Category: Australia (Page 19 of 22)

Like and Dislike

2012/12/17 / Nic / 14 Comments

I was asked if there was any food from my country that I dislike, but my husband likes, and if there any Korean food that I like but he dislikes.

First up, let’s talk about Korean food. The answer is:

EVERYTHING! I’m much more picky about Korean food. I eat most of it but there are still things I won’t eat, like intestines, and I can be picky about how I eat things with bones. His mother makes amazing fried chicken but she knows I don’t like eating chicken right off the bones, so she’ll make sure I get all the boneless or near boneless bits. It’s really sweet, she puts all the good pieces directly on my plate.

So what about Australian/Western food? What does he like that I dislike? The major thing I can think of is steak.

I’m not a big meat eater (and slip in and out of vegetarianism) and prefer my portion of meat to be small with lots of vegetables. What I love about Korean food is the smaller and thinner meat portions and the way it’s integrated into the food, instead of just a slab of meat as in a lot of Australian cooking.

However, because Koreans in general are used to smaller portions of meat in Korea, they can get quite excited about the large and cheap cuts of meat in Australia. Australia has a big meat industry and has the space to pasture feed livestock. So my husband really enjoys a big steak but I cannot eat that much meat at once. And it’s pretty boring to me.

I have been disappointed a few times before, when invited to dinner by other Koreans who are living in Australia because I’ve expected to eat Korean food. Instead dinner will be just big chunks of meat barbequed or fried. While they think it’s great to be able to eat this much meat at once, for me, because I’ve grown up with Australian barbeques and an excess of meat, it’s not that great. I’d much prefer to be eating a variety of Korean dishes and have the meat much more marinated or seasoned and with vegetables. But I understand why they focus on the meat when in Australia.

In order to answer this question I was going through some of my favourite Korean foods/drinks to see if my husband dislikes any of them.

Me: “Banana Milk!”

Him: “Everyone likes that!”

Me: “The potato pancake your mother makes?”

Him: “Everyone likes that!”

And it went on…. I just like the popular food and he likes everything anyway.

Christmas Tree

2012/12/10 / Nic / 18 Comments

I’ve been back at my parent’s house these past few days so this post isn’t really about my husband. My parents have a young Korean couple boarding with them at the moment who I’ve been gradually getting to know better. (Even at home I can’t escape Koreans haha).

We got them to help us decorate the Christmas tree, which was exciting for them.

I did laugh pretty hard at this. He really did just put a clump of red balls on the tree. Because it was so funny, I left it that way, but my mum came and did some rearranging later.

Christmas in Korea doesn’t seem to have the same meaning as it does in places like Australia. My husband told me a lot of people do nothing special and it’s common to just go out and do things with friends. He likes the Western style of Christmas because of the focus on family and traditions (and food!). It’s not really a surprise though, as Christmas has been a big holiday in Western countries a lot longer than in Korea. It’s been fun to introduce the Korean couple staying with my parents to Christmas traditions.

Does your family have any particular Christmas traditions?

I’m Stuck

2012/12/04 / Nic / 13 Comments

So yes, sometimes we play at the playground… BUT our closest playground is at Darling Harbour, which is kinda an amazing one. It’s not really just for kids and is right near lots of restaurants and other stuff, so at night once the kids are gone you’ll see a lot of adults there.

Anyway, I got stuck on one of the climbing things… because I’m stupid. Seriously, I’m not very agile. My husband knows me well enough to know when I really have a problem or if I’m just being a whiny baby. So he took the opportunity to rock the ropes and make me flail around even more and then wandered off and let me try and get out myself.

In conclusion, don’t climb on the ropes at Darling Harbour if you are clumsy.

Dirty Jokes

2012/12/01 / Nic / 4 Comments

This happens sometimes, and they are usually pretty mild jokes or references, nothing really really dirty. It’s not that he doesn’t understand jokes in English, usually he understand jokes fine, it’s just that he doesn’t pick up sexual innuendos as well. Sometimes when he says he doesn’t understand (usually he says “What is it?” when he doesn’t understand), I look at his innocent and trusting face and think, “I can’t explain this.”

This does not mean he is some innocent little boy – far from it – it’s just soooo many things in English can seem to mean something sexual and since it’s not his native language he can’t pick up on them all. Sometimes just completely over his head.

Less Friends

2012/11/28 / Nic / 13 Comments

This post is a not a funny one and is a bit sad actually. For many years my husband was in Australia on working holiday visas and student visas. With that comes a certain type of socializing. There are many other Koreans in Australia on those type of visas and they usually stay for 1 or 2 years. The usually live together in the same type of apartments and areas. It’s a chance to make a lot of friends and there is a certain type of relaxed party lifestyle.

My husband is a permanent resident now and unfortunately most of his friends have gone back to Korea. He still knows plenty of people here and we have friends but it’s hard knowing that really good friends will all leave at some point.

A few weeks ago we were at the park and we saw a bunch of Koreans having a barbeque. We knew they were working holiday visa or student visa Koreans just enjoying their time in Australia. My husband hasn’t had that type of relaxed hanging out for a long time.

I told him he could go introduce himself and maybe they’ll invite him to join them but he couldn’t do it (Koreans have a lot of trouble introducing themselves randomly to other Koreans). So instead he stood some distance away and looked over longingly at the fun time they were having. I felt really bad for him. They didn’t notice him.

While getting permanent residency comes with many benefits, there are some aspects that are a bit sad, like friends always leaving. The other problem is my husband’s work hours means he only has a few evenings a week off, so it can be hard to see friends when he wants to.

He doesn’t complain much about it but it does make me sad sometimes that there are so many friends he can’t see for a long time because of his choice to be in Australia with me.

One Photo

2012/11/27 / Nic / 7 Comments

We’ve had this argument before. Out of many photos that were taken he’ll fixate on the one photo that doesn’t really look like him. This photo made him look like a body builder, and while he is muscular and kinda stocky, he doesn’t really look like a body builder! Other times it was photos where he looks really skinny but isn’t actually in real life. He’ll then upload to certain forums he is on and tell people he always looks like this AND will insist to me that it is a real representation.

I know it’s something that lots of people do, we all like to look good online, but I’m a bit less concerned these days. Perhaps a bit of a cultural difference: Korea is a lot more focused on looks than Australia is. Actually the first time we went to Korea, we met some friends and family that had only seen photos of me on Facebook. Many people told me I look much better in real life and that I look terrible on Facebook…..um thanks? I remember someone saying these exact words, “Real life….GOOD! Facebook…..BAD!” It’s not like all my photos are terrible! I just don’t care too much, have a lot of casual snapshots and I don’t even know how to use photoshop.

In the end I don’t think he put that photo on Facebook because his phone wasn’t working. He needs a new one. Also, he got stung by a jellyfish! When his friend was taking photos, he told him to lay on the sand in a pose but unfortunately there was a jellyfish in the sand. Makes me wonder how much frolicking and posing him and his friend were doing on the beach…. anyway he’s okay. It wasn’t a really bad sting.

Cheezels

2012/11/26 / Nic / 11 Comments

This also happened on the weekend at the memorial service for my grandmother. I mentioned that all my little second cousins were scared of my husband because he looks different, but there was one time he was scared of one of them.

Some of the children were playing outside and one of my very young cousins dropped her packet of cheezels on the ground and ran back inside. My husband picked up the packet but she was not impressed.

So cute but so scary at the same time! Not only a redhead but a twin too! She stood there for quite a long time glaring at my husband.

The twins’ father mentioned later that it was the first time they’d had cheezels so perhaps the artificial cheese goodness was too addictive and caused them to creepily glare at people they thought were stealing them. My husband wasn’t stealing the cheezels though, just picking them off the ground for when she came back but she not happy. It was funny, adorable and creepy all at the same time.

Oops. My husband has just pointed out that this twin was wearing blue and it was the other twin who was wearing pink but too late now.

ALSO: I have a tumblr now. http://mykoreanhusband.tumblr.com/

While it may still have some comics on it it won’t just be a replica of this main blog but it will also be for more random stuff. What do you think about allowing submissions? Would you want to contribute things to it?