Luckily the children who made it had gone when he did this. I’m pretty sure if we met as children we wouldn’t be friends. I was the type of child who would sit there quietly for hours creating things and definitely would have put a lot of effort into a sandcastle. My husband was definitely a naughty little boy who would have destroyed it.
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I recently got some more photos from our traditional Korean wedding so I thought I’d share some.
Two weeks after we had our Australian wedding we flew to Korea for our Korean wedding. Koreans don’t really do big traditional weddings like this anymore, instead most Koreans have a more westernized wedding and may just have a small ceremony after in traditional clothes. We had a wedding company organise our wedding but unfortunately we had no idea what was going on! Also, because this type of wedding is rarely done now, even the older relatives weren’t sure what was supposed to happen!
It ended up being pretty surreal and some points I was terrified. My husband looks so different in these photos as well. They put some horrendous makeup on him and pushed his hair back under the hat. The wedding was in Jinju Castle which is open to the public, so there was a huge crowd of people watching us. The sun was so hot and I remember sitting across from my husband, not being able to move in my hanbok, and worried my makeup was running down my face. My husband looked over me and mouthed, “This is terrible.” I just nodded and tried not to faint. I hadn’t had anything to drink in hours. The wedding seemed to go forever and I had no idea what was going on, but afterwards, especially when I look at the photos I know it was worth it. I can laugh about it now and it was definitely an experience!
Our friends who had to carry us.
They all complained that he was too heavy.
Here we had to pass a jujube or a date to each other using our mouths.
So as you know, over Christmas we stayed in a holiday house near the beach. There is also a very large lake there and we went canoeing. I’ve mentioned previously that my husband is worried about crocodiles even though I’ve explained there are no crocodiles in this part of Australia. He became concerned again while we were paddling in the middle of the lake and I had to reassure him again.
Crocodiles aren’t his only concern. Whenever we are doing something to do with water he’ll ask about 10 times if there are definitely life-jackets. He is very scared of falling into the water because he is not a strong swimmer (even though he was in the Korean navy!) As you can see in the picture, he has the big yellow life-jacket. I just had a very small one that is only inflated in emergencies. Even then, I wouldn’t be too worried if I fell into the water because I can swim well (growing up in Australia it’s pretty much a requirement to be able to swim) and even though I’m not a really fast or strong swimmer, I float really well (probably because I have no muscle haha) so I just bob around calmly.
My siblings and I swam out quite far last weekend at the beach and I could see my husband anxious pacing on the shoreline. He didn’t relax until I swam back in.
This weekend we are going back down the coast again and will go out in my uncle’s boat. My husband is beginning to worry again and is asking about life-jackets again.
Also we’ll have no internet and possibly not even phone reception! Omg. That’s why Saturday’s post is up early. Also, as usual no post on Sunday. See you Monday!
Today Mr Gwon recommends H.O.T’s “Warrior’s Descendant” and “Candy”.
He says:
This song is H.O.T’s first song and it was really popular when it was released because it was one of the first idol bands in Korea. Also what made them different was that there were 5 members (more than other bands) and they danced really well. The song was really cool, it’s about bullying in the school, so people could identify with it.
So many people liked this song so people copy the type of clothes they are wearing. That time we used cassette tape and we write down all the lyrics and sang the song in the school. I was a really big fan of H.O.T so in my room there was H.OT. posters all over the walls. I bought the same type of clothes like that- baggy clothes and the hat and everything.
Everyone thought the members looked really cool, the song, the clothes….everything. Everyone really liked the English rapping, there had been English rapping in songs before but not as long or as cool as this. We wrote down the English, but in Korean, and we would sing it. We recorded all H.O.T’s performances or appearances on TV shows and we would swap the tapes with friends and watch again and again. We bought the photo albums and the magazines they were in. H.O.T were our heroes.
Candy is their second single. They are wearing cute clothes and gloves and hat and the dance is really cute so every time we went to the karaoke we dance like them. Lots of people know how to dance Candy. It was winter and we bought the same type of gloves and cute clothes. Now when I look at the clothes they are wearing it’s embarrassing, but back then they were the coolest items ever. Also we like H.O.T because they were not from a wealthy background so we feel they are like one of us.
Back then SM Entertainment was really good, the lyrics were really good, we could identify with them and they had more meaning. These days I feel like SM Entertainment became too conservative and don’t want to have anything too controversial. They also don’t seem to care about the quality of the lyrics or English these days. Back then SM Entertainment was only a new company and H.O.T. made them a bigger company. I’m not professional music critic but that’s how I feel about it, that when music companies get a lot bigger they can lose some of their original values.
Oh the clothes! Oh the 90’s!
(Also, what is different about the picture?)
As always winners are picked randomly.
Okay, winner of this prize:
is….. Latira Lova.
Congratulations! Send me an email at [email protected] to claim your prize.
Even though my husband understands the correct pronunciation of English words, some words will still come out in Korean English. And sometimes it’s quite funny. My siblings like to set him up so he says certain words. “Beach” and “Beaches” is one that he just can’t get right. If I get him to repeat after me, he may get it on the 5th try. For other words like “fork”, which in Korean English is “pork”, if he says it without thinking he’ll say “pork” but very easily he can change to the correct pronunciation of “fork”. “Beaches” though… it always sounds like something else.
My Korean teacher (who is Korean) often made fun of the Korean way of saying “beach” and “beaches”. He said too many Koreans who come to Australia say things like this, “I love Australian bitches!” when of course they mean “beaches”. Or they ask someone, “Excuse me, which way to the bitch?” Hehe. I know what they mean but others who are not used to the Korean accent may not.
“Sit” is another one that can be funny because they may change it to a “sh” sound, which completely changes the meaning of the word! Even my teacher who has been in Australia for years and has good English still accidentally said to a student, “Please shit anywhere.” He realised immediately after and laughed pretty hard.
Another problem Koreans learning English have, is differentiating between the F and P sound. English F (also PH) words are said with a P sound in Korean so Koreans have to practice their F sounds a lot when learning English. Sometimes they practice so much that they begin to even say English P words with an F. When saying something like “park” and changing it to “fark” it can sound pretty close to a bad word! Learning another language can be so stressful but there can be some really funny moments. I’m sure once I know more Korean I’ll be accidentally saying some bad things.
And yes I apologised to the poor squid in the bucket. We have very different reactions to seeing sea creatures like this. I feel sorry for them but my husband is just licking his lips and thinking about eating them. Even with those eyes staring back!
He did try to catch a squid himself. He went with my brother and bought a squid jig at a tackle shop but when they went to try and catch one the ocean was too rough.
My parents rented a holiday cottage in a sleepy coastal village and we joined them for a few days and had Christmas there. It was my husband’s third Christmas with my family and he said it was the best one yet. Even though we were only there for a few days we did so much: swimming at the beach, fishing, canoeing on the lake, big Christmas lunch. There were even kangaroos out in the evening. It’s a myth that kangaroos jump down the street in Australia…. but sometimes, you will get kangaroos very close to houses in certain places. My husband was pretty excited to see kangaroos on the street and grazing on people’s front lawns. He also enjoys all the Christmas food and the special time with family. Christmas in Korea is not as fun or as special as it is here.
My husband did get nerf guns for Christmas… but luckily my mum made a rule that there was to be no shooting inside the cottage. So I escaped mostly. However, now that we are home in our apartment, my mum isn’t here to stop it! Currently there are nerf bullets strewn across the floor. (Also caught him having a nap at the cottage with his nerf gun in his arms.)
In a few days we are going back down to the same area to my uncle’s holiday house, so he’ll get another chance at trying to catch some squid.
What did everyone else do for Christmas? If you don’t celebrate Christmas, do you celebrate another holiday around this time of year?
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