Cafe Seoul: Expat Life in Korea Eugene Hwang & Rob Ouwehand

Rob and Eugene started season 6 of Café Seoul discussing time travel films, but decided to rebrand as the Time Travel Forensics podcast. So Café Seoul needed a proper sendoff.

Review of Game of Thrones -  Most satisfying deaths, predictions, retrospective of the series so far, etc etc. It wouldn't be Café Seoul without nerding it up.

The Best Goodbyes - Rob finds goodbyes from books, movies, songs and other forms of pop culture. Eugene has to guess where they come from.

On the Pulse: Exit Interview - Rob and Eugene reflect on the past 10 years in Korea. Rob asks Eugene to make top three lists on various expat in Korea related topics while introducing some of his own. Rob also reads a sad sappy (heartfelt) letter to inflate Eugene's ego (but really really appreciated).

This is a supplement to the blackface episode (season 5 episode 2), featuring Fatimaah-Joso Menefee, who penned us a critical email regarding our content in that episode. We invited her to have her via audio clips, and we responded.

Wow, this episode is like 6 months late. Apologies to our guest Hyunsoo Kim, who was kind enough to visit with us in August of 2017 to discuss being "Out" in Korea. Out meaning... LGBTQ. 

News of the Weird:

-Chinese Restaurant gives discounts based on bra size
-Ariana Grande creates problem during first concert in Korea, showing favoritism towards Japan
-NY Times calls bubble tea a new trend

On the Pulse: Discussion with Hyunsoo Kim of what it is like to be LGBTQ in Korea, compared to other places that she has lived.

After a long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long period of being very very very very very busy, Eugene has actually finally found time to edit this episode.  Rydia is back and our subject today is plastic surgery.



But rather than criticize all the people in Korea getting it, we are discussing why Rydia made the decision to get it in the first place. 

During the initial banter of this episode we got some letters from Dave and from Kathleen. Dave's letter sparked a discussion on Western remakes of Asian films. Kathleen's letter caused us to discuss foreigner privilege in Korean settings.



News of the Weird:

-(Korea Herald) Rural village in Korea exposed to nudist resort
-(Huffington Post) - Blogger Praises K-Beauty While Calling Asians ‘Ching Chongs’ In ‘Funny Clothes’
-(BBC) - TV host's race jokes spark Brazil-Korea online war


Rydia Kim was once a co-host on Café Seoul, and she's returned to discuss plastic surgery in Korea. As someone who recently got a procedure or two herself, she's here to elaborate on her decision to get plastic surgery, and how her initial aversion to the practice was overcome. She also goes in detail about how the procedures have helped her to be confident and how it is important to have a positive body image. Later Rob and Rydia discuss why plastic surgery is such a trend in Korea, and how body alterations work in the context of Korea's modern culture.

Rydia can be found @Rydia0722 on Instagram

If you're an expat in Korea, chances are that you are her friend on facebook already, or are at least friends with someone who is her friend. She's very popular afterall.

Nerdy friends rejoice! This is the Spider-Man Homecoming Special episode!

Teen Hero Popularity Contest - Similarly to what we did in the Wonder Woman episode, we talk about some of our favorite teen characters from movies and TV (and books), then make them face off against each other in a 1:1 battle royale to find out which one would hypothetically kick the ass of the others.


Spider-Man Orientation - Discussion of the Spider-Man character, and how we came to know him, as well as some of our favorite storylines, and ranking the movies he's appeared in so far.


Spider-Man Homecoming - In depth discussion of the most recent film, Spider-Man Homecoming.

Special thanks to Emma Kalka for stalking us and using the dark side of the force to trick us into inviting her to appear in this episode.