Seoulmates

Martina (BA 2007 St. Michael’s): Simon and I met at U of T in a Romantic Poetry class. I had a boyfriend at the time but Simon managed to wiggle his way into my life via group projects. I tried to set him up with a friend of mine and as I listed off all the reasons why Simon was such a great catch it clicked in my head that I was head over heels in love with him. We got married eight lovely years ago – the day after we graduated from U of T – and we held our reception in Hart House at the Gallery Grill. We love working together on our blog, Eatyourkimchi.com, and we have a pretty good balance of creative-meets-practical. I’m the crazy idea machine and Simon takes my ideas and tones them down to make them more manageable. Moving to South Korea to start our teaching careers was isolating, but Simon and I really enjoy hanging out together and we never feel lonely. If you marry your best friend, you’re always happy to hang out with him.

Simon (BA 2007 Woodsworth): We’ve now been in South Korea for seven years, and we keep on setting our roots deeper in this country than we had ever imagined. We spend our time actively seeking out the new and the memorable: getting hugged by the cheese lady at a supermarket; getting lost in the woods with the sun setting and wolves howling on Halloween; ordering what I thought was bacon but turned out to be pig rectum. A big part of our original inspiration for our videos was to document the newness, our shock and surprise at living in another country. More than just being able to work together, the idea of living in another country is very bonding. I think what’s most important about our relationship isn’t that we just love each other dutifully, but that we also really like each other as people. I swear that Martina is the coolest person that I’ve ever met. She’s a spark, and I’m never bored with her.

Watch: In one of their most popular videos, Simon and Martina explain the etiquette of hand gestures in South Korea