Chuseok (추석), the Korean Thanksgiving is next week and EPIKers are abuzz with vacation plans… again. This is a six-day vacation for many NETs, so imagine the excitement! Though summer was only 4 weeks ago, the national holiday will give NETs a second wind for getting over the hump of months to come. Why? This will be our last…
August GRRR! II: Back from Vietnam and Expacked!
I’ve just returned from backpacking Vietnam, during summer monsoon season- what a wet, wet, wet and sweaty adventure… I must have lost 10 pounds of water weight! Now I’m back in civilization, where a warm bath and a bed, without a silk liner woos me…
How Being an Expat Helped Cure some of my Solo Travel Fears
Tick-tock… Vietnam. I leave this Friday! I’ll be launching solo again. I’m excited because I don’t know what to expect or how things will play out. While the unknown can feel a bit intimidating for a solo traveler, it’s also exciting.
August GRRR!: Summer’s Monumental Moments- Writing, Travel & Ending ESL Summer Camp!
Updates: Published in Daegu Pockets, the conclusion to Summer Camp and my next big GRRRL TRAVELER adventure…
5 Reasons to Join your Expat Community
I used to think of expats as isolated bunch, desperately clinging to each other to shield themselves from their foreign environment, but that’s not been the case. Many expats are very accepting of their environment and open to making local friends; unfortunately, that’s not enough for survival or sanity, sometimes…
Review: “Goulash Soup & Bread Cafe” (Hongdae, Seoul)
Goulash Soup and Bread (Hongdae, Seoul, Korea), is a cute hole-in-the-wall Hongdae cafe, which serves what else?… gulash and bread! I love discovering hidden gems- especially when it fits my diet and this was perfect! For a 5,000W set-combo, the cafe offers unlimited goulash soup, fresh baked bread, rice and (gasp) a fresh green salad! The kind owners (a husband and wife team), knowing my vegetarian needs were cool enough to remove the meat for me! Everything was yummy-delicious and at an amazing price!
Jeonju & the Love I might have let get away…
I seldom seek regret when it comes to the cities I’ve chosen to live in, except for now… It’s no secret that I’ve been making every effort to travel on the weekends. Aside from my inexpressible gasping-for-air-need to get out of Daegu, brought on by the culture shock I underwent my first months here, I actually think Daegu is-
Just Show Me Pictures! The New Illness of a Newbie Expat (Pt III)
Just when I think I’ve finally escaped my Korean Crud attacks and colds, there’s a new symptom in town… Okay, this is month #5 and I guess I can no longer call myself a “newbie” expat. This doesn’t mean I don’t experience moments when I feel like I’m still a beginner to life here. While I should be finding my teaching wheel and workload fairly greased as I’ve had a proper acclimation period, these days I actually find myself…
Just Show Me Pictures! Expat mysteries and strange morning routines
My neighborhood has a lot of local flavor, which fuels my imagination and personal queries. Currently, there are 2 mystery people I come across each day. Strange morning routines which you simply accept because you’re an expat in a foreign land Each morning, I hear a morning truck roll by with a loudspeaker recording, [...]
