My first camel riding adventure did not take place in Morocco, Egypt or Mongolia… it took place last year in India! Deep in the Rajasthan region where the environment is arid and hot, you can see these Quasimodo animals as native to the region as cows pulling wagons.
“Only the strong survive” is the city’s motto and it sums up its proud promise. The concrete jungle can be a raging beast, fast-balling you with lessons of all shapes and sizes- from managing crazy clients with excessive expectations and emergency deadlines, to mastering a typhoon of many things going wrong all at once! It will test your levels of fitness, endurance and…
When in a medieval city like Old Fez, one of my “must-dos” was to take a tour of a Moroccan tannery. Guide books will be-cry the relationship between the tanneries and “its smell” as a forewarning…
Many animals in India are considered sacred. At Deshnok’s Rat Temple, I had to walk barefoot over sacred rat pee and sacred rat poop which at the time was the only option that allowed me to witness millions of rats…
An inside peek on what it’s like to be a Bollywood extra: My Bollywood addiction started about 3 years ago. For me, nothing can rival the beauty and grandeur of Bollywood films- upbeat song and dance numbers,…
So the fun just doesn’t stop… While I’m still sorting out my reaction to my new move, luck-draw number two just hit, when on my first day of school, I learned that every peeing portal in my school was a porcelain… hole in the ground. Yes my new workplace – Anil Elementary School in Dong-bu, Daegu- had seemingly no western toilets ! (see MyFirst Day at a Korean Elementary School video) Expectations, hopes?… one ought never have them, even when it comes to assuming your work environments will have standard western conveniences; yet for me, there were obviously still some there…
The infamous squat toilet in my school (basket for used wipes & flush handle)
Some of you already know of my mis-adventure with the squat toilet in Thailand… not good. I accidentally nailed my shoe and spent the rest of my trip spritzing it with hand sanitizer and paranoid, sniffing it to see if the smell was me or my shoe. It’s make me a bit of a timid (more…)
A video of my first day at Anil Elementary School
(totally rough version- I threw it together at the last-minute…)
There was no “teaching” on my first day of school and essentially the rest of the week.
My job has been to sit in our English teacher’s office room and browse through textbooks. So I volunteered to do a Learning about Introductions presentation for my classes, to escape boredom and to finally see some of my kids. Apparently, on Facebook, some others are experiencing the same sitting-around thing. It sounds as if many co-teachers aren’t prepared to have to work with us or are (more…)
Korean Classroom Heater- only the middle one (for our teacher's room) is on at the time.
The words cold and Korean are synonymous… it’s winter here and the buildings in Korea don’t have central heating. Instead, buildings get “selective heating” and only rooms with consistent occupancy get their heat turned on. Alternately, this means every hallway, restroom, lobby and staircase is almost a guaranteed icebox. It’s Korea’s effort to conserve energy and not “waste” electricity on things such as passing human bodies. For the new EFL teachers coming in– Westerners like myself, Europeans, Australians, South Africans, etc…– none of us know how to deal with the winter freeze in places we’re not normally accustomed to being cold… indoors, for instance.
Just so that the Korean freezing policy doesn’t feel unfair to foreigners and newcomers however, it may brave you to know that Koreans are (more…)
How do you take a bath in Korea? Let me tell you how I just did it. I washed over my sink and shaved my legs by propping them up on my toilet lid. Yes, a toilet lid can have more uses than just one when you’re in an efficient country like Korea…
My Korean bathroom (sink/toilet/shower compressed in the same room) is smaller than my NYC apt bathroom
But all smart-assing aside… You haven’t heard peep from me in a while as I’ve been in an intense transition, which just hit rocky; and the “rocky” is something I’m working through. I’ll fast-forward over my escape from the draft of flu, my partial hearing loss due to airplane travel with a cold and my suspended bowel movement which had me alarmed for several days. I will blow past my initial romance phase with Korea- my wonderful EPIK orientation, experiencing Korea for the first time, the “Oh snaps, I love being here!” No- I’m gonna start my Korean blogging with my first “real” GRRRL whimper… the moment when “yours truly” turned girlie whiny and wanted to book the (more…)
Sometimes equipment meltdowns when you’re traveling can be can intoduce new resources and innovations. When my DSLR broke when I was abroad in Thailand and I was forced to pick up a new camera on the fly, I didn’t know how fortune found me the solution to my solo traveler woes !
There are few things I’m truly jazzed enough to recommend, but I’m all raves about my new Samsung ST500. It’s my 3rd month using it and I’ve been taking it around with me… everywhere! I’m seriously in love with it. For the solo traveler, blogger and adventure flashpacker, it will make your life and travels, both lighter and easier. I highly recommend it. (more…)
Winter is still here, but I’m hoping for warm times ahead…and soon!
On a cold note-
I’ve caught one and tomorrow, I will be off to a place which is said to have “stabbing cold” winters. “Stabbing cold”… hmmm… Well, if I come back with black-and-blues and holes in my chest, then we’ll know that’s true. Otherwise, let’s hope tons of Zinc, Vitamin C, a thick coat, thermals and leggings do the trick! (more…)
Souvenirs, travel photos and photo gift tags, oh my…
Attention all travel photographers, tourists and souvenir shoppers… want to spread the spirit of travel around and add some fun to your souvenir gift giving? Inspire others with your travel photos?
Souvenir gifting is often “a hit or miss” practice. When a friend brings back a travel souvenir for me (and it’s not edible or chosen with my personality in mind), it can sometimes feel like, well,… junk! Likewise, I know there are times that I’m a “souvenir junk” gifter too! Perhaps I might occasionally nail a person’s personality with a souvenir; but most often, my gift souvenirs are (more…)
Today, I’m going to talk about something I have a passion for and I still consider it travel… DANCE!
Sometimes, I wonder if dancers don’t make the best travelers… Their home is the stage, the bar or the body… there is no color or country; and as a dancers/choreographers, they hold a universal passport and gateway to language! When I watch a dance concert, I feel like I’m watching great birds with wings- it’s inspiring!
So whenever I travel, I check out the Events section of the city I’m in, to see what local/international dance companies are performing; you never know what hidden treasure (more…)
In lieu of Valentine’s Day, today’s post is about the language of Sarang-he (Korean for “Love”)! K-dramas have been the recent rage and drug popular that’s been sweeping across the globe and hitting Asian countries and places like Hawaii. As mentioned, I’ve been trying to speed-learn Korean, so I’ve injected a healthy dose of Korean dramas into my diet and I’ve found myself, well,… a bit addicted to it too!
You can learn a lot about a country by watching their films and tv programs. I’m not saying everything you see on the tube will be true or accurate, but you get a general impression- good, bad or weird- of how a culture observes themselves, their social and fashion trends, customs, codes of conduct, etc… Inevitably, of course, you forge a raw stereotype based on what you’ve watched; then, wonder if it’s all true. (more…)
Back from my GRRRL TRAVELER beginner solo trip with lots of cool experiences to share from Thailand and what I’ve learned about being on the solo road! Everything from mastering squat toilets and cold showers while trekking in the mountains, eating bugs, drinking tiger penis soaked whiskey in Laos, smoking with Buddhist monks, practicing circle 8’s with a guesthouse owner’s motorbike so I could rent a scooter, getting lost virtually …everywhere and more. I have the promise of upcoming tips and advice for beginning GRRRL soloists like myself, the leak of a GRRRL TRAVELER contest and challenge#2, and much much more…
Firstly, a shout out of warm Mahalos to all the friends following my fun updates on Facebook (sorry Twitterverse- you got gyped some…). Special Mahalos to those who super-caring and supportive of my first solo-solo and who went of their way to make (more…)
The gamble we take in following dreams is that we are never certain of the outcome; yet, a staid and sensible path can be just as uncertain.
Finding the GRRR to embark upon bold new adventures, which remove us from trusted and worn paths, can feel both terrifying and exhilarating. Terrifying, because we must call upon our self-belief to guide us through “the unpredictable and unknown”. Exhilarating, as we are released from our own self-created prisons and given freedom to grow towards our passions, experience new challenges or changes within ourselves and to create a lifestyle that is potentially more meaningful and extraordinary.
When our country’s recession created a drag in my career as Shooter-Producer of reality TV shows, I (more…)
Update on my big move:
Next week I’ll be leaving Hawaii for Korea! It’s a bit stressful for me now and unfortunately, my family is buffering the bitch in me (it’s always the loved ones, who get the short end…). How stressed am I? My body is communicating to me via adverse reactions. My last big move was to New York – I broke out in two months worth of hives on my back legs! Current symptom? Anal retention. My body is tense and only tons of laxatives and cleansers can unlock it; ultimately, leaving my GRRR in an uncomfortable whimper and me, with a sore ass! How’s that for irony- literal and metaphoric?
So last week I had lunch with my warm friend, inspirational coach and local celebrity jazz musician, Jimmy Borges.
We talked about my move into expat life, the unknown of what might result of my year abroad and how the ticking clock of (more…)
