Stephanie in Suwon

Since my return from the land of kimchi, I've been lucky enough to be continuously surrounded by a plethora of food that I have actually wanted to partake in. There are many positive things one can say about Korea and it’s culture. For this expat, the cuisine was not one of them. Seeing that for the previous 16 months of my life, give or take a few experiences, my daily eating habits consisted mostly of apples, yogurt and the occasional chicken breast thrown in for good measure, I came back from my travels a bit lighter then when I left. Since my quasi-triumph over my eating disorder that has plagued me since one of my university prof’s told me I should think about losing a few pounds in order to be a “serious actor”, I have tried to be as non-committal about my weight as my brain would allow. Not an easy task while living in an Asian country populated by women who are roughly half the size of most department store mannequins. The only change I saw was that the Korean sales staff d...

The prospect of going back to Korea is one I had entertained even from our first few months there. And although it became painfully clear to me as our contact wore on that another full year there may not have been the most positive choice in regards to my mental health, the idea of going back for a short stint did not make me want to run screaming in the opposite direction. Always a good sign I think. Seeing as the boyfriend took it upon himself to decide that, for him, another full year in Korea would be a positive experience, I decided, after deliberating for a few months, to join him for the summer, living together, but not working together, an approach we are both sincerely hoping will be an improvement over last year’s living-together-working-together situation. What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time…… Regardless, with my departure date looming, while preparing to arm myself with a suitcase full of toothpaste, deodorant and Burt’s Beeswax lip balm, I’ve also been p...

After the initial Oh-My-Freaking-Lord-Above-We’re-Home feeling wore off, I began setting about the task of re-orientating myself with the place I had missed so much over the past year. Christmas makes everything better really, and the first few weeks I was home were jam-packed with gatherings of friends, welcome home parties (Thanks Guys!!), quiet nights with the family, Christmas parties, and huge feasts where I proceeded to gorge myself on fare I had dearly missed during my time abroad. It goes without saying that all of the aforementioned activities were proceeded by, went with, and were often followed by copious amounts of alcohol. I think it’s a fair assessment for me to say that I spent most of December half-cut. Or fully-cut. Whatever. I also threw myself headfirst back into my burlesque troupe, and somehow found myself MC-ing our Christmas fundraiser, learning a new group number, while choreographing a new solo all within 3 weeks of me actually stepping off the tarmac at YYC. T...

The morning we left Korea was surreal. It was a moment I had imagined and waited for such a long time, the fact that it was finally upon me made it hard to exist in. After the 72-hour saga that was our escape from Bangkok, the few days of transition time in Seoul we still had felt like such a blessing. Dave and I both felt as though we had been through a war…of sorts….and we relished the sensation of feeling returning to what had been our numbed sense of security after all those weeks of travel. I suppose being trapped in a city with 500,000 other travelers while terrorists run amuck, cutting off all air traffic between you and the rest of the world would shake anybody’s sense of security. I was just so dammed grateful to be back in a place that felt “normal” to me after everything we had been through. Take a minute to think about what I just said. Korea. Normal. The irony of that still cracks me up. Dave and I set off when it was still dark outside, miraculously found two cabs willin...

So while attempting to navigate the house of cards that is my life, it would seem I have dropped the proverbial ball when it comes to this damn thing. Allow me to explain. First of all, I have discovered a new group of people in the world to emulate and admire along side the couple I met in Cambodia who had been there for close to 4 years helping landmine victims, and that girl I saw at the bar one time who did 15 shots in 15 seconds. No word of a lie, she just slammed them and walked out of there…incredible. Anyways, the list will now be expanded to include anyone who is backpacking through, well, anywhere I guess, and still manages to keep their blog/Facebook/e-mail correspondences updated/coherent. I salute/envy you. Shocking as I’m sure this will be to many of you, I was not able to keep my legions of fans regularly updated with my travel tales, that included me lugging a backpack the size of an overweight 6 year old around, while contemplating where my next cold shower would be co...