Coffee Helps

I’m not scared of many things. This used to trouble my mother somewhat, as I had a bit of a daredevil attitude – unlike my more cautious and timid sister, I didn’t have enough sense to be afraid of getting hurt. I would generally be the one doing reckless things like: clambering over dangerously wet rocks [...]

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The Love Motel is one of those things about Korean culture that is so common and everyday, it now seems perfectly normal and unremarkable to me, but I do remember how surprised I was by the concept when I first heard of it. First, you need to be aware that couples in Korea don’t move [...]

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I think I’ve accidentally turned into a middle-aged Korean man. Lately it’s been all work, work, work, work, sleep, sleep, work, work, think about work, talk about work, sleep, sleep, work, work, work. Then last night I sat with some friends in a dak galbi restaurant (surrounded, obviously, by middle-aged Korean men on one of [...]

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I think I’d gotten as far as Kyoto in my tales of Japan, but I need to backtrack just a little to tell you about Hiroshima. This is one of those places I’d always wanted to visit. You know, one of the places you list when someone says “If you could go anywhere in the [...]

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I don’t have time for this. Blogging, I mean. I have a job that demands I only stop to shower and change clothes occasionally, several million (approx.) emails to reply to, a few worries, and a strong desire to sleep for days on end. And so, because I have had no time for blogging, I [...]

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South Korea has the highest* and fastest growing suicide rate in the developed world. Not the most lighthearted start I’ve ever made to a blog post, but this issue has been on my mind for some time as I observe the people around me and live in this all-work-and-no-play culture, so I thought it was [...]

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Toilet paper, or toilet roll as we call it in NI, is everywhere you look in Korea. Everywhere, that is, except the toilets. I was really quite bemused by the seemingly bizarre toilet roll sightings I made during my first few months here. There was a toilet roll in every classroom in the school, just sitting [...]

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We took the kindergarteners to see The Little Mermaid at a local Arts theatre yesterday. Because it was all in Korean, and I’ve never actually seen the movie nor read the story, I was able to entertain Terri (an actual fan of the movie) afterwards with a “Here’s what I think it was all about” [...]

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I don’t know how I manage to get myself into these situations, but I do think it’s a sign of personal growth that I can cheerfully go along with the flow, these days, and take them as they come instead of getting flustered. So, for a variety of reasons I won’t bother going into, I [...]

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Sometimes, when you’re living in a very, very foreign country, you get a little bit paranoid that the locals are out to get you. Koreans are a strange bunch as far as this goes. They can be some of the most hospitable, generous, and kind people you could meet… or they can be incredibly unwilling [...]

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