Well… I’m still alive. I took some time to settle in and have some experiences before I shared much more. Here we are, coming up on 4 months in Seoul and I feel like we are pretty much where I expected we would be. We are well into a routine and starting to feel like we have most things sort of figured out. Here is what we have been up…

We had our first visitors and were able to plan a bunch of fun “tourist” activities… which was great because we hadn’t seen most of them yet either. Bukchon Hanok Village, Shopping in Myeongdong and a Han River moonlight cruise were all great to see and made better by the beautiful early fall weather.

As the fall weather has come, we have tried to spend as much time outside as possible, before the cold winter sets in. Being from the PNW, it takes some serious foliage to impress me, but the turning of the gingko trees to bright yellow is pretty beautiful (even if their berries smell like barf – thank you Brynn for that fun fact). Fall in the City is especially fun, because people are out and about everywhere enjoying the 70 degree weather. We managed to fit in some hikes, some visits outside the city and and some extras in there as well. We went to see Harry Potter in concert with a full orchestra, a visit to Seoul Forest Park (think Central Park) and watched Seoul’s Firework Festival from the front row of our living room window. Also, throw in a visit to a cat cafe for Brynn, in which she fell in love with a cat named Walnut. All in all… some good fun.

As for the actual feelings of living abroad, it still has many of the benefits that I hoped it would have. We are happy in Seoul, quality of life is great and the international schools are everything I hoped they would be. Sure, there are moments of loneliness and many of missing those we love. I wish to be with so many of you and hear how your life is going, in person. Being new anywhere takes time to adjust, but it also makes you feel so very alive. There is so much new-ness and discovery… how could it ever be boring? Last stop for this post will be our visit to the Changdeokgung Palace. It has a beautiful secret garden worth the extra ticket price and we explored all the grounds before stopping at the famous Onion cafe. Yes, all those baked goods were delicious and I will take anyone there who comes to visit.

I already have more I want to share, and hopefully some more regular updates from here on out.