GRRRL In The News | GRRRL TRAVELER

Tribase’s ‘My 7 Links’ Project

Filed under GRRRL in the News, Inspiration by Christine Ka'aloa on September 1, 2011 at 12:48 pm {7 comments}

As a travel blogger, I have a behemoth heap of posts in my archival bank. Sadly however, a blog post only has a firefly’s lifespan. Once it’s had its run, it folds into the blog tomb, awaiting a Google search to resuscitate it. A lot of hours (days even!) of laborious writing, photo uploading and video editing for a very short parade.

When Megan of On my way RTW tagged me on Tripbase‘s My 7 Links project, I was both, honored to be counted in as a member of the travel blogging community and thrilled to share some of my favorite pieces. So if you missed some of these posts the first time around, here’s your second chance! From a restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with the endearing madness of honking motodops and tuk-tuks as inspirational backdrop, I write for you …

My 7 links:

My Most Beautiful Post

Jeju’s Olle Trails: Reading its secret Love Letters

Everyone should experience the magic of awakening to the eternal spring of a love letter and Jeju Island’s Olle trails (inspired by Spain’s Pilgrim Trails) conveys just that. I’m not sure if this is my “Most Beautiful” post but the experience was certainly (more…)

2011 Shoutouts: GRRRL’s mom, my solo travel fears and the mystery I’ll be!

Filed under GRRRL in the News, • EXPAT LIFE by Christine Ka'aloa on January 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm {one comment}

Annyeong 2011! Time is flying and it’s taking a jet.

Writing Home for the Holidays: GRRRL TRAVELER’s blogging mom

It was a winter white holiday for us in Korea and this year,I didn’t have time to write home about it. No problem, my mother, the real family blogger, did it for me!

With my mother in town for two weeks, we climbed the ups of sightseeing Korea through Jeju Island, making our own K-drama tour, desk-warming together at my school, seeing snow fall (*for her it was the very first time),… and she bore the downs of catching a cold during a wicked winter, as well as fears of first time solo travel at age 67! In GRRR! fashion, she survived.

I’m excited to have a crap-load of fun “first time impressions” to share with you, from her Korean vacation, taken from her eyes and words.

Solo Travel~ can I whimper?… Writing the vacation that’s still a mystery to me.

Winter English camp is over and I head to Thailand and Laos this weekend for my winter vacation! Two weeks.

Oh yay.

I haven’t been doing my traveler jiggy dance nor have I researched much on this. My life will be shifting shortly with the end of (more…)

December GRRR!: Published Writings and Top 100s

Filed under GRRRL in the News, • EXPAT LIFE by Christine Ka'aloa on December 12, 2010 at 2:36 am {5 comments}

We might be settling into a White Christmas this holiday season.. This past week it snowed in Korea!

GRRR! Shoutouts
This month, I’ve a big list of awesome GRRR!s to send out, so I’m dedicating this post just for that:

• December’s issue of Daegu Pockets is out in the stands!
My article Haeneyo: the Last Generations of Korean Mermaids is in it! Well, the 500-word count version of it, at least. Also my story was one of the few translated for Korean readers as well; so I’m delighted. As usual, the magazine packs tons of fun stories about happenings in Korea, curious cultural tidbits, essential Daegu maps and a monthly dose of bite-sized Konglish.

• Warm fuzzies to EPIK.
Yes, they do good for me, even though I occasionally bitch about them. My piece Making a Pilgrimage: The Hike to Gatbawi was selected and will be published to the EPIK site (here), with other documented EPIKer memoirs and journeys. Because of them, I’m finally a paid writer! Yay. Thumbs up to you, EPIK- even though you/the DMOE screwed my vacation plans!

• Hollers out to Gadling‘s Alex Robertson Textor for mentioning me and my jjimjilbang travel tip in his article, “Local Budget Travel Secrets“. I’m a big fan of Gadling’s travel stories and tips and discovering local budget secrets are great; it’s even better when you can share them with others!

When one person can follow and live their dreams, they create possibility for everyone else…

• Bigtime GRRR! s to Almost Fearless‘s lovely Christine
(Okay, we’ve got the same name but she’s a completely different GRRRL)
She posted her 100 Most Inspired Travel Blogs and included me in it! Extra hollers because she’s the first to spell my blogname correctly! Overall, I’m very honored. When I first researched how to turn a gap year into live and work abroad travel lifestyle, Christine’s blog was one of the sparks to get my flight dreams out of park. As the pen of Almost Fearless, she shares her success as a digital nomad lifestyle and basically, tells you how you can do it too.

November GRRR!: Chill Travel Reads & an EPIK Vacation?

Filed under GRRRL in the News, Teaching English by Christine Ka'aloa on November 29, 2010 at 8:39 am {no comments}

November almost gone and it’s a crazy time of month with news of winter camps, vacations and thoughts of if I’ll continue onto Gap Year #2. I’ve been a busy duck this past month and it’s taken a bit of a toll. The biggest question I try not to ask myself is- What will I do if my plans fall short?

Or what if I don’t get a university job by my visa extension deadline in January?

Well folks, GRRRL’s been incubating wonderful fallback plans, which entail yoga and my love for India! Looks like Plan A or Plan A? Decision time will come again soon. (more…)

Oct GRRR!: How Scary is The Korea Times & Contract Renewals?

Filed under GRRRL in the News by Christine Ka'aloa on October 25, 2010 at 10:53 pm {6 comments}

Boo! Happy Halloween week is upon us and October has been a roller coaster of surprises and scares… Many EPIKers are feeling the heave of visa extensions and the pounce of contract renewals. The leaves are turning a brilliant and golden-yellow, the wind carries a light nip and … where are all these damn mosquitoes in my apartment coming from now?…

(more…)

September GRRR!: Back from Jeju and Expacked… again!

Filed under GRRRL in the News by Christine Ka'aloa on September 28, 2010 at 11:22 pm {6 comments}

Anyeong! I’m back from my Chuseok holiday on Jeju Islands with lots to blogshare with you. I feel like my life was literally renewed! …That was until, Monday morning rolled around and I had to drag my sorry ass out of my Daegu bed for work. Thank the Korean God for my little Korean students– their bright and smiling faces gave me the second wind my Monday morning took away. I really love teaching them. The scarier realization?

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August GRRR! II: Back from Vietnam and Expacked!

Filed under GRRRL in the News, • EXPAT LIFE by Christine Ka'aloa on August 19, 2010 at 5:49 pm {7 comments}

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…

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