There's really no place for an ending, only a place where you leave your story. We know we haven't been posting about our blog lately, sorry about that. We are just busy with the move and other big stuff that is happening in our lives right now. We cannot begin to tell you how busy we are - from living in a temporary apartment, finding a home, starting a new job (for Brock), looking for a job (for Tanj) and just trying to just settle down (again and this time for good) and get our bearings back. All the BIG stuff happening all at once with our little family! 

Anyway, it's been two months since we left South Korea. When we landed in the US, we immediately felt the familiarity of our surroundings. It was sweet going home, see familiar faces and some are new (friend's having new born babies). Its been a while since we had that feeling of being truly "home". No doubt, we missed America but living in South Korea is still fresh in our hearts and mind. South Korea left us with plenty of stories to tell and another once in a life time experience. 

On our last week in South Korea, we visited a temple on top of a mountain, drove around an unknown town and enjoyed the summer sun by the lake. This is probably our adieu, adios and goodbye post for our lovely time in South Korea.  For now, let the pictures speak for itself. 

We know for sure we are going to miss our expat life, someway or another, perhaps we will find our way back. After all, we are trading awesome for awesome. As Kristin Newman puts it, “Life is an endless series of choosing between two things you want almost equally. And you have to evaluate and determine which awesome thing you want infinitesimally more, and then give up that other awesome thing you want exactly as much”. Right now, stability is what we need even though it also means giving up "living the dream in Europe". Yes, you read it right, we turned down an opportunity to live our dream in Germany. We had to choose the lesser evil of the two options we are presented: stability of being in one place for 5+ years versus 1+ yrs in Germany and we have to move again after that. We know for some that this sounds crazy and probably something you won't expect us to do but trust us, we made a calculated decision. 

Adventure has always been a part of our story, and this new life will be our ongoing adventure. The real adventure is seasoned with change, hard decisions and taking the leap of faith. What we learned in the past 10 years of our expat life is that you need to break away from what’s comfortable to really see what you’re capable of. 

So, are we finally dusting off our vagabond hands? No doubt that living in other countries, experiencing different culture first hand, tasting authentic food is very exciting, but we are also more excited for what’s in store for us. IT DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE NOT GOING TO TRAVEL ANYMORE. Traveling is in our veins and will always be our priority. Almost like an addiction that we have to feed all the time. As a matter of fact, we actually get to plan our travels even better since stability will be on our side. We are just putting a pause on our expat life, even it means giving up another dream. 

The most difficult part of this life is leaving and saying goodbye. No doubt, we will grieve about our expat life. But every time we leave, we also know that anything is possible and doable. We just move on, plain and simple. If we survived living abroad, why can’t we survive this? Living abroad definitely changed us; the lessons will forever remain and will continuously shape our lives. 

We also knew that someway, somehow that the end will come - we would find our way home. We know that life will evolve, the way it just does. One thing we know for sure that even though we are closing this chapter, we are going to continue to travel. Traveling will always remain to be our greatest love. After the romance of this expat life fades, at least another dream lives on. 

Categories: Asia, South Korea, North America, USA, Tennessee, Expat Life

I read an article that one of the hardest things a couple can experience in a marriage is change. Sometimes you can only relate if you really experienced it first-hand. As you all know, we have moved to different countries, changed jobs, lived in different houses, experienced a semi-long distance marriage and lived with my in-laws (not that its hard, mind you, they are the kindest and warmest people I've ever met) in a span of just 6 years. Very early in our married life, we experienced and continue to experience, one of the hardest challenge a couple can have that can put a toll on their marriage. Honestly, I do not know how we are able to do it. With our every move, there is a lesson learned, a story to tell and a new milestone reached. I am no expert on relationships, and I just want to share my two cents from what I learned over the years from our expat lifestyle: 

La-di-da-da, we've heard it how many times, right? But actually living out of our comfort zone is quite an adventure - sometimes hard, often fun! While everybody back home is living their daily grind -  9 to 5 jobs, dinner with friends, holidays celebrated with family, us on the other hand, is trying to figure out and struggling to ask locals of what we need, or researching where is the nearest grocery, and other basic necessities we need to run our daily lives. Basically, everything is like a maze and we always work our way out of little things. We eat new food that sometimes we don't know (or can't even read) what it is,  meet new interesting people and learn to get around new places with foreign signs. 

Living abroad is the best thing for our marriage, it brought us closer and stronger together. Living just the two of us, in a foreign country, with no friends and family, is not easy and you rely solely on each other. We do everything literally together - we love, admire, respect, hate, scream, argue all at the same time to each other with no one to share what we are going through. Relying on just each other, even on tough times makes us closer than ever. We know how to push each other's buttons but at the same time know how to hash it out. Being on each other's throat - makes us stronger and I would not have it any other way. Stronger + continuously improving, our marriage is always a work-in-progress, I like that! I feel like we have a deeper marriage bond because of this everything-but-normal-life we share.

You learn to get creative with things if your resources are not available. While living in Africa with our dogs, both of them needs monthly visit to the groomer, (specially I got used to this lady from North Carolina, which by the way is the best groomer they ever had), and being uprooted to this necessities that the dogs need pushed me to learn how to cut their hair. Thanks to YouTube, a couple of messed up cuts later; I actually learned how to groom them from head to tail. It's been 2 to 3 years that I have learned to groom my dogs well enough to not send them to the groomers anymore. Not to mention, it saved us thousands of dollars over the years and the years to come. I also learned to make our favorite food that we cannot buy or we don't have access to from scratch. Basically, a lot of Filipino food and desserts I learned to do from scratch and learned to find alternative ingredients if not available. My baking and cooking skills are honed by my expat lifestyle, which I am very thankful of because I learned a new fondness, and fell in love completely in baking and cooking.

Yes, true enough you can make memories anywhere but living and traveling abroad makes you see things in different perspectives. This is when we make the best and meaningful memories that beg to be told again and again. We immerse ourselves to different cultures, and see it with our fresh eyes. Living on the go, the moments are priceless. Nothing can replace the experiences we made traveling, if only I could freeze these moments, put it in the fridge, thaw it out when we're old and grey and in need of something to keep us warm again. 

For us, what's important is our marriage. We vowed to have a life together, one that we are really together. I believe that living together, physically being there together, is the only choice even if it means that I have to quit jobs, follow him across the globe with the dogs in tow and even if it means moving and uprooting the current life we got used to, again and again. Trust me, its hard, lonely at times, friends and family that you'll leave behind but all we can do is to face the reality of the current situation and move on. We are brave. 

True enough, that change, changed us. Even though we miss a normal/settled life, and the people we left behind. On the other hand, we are gaining experiences, both physically and emotionally about our lives, about us, and that we are conquering the world one step at a time. We would not have it any other way. And, so, here are the simple pleasures that can perhaps be missed with the changing, the moaning and the frustrating, like a pearl slipping off a string. Here is us, our new home, our little family, some of the best pearls. One pearl, two pearls, slipping off a strand - lessons are learned, stories are made, and that's truly our life's simple pleasures. 

Categories: Marriage and Wedding, Pets, Expat Life