A reflection on expating

Eight years of expating and suddenly it was over. No big build up, no long goodbye: one day I was an expat, and a week later, after making an extremely difficult decision about family and future, I was on a plane to Florida unable to sleep and often staring at the back of the headrest in front of me with the "What just happened, where am I going, what am I doing?" expression. You know, this one:

There is only so long one can live abroad before there is a tug of heartstrings for home. However, in eight years America has changed so much that I have returned to a place familiar, yet so changed - technology, politics, the fried pickles recipe at Rocket to Venus. As we used to say in Egypt, it's 'same same but different'.  

And I am different, too. I am not a thirty year-old singleton setting off into the world for love and adventure and searching to quench my inner Indiana Jones. 

Egypt and Mexico and Korea changed me. The revolution changed me. Love and loss have changed me. The beautiful people who pepper the globe, and whom I am privileged to call friends, have changed me. Teaching has changed me. 

Tasting languages, foods, and the air in different places and different times has chiseled bits and pieces of fear and suspicion away. Feeling the generosity, smiles, and goodness of people I have encountered on my travels has added empathy and understanding. 

I'm a bit pudgier for my travels. I'm a wrinklier, older, creakier me. I'm a happier me.

I've lived in four countries in my life. Seven cities. Fourteen homes. Of them all, Cairo has left the biggest mark. My friend B once said that the first place you live abroad will always be your favorite place you've ever lived, and I think that is true. Despite the craziness and chaos and dust and diesel fumes, I still think Cairo was the most beautiful place I've ever called home. 

I've traveled to some 25 countries outside the U.S. - and I do not plan to stop traveling; though the years of squat toilets and hostels and overstuffed backpacks are hopefully behind me. 

I'm deeply contented, despite the uncertainty of unemployment and future, because I didn't come back to America for politics (certainly) or fried pickles (though they've been on my mind); I came home to build a life near the people who were important to me before I went away, and who are still so important to me now: wonderful people who welcomed me home with hugs and beer and a ukulele.

And so, this blog is on pause. I will likely expat again, but for now it's nice to be sinking my roots into the soil of my homeland.

A Snow Day!

For the first time in 8 years of teaching abroad, I'm enjoying a snow day. So, I took a morning walk around the neighborhood - the snow made it all glitter a bit and it was a good opportunity to take photographs.

The school, where I live, is on the very edge of the boundaries of Gwangju - but the city is about to expand on behind us and the construction has begun. 

The shortest walk to 'town' is through the campus of a college which is adjacent to my school's campus. 

Between the campus and the shops is a small park called Ssagam Park. Every area has a little park with a walking track, exercise machines, and play areas.

There are mountains all around Gwangju, but often they are hidden in haze. With the crisp air, mountains have been appearing in sharp relief against the sky.

The edge of the nearest shopping district in my neighborhood (Cheomdan / Buk-gu) is a small Super Lotte grocery store, a Paris Baguette - where I buy all of my bread - as well as services, restaurants, and several coffee shops.

The roads are wide and usually very busy, but with the snow were fairly empty today.

The walk from home to Starbucks is 1.3 miles - a walk that typically is fairly quick, though with all the snow and ice, even without taking photographs, has been taking at least 40 - 60 minutes each way. Still, it's very very pretty.

Hiking the road less traveled is not as poetic as Frost would have us believe

Mudeungsan National Park is a stunning, and popular, destination for hiking in Gwangju. Just an hour by bus from my home on the other side of town (40 minutes if I take the 9 and leave before 7 am), I visited the park three times at the end of September and beginning of October to take in the change from Summer to Autumn. Now it's raining and my hiking plans for this weekend, to catch the changing leaves before they all fall, have been washed away, so I thought I'd catch up with a blog post about my adventures there.

The first weekend I went to Mudeungsan, my friend and I were overwhelmed by the beauty and lush green of late summer. Dew painted spider webs wove complicated trails from bushes to flowers to trees. Mossy stone paths led the way along a babbling brook through green woods and into small fields of purple and white flowers. It was quiet, peaceful, and with the exception of an occasional hiker, largely empty in the morning.

Then we came to a sign post. With the aid of a mildly confusing map, we decided to take the 'short cut' to a ridge a few kilometers away; unbeknownst to us, the path led STRAIGHT UP for about a kilometer, only flattening out for a small pine glen and a tiny glade of giant-leaved flowers. Luckily, the view from the top was stunning.

Unfortunately, the climb down was very crowded. Hiking is a popular Korean past-time, and the families we passed of grandchildren with their grandparents, healthy young men with their toddlers hoisted up on their shoulders as they hiked along, and occasionally young couples dressed in their Sunday best, were all heading up the 'easy path' that we had passed earlier in our hike and not taken. (note: because it was steps, and not just steeply graded hills, I likely would never have made it up to the top on this route).

The total hike was only a few hours, and sitting on the balcony at the Mudeungsan Starbucks (because of course there is a Starbucks!) looking back at the green hills of the park, it was hard to believe how many people were hidden by the trees.

On two subsequent visits, I have hiked to Yongsan Monestary (a short, easy hike; but all asphalt and sometimes dangerous with people zooming by in their cars) and again took the hike along the formerly babbling brook which was now a rushing river. My friend and I were aiming to make it to the Barajame Pass, where the leaves were due to be changing. Roughly one kilometer short of the top, we had to turn around because it had become too steep (all steps) and my knees were burning. When we turned around, we had to fight our way back down the mountain through huge tour groups headed for the top: It took twice as long to get back to the bus as it had to get from the bus to near the top.

Korea or Narnia?

Narnia or the Phantom Tollbooth?

The only changing leaves I saw

Mudeungsan is a free, and wonderful, way to experience the natural beauty of Korea. Now, if only it would stop raining so I could break in my new hiking shoes on the trails!

A Primer on South Korea

Trees wrapped in crochet

I've been living in Gwangju, South Korea for nearly two months (how time has flown!) and, while most of my time has been consumed with planning and teaching English and Drama to the entire middle school (which only has 18 students), I have had time to discover a few small pleasures.

1) In Korea, we walk or bike or bus.

Who needs to drive when there are wide sidewalks (sometimes festooned with crochet) for walking and biking, and an efficient and cheap bus that gets you downtown in the same amount of time as a taxi or a car? I am now walking 5 - 6 miles three days a week to do my errands and enjoy the neighborhood; this is up from one day a week of compulsory exercise in Mexico. This is a good thing, because...

teriyaki noodles that came with rice 

2) In Korea, we eat a lot of carbs.

There is rice (bap) with everything. I've even had a dish served to me that was both rice AND noodles. Rice is served at lunch at school everyday, and I usually have it with vegetables, pork, and kimchi. Rice is good with everything, especially BBQ...

3) In Korea, BBQ is king!

I've been out for Korean BBQ where there is a small open fire pit in the middle of your table (with your own, personal, extendable exhaust hood over top) and it was delicious. But, much better than that, was a trip to the Sassy Duck (I have no idea what it is actually called, but their logo is a sassy duck, so I'm sticking with it). The Sassy Duck only serves one dish: DUCK BACON! which you cook on a cast iron skillet (with holes for the fat to drain) in the middle of your table. The duck bacon comes with a vegetable that I call 'grass' (looks and tastes like grass when raw, but is oniony when cooked), garlic, and vegetables...

4) In Korea, there are at least a dozen sides with every meal!

So, you can't just eat duck bacon all by itself. Duck bacon becomes DUCK BACON SALAD TACOS (someday, I'm going to have a food truck in Park Slope and make a mint selling these things). All Korean BBQ comes with lettuce leaves for wrapping up the meat and sides so you can eat the BBQ with your hands. Typical sides include: daikon (giant radish), pickled daikon, kimchi (cabbage), kimchi (bok choi), bean sprouts, gochujang (Korean hot sauce), andandand...

You  layer these items in your lettuce leaf and shove the whole thing in your mouth and chase it with...

5) In Korea, we drink a lot of soju!

Soju is liquor. I don't know much about it. It's clear and sweet and about a billion proof. It goes down way too easy, which leads to...

6) In Korea, we sing karaoke!

I love karaoke. LOVE. So, slipping in to a lush basement room tricked out with fancy lights, a blaring sound system, two microphones, and a good assortment of English karaoke standards played over weird Korean pop videos and vacation package advertisements, and drinking more soju and beer WHILE singing is pretty much heaven. This is called noraebang and you pay by the hour for your room. Every hour, they bring you more snacks and you buy more beer and soju. NORAEBANG FOREVER!

swanky noraebang room

**In Korea, we also go to cat cafes and pet the cats that look like Little Man, go to a Canadian restaurant and eat poutine, and talk a lot about hiking that we plan to do but haven't gotten around to yet, but will as soon as it gets cooler and we aren't so worn out from all the carbs and walking.

Expat Life

Before I was an expat, I didn't know what an expat was. I thought it had something to do with the French Foreign Legion, or maybe the American Revolution. I didn't really know what it meant - in 2008 people started asking me how I felt, on the verge of expatriating, and I didn't know what they were asking.

I was 31 years old, and I didn't even think to look the term up. I was moving to Egypt, which I naively thought was North Africa, and didn't understand to be as much North Africa as it was the Middle East. I was ready for adventure. I was excited about Pyramids and Camels.

(For the record, in four years in Egypt I never stopped being excited about Pyramids and Camels).

At 31, I considered myself well-traveled for having visited a few spots in the UK and Europe, oh, not to mention that exotic trip to Guatemala (where I climbed Templo 4 in Tikal while suffering from pneumonia, but otherwise spent most of the trip dosed-up on Nyquil, sleeping fitfully in my friend's condo). I had no idea that within six years I would have lived in two countries and traveled to a total of 21 - visiting most of them as a relatively healthy human being - most.

I didn't even know what Thai Chili Sauce was. FYI: Thai Chili Sauce is a revelation.

I thought I 'knew' falafal, and gyros, and Italian food, and tea - I knew nothing. I didn't even drink coffee that didn't come with a foamy milk-topper. Who knew you could add cardamom to coffee? Or that I would be drinking the Bedouin concoction while spending a quiet, tourist-free moment at a monument in Petra (which I didn't even know was real until I became an expat)? Who knew coffee could be rich and thick and syrupy? Or that I would be drinking it beachside in Bali days before attending a beautiful wedding on the tiny island of Nusa Penida in the South Pacific?

The point is, before becoming an expat, I thought I was worldly, cultured, and open-minded. I thought a lot of things that I don't think anymore, and in the process I learned so much about myself.

I learned that I love (LOVE) food.

I learned that I can handle myself in a crisis. Tear gas in Greece, Revolution in Egypt, Riots in Bangkok. I keep my cool, know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to sit in the restaurant and finish my glass of wine while the angry mob runs from whatever they are running from.

I learned that exploring new places gives me a high that cannot be beaten, even by a 30-meter zipline in the rainforests of Thailand.

I learned that the world is bigger and more volatile and beautiful and changeable than small-town news networks allow us to understand.

I learned that there is still a lot for me to learn.

Travel 2013 - My First Year in Mexico

Every year I do a year-in-review of my travels; mostly it's to remind me where I've been, but it also serves as a personal wrap-up photo album of my favorite travel photos from the year.

New Year's Eve 2012-2013: New Orleans, my favorite city in the world. There's the live music at Fritzel's, the great food (Restaurant August, Emeril's, New Orlean's Bistro), and the history. I even caught the Sugar Bowl parade! New Orleans is the city I always go back to when I can, and I can't wait to go again for Jazz Fest this year!

March 2013: For the first week of Semana Santa I was off to Merida for the second time! This time, the trip included a tour of the Yucatan to the pyramids of Uxmal and Kabah, and a trip to Celestun to see the flamingos. Despite the clouds and occasional rain, the sites were amazing and Merida was as laid back and fun as usual: I rode bikes on their Sunday Paseo, ate Panuchas and Cocinita Pibil, and got lots of sun and rest.

April 2013: For the second week of Semana Santa, it was time to explore Oaxaca in the South of Mexico. Oaxaca was full of great food and great shopping. I got to take a cooking class (where I cooked with agave worms, crickets, squash blossoms and local ingredients from the market), visit ruins at Monte Alban and elsewhere in the state, and dipped my toes in the natural mineral springs at Hievere de Agua.

Ceviche made by my cooking class

The Semana Santa trip ended with a two-day trip to Mexico City (just so I could try the food at Pujol, one of the top ten restaurants in the world); which led to the discovery of some surprising treasures, like the gorgeous deco Palace de Beaux Artes below and some amazing Diego Rivera murals.

June 2013: A week in Baltimore and a trip to Hershey Park with my second-family was a nice break after a long school year.  Then it was off to Florida for a few days to prepare for my European tour.

July 2013:  A flight to London and two weeks in England seeing dear friends and touring around places like:

Belton House:

Skeggness:

Tattershall Castle:

Birmingham & London:

My drink at VOC in London came with a six-shooter cap gun 

Then there was a quick ride on the chunnel to the the chaos of Paris:

and a day's escape from Paris to Chantilly.

From Paris there was a 12-hour, several train ride to the Cinque Terre in Italy (one of my favorite places on Earth) for nearly a week of eating Italian seafood dishes and exploring the coastal towns of Linguaria.

From the Cinque Terre another multi-train journey (and one sprint from train-to-train in Milan) took me to Venice.

From Venice, a vaporetti took my friend and I to Murano:

and Burano:

Then a ferry boat took us to Croatia, where we met up with another colleague and her friend and spent a week relaxing by the sea and exploring the old towns of Porec and Rovinj.

It was back to school time in August, but it wasn't too long before it was time to travel again...

In September, two friends and I went back to Merida for Mexican Independence Day (I even stayed up for the fireworks this time!).

October 2013: a shopping weekend in Guadalajara led to a great find: the Mile-long market at Tonala!

 

In November, a cheap flight to Chiapas (in the South of Mexico) lead to a great four-day vacation in San Cristobal des las Casas, though it was cold and gray. Thanksgiving was spent with a large group of friends at an Argentinian Steak House.

From San Cristobal, a friend and I took an all-day tour of two waterfalls (Misol-Ha and Agua Azul) and the ruins of Palenque.

Finally, it was off to America for Christmas and New Year. A few days on the beach and a few days in the cold with family and friends was a great way to wrap-up my first full-year living in Mexico.