But I have to do it while he is sleep or at daycare, otherwise…. well you can see what happening in the video.
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