When I last wrote, I wasn’t really quite sure what I missed about Korea. There were far more pressing matters at hand so I couldn’t spare any thoughts. But after six months of being back home, the update is this: I cannot stop talking about Korea. Yet I still haven’t shared enough!
Continue reading...
Return of the Adventurer
It’s been 3 months since I last wrote, and in that time I moved from Korea back to Texas. Now that the dust has settled, here’s to the return of the adventurer–even if the adventures now are not as exotic as they were not too long ago!
Continue reading...
The End of an Adventure
16 days left in Korea. Just 16. And it feels like only yesterday I was telling my niece and nephew, “Hey, just 11 months more to go!” because they wanted me home so badly already. My family is excited for my return to Texas on August 25th, and I’m excited, too, but...
Continue reading...
An old wizard once said…
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” My journey in Korea is quickly coming to a close. My one-way flight back to Texas will be August 25th, leaving me with almost exactly 3 months left in the most epic adventure of my life–however difficult it’s become in these last few weeks.
Continue reading...
The adventure no one wants to take
An open letter containing my first written thoughts the day my mom was diagnosed with cancer.
Continue reading...
The Beautiful & Painful Moments
Today, I’ve lived in South Korea for almost 8 months. I can’t stress it enough: 1) I didn’t think I could make it this far, and 2) I won’t know just how incredible this experience has been until I’m no longer living it. So right now I just want to reflect on the beautiful and painful moments made so far.
Continue reading...
Adventures in Thailand
My friends told me that experiencing Thailand is like a blur. There’s so many things going on that it’s too overwhelming to take it all in. And after spending a week in the capital of Bangkok, I totally agree with them; it really does feel like it was a blur!
Continue reading...
Adventures in Jeju Island
Jeju Island is a place I’ve wanted to go to since I first learned about South Korea in 2015. It was difficult just trying to buy a plane ticket from Jeju Air with an all-Korean website and getting through the domestic airport that was also mostly in Korean–but somehow I did it, without any crazy airport problems (trust me, that’s pretty uncommon for me). So I landed in Jeju, and thus began my first ever solo vacation that didn’t turn out at all how I expected it to.
Continue reading...
Four Bus Drivers and a Foreigner
There are a lot of cool perks that come with surviving the first 5 months of living and teaching in South Korea, but the coolest of all is this: I now know my bus drivers who each give my rides to school a special…uh, flavor.
Continue reading...
Finding Christmas in Korea
It really goes without saying that spending Christmas in Asia was nothing like the Christmases of years passed. The idea of embracing the holidays this year meant that I’d have to acknowledge a new kind of loneliness, but when I was given the quest to find Christmas in Korea, the holidays didn’t turn out so lonely after all!
Continue reading...