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When Traveling Isn't Always What It Seems...

Australia is a beautiful country. Every picture, travel show, or thought you’d have or seen about it, that is it. Its varied geography: landscapes, tropical rainforests, mountain ranges, and dry desert; its biodiversity, humans included, are spectacular. Traveling or moving to Australia, or any foreign country, sounds exhilarating and liberating. Anyone can agree that, simply put, it's cool as fuck. Rightly so, your days are filled with new encounters, joyful celebrations, and eventful occurrences. After all, aren’t these trips to be seized and embraced with a full on smile on your face? My time in Seoul was exactly that. I’d make friends left and right, welcomed every unfamiliarity, and lived life 100%. I felt empowered, and self-assured, anything was possible. This was how I wanted to feel for the rest of my life. Once I returned to the States, I was high off my Korean experience and refused to let it go. I decided to follow through with plans to travel to Australia, and
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Head Space

Imagine a place where, by simply being there, boosts your confidence, uplifts your thoughts and broadens your mind so as to make room for the ambition and optimism that is about to inhabit/set in.  Imagine a place where the time you've spent there makes you realize who you are as a person and figure out what you want in life.  Imagine yourself coming back from a place where you've established a group of genuine friends, where you've adapted to the city's whereabouts as if it were the back of your hand, where planning trips was feasible in a few weeks and where you felt it was home...Why would you leave?   Alas, the countdown had begun: six weeks, four weeks, two weeks left... Not all good things have to come to an end, I thought, entertaining the idea to carry on another year.  Leaving a place where memories could not be duplicated, where even the low points were overshadowed by the high ones (see: "Korea Galore" post).
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If You Go To Vietnam: EAT ALL THE THINGS!

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Guys, Captain Obvious called me. He was as surprised as me in informing that: "Holyshitballs, it's September!" Shut the front door.  I swear. Here is a recap of the past two months: Gay parade. Fabulous, duh.  ULTRA Music Festival Pool Party with T-Pain ( Huh? T-Pain? South Korea, really? - you ).  New teaching job at an upgraded school. As I sashayed out of that retched evil place, I made sure to let the ex-supes know she was a rancid bitch who dressed like a Christmas tree (okay, I didn't say the Christmas tree part...or the bitch part...I didn't say anything). Thankfully the n ew school has some good kids and good group of foreign teachers. Where has this school been in my eight months of working? The end of an era. IndySeoulSistas hashtag becomes obsolete: Laura returns to the States #IndySoleSista VIETNAM: My time there can be summarized in one word: FOOD. However, I will expand a few hundred more.
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The Runners

Since moving to Korea, I have encountered  people who have come here and after a couple of years of living, have decided to make it their permanent home, and not return. They are called "Lifers". Some stay because they've met someone, or a person who has the same affinity for the country, or met a native, or simply enjoyed what the lifestyle had to offer as opposed to what they knew was awaiting upon their return back home. Being a "Lifer" however comes with these notions that anyone who travels for a year or more, or isn't interested in working just yet or getting married,  must  be running away from something. They are running away from life, escaping it. They must have been leading miserable, awful lives back home, or experienced a traumatic event that made them want to never look back. People assume that people who travel long term are running away from problems, from the inevitability of life. My own family and friends have asked me "Are you su
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Six Months

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Oh snap! It's April! It seems just like yesterday I discovered the deliciousness that is kimbap and soju and wondered how I could have possibly lived without them in my close to 27 years! This weekend will be the halfway mark from my arrival to Korea. ALREADY. If you haven't noticed from everything social media, I am having a stupendous time!  Sure, I'm exploring new territory, meeting an assortment of people from all the facets of the world, eating multiple types of cuisine but surprisingly (and cheesy, brace yourself) I am realizing aspects of myself, that until moving here, were unnoticed and/or shrugged off. It was surprising because I've always thought myself to be self-aware. Thanks Laura, for pointing all my damn flaws! It's okay though, I may be a host of imperfections but there's potential in all my shortcomings -- and have you met my qualities? Laura can attest to that, she loves them (sidenote: Laura and I are just friends. "Omg Jen!" - L
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FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

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Here are some videos of our trip in Thailand I was able to recover from my lousy phone. Seriously, my iPhone's ineptitude is so apparent in comparison to the prodigious Samsungs I have seen. Their capabilities are immeasurable. First thing I am getting upon my return, is a Samsung S5 (Samsung, I'll take a check). The video does not show our elephant ride since it was very bumpy and dungy, nor does it show the tiger meetings because well, they were passed the eff out. It's just random snippets of what we encountered and experienced throughout the trip. All our pictures however, are posted on Laura and my Facebook page if you haven't seen them.  I am in the process of writing last month's post, I'm just waiting until next week because tomorrow is the Charity date auction for CARE ( Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth)  and I'd like to include how it goes. I'm not sure what I put myself into since I'm in freakin' Asia but what the
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Life of a Seoulite...

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February has been kind of low key. We haven't taken any weekend trips or had any time off to explore. I went to a Buddhist temple site but that was boring. I wandered my eyes around for 30 seconds aaaaaaannd I was done.   There's been some changes at work; the school acquired two new foreign teachers, British lads. I warned them of my aptitude to speak in accents (in a British accent of course) to which one quipped it was "rubbish". We get along great! The principal has not been herself lately. She's been kind and understanding which is worrisome and makes me uncomfortable.  I thought I would've formed some sort of bond with the children by now, or shown more affinity towards them but my heart remains as cold as ice no matter how cute they are while belting out the now annoying song "Let It Go". It still won't thaw. Sorry Elsa, they are still assholes.    Eating out can be quite expensive, especially if it is western food. Seoul
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