Seoul wasn’t exactly a city I have been dying to visit. I really just spent time here because I had to connect to Mongolia. I did get a good feel for the city and found it to have some similarities to other Asian cities—Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok—and many differences. The people seem to be more friendly…
Everyone in Korea, including most non-American travelers kept talking about The World Cup. People in my hostel were staying up all hours to watch their home country’s match. I don’t like soccer, but I do like baseball and I had heard that Korea was very into baseball, just like Japan. Once I figured out where…
Unfortunately, one of the first things many people think of when they hear “Korea” is the Korean War. It was before I was born and before Vietnam, but the demilitarized zone (DMZ) along the 38th parallel is a constant reminder that Korea is a broken country. When researching for my trip I was surprised to…
All of Seoul is abuzz today, running about in red t-shirts in anticipation of South Korea’s World Cup game tonight. Like most Americans, I don’t follow soccer, even at the World Cup level. I did, however, finally figure out that Korea’s baseball league is still playing during the World Cup and hope to catch a…
I woke up at 8am with a reasonable 8 hours of sleep behind me and no jet lag. Although I am a bit sleepy as I type this, it’s nothing like the jet lag I used to experience when I first started traveling. I find the best way to beat jet lag is to act…
Having a year to plan this trip, you would think I’d be organized but I wasn’t. Leaving on Thursday was hard—I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing, that I wasn’t ready to go. Leaving for my last trip was easier and more exciting. I had never been to Asia before or traveled continuously…
Today is the day! In a few hours I get on a plane in Chicago and fly to Seoul with a brief plane change in Tokyo. I will arrive in Seoul around 7am Friday cst. Of course, it will be time to go to bed there so I have to plan my plane sleeping well.…