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…

Growing up, a trip to the seashore boardwalk town meant fudge shops and salt water taffy. My sister and I would climb on the rocks, jumping from one to another hoping to not fall as we slowly made our way to a lighthouse ending. In Korea, boardwalk towns have small cafes, ice cream cones as…

I started figure skating because of the 2002 Olympics. I was watching Sasha Cohen skate a firey routine, mesmerized by her graceful spirals and abstract spins, and I knew in that moment that I was going to skate. I wanted to be just like her. Naturally, when I told my mom this, she didn’t think…

Just thinking about everything I have explained to everyone this summer before I head back to the Land of the Morning Calm. Number One: I am not teaching English, I am teaching in English. I cannot make this any clearer to people. People always ask what subject I teach, or if I teach Korean, or how…

Most people find airports stressful and congested, a chaotic gateway from destination to destination. I actually love being in airports and look forward to it both before and after going on a trip. The key is getting to the airport extremely early so that you feel complete relaxation the entire time. Line? So what!? I…

Most of the time, foreigners come to Korea to visit Seoul. They want to take in the marvels of Gyeongbokgung palace and get a birds eye view of the city from the top of Namsan Seoul Tower. Ironically, even though I have been to both of these places, I am yet to actually fully experience…

This past week I had the pleasure of traveling outside of Korea, for the first time since being an Alien Resident, to another part of Asia. I traveled 4 hours to the city of Hanoi in Vietnam, spending three days in the bustling city and one additional day visiting the popular World Heritage site, Halong…

Recently, when I’ve flown in airplanes it’s been to go to a different country. This past weekend however, I actually took a domestic flight. The destination was Jeju, an island off the southern coast of South Korea.  Although, despite it being the same country, the place itself felt totally different. Jeju is often referred to…

This past week I went on a 7-day road-trip across the penisula, hitting up major cities like Sokcho, Gyeongju, Busan, and Jeonju among some other smaller attractions. Despite warnings of heavy traffic and long drives during the Chuseok holiday, I would say we did relatively well in terms of seeing what we wanted, getting to…

It’s officially been one month since I first landed here in South Korea, and what better way to celebrate then by writing a post about one of my favorite things: FOOD. Before traveling overseas, one of my favorite places to go out to eat was a Korean restaurant in Maynard, MA called Little Pusans. It…