Month: October 2012 (Page 2 of 5)

Cures?

2012/10/25 / Nic / 13 Comments

Liz asked on Facebook:

I’m sick now and I know you guys were sick a little while back. Are there any things that you think are better or that he thinks are better for curing illnesses? Or is it just the same stuff?

Well, when I tried to ask my husband this…

What a jerk! Actually it’s really funny because he is such a nice guy and is never like that, so he did it to be funny and to frustrate me. When I asked him again he couldn’t really think of many, besides from eating spicy food. That is something we actually did when we were sick recently; we ate spicy soup.

Another thing he mentioned was that people say to drink soju with chilli powder in it. Whether anyone actually does this is another matter…

So besides from eating spicy food we just do the usual things for when sick. However, I would be curious to hear from others with Korean partners if there are certain things your partner does that is different.

I have had some experience in Korea with Oriental medicine but mostly just drinking special tea because I have a ‘cold body type’.

The Balancing Act

2012/10/24 / Nic / 20 Comments

We actually share an apartment with another couple, we don’t have our own apartment at the moment. The Sydney rental market is ridiculous, there just isn’t enough apartments for the demand and that drives the prices up. We live in a more expensive area, so while we are close to where my husband works and so close to the city, it is much harder to get an apartment just for us. Sharing an apartment isn’t that unusual for couples here. But it still sucks!

Sydney was recently named the 2nd most expensive city in the world to live in after Tokyo (no wonder I don’t find the prices high in Japan!) So because it’s an expensive place and the rent prices are atrocious, it creates an unfortunate environment for everyone who is not on the lease of an apartment. When you go into a share apartment situation the person/s on the lease have all the control and can treat you like shit, even if you are paying most of the rent every week. Because of this, even though this apartment has quite a large living area, we don’t feel comfortable using it. We have our room and bathroom and that’s where we spend all our time. BUT, we don’t have a sofa or proper table! I think it’s more important to me than it is for my husband. Firstly because he is Korean and is used to doing things on the floor so doesn’t really miss having a table or sofa, and secondly he has worked out this balancing act of laying half on the bed with his laptop (and food) on the floor.

He lets me have the desk and chair. ‘What a nice!’

We are currently looking for an apartment- just for us- but it might take a while.

Weirdly it may actually be easier to get an apartment when we live in Korea. The system is different there; you put down a very large bond and then pay less per week/month. Here the bond is not that large but weekly rent is so high so it’s a lot of wasted money. That said, I don’t want to complain too much because Sydney is an awesome city to live in.

Belly

2012/10/23 / Nic / 6 Comments

The Korean language allows for dramatic and poetic statements and phrases in everyday conversation but when directly translated to English they can sound a bit funny…

Ghost Stories

2012/10/22 / Nic / 17 Comments

CYah asks:

any ghost stories/experiences? Korean style? lol cause Koreans do make good horror movies..

My husband has some from his childhood and his home town (which is in a very rural area). This is just one in particular happened to his neighbour when she was working in a rice field one evening.

Apparently she saw something strange and scary so she threw a rock at it. The rock then was thrown back at her by the “thing” so of course she ran away!

Stories of supernatural beings are so woven into Korean culture that I find myself believing a lot more than I would in Australia. Here, I can easily dismiss ghost stories but when I hear these stories in Korea and walk around where my husband grew up, they feel more real.

My husband has a story from when he was 12. He and his friend saw a woman in white with long hair walk into an abandoned house. They were scared but after a few minutes they went into the house because they were curious- the woman had disappeared but instead there was a huge snake! They were terrified and ran away. Who knows what really happened… but seeing a woman in what looked like burial clothes go into an old abandoned house and then see a snake in her place was scary!

I try to avoid watching Korean horror movies because they are so scary!

Super Junior Giveaway

2012/10/21 / Nic / 64 Comments

EDIT: Congratulations to the winners MirOppa (first prize) and Neyteri Sully (second prize).

Okay another giveaway with some things from Korea. Socks again!

This time Super Junior!

First prize is 12 Super Junior socks. I think some of the socks are members that have left the group. Sorry I don’t know much about individual members of Super Junior and this is just how I was given them. But hopefully most are current members.

Second prize is a Super Junior folder sleeve. Do you want to put your important documents in Super Junior?!

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment in the comments section. Also if you haven’t already, don’t forget to like the My Korean Husband Facebook page and follow on Twitter.

The winners will be chosen randomly in 2 weeks. Good Luck!

Flashing

2012/10/20 / Nic / 20 Comments

What?! Yes he has a flashing cube. Because that’s what you want flashing under your bed at 4:30 in the morning… He got it from work when he was working in the night club area. He doesn’t usually work there but he made sure he did because Psy was performing that night. They put these cubes that light up in the ice when serving wine apparently.

Side note on Psy: This particular night club really promoted Psy being there. But it really was only an “appearance” which usually just means something short. Unfortunately many people thought it was more than that and paid ridiculous amounts of money to see him (when they could have just gone to the free concert that Sunrise did) and he only did Gangnam Style. It’s a shame because there were disgruntled fans but really it wasn’t Psy’s fault but there were people blaming him. I think it was a combination of it being promoted the wrong way and people not reading properly and not understanding that it wasn’t a concert. My husband is just happy he saw him after missing out the other day… and for free! Later after the performance he could walk past Psy in the VIP area but he was too shy to say anything to him.

Do cubes remind anyone else of that recent Doctor Who episode? I hope they don’t start appearing everywhere.

Towels

2012/10/19 / Nic / 34 Comments

Before I first went to Korea I never imagined being handed a tiny towel to dry myself with for after a shower. I thought towel sizes were probably standard everywhere. I do enjoy huge fluffy bath towels – the ones that are so big that they are called bath blankets – but an average size towel will do me just fine.

This is just my own experience so I’m not saying everyone in Korea does this, because I really don’t know, but from my experiences staying with my husband’s family and with Korean friends, towels tend to be significantly smaller. When we’ve stayed in motels in Korea as well, I’ve found they give us 1 almost normal size towel and then just those small ones.

After I’ve had a shower I like the towel to do all the work so I can just stand there until I’m decently dry. With a tiny towel you have to do all the work! So that was different…

Have you experienced the same thing when staying with a Korean family? Also why are so many that same design, just varying colours? ( those ones with the line pattern).

Because he grew up with such small towels, is this why my husband prances around naked without a towel after a shower?

Are towels small in Korea because Koreans like to make that sheep head thing with towels? (Just kidding!)

Showed my husband this just before uploading and he was like “Ahhhhh no!” He is concerned about cartoon almost nudity.