Coffee Helps

• If you only know one phrase in English... 1 week ago “Eeeepuh,” says the taxi driver hesitantly, making eye contact with me in the rear view mirror. “Uhhh…. eeeepuh…” I look uncertainly at him. My conversations with taxi drivers here have been entertaining, confusing, embarrassing, and (mostly) very trying. The...
• 1000 stories later. 2 weeks ago Starting this blog, back in May 2007, turned out to be an unexpectedly life-changing decision. Not only did it give me the chance to do the thing that I love, but it opened up a whole new world for me. Through Coffee Helps, I began to meet people who were to change the direction of [...]
• A letter to my mother. 3 weeks ago Dear Mum, Sometimes – well, a lot of the time – I feel sort of guilty that you got me as a daughter. I hardly ever call, I’m not someone who often sends cards and presents, I’m not very thoughtful. I’m scatterbrained and forgetful. I never remember to ask about the...
• Oh, the humiliation. 3 weeks ago To avoid the embarrassing and frankly quite disgusting details in the information needed to set the scene for this tale, I will just say this: I made kimchi bokkeumbap the other night using some questionable rice left over from several days earlier, and I have been paying the unfortunate price ever...
• All my bafflement at Korea, summed up in one short anecdote. 4 weeks ago This, right here, is really all I need to say to explain to you the general state of bewilderment I’ve been living in since I moved here in 2009. So, I go into a shop for a bottle of water. I have been walking briskly around for over an hour (having gotten completely, hopelessly lost [...]

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