With only a few days left before my new job in Korea started, I was made aware that I would not be able to obtain my E2 teaching visa at the Korean consulate in Vietnam. I was told that I would have to hop a plane to Fukuoka, Japan as soon as possible so I …
I have been in Ho Chi Minh City for over two months now. I’m currently finishing up my TESOL course and have recently landed a job back in Seoul. If all goes as planned, I’ll be back in Korea a week from today. In all honesty, I’m ready to move on. It hasn’t been an …
Koreans love taking pictures of themselves. It’s not uncommon to be in a cafe and look around to find girls at surrounding tables holding up their cell phones, finding their best angle, and snapping away like they are the stars of their very own photo shoots. Riding on the bus or subway, I’ve watched girls …
Having been away from Seoul for a few months now, I tend to find myself “homesick” for Korea these days. In addition to missing friends and loved ones, I often have kimchi cravings and strange desires to jam out to K-Pop. I yearn to hear the fluid sounds of the Korean language and go shopping …
Yesterday I got in touch with a former co-teacher at the hagwon (private academy) I most recently worked at in Seoul. I was curious about how my students were doing and how things were going at the school. The kindergartners had just finished their end-of-the-year production in which classes perform plays and dances for their …
Kuala Lumpur is a city of contrasts. Go there and find yourself in awe of architectural feats like the Petronas Towers. Walk some more and stumble upon stunning colonial buildings. Wander a bit further and end up in the middle of a rain forest. It’s a place that keeps visitors curious, wondering what will be …
At some point during a journey, it is inevitable that one is subjected to one of those “I’m not in Kansas anymore” moments that throws him or her into a realization that he or she has wandered far down that yellow brick road, no longer close to the normal or recognizable. I found myself having …
McDonalds’s. Dunkin Donuts. Pizza Hut. Burger King. Just a few names that one might associate with American fast food. While it’s true that these companies may have been born in the land of golden arches, today they can be found all over the world. When I first started traveling, I refused to enter a Mickey …
It always upsets me a bit to realize how little I know about the world. This realization springs up from time to time during my travels, whenever I stumble upon a certain festival or custom or religion that I had never before even had the slightest inkling that it existed. I recently took an organized …
It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote a piece featuring some of the themed cafes of Seoul. It turned out to be a popular post, so I’ve decided to write my first follow-up entry highlighting some other quirky cafes I’ve visited since then. Travel has always been a passion of mine, so I was …