When I moved to Korea in 2017 to teach English, I had no expectations for the role that experience would play in my life. If you had told 22-year-old me, struggling to say my address to a taxi driver in Korean, that 7 years later I would be doing a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and…
Apartment Hunting Outside of Seoul
This is a bad story with a happy ending. In the end, I'm writing this post from an apartment that I love, looking out over the mountains. But the process, the getting here part was bad. This is the apartment hunting in Gwangju, South Korea story. But first, a bit of context. When I lived…
(Almost) 10 Years Later
It's January 19th, 2025. Since January 1st, I've been sticking to one of my New Year's resolutions: running. In the final hours of 2024, on a 15-hour flight back to Korea, I read Haruki Murakami's 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,' which gave me some good momentum to get started. Despite the…
Daejeon Cafe: Doodoodang / 두두당
Daejeon Cafe: Doodoodang / 두두당 Looks like we haven't quite seen the last of the cafe posts from my time in Daejeon. Today I'm bringing you a gorgeous cafe that's a little bit outside of the city in the Daecheongdam area. If you have a car or are willing to bus for a while…
Saying Goodbye
Saying Goodbye Saying goodbye is something that everyone has to do a lot of in life, but still somehow feels uniquely painful. I still haven't gotten good at it, but I've gotten used to it. I said a lot of goodbyes when I left for college. Then when I started teaching English I became…
Bangkok, Thailand: Day One
Bangkok, Thailand: Day One Tomorrow is the end of summer vacation and, although I say this every year, I truly cannot believe how quickly it went by. Between English camp, which ended up being two of the more stressful weeks of my entire life, and taking the GRE, the amount of days that I actually…
Day Trip to Gangneung // 강릉
Day Trip to Gangneung // 강릉 After a very very stressful first week of English Camp, Saturday morning found me awake bright and early to catch a bus over to Bokhap terminal in Daejeon to meet a friend so that we could go on a little one day adventure up to Gangwon-do. For anyone…
My Korea
My Korea Over the past two and a half years I have detailed a lot of my feelings about Korea on this blog. I am, by nature, an overly sentimental person and so looking back on my posts from when I first arrived in Korea they read as such. Overly sentimental. But the truth…
Daejeon Sky Park // 대전 하늘 공원
Daejeon Sky Park // 대전 하늘 공원 하늘 공원 is a small little park in Daedong that over looks the city. I've been wanting to go here since I moved to Daejeon two and a half years ago so I was really happy to finally get a chance to check it out. …
Daejeon Cafe: Lanovo // 라노보
Daejeon Cafe: Lanovo // 라노보 (대동점) For the first time in a while I have a cafe that's not in Galmadong. So for those of you living on the other side of Daejeon, this one is for you! As far as I can tell there are a few of these…









