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Once I’ve had the ham on Christmas day I’m pretty much over it because it’s too much meat for me. My husband, as you know, loves meat so much. When we were staying at my parent’s house over Christmas it was heaven for him to go to the fridge and just slice off big chunks of ham. He really would just walk around with ham in each hand.
So instead of having Christmas at my parents’ house this year, we are all in a holiday house on the coast. My husband is working Christmas night so we are having our usual Christmas Day on Christmas Eve (tomorrow) now.
The holiday house is in a small sleepy town that literally has kangaroos hopping down the street. That is often a misconception about Australia- that there are kangaroos everywhere. Usually not true, especially for urban areas. Here however, they seem very used to people and are on front lawns eating the grass. As we walked down to the beach earlier we passed several kangaroos and a kid throwing a boomerang. Ahh the stereotypes! Anyway we are having a really nice time with my family. I feel like I haven’t had a summer holiday like this in a long time, so it feels good.
I asked on Facebook what I should do for this post and Mark said:
Something about the (not) end of the world.
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to Like on Facebook, Follow on Twitter and Tumblr.
Today Mr Gwon recommends G.O.D ‘To My Mother’.
He says:
Beginning of song the lyric is a bit funny because eating Jajangmyeon (black noodle) but it’s actually a really sad story. Lots of people had similar problem in the school because they were poor. It happens a lot, we have meal together in the school, many times lots of students just have kimchi, and some vegetables but when someone has meat type of thing for their lunch box they bully the other students, “Oh why you only have kimchi!”
One time my mother cooked for us and there was no meat on the table so I complained to mum “What should I eat? There is nothing I can eat!” and now I realise I was a rude and stupid kid.
Lots of people, they cried when they listen to the end of this song because the guy didn’t say ‘I love you’ to his mother but she died. It’s really hard to say ‘I love you’, I don’t know about these days, but when I was growing up, it was really hard to say I love you to your parents. I didn’t say ‘I love you’ to my parents for 25 years and when I was in Australia I called my mother and I said ‘I love you’ on Korean Parents Day and they cried. And now we say ‘I love you’ to each other very often.
Every time people listen to this song it reminds us how important our mother is. I’m pretty sure there are many families that… their mother died and they never said I love you to their mother. It’s really sad.
So everyone should call their mother and say ‘I love you’, and thank you. I’m going to call my mother now…
(On a lighter note, what is different about the picture this week?)
So when I make comics they are always from my point of view and about the funny things my husband does. For this post I’ve allowed my husband to show some things from his point of view.
He drew the characters originally for me and gave me the ideas and then I put them together for him. And yes I think that’s supposed to be muscles and a six pack on him.
Okay so I like chairs! Actually this is a bit of a cultural difference. He doesn’t understand the range of furniture and the fascination with it here. His parents don’t even really own chairs. I couldn’t even see a single chair in their house in Korea. So because of sitting on the floor and those small tables that can be put away, he doesn’t understand Australians’ love of furniture and renovating and picking out things like chairs for the home… So he thinks I talk about liking chairs an awful lot.
I always feel so bad for the fish and stuff on the ice at the fish markets! And when seafood hotpot is ordered I can’t eating anything that looks like an animal, especially the baby octopuses and prawns.
Yup… well can’t explain that one…
Juno Marie asked me to do a blog post on if we get stared at in Korea or Australia and if we find it awkward.
I was trying to think of a comic to do for this, or at least a picture but all it would consist of is a drawing of people staring at us… so not that interesting. So this blog post will just be an extra one instead and there will still be a normal comic on schedule.
We do get stared at in Korea and Australia. In Korea we get stared at by Koreans and in Australia we get stared at by……….Koreans. Okay, sometimes it’s other people but the majority of stares are from Koreans. I understand why though. In Australia an interracial couple isn’t that unusual, an Asian man with a Western woman is a little bit different but it’s not enough for Australians to blatantly stare (unless it’s a really rural white area).
However, in Korea it’s a very homogenous population so they are just not used to seeing a relationship that is a bit different. I feel more uncomfortable in Korea, because it’s not my home country and I get stared at even without my husband. Sometimes the way people stare feels a bit like being famous without any of the perks of being famous. In Australia, no matter who is doing the staring, I don’t care, because it’s my country.
When we meet Koreans in Australia (and I mean Koreans IN Australia, not Korean Australians) they usually comment on our relationship with something like, “You are an unusual couple!” They can be quite shocked (not necessarily in a bad way) that I’m Australian and married to a Korean man. Australians may find it interesting that my husband is Korean but it’s hardly shocking to them.
Korean guys stare at us the most I think. What they are thinking about, I can only guess at though. Koreans on student visas and working holiday visas tend to just live and work with other Koreans and stay in the Korean community so even while they are here in Australia, it’s unusual for them to see a Korean guy with a non-Korean.
So in conclusion, yes we do get stared at a bit in Australia. In Korea we definitely get stared at, but a lot of my time in Korea has been spent in my husband’s home town which is very rural area with no white people. When we live in Korea for a few years I’ll see what the difference is between the more rural areas and the cities.
I just try to brush it off and ignore it for the most part, especially when I realise most times people aren’t doing it to be rude, but are just a bit curious.
After Christmas will we go down the coast to my uncle’s holiday house for 2 days.
We are way too south for there to be any crocodiles around here. Doesn’t matter to him though, as he has his attack strategy all worked out. His logic about the lake and ocean is a bit flawed too as Australia has saltwater crocodiles as well as fresh water crocodiles.
Anyway, there aren’t crocodiles in this part of Australia!
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