When you’re living in Korea, you’re always trying to get the gist of the culture. Thus, there are times you’ll want to write in the country language for your Facebook status, to impress your Asian friends or maybe, you just want take your language studies to another level. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Korean or [...]
Why I won’t hang up my travel shoes.
A few months at most… I’ll go back home just long enough to find another job to get me back to Korea.” That’s what I told myself. Returning to the U.S. was the furthest thing from my plan.
My Hindu astrologer in Dharamsala quoted a year. I had difficulty believing him. A year later,… the stars were right.
Mailing things home from Korea, the cheap and easy way
So when the Korean computer repair shop couldn’t revive my Mac Airbook this past month, I didn’t know what to do with it. But now that it was deemed waste, I didn’t feel like packing dead weight onward to other countries. Maybe it was time to do what I do, whenever my traveling gets weighed down with too many souvenirs? Time to mail it home.
Banking in Korea: Is online banking easy for Foreigners (and Mac Enthusiasts)?
If there’s one feeling a foreigner dreads, is that their money might get accidentally locked in Korea, while they’re thousands of miles away; and this is not a distant possibility. Your last salary pay and security pension is usually deposited into your account a month or so, ‘after’ you leave the country!
Making home abroad feel like “Home”: my neighborhood
Do you find you often take your city for granted? I know I do.
I took Daegu for granted, wishing I lived in a more exciting city like Seoul. But one of the things I’ve found a deep love for, which Seoul could never replace, is my happy neighborhood of Singi-dong!
I’ve loved living in the suburbs, where life is slower and steeped with character.
But if you remember my first GRRRL whimper, I went into culture shock!
8 Ways I Stay Warm during Winter in Korea
It’s been said that this is the worst winter Korea has ever seen. It sure feels like it. It’s so cold that the concrete at my work desk provides regular AC breezes through the soles of my shoes and to my feet. Not kidding. During the winter you’ve got to find ways to keep warm.
Here are 8 ways that I fend off winter chill (as well as, a few other K-bloggers):
5 Tips to Celebrating the Holidays Abroad
4 Tips to Celebrating the Holidays Abroad:
So how do expats and travelers recreate their own holiday traditions abroad? Here are some ideas…
1) Hold loose expectations
Not all countries celebrate the holidays to the extent we do in the western world and a country’s lifestyle and cultural gap may make it broader. Most of Asia, for instance, celebrates their New Year in February using the lunar calendar and Christmas is usually celebrated in countries where Christianity is present.
A Secret List of English-speaking Doctors in Daegu (which none of us know about)
It’s a royal pain to be an expat hunting for English-speaking doctors, dentists and dermatologists in Daegu. You do your Google search a number of times, only to find nothing. You ask your expat friends and they offer that one recommendation that everyone goes with, even if it’s (sometimes) crap or expensive.
Recently, on one of my searches I found a link to Daegu’s Metropolitan City site. Lo and behold, a long list of medical practitioners for the expat was hidden there! Why it never popped up in any of my many searches, I don’t know. So I’m cutting a pasting it here!
Just Show Me Pictures! When your Expat Honeymoon Fades (Visa Extensions &… Dynamic Korea!)
Sometimes, Korea can make it hard for you to like it; moreover, it can make it hard for you to want to stay in it, even when you have to. It’s time to look at Visa Extensions and the huge K-bomb that was just dropped on current NETs. It’s got the NET community riled up and at this point… fed up!
