Looking back at the end of another year, it’s striking to see how differently things went from my expectations. This time last year, I was frantically preparing for a move to China, where I would be teaching English and potentially managing a department of foreign teachers in a language academy in Yangzhou. Now, as I …
The World
Dealing with Depression Abroad
Behind every smile is a pain, behind every pair of eyes a story that will break your heart. It’s hard to remember that sometimes, especially when we put up the ‘gram-worthy facades that make it look like everything is peachy-keen. Remember when Robin Williams died? It shocked everyone, that behind the mask of the Jester …
Christmas Letter 2018
It’s been a few years since I’ve done a Christmas letter. Perhaps that’s because my last one didn’t go over too well with relatives back home. Perhaps it was just the craziness of my schedule at the end of 2016 as I geared up for my third year in Korea. Perhaps it was just laziness. …
Rituals on the Open Road: Going Home
It’s always the greenness of the drive which gets me; after I’ve left the airport and merged on to I5, whether it’s northbound from Seattle or southbound from Vancouver. It’s so easy to take a color for granted, but such a concentration of it after an extended absence makes me realize what I’ve missed. The …
Best Visa-Free Countries for Americans to Visit
The Passport Index recently ranked the US Passport at Power Rank 5, along with Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, and Ireland. This gives Americans plenty of options for visa-free travel, but most of those destinations allow Americans to stay for 30-90 days before requiring a visa of some sort. There are, however, a few countries which offer …
My Grandfather’s Coins
Travel is many things to many people. It is many things to me. But perhaps the thing I cherish most about travel is its ability to imbue meaning into other things. For memories of it to link to those of people and experiences, for it to entwine itself around the roots of who we are. …
I Used to Hate: A Look at How Travel Changed My Life
The person I was 10 years ago was very different from the one I am today. Development and change are intrinsic to living and growing, but what’s happened to me over the past decade has been more than typical maturation. I’m still me, to be sure, but so many things that I thought defined me have …
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Christmas Letter 2014
This year, Christmas is going to be weird. Not because I’m spending it in a flat near the outskirts of Pohang or in a Korean beach-side pension with many of my dear friends. Not even because I’m spending it on a beach in Thailand belting Johnny Cash tunes out across the waves. No, this year is weird …
Christmas Letter 2013
Dear Family and Friends, Wow. This is the third Christmas letter I’ve written from this side of the Pacific. The first, I was not even three months into my first teaching contract in South Korea; the second, I was soaking in the sun on an island beach in Thailand. Now, I’m back in Korea more …
…And So It Ends…
Traveling the world for 19 months and living out of a backpack for seven of those has, unsurprisingly, changed me as a person. I knew it would. It’s one of those things you go into with an expectation to be changed. I was just surprised by how I was affected. One of the big reasons people leave …