Friends Abroad

TRIPPING WITH BRAD

Friends Abroad

Birthday party in Seoul May 2004 - with Stacy, Russel, Jae Hyuk, and Soon Young

The most difficult part of being overseas is maintaining friendships at home. Sometimes, it's hard to keep track of even the oldest and dearest friends when on the road for years at a time. I have been fortunate, however, to meet a lot of fantastic people while traveling and living abroad. Some people come into your life for just a short time and you are never the same. Others stay for a while and enrich your life for years. Here are just a few photos I've taken of some unforgetable people...

Dancing in Banpo dong, Fall 2005

Fall Party in Seoul with Russel and Niki

Jai Moon in Hanoi

^Jai Moon and I met in March 2001 in Seoul. We've been to Hanoi together, and traveled around Canada in the Summer of 2002, and through Thailand later that year. His family is always really great to me, and I stay with them when I am in Seoul. He operated a guesthouse in London in the Summer of 2003 and returned to Seoul in the Fall, where he works as a massage therapist.

At my birthday party in Seoul May 22, 2004

It's hard to pinpoint Niki at first. Born in Germany, he was educated in Russia, is ethnic Mongolian, and now studies in Seoul. He is a delight to have around. You never know what he will say next!

This is Jack from San Francisco. We met while I was on holiday from Seoul in Phuket. He was a load of laughs. I'll never forget his Missy Elliot impersonation (Sissy Elliot).

Seoul, Chongro, January 2003

This is me with some of my fellow British Council CELTA Grads: Mike. Russel, Richard, Elisabeth. We spent a tough four weeks together at the beginning of 2003. Here we are enjoying some well deserved Traditional Korean alcohol!

Ginger at Khajuraho

I met Ginger at the beach in Southern India in 2002. We traveled together for two months then met again in Seoul. It was her first time in Asia but she was a pretty cool cat about everything! I'm trying to talk her into moving to Seoul this Winter!

Kevin is one of many great friends I made in Pusan. He has lived and worked all over the World! He has been based in Busan, Budapest, Seoul, San Paulo, New York, San Francisco and San Diego. Click the photo to see his travel pictures and find out what he is up to now in his online journal.

I first knew Jason as a houseguest who would venture up to Seoul from small-town Korea where he lived in 1999. He was based in Seoul until his mysterious disappearance in mid-2002. He has recently been spotted in some of the seedier parts of the city.

Thanakon was a teacher of Thai to foreigners in Bangkok. He has the most Canadian sense of humour of any Thai I've met and I've enjoyed hanging out with him since meeting in 1999. He came to visit Seoul one Winter and enjoyed his first encounter with snow (above)! He now operates a handicraft import website out of Bristol.

I met Marten from Holland on the coast of Cambodia and we travelled together for most of our time there.

Keri and Tiffany helped make Pusan a really fun place to live and work. Keri now lives in Toronto and Tiffany travelled through South America before settling in San Francisco. I visited her there in September 2000 and she returned the gesture the next Spring by coming to Seoul. In Summer 2004, we hot-tubbed together at mom's house in Canada, and hung out in Toronto. She is teaching in California now.

This is American Peter at Mi Son in Vietnam. We met in Ho Chi Minh city and travelled up the Vietnamese coast together for a while.

Nadia is a real amazing and fun woman from Southern New Zealand. We met in Pusan, and she now lives in Tokyo.

Cynthia in Banpo-dong

^I met Cynthia in March, 2005 when she came to work with me at the University of California in Seoul. She's bright, fun and open-minded! Too bad she's such a spaz :)

At a traditional Country Diner in Seoul

^I don't know what I'd do without RJ! A Dutch Canadian from Alberta, he's been a loyal friend since I was an undergraduate. We've hung out in Montreal, Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul. Quirky and sarcastic, dependable and fun - he's great to have around.

Stacey at my place in Southern Seoul

^I met Stacy through my friend Richard, with whom I did my CELTA course at the British Council in Seoul. For an ex-nun, she's a real cool party girl, and good friend.

Jena and Diana in China

Jennifer, Diana and I lived in the same apartment complex in Seoul in 2001. Diana lives and works all over the world and Jennifer lives on the West Coast of Canada. They're two of the funnest women you could hang out with! Diana moved to Seoul again in February 2003, and again in 2004. We hung out in Phuket late in 2004, just a few days before the Tsnami hit! We may be co-workiers again in 2006!

Winter 2001. Some friends enjoying a party at my Seongsandong apartment. I loved that massive place...but so much vaccuuming!

Jimmy lives between Koh Lanta and Bangkok, parties hard and travels alot. I met him my first time on Koh Pha Ngan in January 1998, and we have been good friends ever since. I always look forward to hanging out with him when I am in Bankok. He's fun, friendly, and a fantastic cook and divemaster! We hung out on Koh Lanta for Christmas 2002, and in 2004, he rescued me from being swept away with my beach bungalow when the tidal waves hit on December 26th. Click the photo to check out his site.

The gang at Yellow House on Vagator Beach in Goa including Ginger, John, James, Ifra and Annibal. We all just met in Goa and shared lots of Feni, days on the beach and nights at the Ninebar.

I first met Steve in Bangkok in 1999. Jai Moon and I surprised him three years later in Lopburi, where he lives and works. He's a "social drinker" and a lot of fun to hang around with. Here we are in his Lopburi flat in December 2002.

Speranza and I were neighbours in Seoul in 1999 and she made life there alot of fun! I visited her in Calgary the next year. She's brilliant and loads of laughs! She's doing her MD in Alberta now.

I met Patrick and Maciej in the Middle East. Maciej is a Polish student I met on a Dahab to Cairo bus. We hung out together on the Southern Nile in May 2000. I met Patrick in Jerusalem then again by chance on the Southern Nile. In late 2002 we played a hilarious cat and mouse game across South-East Asia.

Jae Hyuk and I go back to 1996. He was my first friend in South Korea. We took alot of road trips through the South East and met again in Seoul a few years later. He got married in Seoul in December 2000.

This is Megan and Lucy from Melbourne, Australia in Quito, Ecuador. We had some wild times at El Centro del Mundo hostel while I was looking for a house and a job.

I met Seimin in Seoul just before he moved to Milano to go to school. He's really fun and bright. He has lived in Chicago and New York. Recently he moved to a flat just 5 minutes from my place in Seoul. Small world.

On holiday in the hills of Ottavalo with some teacher friends from Quito. I ran into Nancy (on my left in photo) four years later at a massage center in Bangkok and was happy to learn that she had become quite a World traveller herself! It's a small world indeed!

picnic in Pusan

Some friends in Pusan, including Tiffany, Lianne, Darren, Keri and Daniel. We hiked for some time to be rewarded with this fantastic picnic site overlooking the city.