Intercultural Life

Category: Update (Page 5 of 14)

Earthquake in Korea?

This literally just happened tonight and we were so surprised. It’s rare to get an earthquake in Korea and apparently this was the biggest one that has ever happened. There seems to be some minor damage around and some injuries reported at this time. The biggest shock was not knowing what we should do if there is a bigger one. There are no procedures or safety regulations in Korea. We don’t expect earthquake here. There isn’t preparation for what to do and buildings can be so much older when compared to Japan that has new buildings that withstand earthquakes. It’s still early but news outlets are reporting that Korea may no longer be in the safe zone when it comes to earthquakes. The news is reporting there may be more aftershocks too.

PLEASE HELP

GO FUND ME PAGE: https://www.gofundme.com/yellowisthenewbec

Becca’s story:

Diagnosed at age 4 with rare liver disease, PSC (pscpartners.org) and ulcerative colitis.
By age 8 (1995) received 1st transplant at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota but there were many complications, disease returned quickly.

Age 11 (1999) received 2nd transplant at Mayo. Lived for 3 years without the liver disease but had developed other problems like migraines.

Age 20 was put back on the transplant list. A third liver transplant was risky and I was not likely to get a liver. In America we mostly rely on cadaver donors (dead people) for organs. There is a strict system for how these organs are allocated and I wasn’t as promising a candidate as say, a child needing their first transplant. 2011 at age 23 I got the transplant, though. 5 years of relative health followed but I had developed more issues like arthritis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and more. It was during this 5 year period that I travelled to Korea for language school and ended up meeting my future husband. I moved officially to South Korea in 2014

My health was doing okay until one day in late July I had terrible abdominal pain and went to the emergency room. I was admitted to the hospital and it was discovered that there were all sorts of problems with my liver that hadn’t been there even 10 months previous. It looked like the disease was returning and I also had lots of infection, keeping me in the hospital for a month.
As the situation got worse, we decided I had a better chance of survival by going back to Mayo Clinic in America. I was barely healthy enough to fly but I made it.
Before I came I worked hard with my parents to set up insurance since I hadn’t lived in America for quite some time and hadn’t maintained any. I just had Korean government insurance that only works within Korea. It wasn’t until a day or so before I left that we found out we could not get insurance coverage for over a week. We did everything we could with the insurance company, even got the help of local politicians but there was nothing to be done.
And I was/am in bad shape. I needed to be hospitalized right away upon arriving in America. My lack of insurance means I cannot afford to go to the hospital but not going to the hospital means being very risky with my life.
Because we need money so desperately (even without the insurance problem this was going to be a huge financial burden) my husband has had to stay in Korea to continue making a paycheck but will come to America if the situation calls for it. If things here turn out to be long-term then we will consider him immigrating.

A friend of mine thought of starting the fundraiser on gofundme and I gave her permission. We never dreamed it would get so much attention. We all hate asking for money but are unbeievably grateful for what people have given. It will be put directly to use paying for my medical bills.

My Korean Husband Comics now on WEBTOONS

LINE WEBTOON has changed their Challenge League section and it’s now called Discover. Rather than it being a place just for people to try and be a featured artist (that’s how my Nicholalala Webtoon was selected), it is now a platform where you can showcase your work and people can subscribe. Soon people will be able to link Patreons as well, so fans can show support that way. I am uploading most of the My Korean Husband comics there and all new ones will also go there (but still also on this blog). It’s now much easier to share comics and hopefully you can rediscover old comics or see ones that you might have missed. CLICK HERE and subscribe.

My Korean Husband Comics

Comics will still always be on this blog and with longer blog posts, but for those that already use Webtoons, it will be easier to see and share over there.

The big move to Seoul

We have finally moved to Seoul. We moved about 4 days ago but we are still very much in this in-between stage of not quite feeling like this apartment is ours yet, and lacking some vital appliances. The move was stressful, like all moves generally are but it has been very exciting. This is our first ever place that is just ours. Even though we have been married for over 4 years, we’ve never been able to have a place that is only ours. We’ve lived with my parents for a little bit, we’ve lived with Hugh’s parents for 2 years, and in Sydney we had to share an apartment because rent prices are so high (Sydney is the second most expensive city in the world). Now being able to afford our own place feels amazing.

People in intercultural/international relationships tend to do more living with parents and also take more time to get settled. It’s expensive to be in an international marriage with visa costs and flights taking big chunks out of incomes. There is also the fact that someone also has to start again in a new country and it can be hard to find jobs and settle down on the right career path. Also in Korea, it’s not unusual to live with parents as a married couple, so we were glad to have that time with Hugh’s parents.

If you follow the social media you would have seen this photo I posted:

Instagram vs reality

Our kitchen is a disaster but I cleared one corner and was proud! Instagram VS reality! Our apartment was pretty filthy when we arrived so there has been a lot of cleaning (we will talk more about that in an upcoming video). We also don’t have a stove top or a washing machine and still need a bunch of other furniture, so we are waiting for that stuff to be delivered.

We are actually 5 mins walk to the Han river (we can also glimpse it through trees from our bedroom window) so we went for a stroll yesterday and vlogged a bit.

Han river

HAN RIVER

I’m so happy to be close to open spaces, because feeling claustrophobic in a city was one of my worries about moving. Our apartment (technically called a villa in Korean) is in a really interesting area and we can’t wait to show it in videos.

We are starting a new weekly video series where we are going to talk about what it’s like moving to Seoul and show clips from what we have been doing through the week. If you haven’t subscribed to the YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss that.

We still feel like we are in limbo at the moment as we can’t cook in the apartment yet, we don’t have internet… we can’t even wash our clothes. But we can’t wait to share this new journey with everyone.

This is the view from my window right now:

20160606_094427

Different from the countryside, but it’s going to be so interesting to see how people in Seoul live compared to those in the countryside.

Thank you everyone for all the messages of support on social media! We appreciate it and we can’t wait to show you our experiences in Seoul and what it’s like to be intercultural in Seoul.

Are We Moving?

We’ve mentioned this on the blog, but a lot of viewers on YouTube don’t actually read the blog, so we decided to talk about what we have been up to and the fact that we will move to Seoul. Now, those that like seeing videos of us in the countryside, don’t worry! We’ll still be back in the countryside regularly to visit. Seoul will be a much better environment for us work wise. Constantly going back and forth between here and Seoul really takes it’s toll. We have a stack of videos we haven’t had time to edit (videos sitting there waiting for the Nicholalala channel too) so living in Seoul will mean that we can get so much more work done and have our own space to do it. As well as having all the contacts we need for work much closer. We’ve never wanted to be only YouTubers, and the blog started with comics and I now make a living making comics, which is great. But YouTube helps with other areas too. It will also play a part in Hugh’s consulting business as well. We are slowly paving the way for what we want to do in the future. That’s also why, for us personally, we don’t have a Patreon (a Patreon is where fans can donate money every month), we aren’t comfortable with that because we have these long term plans. Patreons can be great for some people and works well for them, but it’s not for us. A kickstarter we would maybe consider if it was something that benefited all our readers and viewers.

The move could happen sooner or later than expected but it will be in the coming months. It’s been good to be with Hugh’s parents and after being away for so many years, he is glad that he spent this time with them. He found that he reconnected with his parents and developed a closer relationship with them. We helped them in lots of ways, not just with farm work, but slowly replacing things like TV and fridge… still trying to get them to use a smart phone though! The time we’ve spent in the countryside has been really valuable, even if to some outsiders it seems like a waste of time.

We’ll be looking into studio space as well. I think 2016 will be an interesting year!

Hey Eonni

As we’ve mentioned before in this video Hugh is now running the online store ‘Hey Eonni‘ that sells Korean products. Here is a comic that explains how it works:

 

HeyEonni

You don’t have to call Hugh ‘Eonni’… haha. For those unfamiliar with Korean terms, ‘Eonni’ is a term used by girls to girls older than them and means ‘older sister’. As Hey Eonni was started by Mikyung (who is the wife of Hyunwoo from Talk to Me in Korean) ‘Hey Eonni’ makes sense as a name! But it is actually pretty funny that Hugh is now running it and he is clearly not an Eonni. If you are younger than him (and female) you can call him “Oppa” and if you are younger than him (and male) you can call him “Hyung”.

I did find it amusing that Hugh had to fill several orders of EXO ramen this morning.

 

Hey Eonni products

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