미쳐버린 물가의 미국에서 살아남는 영어표현 | 12년차 국제커플의 자연스러운 영어회화 | 대기업 때려치고 뉴욕에서 동거하게 된 장거리 커플 | 뉴욕에 살면 안좋은 점

Hello everybody and welcome back to Coffee Chat. Last episode we talked about how we met. We were long distance for a year and suddenly we were like, let's move in together.

That was crazy.

I missed you so much. I just wanted to be by you 24/7 after that.

And also we were very poor too. We cannot afford two houses, two rents.

Wow, so romantic. You can tell who Who's the romantic out of us, huh? Tia? Tia? How did you break the news to your family? Because at this point he had met my family, but I hadn't met his family. Did they know about me?

Of course.

How did you break this to your family?

I quit my good job, and then they were like, "Are you crazy?" They were shocked. I think my mom was a little sad actually, because like my job that I got in New York was really low pay.

She probably worried a lot.

Yeah, I don't have any relatives or family there.

That's an appropriate response from a parent.

So I think after that, my parents thought I was just a crazy son. Whatever you do, you do you. I don't think they really care about that too much.

What did they think when they heard of me? Were they kind of like, "Ah, this American girl is like taking our son. He had a good job and now this dang American girl is like ruining all of that." But then it's a really funny part.

One of our aunt is really good at fortune telling. She always said that I need to go abroad to be successful. And then when my aunt heard this news, my aunt told my mom, "That's a good thing. It's a really good thing.

Good job, Auntie.

You gotta cheer for your son. He's young and ambitious." And then when my aunt heard that I'm dating you, she said, "That's even better." Thank you, Auntie.

That's so funny. Your parents are so chill because thinking if I'm a parent and then my son son or daughter has a boyfriend or girlfriend on the other side of the world that I've never met, and then they're like, oh, I'm quitting my career, moving over there, moving in with them right away, I would be like, are you out of your mind? I think your parents really handled it so well.

It sounds like I'm very romantic.

You were.

Go to New York, gave up everything to see my girl.

We were madly in love.

How's your family? Reacted to it?

I think they weren't very surprised because they also knew that I was kind of an adventurous soul. They knew I wanted to move to New York. They had met you at that point.

What do they think about me? What's the impression of me?

They loved you. They really did. When we were doing long distance, he did come for a visit, and at that time, I think it was my last semester of school, I was super overwhelmed with commitments. I had my internship. I think I was working 2 jobs, college classes, everything. So I didn't get to see him as much as I wanted to, and he just spend the weekend alone with my mom.

Not just weekend, weekends, plural, you know.

And at the time my mom was running a restaurant, so he worked there. What did you think of that job?

Wow, that was cool experience actually, because I didn't know any of the food there, like chimichanga.

Or my mom, she had a little stand on the beach serving Mexican food and hot dogs.

I gotta work something to stay at her house.

Uh, you have to earn your keep. Yeah, basically work for rent.

And what am I gonna do sitting there? She taught me how to cook Mexican food. A lot of people came and, wow, it's an Asian guy, what the heck? And also, you're the Kelly's boy, right?

Yeah, he spent a lot of quality time with my parents, and I think you really won them over at that time. My dad was not big on us living together before marriage. He's kind of like more conservative in that way, so he was not super keen on us living together before marriage. But it was nothing against you.

And I would have hated too if I were your dad. Yeah, some dudes from like a bro came and then, take my daughter, you know how to shoot a gun, son.

Anyways, so we were off to New York. He got there first, and the funniest part was he had to get an apartment for us because I was still in Michigan trying to graduate. You did all the house hunting. Where did you find our apartment?

There's a Korean website. There's one apartment. I think it was just posted. And then once I saw this, this is the best deal out of the whole New York City. And then I call and somebody else already got there. And then the landlord kind of liked me more.

Oh, you put on the charm?

I said, sir, I mostly work. I don't smoke. I don't have a pen, so I got it like an interview.

So we lived in Queens and the rent was actually quite cheap.

900 bucks.

900 per month and it was a one-bedroom.

At that time we were really poor though.

When we think about how broke we were in New York, he reminds me of this story every Christmas. You tell the story.

I was working at a job which is only $1,500 is my salary and then after paying $900, $600 left. And we need to still eat grocery and everything, you know? Like, we were trying to like really be budget, and you wanted to buy a small Christmas tree. Yes, which was $12.

You remember the price?

Of course, yeah, I'm a number guy. And then I just suggest, rather than buying a tree, why not we're putting into buying our grocery? Nope. You know, makes sense. Wow, because we don't have money.

And I was like, you Scrooge, you Grinch! It was Christmas, especially my first Christmas Christmas away from home ever. So yeah, so for me that's important. I'll skip a meal to get a Christmas tree and feel the holiday spirit. A couple of years ago I got like our first big Christmas tree and it was like a big deal. It was like a big Christmas tree and we were like, wow, we made it. I was jobless at first and I had a really difficult time finding a job. I applied to many jobs in my field, which was social work at the time, and I did have some interviews but I was so worried about money that I was also applying at retail stores and restaurants. And I'll never forget the feeling of applying and them rejecting me. I went to a restaurant to apply to be a hostess and the guy was like, "When can you start?" And of course I said, "Right away." And then he was like, "Okay, can you come back in like 2 hours?" I was like, "What?" Usually it's like at least a day notice. And he's like, "Yeah, just dress up like you're going on a date and come back and work." And I was like, Yeah, no problem. Went back to Queens, changed, came back, worked for the night for free, no pay. And then they gave me a meal at the end of the night. It was like a bowl of pasta. And then I didn't get the job.

Oh, they reject you?

Yeah, shit.

Yeah, I thought you reject them.

No, I worked for free, I had a bowl of pasta, and that was it. So I was like really down on myself. Eventually I did find a really great job in my field. I was a caseworker for homebound seniors in Queens. So I got to meet a lot of elderly people and help them out. It was a great experience. But when we first moved in together, that was a big challenge, I think, because like you were always busy, and then I was like, I want a date, we're in New York City, I want to spend time with you. I didn't have any friends when I was off of my job at 6 PM. I was home alone a lot of the time.

I was like, we need to survive here first.

I understand, I know, I understood that he was really having to push himself and work so hard to make it in New York, but it was very lonely. How was your experience like living together?

We fought a lot, I think. We had a language difference, culture difference, and then the way we take care of the house is different.

I feel like I remember more good parts. Maybe we think differently. What were some of our big fights or something?

Like, we Like fighting over how to put the hair dryer, how to squeeze a toothpaste, little things, you know. I was working almost 60, 70 hours a week, and then after that she wants to—

let's go to the Statue of Liberty or something, let's go to Staten Island.

I was like, yo, it was tough, it was tough. Yeah, I loved it. I love living in New York. What's the good things about living in New York?

I love the arts. In culture in New York. I love how diverse it is, especially with my job. I met people from all over the world, heard so many stories. I loved going to the theater there. There's always something going on there. Was there anything that surprised you in a negative way?

There's many negative things about New York too, even though I love New York. First of all, it's smelly. I smell like pee. And also when you're walking on the street, there's like a foggy whatever steam out of the subway. I don't know what it's like right now. No no Wi-Fi in the subway.

Yeah, no data, no service.

So I thought in the movie when Americans are reading a book in the subway, I thought it was because America likes reading. No, there's no Wi-Fi, so you gotta read.

That's so funny.

On Times Square, there's a bunch of people trying to take a photo with you. Here's a sign, scam artist.

Yo, $10, calm down, calm down.

I hate it.

But many good things, many good things too. I enjoyed it. I'm glad we did it when we were young, before we even moved to New York. We had kind of agreed that we didn't want to settle down in New York. Like, we were young, we wanted to keep traveling, we didn't want to put roots down anywhere. And then Hong had the opportunity.

Oh yeah, they offered me a job, you know, the higher position, and then they want to offer me lawyers and then process. Oh wow, this is a good opportunity for me to grow my career.

So I said congrats, but, but I don't want to settle down yet. I love New York. But I want to go somewhere else. Specifically, I want to go to Korea.

I was like, what the heck?

I still had the same mindset from when we first arrived. I wasn't ready to just live forever in New York. And at that point, we had been dating for almost 2 years probably, and I still hadn't met his family, which for me as an American, that's crazy because you meet families pretty quickly. So like He had experienced American life and American culture. He met the American family. But for me, I didn't know anything about Korean culture, didn't meet the Korean family. So I was like, if we're serious as a couple, I also need to like know where you're from and learn your culture. We had a lot of talks about what we're going to do and what was the right move, and we decided to forget the visa at that point.

And let's go to Korea and just travel here for like 2 months.

Let's get him the full American experience. We did a road trip across the US. I was interviewing for jobs and planning our life in Korea, but so basically we were living at the back of the car for 2 months like chabak. We were in my dad's minivan going from Michigan to California and back. Maybe we can share about that more in a future episode. We have a lot of funny stories from that. Hong crashed my dad's car.

Damn, you know how to shoot a gun, son.

That was fun for you. If you want to keep learning from natural conversation, stay tuned for more episodes of Coffee Chat. We will see you next time, everybody. Bye!