Tag Archives | expat

Love at first sight in Chicago’s O’hare

In this installment of our 7 questions with couple travelers we are featuring our friends Chelsea and Jeremy of Lost in Travels.  These two newlyweds, packed up everything they owned and headed half way around the world to South Korea to teach English.  Since then, they have had some crazy adventures!  They run one of the better expat blogs for couples.  They post great insights about the ins and outs of being an expat couple.   Be sure to check out their blog for some incredible couple travel ideas.

Blog: Lost in Travels

Twitter:  @lost_in_travels

Facebook: Lost in Travels

Pinterest: Chelsea

 

Jeremy and Chelsea of Lost in Travels

Jeremy and Chelsea of Lost in Travels

1000 Fights:  First off, tell us how you two met?

My husband and I have a little bit of a different story. Long story short, I saw him through friends in common on Facebook and added him on a whim. After two months of talking, he got up the nerve to fly to Chicago from Tulsa where he was living and visit me for the first time. So the first time we actually met was in the domestic terminal of the O’hare airport! If you want more of the ooey gooey details you can read the whole story here.  

 

1) Chelsea-A fashion marketing degree?  Give us some travel fashion hints.  How do you avoid looking like a tourist?

Honestly, there’s no big secret here! I try to keep it pretty simple when I’m packing and try to think of colors that blend well together so I can get the most out of what I pack (since we mostly try to pack in carry-ons). I also keep in mind that I want our travel photos to not look outdated in a year or two. Which means that I mostly wear solids when we travel and pack scarves and jewelry to mix up each outfit and add some more color to it!

 

Lost in Travels

Lost in Travels

2) If you had to travel with someone else besides your travel partner, who would it be?  (this person can be living, historical or mythical?.)

He Said: Scuba diving has been a recent love of mine and I would love to experience it with one of the best explorers of all time, Jacques Cousteau.

She Said: I would have to say one of my best friends here in Korea. She’s the type of person that no matter what frustrating situation we’re in, how lost we may be (which is one of my biggest pet peeves!) she can always make me crack a smile and realize that it’s not the end of the world. I think that a positive trait of any couple travel partner is one that can keep you calm! Thankfully my husband falls into this category also!

 

3) Waterfall rappelling!?  Tell us about it!  Where you guys totally freaked out?

 He said: No! Not at all, it was a lot of fun. I have done a lot of climbing/rappelling before in my past so it was just adding the excitement of water to the mix.

 She said: Ha I’m not nearly as adventurous as my husband so I would have to say I was a little nervous. Especially when I was about to go down and our guide grabbed me to retie my knot since it was tied incorrectly. Comforting huh?! But I would say for the most part it was a blast and we both love trying new things outside of our comfort zone.

 1000Fights: Do you LOVE couple travel?  Want to be featured in our 7 questions?  Just get in touch with us (here).

 4)  If you had to eat one last meal, what/ where would you eat?

 He said: Indian curry! Since moving to Korea we have actually found a true love for Indian food and can’t get enough!

She said: I’d have to agree! I had never tried Indian food before and was shocked that it was Korea of all places that made us fall in love with it.

 

5)  What is the great challenge as a couple and individual living abroad?

 He said: Having too much time together. When moving abroad, your spouse is the only person you know, you often times work at the same place (at least we did our first year) then you come home and spend all night together. It has turned out to be a blessing but something that we definitely were not used to and had to adjust to.

She said: I would say not having our usual support system. Like Jeremy said, this too worked out for the better in the long run. But moving to a different country, you learn to fully rely on your partner for everything since let’s face it, for awhile there, you’re each other’s only friends. But I think the more time spent together and having to rely on each other more made us grow together instead of apart. It’s just that initial adjustment phase that can be trying!

Chelsea and Jeremy of Lost in Travel

Chelsea and Jeremy of Lost in Travels

6) If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?

He said: Hygiene. The lack of it causes so many different diseases worldwide and if that problem were tackled, there would be far less deaths due to unhygienic scenarios.

She said: Clean water. It’s something that living in a first world country we take for granted but several different problems such as disease arise from just this one issue. So many deaths can be avoided if just this one problem was solved.

 

7)You knew it was coming….What has been your greatest travel fight/disagreement?

She said: My favorite happened while on our honeymoon in Fiji. We decided to take a hobie cat and sail to a nearby island about a mile away. I had warned my new husband that it may be the wrong time to do this since the wind was dying down; but we went anyway and made it there in no time. Well when we were heading back, the wind died. I’m not just saying, it died down, I mean, there was zip zero zilch wind coming our way. We were stuck about half a mile from either island, in the blazing heat of the sun and for some reason we made the wise decision not to put on sunscreen that day. Being stuck, with no sun screen, and no way back does not make for a fun day of sailing. Of course at the time it wasn’t funny but it didn’t take long for us to laugh about it later.

He said: I honestly don’t remember our travel fights that well, I guess I try to block it from my memory. But ask my wife, she can give you full accounts on them : )

1000Fights:  Thanks you two for taking the time to introduce yourselves to us.  Give these couple travel experts a follow!

7 Questions With the Cruising Couple

Every so often we highlight another traveling couple.  We pick their brain for travel ideas, challenges and their best fights!  We want to introduce you to our friends Dan and Casey of acruisingcouple.com.

First off, here is how to get on the “boat” to follow the Cruising Couple:

Blog:  ACruisingCouple.com

Facebook: CruisingCouple

twitter: Dan and Casey

Couple travel1) How many countries visited between the two of you?

We were both really lucky to have a lot of independent travel experiences before we tied the knot. I think the total count is somewhere around 22 countries on six continents (we’re still working on Antarctica) although we only visited about half of those together. We have a lot of travel plans lined up for the end of 2013 and beyond, so we’re excited to be adding to that tally soon! If you are following our blog, you’ll probably notice some dramatic changes in the fall!

 

2) If you had to travel with someone else besides your travel partner, who would it be?  (this person can be living, historical or mythical?.)

He said: Dumbledore. I mean, do I even need to explain this one? He can teleport in flashes of fire, eliminating any need for public transport. He is an epic dueler, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting mugged. He can create objects out of thin air, so no need to sleep on the floor in an airport. Plus, a man who represents love and tolerance would probably have some pretty good insights on world travel.

She said: Nellie Bly. Not only did she travel around the world faster than anyone else before, she did it all as a solo-female traveler. When everyone else was telling her she couldn’t do it, Nellie Bly wasted no time in showing them wrong, And then she wrote about it in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days. She’s an inspiration to women, to world travelers, to writers, to anyone going against the status quo.  I can only imagine she’d be a pretty badass travel companion.

 

Couple Scuba3)You guys lived for sometime in Taiwan.  What was the best and worst part of being expats?

He said: One of the best parts about living in Taiwan is that everything is easily accessible and convenient. It’s a country the size of our home state, North Carolina, which means going from one side of the island to the other can easily be done in a day. There’s also the High Speed Rail, which makes travel even faster. We love how every weekend we can get out, explore, and see something entirely new, while still making it to work Monday mornings. The hardest part about being an expat is the communication barrier. It can be quite frustrating when we can’t understand what’s going on or express ourselves the way we would like to. We manage, but after nearly two years of living here our Chinese should definitely be a lot better. Of course, I have only myself to blame, and Taiwanese are extremely accommodating when it comes to speaking English.

She said: They say it’s the people that make a place, and when it comes to Taiwan, I totally agree. Taiwanese are extremely hospitable, friendly, and generous. The locals really want you to feel comfortable in their home country, and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. For example, when you ask for directions, it’s not uncommon for strangers to hop on their scooters and drive you wherever you need to go. During a recent cycling trip, we popped a bike tire in the middle of nowhere. It took twenty people to help us get the predicament sorted out, but every Taiwanese person who saw us made it their personal mission to fix the situation. It really is amazing how genuinely generous people in Taiwan are.  Of course, not everything is a walk in the park. Taiwan isn’t really a country that specializes in cheese and wine, two of my favorite food groups. You can find them, but you’re going to have to pay a small fortune for the good stuff. I try to just tell myself it’s contributing to my diet plan…

 

couple picture4)  If you had to eat one last meal, what/ where would you eat?

He said: Maybe this is a cop out answer, but I’m going to say anything Casey made for dinner. She’s an amazing cook, even with our limited resources in Taiwan. As for where, anywhere with family and friends would be perfect.

 1000Fights: That is a cop out!  But we love it!

She said: Given my lamentations about the lack of cheese and wine in Taiwan, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. I would definitely want my last meal to be an Italian feast in Tuscany. Last time I was in Italy I literally gained twenty pounds. I just cannot control myself when it comes to pasta and wine and coffee and gelato and risotto. Gosh I think I’m starting to drool just thinking about it.

 

5) Holy cow! You guys had quite the honeymoon! Do tell!

Our honeymoon is where A Cruising Couple had its humble beginning. We knew we would be moving abroad right after we were married, so we didn’t really need all the traditional ‘stuff’ most newlyweds receive. We also didn’t want to just go to an exotic location for a couple days and that be the end of it.

Instead, we spent 8 weeks traveling across America in our Volvo station wagon, totaling around 9000 miles through 25 states. Our wedding registry included hotels, restaurants, gas cards, and ‘experiences’ to make our honeymoon possible. It was an incredible trip and start to our married life, as well as an amazing way to involve our family and friends in our cross-country adventure. We were fortunate enough to do things like hot air balloon riding in New Mexico, wine tasting in Napa Valley, and hiking in the Grand Canyon, just to name a few. Our honeymoon road trip was also the reason why we started A Cruising Couple, and realized people were actually interested in following along with our travel adventures. Two years later we’re still learning new things about travel blogging everyday, but loving it more and more!

 

traveling couple6) If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?

He said: Lack of Universal clean water is a drastically under reported issue. With human impacts becoming more and more detrimental to our environment, the hunt for clean drinking water will become increasingly difficult. Poor and rural areas are going to feel the greatest effects but there are already some nifty and optimistic sustainable solutions popping up at science fairs around the globe.

She said: Human trafficking. In light of celebrities taking a stance against trafficking as well as Hollywood productions bringing the issue to light, I think most people have much more awareness about the issue today. However, it still blows my mind that human trafficking is the third largest international organized crime; that people are bought and sold, held against their will, and forced to do unperceivable things everyday. Definitely a complex problem worth solving.

 

kissing couple7)You knew it was coming….What has been your greatest travel fight/disagreement?

She said: When we first arrived in Taiwan, for some inconceivable reason, Dan thought it was okay to drink water from the sink. We were both pretty experienced world travelers at this point, so I’ll never understand why Dan thought it would be a good idea to drink tap water. We argued about it for a while, until I finally gave in to Dan’s argument. Well, August in Taiwan is ridiculously hot, which meant we were downing that water left and right. I think we probably went through a couple liters before we read somewhere that, of course, you can’t drink unfiltered tap water.  That led to a whole different argument about whether we were going to be spending the rest of the night over a toilet or not. In the end, we decided to just get some rest at our hotel. 16 hours later we woke up, perfectly fine, and a little bit less cranky.

He said: We’re pretty lucky that we get along so well, and most of the time we’re able to talk through disagreements without them leading to fights. Or I just give in to Casey so I don’t have to worry about it ;-p I do like to give Casey a hard time for that popped bicycle tire she mentioned earlier. We were riding along that day, and I specifically told Casey to look out for some broken glass on the road up ahead. She claims she avoided it, but I swear I looked back and saw her run right over it, only to have a popped tire later that day. We’ll probably contest that until the day we die.

1000Fights:  a huge thanks to Dan and Casey for their candor!  What a fun couple!