Tag: korean countryside (Page 4 of 9)

FIRST COFFEE SHOP HERE!

2015/05/30 / Nic / 10 Comments

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.

Update and Vlog

2015/03/14 / Nic / 3 Comments

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!

Subscribe to the vlogging channel! More than just vlogs will be coming to this channel soon. And an announcement soon! Stay tuned!

Jeongwol Daeboreum (First Full Moon)

2015/03/06 / Nic / 4 Comments

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.

The Worst Nachos (and new vlog)

2015/02/17 / Nic / 2 Comments

This week’s Commenting on Comments:

There is also a new vlog up on our Nicholalala Vlogging channel. Subscribe to see these videos as soon as they are uploaded.

Noisy Morning

2015/02/05 / Nic / 5 Comments

The past 2 morning have been so noisy! We go to bed really late so we need that sleep in the morning but sometimes it’s so interrupted. Announcements in the village are done over loudspeakers and it drives me crazy. In the drama ‘Modern Farmer’ they get the village announcements on their phones and someone said “Oh no one uses the loudspeakers anymore in the countryside!” No… they still do it here! There were several announcements yesterday in the morning and also this morning. Not only the announcements this morning but a big fertilizer truck came with bags of fertilizer that villagers needed to come collect. Because our house is near the village community centre and our window faces it, our sleep was severely interrupted by hours of a thudding sound of fertilizer being unloaded.

We only had a few hours sleep and then had 2 TV producers/writers come from Seoul to meet with us because they want to film us next week. I didn’t expect to be filmed today, but they did a bit and I had to draw this comic while being filmed. It’s hard to draw when people are watching, so sorry this comic isn’t that good today (and it’s late).

Anyway, hoping to get more sleep tonight!

Cafe Work and Playing Archaeologists

2015/02/02 / Nic / 2 Comments

You may have noticed there have been less vlogs up lately. That has been because I’ve been sick and there really hasn’t been much to vlog about! It’s been cold and we’ve just been inside doing the same things. When it’s warmer I can go ride my bike or go for a walk and talk to the camera, but haven’t been able to do that lately. I am going to put some different types of videos up on the Nicholalala YouTube channel. For example, some people have wanted me to talk about different books I’ve read and stuff like that. So that channel is likely to evolve into more than just a vlogging channel. You may have noticed that both the vlogging channel and new webtoon series is called Nicholalala. That’s on purpose to create a name and brand that is different to our My Korean Husband brand so we can expand more and do stuff that doesn’t always fit under the MKH banner.

In the latest vlog we show you some buildings that were once a Confucian school over in a neighbouring village. It was cool to look through pottery pieces but I wish I knew more to identify them. Something I find frustrating in Korea, to do with heritage stuff, is that often the signs will give a really old date for a building but it was actually rebuilt recently so some buildings may not be that old at all. I find in Australia they are more explicit about what bit is old and what bit is rebuilt than in Korea and I feel like the laws to do with heritage are stricter in Australia. In Korea it can be disappointing to read a sign saying something is 500 years old and then in the footnote it’s like “rebuilt in 1970”. Well then it’s not old at all! When I go to a heritage site I want to touch the stone and wood touched by people centuries ago and know that I’m looking at what they looked at. Unfortunately Korea lost a lot of old buildings during the Japanese occupation. I think I’ve heard that actual history professors in Korea complain about the way heritage buildings are approached by the government in Korea, but not sure. Let me know if you know more about this.

New vlogs (Mountains and Meemers)

2015/01/18 / Nic / 1 Comment

It’s been hard to vlog lately. We have just been working away inside and the weather has been terrible. We braved the cold winds to go for a walk today.