Just a quick video we filmed a few months ago in the Korean countryside. These bulls were being exercised while we happened to be walking through our village. We didn’t expect to see them on the road like this.

Our rice was recently harvested so Hugh filmed a little bit on the combine harvester and then later we filmed our neighbours harvesting.

You may have noticed that there were young farmers in the video. I mean younger than the average age of 70 here… It’s quite unusual to have young guys farming in the countryside. The majority of young people move to the cities and the only ones left farming are old people. These guys however, are making a documentary and have traveled the world researching farming techniques and have come back to the countryside to farm. We all wish that younger people would start moving back to the countryside and are hoping there is a movement where better techniques are used so that people can have a more comfortable life in rural Korea.

READ THE EPISODE HERE!

There are some very strange noises here at night! Right now as I’m writing this the wind is howling through the valley and causing things to bang and other various noises. Not sure how much sleep we’ll get tonight!

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It’s been quite a while since I rode my bike around and vlogged. Subscribe to the Nicholalala channel if you haven’t already.

This happens a lot. I decide to go for a walk and get bombarded with fertilizer smell! Remember that when you see some of the photos I post on Instagram. It’s not something that just happens in the countryside either. I remember several times in Sydney when they fertilize all the lawns in parks and there is that fertilizer smell in the city!

Twice a week the Soondae Ahjussi visits nearby with his soondae truck. Now I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like soondae, but I’ve had a change of heart and now I quite like it! I don’t like eating it at open markets where it can have a strong smell and looks like it’s been sitting there for a while…haha, I can still be picky. I only started liking it after trying it at this soondae truck because it’s so fresh and there are different flavours. Hugh has always loved it though and it’s one of his favourite foods.

Soondae can also be romanised as “sundae” but I think that spelling can cause some problems for foreigners who are expecting ice cream…

When we first saw them building this coffee shop we were so excited because it meant there was finally somewhere local to go! If we want to go to a cafe we have to travel by bus for 20 minutes to Jinju. Not something we can do all the time.

There are technically two other cafes in this area, but one of them is dodgy and overpriced, and built next to a rubbish dump! It’s not really a coffee shop and doesn’t have that atmosphere. You have to go up stairs to the second level and apparently the owner does “face reading” (fortune telling by looking at someone’s face) as well. There is another cafe that is small but decent, however it’s still not the Korean coffee shop vibe that we like in cities.

So of course we had to explain what dabang coffee shops are. They are everywhere! No thought to design or atmosphere, it’s usually just old tables and chairs in rundown buildings. Not all, but a lot of them have varying levels of prostitution. They deliver coffee and only hire women, so the deal is that men who order coffee can also pay for something extra. The line of what is prostitution in Korea is so blurry. Things vary from women being paid to talk to men while serving them to of course all the way through to selling their bodies. Some dabangs have rooms upstairs for that. That’s why it’s mostly old men at these places. Prostitution in Korea is everywhere but everyone turns a blind eye. So you can see why we don’t ever go to those types of coffee places.

Those that watched the drama Modern Farmer might remember a scene where the woman opens a Ediya coffee shop in town. Ediya being a big proper coffee shop brand, but two men come in and one grabs her, insinuating that he wanted more from her. Completely disgusting and unacceptable behaviour in a real coffee shop (or anywhere in my personal opinion), but not completely unrealistic if you know what it’s like in countryside areas.

This new real coffee shop is such a good thing here! There is such a community vibe to it and it’s been wonderful to see that many older women have somewhere to go and talk. The prices are half what city prices are but it has free wifi and all the stuff you expect from city cafes in Korea (wonder if I can get them to add chai latte to the menu though).

Something that is sad about living in the Korean countryside is that a lot of places are dying. Our village certainly is. Young people have all moved away. But Wonji, the town next to us is actually growing. It’s a beautiful location, apartment prices are cheap, so young families are moving there to live. This coffee shop opening is a symbol of life coming back to this area.

Living in the countryside definitely makes me appreciate the small things in life.

Also, the coffee shop is run by someone in the Gwon family, so a distant relative of ours. Hugh complained that he wanted a discount but I think if the coffee shop gives out discounts for all Gwons they would have to give discounts to pretty much everyone here… many many Gwons in this area.

Jeongwol Daeboreum is the first full moon of the lunar new year and there are lots of traditions, customs and celebrations across Korea. In years gone by there would have more celebrations in the countryside like fires (burning the rice fields) but these days those big fire celebrations are only in bigger towns and cities and are big organised events. Nowadays local people in the area come together like this for Jeongwol Daeboreum.

I expected to just be an observer, but of course I stand out in rural Korea so they were excited to drag me into the singing and dancing. It was actually a lot of fun, but although my brother is an amazing drummer, I have no rhythm at all! This group of locals preformed like this again and again around all the small villages in this area.

There is supposed to be an Ask Us video today but we didn’t get to film it (still not feeling well). Instead we put together this footage from a few weeks ago when Daniel and Chloe were visiting. We went up into the mountains for a picnic, but it was raining pretty heavily. Luckily there was another option and we had our picnic under the bridge, sitting on some tables while surrounded by water. Even though we are in the middle of nowhere, there is a tent set up where an ahjumma cooks food for people and serves them drinks, so we paid just a little bit of money to use the tables and to have some food and drinks. It ended up being a very cool experience. We weren’t really planning on filming this day, which is why it’s not a proper video, but we filmed a bit just because it was so nice