View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jinri Park (@jinri_88) on May 28, 2020 at 7:32pm PDT

MANILA – Jinri Park has been residing in Australia for almost a year now.

The former “Pinoy Big Brother” housemate abandoned her glitzy life in the Philippines after finding love and deciding to move to Sydney with her husband.

In an interview with Monster RX 93.1 on Monday, Park shared the adjustments she made now that she is already married and living abroad.

“The first few months, all I did was watch Netflix, cook for my husband, clean the house, be a housewife stuff. I really enjoyed it a lot. If I can do that forever, I totally would. I don’t mind working but if I had a choice between not working and working, I would choose not working,” she said.

Things changed when she finally found a job as a waitress at a restaurant in Sydney.

“It’s a different kind of job. I have schedules that I need to follow for the week. Unlike in showbiz, people tell you a day ahead, it’s not really a fixed schedule. Now that I have a job, I have to fit in my different hobbies, things I need to do for the house and for my husband John into that schedule,” she said.

But the biggest challenge she’s encountered in moving to a foreign country was actually not knowing anyone there.

“In Sydney, I don’t really know anyone. I don’t have friends. I don’t have any family. My parents are in Korea. It was super lonely at first. The only person I know is my husband here in Sydney,” she said.

“That was the hard part because I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have anyone to talk to. Although I am an introvert, I would have wanted to have one or two friends to guide me on how life is here and how different it is here culturally,” she added.

Nonetheless, Park thinks she made the right decision of leaving her old life behind to be with her husband.

Meanwhile, Park also talked about how she and her husband first met.

“Last year, I travelled to Australia for my birthday. I loved the country, it’s so chill. We were in Melbourne at first with my other friends. They decided to go back to the Philippines, but I was like I’m here already in Australia so I might as well visit Sydney. They left and I went to Sydney alone,” she recalled.

“I didn’t know anyone, didn’t know where to go, what to eat. I asked a friend and he said, ‘Oh I know someone who lives in Sydney and he can take you around.’ I met up with him and he happens to be my husband,” she added.

Oddly enough, Park said she instantly knew that she was going to marry that guy, or get into a relationship with him.

“He showed me around Sydney and I got to talk to him… I had that weird feeling. It’s like those typical travel love stories that you hear. That’s it,” she said.

But Park said they did not become a couple until she returned to the Philippines.

“When I went back to the Philippines, we were just talking. We weren’t exclusive. When I was in the Philippines, that’s when he asked me to be his girlfriend just online,” she said.

Months after, Park decided to surprise him on his birthday so she flew to Sydney once again.

“We did long distance for a bit. For his birthday, I decided to visit him. I went to Sydney and I ended up staying for a month which wasn’t supposed to be that long. It was supposed to be just two weeks. The last day before flying back to the Philippines, that’s when he proposed to me,” she said.

According to Park, being married is a big adjustment for her because she was so used to living alone for more than 10 years.

Despite this, Park said she is enjoying every minute of being a wife, and she likes taking care of her husband.

Towards the latter part of the interview, Park said they plan on getting married again once the coronavirus pandemic has been resolved.

“I am hoping to have my real wedding where I actually wear that dress that I had made for me and shipped from the Philippines, have my dad actually walk me down the aisle. I am gonna make it happen one day. I really want to have that wedding that I have planned for,” she said.