This video was supposed to be a sponsored vlog of a film festival, but the film Hugh saw was very upsetting, so we changed the video to talk about this issue instead.
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Hugh’s parents’ house is traditional in the sense that most of the living is done down on the floor, so the furniture is very low. This means so many things are in easy reach for a baby! Our apartment in Seoul is more baby proofed so we can relax a bit, but when we went back for Chuseok we had to be “on” the whole time. Yul wanted to touch EVERYTHING! Of course it was all tempting, but so many dangerous things around. Someone had to be hovering above him at all times. In comparison, Hugh’s sister has a modern apartment and it’s a lot easier when we visit her as it’s safer for Yul to crawl around.
I’ve been told that because of the low furniture in Korea parents often resort to walkers for babies to keep them contained, so they can’t reach as much, but they are frowned upon in other countries and outright banned in some as they can be dangerous. So we’ll just have to be super careful while we visit in the countryside.
But seriously, babies want to touch EVERYTHING!
We went back to the countryside for Chuseok! Often called ‘Korean Thanksgiving’ it’s one of the big holidays in Korea. Last year I was too pregnant to travel for Chuseok so I missed it last year, and now this year it’s Yul’s first Chuseok! He had a great time in the countryside because he gets lots of attention.
Our friend Sara came with us, as did my sister, who is visiting Korea at the moment. We got the drone footage because Sara brought her drone with her (thanks Sara!). It was also the first time Sara had eaten that much home-cooked Korean food so she was really happy! I often forget the difference between being a foreigner living in Korea and being a foreigner but marrying into a Korean family. I’ve been eating home-cooked Korean food for years and I’m familiar with traditions like the Jesa ceremony. But many others in Korea don’t get to experience that.
It’s always nice to get out to the countryside and breathe the countryside air. However, around Chuseok almost everyone is travelling to the countryside. You have to book bus and train tickets early and the traffic can be a nightmare. We try to travel late at night to avoid the midday rush.
You can also check out Sara’s video of her giving a tour of the fruits and vegetables in the countryside with some bad dad jokes…. haha.
In Korea people tend to be open about certain bodily functions, more than western countries. For example, several romantic dramas will still have a scene where the lead female character is constipated or has diarrhoea. This openness shows a lot in children entertainment, with many TV shows having songs about poop and many kids’ books being about pooping.
I was browsing the book store because I wanted to buy out baby Yul a new book. So many just seemed to be about poop, pooping and butts! I found one I thought was just about different modes of transportation but it turned out it was a book to HELP kids poop. The different transportation sounds help relax kids I guess?
Please send me some non-poop books! haha
In this video we talk about different perceptions of food depending whether we are coming from a western or Korean mindset and we try a new Korean product called ‘CleaningTime’. We test whether it can eliminate bad breath from Mac and Cheese and dried squid.
There are new episodes up in my ‘The Little General’ comic series, inspired by our son Yul (who was named after a famous historical general).
My brother was visiting for a few days, so Hugh organized a collab with Big Marvel, since they are both musicians. Big Marvel is a Korean YouTuber who has a huge international following, who we’ve known for a few years. He used to have just a Korean channel but he started again and switched to an international audience and now has over 5 million subscribers. ‘Big Marvel’ is actually a funny, awkward persona he adopts for videos. This video is my vlog of the day. You can see how much time and effort goes into these collab videos that look like just a random performance on the street.
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