When traveling abroad, everything you know about how to perform daily activities can suddenly be turned upside down. Even something as simple as how you go to the bathroom can completely change the instant you arrive on foreign soil. To help ease the culture shock, I have put together a list of everything you need to know about how to use a toilet in South Korea. Continue reading
My first experience at the Busan Fireworks festival was back in 2011. I remember thinking we had really lucked out with the weather. The temperature was nice during the day and even though it was cloudy, it wasn’t raining. I must have been feeling really optimistic when I left my apartment because I didn’t even bring an umbrella. Continue reading
I have been taking a Korean cooking class for the past few weeks and I love it! Our teacher, Sunok, is so sweet and she’s an amazing cook. I’ve also been having a great time with the other wives that take the class.
A few weeks ago Sunok invited us to her parents house in the countryside for a special class. We were going to learn how to make samgyetang (삼계탕), which is a soup made from chicken and ginseng. Sunok’s parents even supplied chickens for the meal, and many of the ingredients were fresh from their garden. Continue reading
This past weekend Dave and I didn’t have any plans so my Korean tutor recommended we go to a two places: Jusanji (주산지) and Juwangsan (주왕산). She said she goes every autumn and it’s really amazing. She couldn’t have been more right!
We woke up at 3:00am and drove 3 hours to get there. I knew it was up in the mountains so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. During the drive I tried to stay awake as long as possible, but around the halfway mark, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and I slept for the rest of the drive. I felt terribly guilty, but Dave was such a good sport about driving while I snoozed. Continue reading
I was so busy last week that I completely forgot to post my Say WHAT?! photo. I’m not sure what’s worse… that I had it ready a week in advance or that I didn’t realize I forgot until Friday. Oops!
Today’s shirt is definitely too profane for an elementary school student, don’t you think… Continue reading
Namhae is such a great place to escape bustle of the city. Driving along the winding roads wasn’t my favorite thing, but I still really enjoyed the beautiful scenery even though I was a little bit nauseous! If you’re prone to motion sickness like I am, I highly recommend taking some medicine before driving around the island.
We set out to find Darangee Village because they are supposed to be some incredibly beautiful rice terraces there. I learned about the rice terraces from an article by CNN Travel called “50 Beautiful Places to Visit in Korea.” The rice terraces are number 3 on the list and the featured photo is of a group of tourists watching and helping a farmer plant the rice, with the help of a ox. Really cool, right?
We had some difficulty finding the village. Initially, The address listed on the CNN Travel article was missing some information that our navigation system required. Thankfully, there were some signs along the way.
I have a confession to make. We planned a trip to Taipei, Taiwan for the sole purpose of experiencing EVA Air’s Hello Kitty jet. A friend of mine shared an article about it on her Facebook sometime last year and it immediately went onto my bucket list. I can’t say I’m a die hard Hello Kitty fan, but I appreciate cute when I see it and this is cute!
Happy Hangeul Day! October 9th is the day Koreans celebrate their alphabet. It’s one of the best in the world and it’s definitely something to be proud of. Each letter has only one sound so if you really want to learn to read Korean, it only takes a few hours. I learned to read Korean in about 6 months, with practically no studying. I just kind of absorbed it.
I celebrated Hangeul Daywith my awesome Korean tutor. We went to 5 different temples. I learned a lot about the places we visited and a few new Korean words and phrases. One of the highlights of the day was seeing a flock of peacocks at one of the temples. They were so cute and it was such a nice surprise!
I’m writing this from Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Dave and I are heading to Taipei, Taiwan for a long weekend and we are about to board one of the world’s cutest planes! It’s a Hello Kitty plane. Even the boarding passes have the cute little Sanrio diva on them.
I can’t wait to see what the inside looks like!
As an elementary school teacher in South Korea, I was often shocked at some of the clothes my students would wear. Curse words or obscenities didn’t bother anyone!
I asked some of my teacher friends if they had any examples of kids wearing messed up stuff to school and my friend Jenny sent me this.
Can you guess what it says?
Life Outside of Texas 