Korea, like many other Asian countries, has a superstition about 4 because it sounds similar to the word for death (in Sino-Korean).
Of course tetraphobia is not the only thing needed for living in Korea. I’ve been thinking about how grateful I am that I visited Korea many times before moving here, because it has made the transition a lot easier. If I had never been to Korea before, I would be very overwhelmed. Even more so because we are in a rural area and not a city. I’m sure there will be hard times ahead though.
My visa was extended easily enough thankfully. The visa system here is different to the Australian system. I came to Korea with a 3 month partner visa which has now been extended to 1 year. We just extend again when we need to.
At the moment the plan is to live in Korea for 2 years but that is flexible. It’s something we’ve been thinking about ever since we started dating because I really want to have this experience, and it will be good for my husband to be near his family. We’ll be staying with them first before finding our own place. Still not sure if we will move somewhere near Seoul or Busan.
We will be blogging full-time, which is hard to explain to some people. A lot of people aren’t that aware of how bloggers make money. Also a lot of people can be quite dismissive about our book deal as well. Oh well, if we’d listened to people in the beginning we’d never have started a blog, but now look how far we’ve come. We’ve got money saved up so we can survive for quite a while as well.
It’s something we’ve really thought about too. In Australia my husband had a pretty easy job with good pay but if he works in Korea for a company he will be working twice as much for only half the pay. He’d be away from me all the time as well even though I’d be in Korea too. If he had to do that we probably wouldn’t be moving to Korea.
Hopefully we’ll have some interesting videos coming up. My husband’s family lives in a very rural area and don’t speak any English. I’ve done about 1 year of Korean study and am constantly hearing Korean, but I’m still very much a beginner. It’s going to be hard for me.
I have a feeling my husband may get some reverse culture shock as well. He has been in Australia for a while. But it’s still all very exciting!
Sydney has been having a pretty warm winter. I think the average has been around 19 Celsius and it regularly gets into the 20’s. I haven’t bothered that much with warm clothing but last night the temperature dropped and I was out in only a light jacket.
This isn’t the first time it’s been pointed out to me that winters in Korea are really really cold. I’ve only been in Korea during spring and summer but when we move there it will be winter. I’m in for a nasty shock I think. My body will not be used to that at all, which why I think 13 degrees is cold! Meanwhile British people in Sydney are walking around in t-shirts saying, “What lovely summer weather this is!” but Sydney-siders are rugged up in winter coats and scarves.
Stay tuned for my commentary on Korean winters next year! If I haven’t died…
Also, I’ve just arrived in my hometown and I’m staying here for a few days. My husband is still in Sydney for work though. It is colder in my hometown than in Sydney. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Australia is always warm and sunny, there is a huge variation of temperature and weather.
Also, I still have that poo song stuck in my head. Arghhhh!
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