Intercultural Life
I noticed our neighbours had called in extra help to get the onions harvested. Luckily my inlaws were just harvesting potatoes in a green house so the rain didn’t bother them.
These types of rainy days can be quite nice. The rain is light and there is no wind, so I can walk around with an umbrella and not get drenched. It’s nice and peaceful.
He also didn’t want to go swimming because the water was cold and he is a baby. It was nice and refreshing for me though! Nice fresh mountain water. I need swimming buddies.
(If you are wondering why he didn’t just go naked, we were with his sister and friends).
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.
There’s been some typhoon-y weather lately but no damage around here. This comic idea is actually from Sara from SeoulSarang, who imagined Hugh saying “Typhoon is coming” in a Game of Thrones way. I decided the logical conclusion was to go put a rain jacket on.
I did the same thing last spring as well, considered a few people outside to be “sooo many people!” In fact, Hugh has edited what I’ve said in several vlogs because I’ll say, “Wow so many people out today” and then the camera pans around to one ahjumma in the field. This is how the countryside changes you!
You hardly see anyone all through winter because everyone is inside and the fields are bare. Come spring and everyone emerges so I get surprised at seeing how many people live here!
We’ve been quiet this week because we’ve been super busy getting ready to go to Australia, as well as dealing with some health problems (everything is fine, don’t worry) and we had some visitors!
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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.
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