Move on Over

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Letters/29

Dear soup night, you’re pretty much the best idea ever. So thankful for good soup and even better friends to share it with. Dear hubs, I found out this week that we do indeed have geek love. Telling me that you have to go write some HTML code is so incredibly attractive (maybe it’s because I suck at this area. I had my teacher in school do most of it for me…slacker) Dear packages from home, you and your little bits of home make it so much easier to be away. You rock and so do the people sending them. Dear hubs, we’re off to our favorite city this weekend…Seoul! I’m so glad that the country’s largest city is just a short four hour bus ride away (to be fair, from top to bottom of the country is about 7 hours). This trip is actually kind of bittersweet as it will be the last trip we take with our first friends in Korea, since they’re leaving us soon.  Maybe shopping and good food will help us cope.

In other very exciting news…we’ve moved! Visit the refreshed blog at Lost in Travels. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Perspective Series-Back to the Beginning

This week I’m happy to introduce Caitlin from My Korean Adoptee Story for the next installment of the Perspective series. This is a series about expats sharing their experience of living abroad and how it inevitably changed their perspectives on life. I was adopted from Korea as an infant by a wonderful family and grew up in Wisconsin. Like many other Korean adoptees are choosing to do, I came to Korea in June of 2011, fresh out of college and ready to explore the country, culture and search for birth family. Every part of Korean life and job has its ups and downs, but I can say I’ve truly been blessed with an amazing experience. I have a great job with very kind and helpful students. I’ve seen so much of the country and gained more knowledge about the culture and people than I ever thought I could.  And even beyond my biggest dreams, I had the honor of hugging my birthmother and thanking her for giving me this beautiful life to live. I think a lot of expats can agree – life in Korea is pretty good. I originally planned to stay for a year, then six more months and even thought about staying in Korea long term. 
I took a two week trip back home with my boyfriend in May to be in my friend’s wedding. I hadn’t gotten too homesick during my time in Korea. First and foremost, it was great to see family and friends but I had forgotten how awesome all of the little things were. I could speak English and no one would yell at me all like “YOU LOOK KOREAN WHY AREN’T YOU SPEAKING KOREAN? YOU’RE AN ADOPTED KOREAN, OK YOU UNDERSTAND ME THEN!!” I could drive myself to places. Clothing stores had clothes with different sizes and I could try on anything. And like every expat returning home does, I ate myself into a food coma that lasted all the way back to Korea. Being home was wonderful but I knew my life in Korea was good too. I didn’t expect anything to change, even with the small reminders about life at home. My family and friends would still be there when I got home and I could deal with small inconveniences.
My mom actually came back with me to Korea so it was me, her and my boyfriend on a bus from the Incheon Airport to Gumi. We stopped at a rest area and I just remember walking into the restaurant area and having the overwhelming stench of kimchi welcoming me back to Korea and making me want to gag. This wasn’t normal. I like Korean food. I like kimchi. Why was it having this effect? After catching my breath and hoping I’d readjust to the kimchi smell, I decided to get ice cream at Lotteria. Their version of McFlurry is called a Tornado. But of course, it says 토네이도 (Konglish version of tornado) and after having the luxury of speaking English freely for two weeks, I could not, for the life of me, pronounce ‘tornado’ the Korean way.  But after a few tries, it seemed like the Lotteria worker finally understand me and took my cash. I wait for a few minutes and my number is called. I am handed a coke. I had no idea how tornado and cola could get mixed up, but it did. At this point, I was almost in tears. I just wanted to be back in my clean smelling home town where I could properly order ice cream.
While that’s a funny story to tell, there was definitely a big question that caused my shift in perspective about life in Korea. While my mom was in Korea, she also laid out the question to my boyfriend, Joonwoo – “Are you going to move to America if you and Caitlin get married?” This kind of question was pretty early for our relationship but even then, I knew it was something I had to think about because I was completely in love. If I wanted to stay with Joonwoo, living in Korea long term was my fate.  
When I had to think about Korea in a different perspective – from life as a single girl in her 20’s just saving up money to a potential wife and mother – things changed. I loved Korea for traveling, learning, and just enjoying life. But when I thought about Korea as a family life, it terrified me. I teach adults who work in Samsung and if I’ve learned anything from them – it’s two things. Korean husbands work 12+ hours a day, six days a week and never get enough family time and Korean students are slaves to studying. I grew up in America with parents who were there for me at my sports events, dance recitals, and took us on vacation. I was able to pursue a lot of different interests as a student that shaped me into the person I am today.  Time for your family and yourself is what my students always say they miss and I knew I could never give that up living in Korea. I want my future family to spend time together and I want my kids to have time to play and have a hobby or two. For me, a place can never be home without family and doing the things that you love.
Again, Korea is an amazing country to live in. I’m so happy I’ve had a chance to experience the culture, visit the many beautiful places, and I even picked up a bit of the language. Most of all – I truly believe Korea can help you see just what you love (and maybe don’t love) about the place you call home.

Caitlin’s blog first caught my eye shortly after moving overseas. I shot her a message because she had just announced that she would also be moving to South Korea and since then, we have maintained an online friendship. I have loved being able to follow along on her journey to find her birth family and most recently getting engaged! Congrats!  Both her blog and life story are amazing and inspiring reads. Check her out at My Korean Adoptee Story

If you have lived abroad and would like to be featured, shoot me an email at lostintravelsblog{at}gmail{dot}com. I would love to hear from you!

Check out the other girls from the series

Shireen from Eat, Play, Love that Top

Michaela from Michaela Rae

Avocado Madness

Avocados have become a favorite of mine while we’ve been in Korea. It’s a shame really, because instead of paying about a dollar a piece back home, we’re paying three dollars a pop here. It may just be the worst place to get avocado cravings. But we’ve come to learn that there are some things that are worth the occasional splurge. This being one of them. I have seen avocado pasta recipes popping up like crazy lately so this past week I decided to finally try it out. And I must say…worth the splurge and definitely worth the effort to make this easy and delicious meal.What you need:

.10 – 12 small Campari tomatoes, quartered (Since tomatoes are ridiculously expensive right now where we live, I used canned tomatoes instead. I know fresh would taste a million times better but these did the job)
.3 – 4 tbsp olive oil
.4 servings of fettuccine noodles
.2 ripe avocados, seed and skin removed (I recently learning the proper way to cut an avocado. Life.Changing)
.2 garlic cloves, peeled
.1/2 tsp salt
.2 tbsp lemon juice
.1/4 cup pine nuts
.grated fresh Parmesan cheese

.salt and cracked black pepper to taste

What you do:

.Preheat oven to 300 ºF.

.Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Bake for 1 hour in the oven.

.Ten minutes before tomatoes are finished, fill a large pot with water and a sprinkle of salt. Bring to a rapid boil. Add the dry fettuccine to the water and cook until al dente.

.While the pasta is boiling, add 2 tbsp olive oil, avocado, garlic, salt and lemon juice to a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are smooth and creamy. (I don’t have a food processor so I mashed the avocados then threw everything into the blender. It also helps to add a bit of milk to make it more creamy.)

.Strain the pasta, and combine with the sauce in a large bowl, until all the pasta has been covered.

.Add roasted tomatoes, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Add some salt and black pepper to taste.

Recipe found on Flourishing Foodie

Letters/28

Dear Halloween, you rock. Not just because of the excusable sugar overdose but also because my boss still thinks I’m a great teacher for playing Halloween movies in class. Hocus Pocus was a hit, Ghost Busters…not so much. Dear Zeke, you’re cute but can you practice your attack skills on something else other than my head?  Oh and thanks for acting like a dog and playing fetch, it’s pretty awesome. Dear hubs, thanks for being a planning rockstar this week. I think you’ve found the coolest guesthouses in Thailand. And as of yesterday, we have two out of four of our places booked for our vacation! I love that you play into my ‘ultra-planning’ ways and book places months before we go. Dear Dentist, I now remember why I haven’t gone to you in the almost two years that I’ve lived in Korea. I always hated going to see you in the states but over here it’s magnified when I can’t speak the language and they put a creepy blanket over my face with only a hole for my mouth. No thank you. Dear hubs, you came home from work without the 80′s cop stache. I felt like it was Christmas until I realized that it’s now November and you’re starting everything over for ‘no shave November’.

A way to get even more stares in Korea

Halloween isn’t widely celebrated in Korea. Well, my kids say that they celebrate but when I ask them if they dress up or go trick or treating, they say ‘no’. So I’m not sure what exactly they do. All I know is that them not celebrating wasn’t going to stop us from celebrating. And since Koreans don’t really dress up on this special occasion, we got more than the usual amount of stares and pointing while we were out. The worker of a convenience store we were outside of even stood at the door and stared us down until we left. We started out at a place that sells great mix drinks in…pouches. Don’t ask me why, I don’t quite understand. But they’re the cheapest place to go for drinks and they’re good so I don’t question it. Oh and the two backward looking F’s on the package is the Korean way for a laughing sounds. Instead of ‘haha’ they say a ‘kk’ sound.Getting into character…I loved our costumes by the way. One of the easiest and most comfortable costumes I’ve worn in a long time. Unless you count the numerous years I went as a doctor because my parents could get me scrubs from work…com.for.ta.ble. We ended the night by bowling until closing time. We’re wild party animals I tell ya.The girls rocked it that night…we didn’t win but I’d have to say we looked to best while bowling.Later that night we went from burglars to cat burglars *cheesy Halloween jokes*Oh and I did what every good teacher does on Halloween. Copy an art project from a friend and have the kids make spiders. I don’t think they understood the correlation between Halloween and paper spiders but they had fun nonetheless. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Running my non-existant booty off

When I first told my friends who are seasoned runners, that I would run a race with them before they left this spring, I admit that I was just trying to be nice (sorry girls). Granted, I thought it would be fun but I never thought that I would actually build up the guts to go through with it. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. Not for the running factor or even doing a race necessarily. But more so to prove to myself that after years of not running, that I could still get back into the habit. I also have another confession. I really didn’t train. Ever since returned from the states on our summer vacation, I just can’t get back into the swing of working out. Before we left for vacation, I had just completed the Insanity program and had never felt better. You could actually see my muscles (if you looked really hard), which was a first for me. I came back to Korea with the intention of doing the program again or finding an equally challenging program to work thorough but unfortunately, it never happened. So when I signed up for the 5k, it was also my way of forcing myself to do something again. I ran a few times and tried to get my endurance up which has always been embarrassingly low. I managed to run a very short distance three times a week but by the day of the race, I still didn’t feel as prepared as I had hoped to. I had only been able to run about half a mile until I would be forced to stop and walk for a little while, so my expectations of the race were equally low. But when the day of the race came, I got a surge of energy that I can’t describe. I’ve heard before that you run a lot longer and faster than you thought possible because of all of the adrenaline of being a part of a race. I give that aspect credit along with giving most credit to the amazing ladies that ran along side me. Knowing it was my first race, they promised to stick by me and I can’t shed enough gratitude for that. They kept me running the whole time, along with the help of the cheerleaders on the sidelines yelling ‘fighting!’ (Korean’s way of saying ‘keep working’ ‘you can do it’)

Go Team Sparkle!We ran the Busan Ocean Half Marathon Race which took place on the  Kwangahn Bridge in Busan. It was possibly one of the most crowded events I have ever been to. Once the 5k started, we spent the first twenty minutes of it dodging all of the people just to get ahead to a place where we could run freely. Since this is one of the few times that you can walk along this bridge, there were so many individuals and families there just to be able to do so. People were stopped at various points along the race to take pictures of the scenery and get their picture taken. It was an interesting mix of runners and people there just for the event, not to run.Told you my friends were awesome. When you registered for the race you got to type in the reason you are running. Since my friend’s boss registered her, she wasn’t able to do this so she wrote her reasons in the day of the race. After the race was over and the feeling of seeing my breakfast a second time subsided, I had an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, pride and accomplishment. It’s safe to say that this will not be my last race and hopefully I will get to squeeze another one in before it gets too cold.