here. there. and everywhere.

long time no see

the title is funny if you have ever taught in korea because its a colloquialism that students have really picked up on – but don’t exactly know its proper use. they say long time no see after seeing you yesterday. anyway. i am here to let any readers know that i completed two full years teaching at my small school in yeongwol. i stopped updating my blog as much mainly because grad school took up…

i was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a korean wedding! while it wasn’t fully traditional it was still really fun and interesting to see. a friend of mine from college married a korean woman. so it was a mixed american/korean wedding. but they both wore 한복 hanbok which is traditional korean ceremonial clothing. i’ll cover some key differences i noticed with this wedding. however this…

buddha’s birthday weekend 2014

last buddha’s birthday weekend (2 posts night and day)  i had just arrived so i stayed in town and didn’t do much. this holiday weekend though i headed up to sokcho, a beautiful coastal town in northern gangwon-do. sokcho is also home to seoraksan – south korea’s largest mountain. i have wanted to make my way up there since before i even arrived in korea and even posted pictures of seoraksan in…

i waited all year for beautiful spring, my favorite season. but i lost all of my blog stamina and even though i WAS taking pictures, i wasn’t writing about it at all.

even though it was a milder winter there was a point where it felt like it was NEVER going to end. we barely got much snow and it wasn’t even that cold but things were still dead. it was still not my beautiful, lush, green magical…

korean food – aka the post that makes me look like i speak a lot of korean. i know very few korean words. except when it comes to food. then i know all the korean words. not really – but i know a lot. and i can make sure i get fed. and i can make sure i get fed what i want. important skills.

one of the only things my cousin asked of me when i left florida was to take pictures of all the korean…

thailand part 2! the rest of chiang mai and the beaches…

thailand and se asia is, sadly, home to a lot of elephant abuse. from street peddling to logging, there are large numbers of abused elephants and have been for many years. as much as we both wanted to see elephants there was no way that just riding one could be in our agenda (even if it doesn’t hurt them). the elephant nature park is an…

if you have enjoyed my pictures and/or my blog consider giving me an internet hug by clicking on that blue link!

help me get my graduate degree!

i decided to go back to school and get a professional degree as a master of nonprofit management. i don’t want korea to be the last great thing i do and i know that getting involved again with the nonprofit sector is the best way that i can continue to…

when the nightmare thing happens

i think that most people reading my blog are potential incoming EPIK-ers. or maybe people just considering living and working abroad. so we all know a consideration you have to take into account  is The Nightmare Thing That Can Happen: death of a loved one while you are away from home.

and it happens. and it happened to me.

my dad had been in the hospital for almost a month when i got the call…

thailand – land of smiles – is a place i always wanted to go and just sort of trusted i would get to one day. but i had anxiety about leaving the comfort of korea. leaving a more comfortable foreign place for a less comfortable foreign place is a strange feeling. and before i knew it i found myself lost in bangkok with no cell service looking for the hotel and my mom. i wasn’t lost for long and a…

even though my mom and i flew into bangkok first – we headed straight to cambodia so it seems fitting to begin my adventure here. thailand and cambodia would be much too long of a blog post. AND pictures galore. goodness no.

my journey had a rough start which included a mis-communication of sleeping arrangements, tears, the losing of my toiletry bag and a non-heated airport for 8 hours overnight.…

what are the holidays like in korea? not like the holidays. while working on thanksgiving, christmas eve or even christmas day is not new to me coming from the hospitality industry – the overall feel of christmas, at least in yeongwol, was just lacking.

t…

new year sunrise hike

decided to celebrate the new year with a sunrise hike in jecheon. here is the story:

3:08am. i roll…

saturation

my cousin asked me why i don’t post more pictures of funny korean to english translations. the…

climbing weekend

last weekend was another climbing weekend! probably the last climbing weekend till spring. a bigger…

the end of fall

the end of fall came before i even realized it. on sunday kimmie and i were going to try out the…

teaching

today i had my first heart swell teaching moment. i’m ignoring the fact that it took me close to 7…

costco

the first weekend of november i went to costco in seoul. i actually had a yeongwol weekend planned.…