On reverse culture shock and reverse REVERSE culture shock

Define ‘culture shock’: “the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.” (Source: Google) Define ‘reverse culture shock’: the “unexpected difficulty in readjusting to the...

Guest post: when you need a hospital — a look at 5 of Bangkok’s best (Thailand)

Author’s note: this guest post is brought to you by my lovely wife, Laura. For reasons you’ll soon see, she’s more qualified to take on this topic than I am. When not working as a Korean-to-English translator or traveling with me, she may go through more cans of Diet...

Baz Luhrmann says: Eat Kimchi

Author’s note: full copyright credit for original text goes to Mary Schmich, an author for the Chicago Tribune in 1997. Find the original article here. Baz Luhrmann made it into a popular song in 1998. For the entire history of the song / text, Wikipedia has you...

10 things that irk me about Seoul

Note: this list should not be construed as any indication that I’m not loving my time and life here in Seoul. When living anywhere, however, there’s bound to be more than a few ways that irk you in one way or another. After living in South Korea for six...

10 things I LOVE about Seoul

It’s been six months living in South Korea as of today! After nearly six months living life in Seoul, there are quite a few things I’ve found I love about Seoul. Here they are, in essentially the order I thought of them (which is essentially random): 1)...

The normalcy of life (AKA the surrealness of it all, part 2)

Wow… Three months here, and life is so… normal… Get up, go to work, take a break after lunch, teach some more classes, make the most of every free hour or during the weekend… Sounds so… normal, doesn’t it? Yes, life does become...

Life in Korea after 2 1/2 months

After about 2 1/2 months of living in Korea, it’s about time to start thinking about what it’s done to me. Life in Korea has truly opened my eyes to the world – not just Korea. The global mindset is dominant in talking to people who have traveled to...

I’m officially an alien!!

Part of being a legitimate expat / Korean is getting your alien registration card – the card that lets the Korean government know you’re here legitimately. I’m sure the US has something similar for those who enter the country legitimately, but I...

Traveling around Seoul

So far I’ve had little problem getting around Seoul – once I got used to the subway system and it’s quirks. Looking at signs isn’t usually the problem, since there’s enough English to go around. One problem that cropped up recently was...

The apartment

For being something provided gratis by my employer, I can’t really complain – it’s actually a lot nicer than I expected. Walk into the ‘main’ room – complete with a dining room table and door to the bathroom. Walk a few steps...