This is just a really quick video! We had been in Seoul and had caught the bus back. It takes about 3 hours and we have to get off at the town over and walk home from there. Even rural areas are quite busy with lots of people so this was the first time I’d seen it so dead- because it was the middle of the night.
It was really creepy walking over the bridge so we filmed a bit. The river is silent below and there is no one around. No cars or anything.
One big difference is that I was more scared of the supernatural than of people. In Australia I’d be scared of being mugged or worse, but here I wasn’t worried about being seen by the wrong type of people.
There was no way I was going to walk through the school yard! The school is typical of most Korean schools, the same type of building, and it’s just creepy at night. Also there is a statue of some historical figure there that is said to get down off his stand and walk around the grounds at night. Um no thank you.
We did this last night because it was rainy and we were just staying in. I really wanted to make something with all the excess strawberries. Strawberry shortcake would have been nice but ovens aren’t used much here, and no oven in this house. So we couldn’t do any baking…
So we haven’t had time to upload vlogs recently because we’ve had a crazy busy schedule. Being filmed is not so bad but having to constantly be doing something interesting can be really wearing. Apparently me messing around on the internet or watching movies on my laptop doesn’t make for interesting viewing. Who knew.
It has been hard, especially because I get tired very easily. I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in a week! Ahhhh.
Do you know how long the program is? 30 minutes. Over a week filming for 30 minutes haha. But actually it was a good experience and the program is about showing our type of relationship in a positive light, so I hope people enjoy it.
Here are the greenhouses and the strawberries! Farms in Korea are very different to farms in Australia. Australian farms are usually very big and even hobby farms are bigger than the size of farms in this rural area. It is basically as many greenhouses as possible crammed onto quite a small piece of land.
Another difference in agriculture in Korea is that even though we are in a mountainous area, all the farming area is flat. People have farmed in Korea for thousands of years so over time these areas between mountains have become flatter. It’s really different to Australia where there has only been farms for about 200 years. Australian farm land can be a lot more rugged.
When I was showing what Mr Gwon is wearing I was going to say he is wearing “thongs” and then stopped because I realied some American viewers may misunderstand…. haha.
This was filmed before we came to Korea. We are taking advantage of fast Korean internet speeds and uploaded as much stuff as we can. So let’s take a break from all the Korean stuff and go back to Australia for a short time!
We have visited Hyde Park Barracks before and it wasn’t that scary, but when we went the other week it was such a rainy miserable day and it made the Barracks seem really scary! There weren’t that many people when we went and it was quite eerie being in old rooms that once housed convicts.
We thought we’d give you a video with some Australian history because videos are going to be all Korea for a while.
Some people might already know a bit about Australian history but I hope we can impart a little bit of information for those that don’t. I think it’s important to understand that most convicts weren’t bad people. Usually they were born into poverty and resorted to crime to survive. Around the time that convicts were first sent to Australia there were over 200 crimes in Britain punishable by death. This was because of the Bloody Code (when there were very harsh punishments for many minor crimes) but by the 1800’s the death penalty was thought to be too harsh, so transportation (sent to Australia) was seen as the best alternative.
Until recent decades there was a stigma about having convict ancestors, but these days people are quite interested and proud of it. I think I have an ancestor who came out on the Second Fleet. Her crime was very minor as well. I think it might have been just stealing bread or a piece of fabric.
By the 1840’s convicts were no longer being transported to Sydney, so Hyde Park Barracks became an immigration depot for mostly young single Irish women (Ireland was devastated by famines). These women, most had lost their families, waited at the Hyde Park Barracks until they were hired for their services. Then in the 1850’s the barracks were used to house the newly arrived wives and children of convicts. In the 1860’s it was a government asylum for sick and destitute women and then eventually it became government offices until 1979.
What is really interesting about this building is that it is a museum about itself as well. On display are so many objects that were found in the building, particularly under floorboards. Things like pipes, clothing, games… you can see all these things there, as well as the tunnels made by rats over many many decades.
I really love history so I can go on for ages. We didn’t want to make a video that was like a documentary which is why a lot of serious stuff was cut out and we left the silly stuff in. But I hope you enjoyed because we like doing stuff like this and we hope we can show more about both Australian and Korean culture.
Yesterday we went to Jinju. We were actually there for most of the day but just filmed bits and pieces. In order to go to Jinju we walk to the next town and catch a bus. It takes about 20 minutes on the bus. Jinju is a city but it’s quite different from Seoul or Busan.
I have seen some foreigners around but really not as many as in Seoul. I’ve only occasionally seen some teachers around other times I’ve been here. So far this time I’ve only seen one foreigner working in a restaurant and she was Cambodian.
In the video it looks like I’m really tall but I’m not. Most of the people around were older people who are usually quite short. Younger generations are taller.
I had an embarrassing moment when we went to the hair salon (which is called something like ‘Hue’ in Korean which is why we were saying it’s his hair salon) and we just spoke in Korean. I thought I was doing pretty well answering in Korean and the owner sat me down with a cup of tea and some magazines while I waited. Hugh’s haircut was finished and he got up and started walking out with the hairdresser so I thought he was going to go pay so I jumped up and got our bags and followed him. Actually they were just going out into another room to wash his hair and the owner said loudly to me in Korean to not go there and to sit down. Then all the hairdressers were laughing at me and the owner makes me go sit down again and laughed at me. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you can understand and speak in Korean and how hard you try because you’ll still make mistakes. In hair salons I go to I Australia, hair is usually washed first, which is why I didn’t expect him to be getting his hair washed and taken out to another room. It was just temporary embarrassment though. Can’t take it too personally when people are laughing at the dumb foreigner!
Hope you enjoyed the video. We might go film the strawberries in the greenhouses now.
There are a bunch of areas in Sydney with Korean populations.We just wanted to show you guys one of these areas. Some people have commented about their own countries and how it is difficult to get Korean things there, so we wanted show why Sydney is such a good place for us to live as a couple that aims to be bi-cultural.
Usually we frequent the Korea Town in the Sydney CBD, which we also call ‘The City’. Strathfield is just a short train ride away but there is a different feel compared to the city. Koreans in the city are usually on working holiday or student visas and between the age of 20 and 30 but Strathfield is a more established Korean community with Korean people of all ages. You can see in the video there are clothes stores catering to older Korean women which you don’t see in our area.
I did notice a slight difference to how people looked at us. In the city there are many interracial couples so we don’t get much of a second glance usually, but in Strathfield I felt people looked at us a bit more, that we were a bit more unusual.
We went My Sweet Memory Cafe and Doo Ri Korean Restuarant.
Also, the reason why we have another video up so soon is because we had this video and the Secret Garden video ready and edited but we were just waiting for the music. Don’t expect a new video every second day! hehe. We will probably settle into a schedule of one going out and doing something video and one inside question and answer video a week when we get back from Korea. We are planning on doing some short vlogs while in Korea though.
We started out with just some simple trips for the first few videos while we get used to being on camera and editing but we’ll gradually do more exciting things. You can give us suggestions too! What would you like to see?
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