myretroperspective

Sometimes living in a different country you forget that some of the very odd and different things around you are in fact...odd and different, they instead become a 'new norm' of sorts. So here are a few things that when I first came to Korea seemed odd but now are overlooked. .being treated differently because we are foreigners. Now, this isn't always a bad thing and I really can't complain about ever being treated badly because we're foreigners. And every once in awhile, we'll get a special treat only available to us. Like at a local Italian restaurant, we get free drinks on certain nights with the purchase of a meal. How this is allowed and the restaurant doesn't get in trouble for being discriminatory...I have no idea but you won't hear me complain about it. Pass the wine please.  .there are...ahem... different snack options at the local convenience stores. I don't know about you but when I'm hungry and we stop for food, I'll choose the ch...

It's that time again!  Link up your expat/travel stories below and make sure to stop by some other bloggers and say hi! We also have a very special co-host with us this month, Nicole from Treasure Tromp  so be sure to show her some love as well! Thanks to everyone for linking up and spreading the word! We have had so much fun getting to know you all! -------------------- Have you ever lived abroad and realized that you've developed tell tale signs that you've been out of your home country for awhile? I was skyping with a good friend of mine back home the other day when all of a sudden, she started to giggle over something I said. You see, when you live overseas for a certain amount of time, you're lingo beings to...change. College turns into University, air conditioners are now air cons. We've also started using the Korean word 'mogi' for mosquito in our household. But that's a whole other type of confusing that we will impart upon our children. This who...

I'm one of the weird ones that absolutely loves to budget and one of my favorite budgeting tools has been the envelope system. I love budgeting because I love seeing how if we stick to this amount of spending, how much we can save by a certain date. Which inevitably leads to the discussion with my husband about where we are going to travel with said savings. Because one of the main reasons why my husband and I got serious about budgeting is because the better we budget, the more we can travel, the more we can do and the more often we can go. There's been a lot of buzz about the envelope system recently and I've gotten a few emails asking about it so I thought I would take this opportunity to tell a bit about it and why we love it so much. I'm also teaming up with Nicole from The Treasure Tromp where she's telling her experience with starting to use the envelope system. So be sure to check out her page and read about her experience ! So let's get into it. Backgr...

Do you ever feel like you just need a break from technology? Living as expats, technology has been our saving grace. It helps us keep in touch with loved ones around the world, connects us to other expats and makes our lives easier and more convenient. But does technology and social media ever just get to be...too much? We started to notice that at restaurants, work and even get togethers with friends, people were hooked to their phones, constantly wanting to be connected. Don't get me wrong, I  love  technology. Perhaps a little too much (just ask my husband). But there comes a time every now and again for the need to shut down, disconnect, and recharge. This is when we call for a 'no technology weekend'. We shut off our cell phones, turn off the TV and shut down the computers for a weekend. Extreme, yes. Challenging, sometimes. But so rewarding in the end. It's the perfect opportunity for us to recharge and reconnect with each other and those around us. So what ever d...

I decided for this month's Expat Diaries, I would step back in time and talk about when we first came over to Korea and how moving overseas has changed us.  Link up your travel/expat stories below and get to know some of the other lovely bloggers! -------------------- I still remember the moment my husband and I decided to move abroad. I had texted him to tell him that instead of settling in our hometown after the wedding, I wanted to live abroad and travel the world. He texted back saying he already knew of a job opportunity working as ESL teachers in South Korea. So while I planned the wedding, he set to work on the piles of paperwork needed in order to work abroad. Within four months, we were on a plane for half way around the world. The draw of traveling and experiencing different cultures all while being able to save money is what led us to hop on that plane with our lives in four small bags and not look back. Within the first six months...

With the recent births of what feels like every single person on Facebook's baby, it's got me thinking a bit about baby names. And as you all know, the first name must correlate well with the last name. The girls at least have it easy and can marry out of it, but pick a bad name for the boy? And they're doomed for life. With the last name 'Diamond' I've got it harder than most people think. No, we're not related to Neil and you'd be surprised how many times I've been asked that question. By the way, this is my old student Tim, pretty much the cutest kid you'll ever meet.  In my graduating year of college, my final assignment was to make a website with my portfolio. The address was to be our full name. With the concern of a teacher, I had to search my name in every search engine imaginable. Because apparently, Chelsea Diamond sounds like a stripper. Lucky me. Thankfully, only the Chelsea soccer team and actual diamonds showed up. That's when m...

Sometimes living in a different country you forget that some of the very odd and different things around you are in fact...odd and different, they instead become a 'new norm' of sorts. So here are a few things that when I first came to Korea seemed odd but now are overlooked. .Yes. McDonalds delivers. And by the way their delivery men drive, I can't imagine it taking more than a few minutes to get your order from across town.  .We found out the hard way what happens when they overbook the bus. They have small stools in the overhead compartments that you sit on in the middle of the aisle. Thank goodness it was only an hour ride to where we were going. .Street food is something that I never really experienced in the states but have grown to love since living in Korea. Breakfast, lunch or dinner people crowd around these stalls on the street to eat just about any Korean dish. Below you can see gimbap, d deokbokki (rice cake in red spicy sauce...delicious!) and o deng (fish pas...

I tend to meet people in somewhat random ways. Like the couple that I met in a grocery store . Or the fact that I met my husband through Facebook. Well, I did it again. When I told Jeremy that I wanted to meet up with Crystal from Seoul Sold when we went to Seoul for the weekend, he gave me the side eye. You know, the one that your loved ones give you when they think you might have lost it. He asked me if I actually knew her. Well...kind of. Knowing someone in the blogging world is just as good right?....I was actually relieved to hear that she had the same conversation with her husband. All through breakfast she kept tapping him on the shoulder saying 'See, I told you they would be normal'. Glad we passed the test! Uh-mazing fresh squeezed lemonade mixed with Sprite I guess outside the blogging world it's just not that common to meet up with perfect strangers and have them for breakfast in your home. Odd. I'm glad neither Crystal or I had any qualms about it because w...

Korea has some of the most beautifully decorated, terrible tasting cupcakes I have ever tried. They're dry and not very sweet but hey! at least they look good! Well, a few weeks ago, my sweet friend, Amber , took me to decorate these aforementioned cupcakes for my birthday. There's a cupcake shop just down the street from her apartment where the owner teaches classes on the basics of decorating cupcakes. I should probably note here that Amber is a natural at all things DIY. You know those people that make it look effortless enough that you think you can try but then it just ends up looking like a Pinterest fail? Yea, she's one of those . Before we went, I was pumped, I was excited, I felt like all of my childhood dreams of becoming a baker were coming true. Although I'll be honest, I think I only wanted to be a baker so I had an excuse to 'taste-test' (aka stick my finger in the batter bowl) sweets all day. The first thing she had us try were 'simple'...

Don't you just love his wrapping job? Both hubs and I are horrible at surprises. If we get something we usually spill the beans within 48 hours because we just can't contain our excitement. That's why I was so shocked to find out that he had been planning a surprise for my birthday for over 6 months! Probably about a month ago, I suggested that we take a spontaneous trip overseas in June. We had a holiday on a Thursday and we don't have our regular classes on Fridays. I just work a few hours at an academy that I can easily make up classes for and hubs just teaches an intensive class every other week. Perfect opportunity for a getaway right? He wasn't against the idea but he didn't seem as thrilled about it as I was. Little did I know, he had already bought tickets to the Philippines for that weekend back in December. In the weeks leading up to his reveal, I sensed something was going on, that he had something up his sleeve but I tried as hard as I could to ignor...

This weekend I turned a quarter of a century. When it's put like that, it's a whole lot more panic-inducing that saying I'm turning 25. And don't get me started on the fact that here in Korea, I'm considered 26.  photo courtesy of dots.i.am photography When we decided to move abroad, one of the major pulls besides being able to travel, was to completely immerse ourselves in a different culture. And immerse we did. When we first came over, we didn't know a word of Korean, didn't know a soul here and had never even tasted Korean food before. While we had lessons in the expected areas like patience, understanding and a whole new appreciation of the world and people around us; we also learned a few other things we weren't quite expecting.  So today, instead of going through what I've learned in these 25 years of being alive, I've decided to highlight some things that Korea has taught me in these past two years. .stay out of the sun-  Koreans are infa...