A winter-kissed sunset at our very own backyard.
When we least expected it, a great adventure finds us. These past few years, we have spent exploring, having fun together, moving, living, adventuring, snuggling, worrying, planning, failing and succeeding. There' so much in store for us, as a family, and for our future together. This is just the beginning of another chapter that we can add in our so-called nomadic lifestyle. Moving here in South Korea is quite easy. Being expats, you'll get used to packing, unpacking, living in boxes for a few days, buying only the things you need to use that you know you can leave again. Luckily, the company provides for our needs, they give us a car, fully furnished house, basic necessities for the first week, kitchen and laundry appliances. We do not get attached on things, our current apartment, or anything we know that we can leave behind. BUT we do hold onto our memories and pictures - its more than enough. That is why it was really time for us to document our expat living so when we are gray and old, this will remind us of our adventures when we are young. With this move, we also brought Spud and Oreo with us. We flew from Washington, DC to Seoul (Incheon International Airport). It was a 13.5 hours direct flight for them and us, the dogs made it like champs - this was there 7th flight. Each and every time, we are worried on how are they going to survive the long or short flight. Each and every time, we are so happy to seem them, the delight that they are alive and the relief knowing that they survived the stress of the flight. Like all our other moves, pet requirements are always the same, and usually is easy, especially if your dogs are up-to-date with their vaccines. Since Korea is a rabies-free country, we had to do Rabies Titer Test, which we waited for 2-3 weeks before the flight. Flying the dogs is quite cheap, if you come to think of it, the value of being with your beloved pet/family. We love being with them, bringing them wherever we go, even though it makes things harder - for us, at least - it's worth it! On our second week here in Korea, we visited Suwon and saw Suwon Fortress. Here's a glimpse of South Korea, our new playground and our new home. The journey is NOW ours, let's enjoy every step.
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. When we heard the news that we are moving to Africa, we are quite nervous. We are always on-the-go and ready for adventures but are we really going to be ready for one of our biggest adventure yet? So moving to Africa, with my 2 dogs is NOT easy, I will not sugarcoat it. And yes, we packed our bags and we went to a long but "short journey" to Djibouti. We were brave.
Nothing can prepare anyone in moving to Africa. I immediately googled - living in Djibouti. Well, thank God, we are not the only ones and I found an American woman who was blogging about her life with their kids in Djibouti. Djibouti is an ex-French colony so theirs are a lot of French expats working there, French restaurants, French grocery, French products. The cost of living in Djibouti is very high because products needed to be imported from Europe, other parts of Africa or the Middle East. It's a joke in Djibouti that they loved their country so much that they named it twice - the capital of Djibouti is none other than Djibouti City. It is a very poor country, other third world nations are lucky that they have natural resources that they can produce their own food while Africa has barren lands. We felt bad for the people in Africa - they are not well educated, no potable water to drink in the rural areas of Djibouti and they are just living in poverty. Sometimes, we tend to forget that in some parts of the world, people are just less fortunate. It opened our eyes to realities of the situation in Africa. It was a "short" journey because we stayed there for less than a year. We decided, of course dogs included, to move back to the US. One of our weekend adventures was we drove to Tadjoura, where you can find one of the saltiest body of water in the planet, Lake Assal. It is even saltier than the Dead Sea. We were able to see animals in the wild, and yes, Djibouti has its own version of the Grand Canyon. |