Even after being married for so many years, we still have language communication problems. But now we argue like the old married couple that we are!

By the way, it WAS dodgeball they were playing. I had to google it to find that out though.

A vlog about finding out if we will have having a boy or a girl. Will Yul be a Hyung or an Oppa?

Although we have lived in Seoul for years, we have never done a proper apartment tour before.

It took years to work how best to use our small space. Since living here we’ve changed what room was the bedroom so we could have a bigger living room space. We moved in with almost all the furniture being given to us, so we just had to make do, instead of buying furniture that fit the space well. Even just a few years ago, options were limited for furniture in Korea too. Now it’s not just the IKEA option, there are many furniture companies designing reasonably priced furniture for small spaces.

Slowly we’ve been switching furniture and changing the space. Finally I felt I could do a video and also give people ideas on how to make the most of a small space. On sites like Buzzfeed they have lists of products that help in small spaces and I always check those lists. Often you don’t even know what awesome products there are that can help you manage a small apartment.

We do love this apartment, but it will be time to move on soon. We want to move into a bigger apartment, but still in the same area. I think if we didn’t have a two-year-old we could continue to live here, but we need more space. We also want more space for guests too and I want to be able to paint in a bigger space.

Seoul can be an expensive place to live, but our neighbourhood is amazing and we got lucky with our lower rent price. Our apartment has lots of natural light and has character. I hope showing our place gives others some ideas on how to live in a small apartment.

If you are moving to Seoul or Korea, be aware that the names for things can be different to what you may expect in English. For example, our place is technically a “villa” not an apartment. Apartments in the Korean sense are the very big buildings and have certain requirements.

It’s been a little while since I’ve done anything on my Nicholalala channel so I thought I’d answer some questions! I asked you guys for questions on Instagram and answered as many as I could.

I talk about how my favourite Korean food changes a lot more now that I live in Korea, compared to living in Australia. What Korean fashion do I not like? What do I miss about Australian culture and how do I survive without an oven in Korea?

A lot of these questions were still very Korea related, but since it’s just me answering questions I’m very happy to answer questions that are more personal or related to other stuff since this is for the Nicholalala channel. They don’t have to always be about Korea

If you do have any questions you can ask them here or over on YouTube. Also subscribe to this channel!

“Oppa” is the Korean term that I often use for Hugh as he is an older male. It can also be used in the context of our relationship as a pet name. Unfortunately in a crowd there are many “oppas” so Hugh often assumes it’s a woman calling out to another guy, and not to him. If I call out “Oppa” to him it doesn’t really get his attention. Calling out “Hugh” also doesn’t get his attention if we are in a loud place. Lately I’ve been calling out “oi” in a very Australian accent and have found it works so much better! Especially when I stress my Australian accent as he knows it’s immediately me. The word “oi” is used quite a bit in Australian English.

In this Seoul Life Hugh reveals his favourite Kpop group… but it’s different to who I like. Shock! Horror! We also answer some of your questions.

In this Seoul Life video we get a delivery of Kimchi, we go back to the countryside for Chuseok, see Andra Day in concert and catch up with a friend who is having a break from Military service!

Hugh has been so excited about Mexican culture lately (renewed enthusiasm for learning Spanish) but unfortunately he discovered he doesn’t like sour Mexican candy. He really doesn’t like anything sour, but I liked it!

It’s been a more quiet week, but Hugh still managed plenty of socializing. I made many trips to the convenience store to buy Australian Lemon, Lime and Bitters, and still managed to always miss seeing the famous people coming out of YG Entertainment.

Worst summer ever! It’s been such a hot summer and we’ve been unable to do so many things we want to because of the heat and the humidity. Although I’m used to hot weather in Australia, Australian homes usually have air conditioners that cool down the whole house but Korean homes tend to just have air con in one room so most of the house can still be so hot. Also… no swimming culture. The heat has made me a bit sick lately, and sleep deprived as it’s too hot to sleep well. Hugh has been dealing with the heat by laying still while naked.

We do get warning messages on our phones about the heat, as well as other times there is any slight danger, like too much rain or fog. At first these messages would freak me out. Is North Korea invading??? But usually it’s nothing much.

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I’m sure many people know who Josh and Ollie are, from the Korean Englishman YouTube channel, and if you don’t, I’m sure you’ve stumbled across one of their insanely popular videos at some point. Hugh’s good friend Joel is also in some of their videos and contacted Hugh because they wanted to film on a farm. Oh, we have a farm! So we headed back to the countryside so the boys could film in Hugh’s village. We will have a video of some of the behind the scenes stuff up later, once their farm videos come out. But for now, here is a sneak peek.

We complain more about the heat also. I wanted to point out that it’s almost impossible to keep air con on constantly in Korea. Hugh was telling me that there is an outdated law from the 1970’s where electricity bills double and then triple for people, but businesses are exempt. So Korean homes can be very hot in the summer because people try to rely on fans rather than constant air con. It has been way more uncomfortable than in Australia.

In this video we also talked about the yellow dust pollution and how it affects Hugh more. I do have a theory why: Hugh’s father used to be a smoker so Hugh grew up around a lot more cigarette smoke than me so maybe that’s why, because his throat and lungs have already been compromised, even though Hugh is not a smoker himself. In comparison, I have had very little exposure to smoke my whole life.

We also attend Cory and Marie’s wedding. It was a lovely wedding, and even in the heat, we had so much fun.