Next week is the Korean holiday of Chuseok, a time for family and food and eating songpyeong, which are traditional Korean rice cakes. My Korean friends keep telling me that the closest comparison they can think of for this holiday is American Thanksgiving, and though this comparison helps set the tone for holiday, I imagine…

Find a Go-To Food Grab For me, my go-to grab was Sushi-Ro’s daily $5 Special. Each day they had a new kind and it was the perfect amount of food for a quick on the go lunch. This proved to be even cheaper than many meals I was preparing at home. Pool Funds in for…

One of the most heavily visited tourist attractions in Wales is the beautiful Cardiff Castle, recognized for it’s massive 12 sided Keep atop a small hill in the center of it’s ground. I had the pleasure of leisurely exploring the castle grounds, and I recommend any traveller in Wales take a good chunk of time…

I’m that tourist. The one who shows up to a temple wearing shorts and a tank top wondering with genuine curiosity why I’m getting unsettling looks from just about every local at the entrance gate. It was my first time to Thailand and even though it should have occurred to be from my own religious…

Rangitoto, Auckland’s scenic reserve island known for its lava caves, volcanic rock, and beautiful skyline views from atop the crater. Visitors can enjoy the beauty this island has to offer by taking a short $30 ferry ride from the main port in downtown Auckland. There are many times for departure and return to select from…

Family members are individuals who give us life; who cradle us, watch us grow, and then set us free to continue to reach our own perception of greatness. They feed us when we are hungry. They shelter us when we need a roof over our head. They shape us to appreciate laughter, to treasure moments,…

How do you become an International School Teacher? This is probably the most common question I got asked while teaching abroad, and still get asked today when I talk about my teaching background. Whether it’s people simply just curious about my life, people wanting to travel more, or educators in other domains who want to…

I’ve been living in South Korea for close to two years now, and in my time here I’ve done Karaoke on a number of occasions. For anyone who has never been to a karaoke room before, it’s very different than throwing a song on your tele at home. Noraebongs, rather Korean Karaoke “Song Rooms” are…

We’re eating barbecued chicken breasts from a meat stand off the main tourist strip in Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines when a young girl about the age of my students walks up to us, carrying a basket of keychains, bracelets and headbands. “Souvenirs?” she asks politely, placing her merchandise at the edge of our table. She waits patiently,…

Shanghai. I can see it now, closing my eyes . . . tall skyscrapers reaching up and disappearing into the mist, abstract architecture blending together in just the right kind of array to get one questioning how these buildings came to be formed, and who designed them. There’s metal twirling upwards, lights flashing sideways spelling…

Last weekend, I decided to take the short 2 hour flight from Incheon to Taipei over Lunar New Year. A lot of people had warned me not to travel to Taiwan during this time because “everything will be closed.” But, I’m stubborn and tend to like to follow my own path, and decided that Lunar…

Sometimes it’s isolating living in Songdo. The endlessly high apartment complexes. The way the trees lines up in perfect rows. The wide streets that are just a little too large for the number of cars on them. It never made sense to me why they designed an eco-friendly smart city only to include five lanes…