Hugh has been out of Australia too long! He doesn’t remember the slang. He heard an Australian guy say this at a work event and then came home and repeated it to me. Unfortunately he thought it was “boom boom” instead of “whoop whoop”. Also, where I am from it’s not necessarily “out whoop whoop”. I am from a reasonably sized country city and it’s the much smaller places, that are further out, that we would say are “out whoop whoop”.

Hugh was also naked during the conversation last week but I drew some undies on him at least. (Some things never change). Yul also had no idea what we were talking about, but he still thought it was funny.

The 100 Days celebration used to be bigger in Korea, with a ritual aspect to it, but these days it may only be a small family gathering and a photo shoot. We only did the photo shoot and even that was stressful. But I do like acknowledging 100 days and feeling a bit more freedom to go outside with my baby. Traditionally, the mother and baby would not leave the home for 100 days and even today in Korea people still somewhat abide by that rule. If I went out with her before 100 days the first questions the old women in the neighbourhood would ask is, “Has she had her 100 days yet?!”

Rather than having to buy the props for a photo shoot, there are companies that hire packages out. There are a range to choose from, depending if you want it to look very traditional, or have more of a modern look. There are also many different hanboks (the traditional clothes) to choose from. As we show in the video, it is delivered to you and has instructions on how to set it up.

We also give a glimpse into seeing my family again as they were finally able to come to Korea. My brother was able to move to Korea last year (he was living in Japan), but my parents had to wait until Australia opened up again and Korea allowed Australian tourists. It was been wonderful to see some of my family again and to see Yul reconnect with them, as the last time he has seen them he was only two years old.

Chuseok in the countryside

It’s been hard to make any content at the moment, for example comics are just too exhausting, but when we can film a bit I can edit it into little videos. In this video we are back in the countryside to visit Hugh’s parents for the Chuseok holiday.

It’s been about 2 years since we’ve been back there and we made sure Hugh’s parents were vaccinated so the risk was low for them. It was nice to be back, but also quite exhausting for me at this stage of my pregnancy. Hugh did get a chance to fly his drone though, which is near impossible to do in Seoul without special permission. The other reason why it’s been hard to make much content lately is because firstly, we are really not going anywhere due to the current situation of the world. And secondly, Hugh is very busy with his company, so even filming at home becomes a challenge.

That said, I am glad when we can do something as it’s great to be able to look back in years to come. The charye (ancestral memorial rites ceremony) is still done by Hugh’s family, but may eventually fade out as Hugh may be unlikely to continue the tradition. But I am always happy to be included in this element of Korean culture.

We also went to the Goseong Dinosaur Museum, which we have been to before, but Yul doesn’t remember. I suspected the actual museum would be closed but at least there are the outside attractions and the real dinosaur footprint fossils to see. Yul heard me mention “museum” and got really excited because he loves museums. At least he was satisfied with everything else, but would have been nice to actually go inside the museum. So many things catered to children like museums are immediately shut in these times while places for adults stay open. While it’s been hard for everyone, children have been so negatively affected during this pandemic. Hopefully next time it will be open, and in the meantime we try to book for the Natural History Museum in Seoul when we can. I definitely miss the days of deciding to go to a museum on that day and just showing up and being able to go in!

Now that Yul is almost four, I have a better understanding of why so few families live in the countryside and prefer urban areas. The Korean countryside is not really set up for young children, at least in this area. Korea is very mountainous, so it’s great for adults that want to hike, but it means all valley areas are usually farm lands. I don’t mean the western ideal of rolling hills and space type farmland. With not much space the areas are often taken up with green houses for growing produce, sides of the roads are all irrigation ditches and many things are dangerous to children. It’s not an idyllic lifestyle.

Yul couldn’t understand why there was no convenience store or park for children there. In order to go to a park we have to cross the bridge to the next town. The one time we went to a playground, he was disappointed that there were no other children there to play with. Countryside areas no longer having families living there is a big problem these days, but I can’t blame families for moving when so many rural areas don’t have the infrastructure for raising children. You would think a rural area would have more places for children to play, but there was less than what is easily accessible for us in Seoul.

That’s some of my thoughts and perspective after living in Seoul for years and then going back to a rural area with a child. Hugh’s parents will retire in years to come and want to live closer to the sea, so will move. I’m hoping a more seaside area will at least have more public access areas that our children can enjoy in years to come when they visit.

One big cultural difference I still struggle with in Korea is the bulk buying of everything! Even when you are just buying from the supermarket, things can be in huge packs. At the markets you have to buy a bunch of the same fruit or vegetables all at once too. No just picking out a few! This makes it hard for people living alone, but also for those in a small apartment. But so many people live in small apartments! It’s such a normal thing in Korea, and people give gifts which will be a big box of fruit that is impossible to finish.

I wouldn’t mind so much if we had the space, because there are savings to be had when buying in bulk, but we don’t have the space. I am constantly looking for ways to store massive amounts of toilet paper or paper towels or even skin lotion! A friend of Hugh’s at a skincare company sent him some. Not just a few samples, a big box of hundreds of the exact same lotion! Why?! We have been slowly giving them away, but I also had to find space for them.

It’s one of those cultural differences where we just have to agree to disagree. The savings made from buying in bulk, and also the convenience of not having to order again for a while, is more important to Hugh. But for me, having an ordered space without boxes full of stuff taking up room is more important to me. Hopefully this tension will ease once we are in a bigger space and it’s more manageable.

To see the small space we live in, check out our apartment tour video on our YouTube channel.

Invited to a Seoul Fashion Week Show

Our son gets a little bit of attention from fashion brands on Instagram and occasionally gets sent some clothes. This brand, Urban Edition, has sent him clothes before and they also invited him to a Fashion Week runway show. Yes, a toddler was invited. We of course, went with him but even the seats said his name plus guests! We were right at the front row. A friend has also given him a birthday present of dinosaurs right before, so he was pretty occupied with the dinosaurs rather than looking at fashion.

After the show he met the designer and showed her his new dinosaurs too. To a two-year-old it was very important to show his dinosaurs! Luckily he does well at events for a toddler so we can take him to things like this.

Hugh also got some footage of the Saturday of Seoul Fashion week. This is usually when most people go and it gets very busy. We didn’t take our son Yul to Fashion Week on Saturday because so many people would be taking photos of him and it could get pretty overwhelming. Now that he is older and more aware we are selective about what we expose him to.

Seoul Fashion Week is certainly very interesting though and Hugh tried to capture a lot of the fashion on the Saturday. You may recognise some of our friends there too.

I remembered this argument recently…

It was early in our relationship while we were still in Sydney and we were heading to a friend’s wedding. The problem was it was a Korean and an Australian marrying, so we didn’t know which cultural etiquette was appropriate.

We had a very dumb argument about whether we give a gift or money and how it is presented. These days we would never let an argument about cultural differences escalate that much. But back then we didn’t really understand how much it was just cultural differences!

Watch the video to hear more about the reality of being in an intercultural relationship and make sure you are subscribed!

The smell of childhood

Hugh and I had very different childhoods and some things we only realise now that we have Yul. Since Korea has changed a lot, Yul has a lot more access to things that I had in my stereotypical Western childhood, like Play-Doh. Whereas what Hugh had to play with in the ’80s in Korea was very different to what I had in Australia. These days things like Play-Doh are easy to get in Korea.

Growing up, we also made Play-Doh at home ourselves, but my brain instantly recognizes the smell of the store-brought Play-Doh brand. I had fun sniffing Yul’s Play-Doh while Hugh had no interest…

Yul also has Play-Doh toys and accessories I would have loved to have as a child but they were either not available then or would have been too expensive. Yul really enjoys playing with Play-Doh but doesn’t realise how lucky he is! He is also young so his playing mostly involved just layering pieces of Play-Doh on top of each other.

He has yet to discover the slime craze thankfully and hopefully I can hold that off for a while!

Filming for Korean Morning TV show

We were on a morning TV show here called Morning Wide. In this video we show you the segment and talk about the experience of filming, when we’d only been back in Korea for a few days. Filming can be pretty difficult and we had to travel as well. But one of the reasons why we wanted to do it was because the audience of this show tends to be older people and we want to show the positives of being multicultural. If we can change someone’s mind who previously had a negative opinion, than it’s worth it.

It also happened to be Seollal, Lunar New Year, so the show tied in with their New Year programming. Hugh’s parents got Yul this very cute hanbok. I’m so grateful they did because in the rush of travelling from Australia to Korea I had not thought about getting him one for Seollal. It was great to see him in this style of one.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more videos!

My son plays with my old toys from the 1980’s

In this video Hugh and I look at some of the toys I played with from the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The Duplo Lego and Fisher Price cash register was shared with my siblings, the Tuppertoys school bus probably belonged more to my brothers, but the soft toys and My Child doll were my own.

Yul already played with most of the toys already, but it was the first time seeing my doll and soft toys. Watch the video to see him playing with the toys. It will be interesting to see him interact with the same toys next time we go back to Australia.

Yul’s first time in the countryside for Lunar New Year!

We headed back to the countryside for Lunar New Year recently. It was the time Yul had been down south to the area where Hugh’s parents live, and where we had previously lived for 2 years. Usually we would catch the bus but decided to take the fast KTX train instead as it’s more comfortable for traveling with a baby.

I also hadn’t been back in the countryside for a while as I hadn’t been able to travel when pregnant. It was great to get out of Seoul and breathe the countryside air again. It was also a lot warmer than in Seoul. Hugh’s parents had seen Yul once before but this time they got to spend a whole week with him. They were over the moon and so incredibly proud to be grandparents. Hugh’s sister and her husband live in the area as well so we got to spend some time with them too.

As you can see in the video, Yul was given lots of money! It is a tradition for children to do a big bow for relatives and are then given some money. We will probably use it to buy some things for him. We also did the Jesa ceremony in the morning which is a way to pay respects to deceased family members. And of course we ate lots of food. In future we will have a car and be able to drive down south more regularly hopefully.

We were sent some suitcases from SHAPL, which could not have come at a better time! I was dreading pulling out our old battered suitcases and had been meaning to buy some more anyway. These new ones were so smooth and nice to use and made traveling so much easier. You can check out more designs on the SHAPL website and also get these suitcases through the Kickstarter.

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