ZOE HERE      At the start of the summer, around June 3rd, my mother and I set out with two tickets on Korean Air flight towards our first stop in Europe, Zurich. Boarding the flight, we were told that we had been bumped up to Business Class seats, making our time in the air … More The Ultimate Mother-Daughter Trip

When I was in still in Japan with my girl friends, Bill left on Sunday for a week long business trip to Jakarta.  Since Daphne and Zoe were headed to Beijing the following Wednesday for the APAC soccer and I was going to be alone in Seoul, Bill suggested I fly to Bali and meet … More Bop over to Bali? Sure why not?

Four short days after my return from Myanmar, I went to Tokyo with Cristina and Petra, two close friends I’ve made here in Seoul during the past two years.  I feel really lucky to be close with these two “girls” who are both considerably younger than I…but “oh well”. Cristina is French-Romanian and we met … More Japanese jaunt with girlfriends

How do I even begin to write about our trip to Myanmar?!  This post will be a long one so fasten your seatbelt, grab that second cup of coffee, glass of wine and feel free to take breaks if my chatter becomes tiresome!  Not only were we fortunate enough to spend 8 full days in … More Magical, Marvelous Myanmar!

Things work so well here it reduces one’s stress.  Examples – free wifi is almost everywhere and devices automatically connect even when we are 3 floors underground riding the subway.  They give you a buzzer at all food counters so you never wonder if your order is forgotten or have to wait long for your … More Cue the drum roll please…Numero UNO: Efficiency

Resulting from a long history of mixed religions and subjugation to Japan, the Korean mindset is unique.  It takes at least 6 months to begin to understand. Koreans are openly rude in superficial ways. They will bump into you and say nothing – there really is no word for excuse me or sorry.  They may … More Number 2: “Korean Kindness”

About 70% of South Korea is mountaineous which is somewhat hard to imagine when one is standing amidst the cement and skycrapers of downtown Seoul. As one looks and east however, large mountains are readily visible and provide a scenic backdrop for the city.  By pure dumb luck and a bit of gut instinct, we … More NUMBER 3: Hiking

Similar to many other Asian countries, Korea values the Group over the Invididual.  We are admittedly still far from truly understanding this part of the culture in which we now live and are not cognizant of this mindset most of the time.  However, certain aspects are quite obvious to us.  For example, a Korean person … More NUMBER 4: The Korean Concept of “Community”

This post has been a long time coming and admittedly I’ve been struggling with “blogging” in general.  Although not private, this “blog” is, more than anything else, a personal journal of our family’s time here in Seoul.   I worry the thoughts and statements in this “blog” will be read by strangers and that they … More Top 5 things we love about Korea…number 5