This Man of Mine

I have to take a moment and give credit where credit is due. Because this man of mine does a whole lot more than I could ever ask or give him credit for. 

So in celebration of what he calls his 'funeral' of turning 30 (even though we all know he'll forever act like he's in his 20's) I am making this post an ode to the birthday boy. The man behind the blog who doesn't get the spotlight nearly enough. 

So here's to the the man who....

has awesome photos like this from when he was little. Seriously, anytime I'm having a bad day, this photo instantly makes me feel better. 

forever changed my mind about redheads. I mean come on, how can you not think that red headed little cowboy is adorable?!

is patient with me in working on my fears. He's actually holding my hand so I don't go back up!

edits and shoots all of our photos. That's right. Every photo on here that doesn't look like it was taken with a phone (I take full credit for those) was produced by him. I couldn't ask for a better blogging partner.

always knows just how to make me smile.

gets up early every.single.morning to make us breakfast so I can take my time getting ready for work.

lets kids dress him up and who made my heart melt when we were kindi teachers and he would make up stories and tell them everyday in class.

is a daredevil extraordinaire. And even though I have had to close up, clean up and take care of more wounds than I care to count, I can never say that life with him is boring.

So, to the man who is above and beyond what I ever could have hope for...

30 has never looked so good.

Why Passionfruit is the Bomb Dot Com (Plus 5 Membership Giveaways!)

I've been told by legitimate sources that the phrase in the title is still cool to say...so I'm sticking with it. Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, you've heard all about Passionfruit, the website that actually makes sponsoring fun. I started using Passionfruit back in November and I haven't looked back since. So what first drew me to start using it? Guys, I've tried the whole coding thing. It's not as fun as it looks.

Now I understand that $9 can seem like a lot. Especially when you're first starting out and it feels like all you do is shell out money for this and that to just get your blog up and running. But if you sign up now, you can get a whole year for just $50. That's only $4 a month. That's just a cup of coffee guys! Or, to be fair, in the States, that's actually two cups of coffee (dang you Korean coffee prices). Regardless, I am more than willing to skimp on my coffee intake in order to let someone else handle my nightmare coding problems for me.

But my favorite part?....

You're not alone.

It's not some faceless corporate company with hundreds of employees buzzing around a large office company. It's a family guy that is passionate about what he does and truly sincerely cares for the bloggers that support his company. When you email, text or call with a question; you don't get put on hold and have to listen to crappy instrumentals of the 80's greatest hits only to be connected to a different person than the last 10 times you've called or tried to contact. You don't get auto response emails from a computer, or only a F&Q section to figure out a glitch or question. You get a real live person, the same person that you've talked with before. And might I say, a speedy person at that.

Other awesome features:

• The marketplace, where you can find other awesome bloggers and hang out on their sidebar.
• Payment processing, weekly paychecks, delivered right to your Paypal account. There's nothing easier than that!
• Image hosting, no more fuss, no more muss over putting in ads yourself, keeping track of how long they should be up there, and swapping them out when their ad time is over. That frees up my time for more important things like writing and building relationships. 
• Easy HTML, we all know this is my favorite. 
• Automatic reminders, for all those forgetful people out there, myself included. They let you know when someone's ad is about to expire so you can go bug them about renewing, or when you own ad is about to expire.

And here's the best part. They're letting me give away FIVE one year memberships! Because we all know that free is always the best option. And here's the really cool part. If you're already signed up? They will reimburse you! What a deal, what a deal.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules

• You need to have the Passionfruit Widget installed on your blog by the 1st of September in order to be eligible, so if you haven't already, go upgrade now!
• If you are already a paid member and win, you get your money back!
• The giveaway will end at 12am on September 1st!
• Five winners will each receive one annual membership valued at $50.
• The winners will officially be announced on September 1st as well.

Good luck!

Treasures from Cambodia for Sale!

SOLD OUT

I can't tell you how excited I am for this! When I saw these elephant wallets for sale in a market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I just knew that I had to bring some back. I bought some for gifts, one for myself and I gave one away last week. If anyone searched my bag at the airport they probably thought I was crazy for having so many wallets tucked away in my bag. But then ask me if I care and you'll get a big fat nope.

Well here's the great news guys, if you entered the giveaway last week but didn't win, you can still get your hands on one! I have six of these bad boys to sell, in two different designs and you can buy them through my sponsor page. These wallets are well made from recycled concrete bags in Cambodia (how cool is that?!). So if you want your own souvenir from Cambodia, be sure to head over to my sponsor page and snag one up for yourself!

August Sponsor Giveaway!

Remember back in May how I said that anytime I traveled out of the country, I would bring back a gift for one lucky reader? It's been awhile huh? Well the day has finally come for another giveaway, and this time, not only have I brought back a little something something for you to win from our trip to Cambodia, but my lovely sponsors have also joined in the on the fun.

True Colours: 2 months of "London" ad space 

Chasing Happy: 2 months of "Cheerful Package" ad space

One and Twenty: $10 Target gift card 

Found Love, Now What: 2 Months of Chester Cathedral ad space

Manhattan Emily: Customizable Copper Bangle Bracelet

After We Tied the Knott: Ad Space

A Compass Rose: 1 Month of Featured ad space

Lost in Travels: Cambodian Wallet 

I found this wallet in a market in Phnom Penh and couldn't resist (I may or may not have picked one up for myself...and for souvenirs). It has a unique elephant design and is made from recycled concrete bags in Cambodia. How cool is that? Enter below for your chance to win this, along with gift cards, ad space and jewelry from my lovely sponsors!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules

1. Open internationally. 

2. Winner’s entry validity will be verified by me and if an entry proves to be invalid, you will be disqualified.

3. Giveaway ends on the  28^th of August at 12:00 AM EST. Winner will be contacted by email no later than the 30^th of August. Winner has 48 hours to respond, if the winner does not respond, a new winner will be picked.

4. Please note that Lost in Travels Blog is not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. I have represented each sponsor with the expectation they will fulfill their prize and in a timely manner. I will contact the sponsor regarding your prize(s).  I will make every effort to assist you in obtaining your prize. If there is an issue with a sponsor, please notify the blog you won a prize from within 30 days for assistance, after that we may be unable to assist you. 

A Little Word in Self Confidence

I am not the poster child for self confidence. It's something that I have struggled with since youth and something that led an eating disorder for a portion of high school and university. Thankfully I was able to turn my life around and start taking care of myself but self confidence is still something that I struggle with and constantly work to improve. 

For years, I spent way too much time trying to compare myself to others (heck, I still do this at times). I would spend my time wishing things were different or that I could change this or that about myself. I had this mental image that 'if only' this were different, then I would be happy with me. It didn't help that for a few years in university, my side job was dressing twig shaped models backstage for runway shows. When they would leave to go on stage all the dressers would go into a frenzy with 'Did you see her...' 'She has amazing...' 'I wish I had...' 

But recently my friend Dorette (aka the oh so talented and lovely photographer who took these pics for me) said something to me that really resonated. 'How can we compare ourselves to others when we were all built completely differently?' Ground breaking news, I know. But the more she discussed it, the more it sunk in. We come in all different shapes and sizes, with a whole slew of personality traits. 

Take my sister and I for example. She's 5'2", dark hair, olive skin, with the best J.Lo booty you've ever seen. She's quiet and reserved, a Betty Crocker in the kitchen, and a natural born mom. I'm 5'8", blonde hair, pale complexion, with literally a flat as a board behind. I'm loud (sometimes a little too loud) and outgoing, I work hard to make an edible meal and holding babies can make me genuinely nervous (anyone else scared that a freak accident is going to happen while you're holding someone else's baby?)

So how can I compare myself to her? No matter how much I try, no matter how many lunges I do, I will never have a behind like hers (believe me I've tried). And she can stretch every day for a year but never grow an inch. So why waste our time wishing and hoping for things that we simply cannot change about ourselves? Why not redirect that effort into bettering who we are, changing what we can, and appreciating what we love about ourselves?

I can honestly say that for the first time in a long time, I'm content with the way I look. That doesn't mean my ego is through the roof and it doesn't mean that I'm thrilled with every aspect of my body. It just means that I've accepted the fact that I, along with everyone else, have certain flaws and that's ok. It also means that I've realized that along with flaws, we all have beautiful features that we should be proud of and confident in. We spend so much time focused on what we don't like about ourselves and too little time embracing the wonderful and beautiful features that we all have. 

I could go on and on about this topic but I'll end with saying that today I'm teaming up with Katie for a photo shoot link up today. I was so excited when she reached out to me about this idea of doing a photo shoot of ourselves to celebrate the beauty in us all. I encourage you to do the same and show off your beautiful self! If you decide to participate, go over to Katie's blog and put the link in the comments!

Extra Reads:

Travel Babbles also has a great post on a similar subject that you should check out. 

Milk + Crown has a wonderful series where women share what they love about themselves. You can see my feature here.

So tell me, what does confidence mean to you? Or what makes you feel most beautiful? 

Six Things You Should Know About Me + A Giveaway!

I'm so glad that my friend Rachel decided to tag me in this! She's been one of my favorite bloggers for a long time now and I love reading about her time as an expat in Europe and especially about her transition back to the states. Because let's face it, as much as I want to live forever overseas, we will most likely end up back 'home' in Oklahoma and I know it won't be the easiest transition to make! Besides my love of Rachel's blog, I'm a sucker for anything that lets people know a little bit more about the blogger on the other side of the screen. So let's get this party started!1. What's the best piece of advice anyone has given you?Just keep swimming...just keep swimming. Ok, not really even though that is really good advice. I remember growing up, my mom would repeat the scripture to me 'do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of it's own'. Can you tell I was a worry wart growing up? I tried to control everything I could and when I couldn't, I would stress and worry about it. But I have to realize that there is only so much that I can do, only so much that I actually have control over. With the other things, I need to do what I can, and let the rest go! 
2. If you could meet any blogger in person, who would you choose?It's no lie that me and Laurie were meant to be neighbors. I met her months ago when I was just starting to rebrand my blog (aka actually take this thing seriously) and we hit it off right away and try to talk often. I keep trying to talk her into coming and visiting! But there's something about a stupid ocean separating us or some nonsense like that. 
Other than that, I also have my dream team that I would love to have an international blogger meet up with. Hey Rachel, Belinda, Bonnie, Melyssa, Crystal, Nicole, Casey, Katie, and Jenna...are you down?
3. What's your biggest struggle in life?Being too much of a planner. I'm always looking to what's next, the next step, the next destination, the next job. It's not always a bad thing but it goes along with the worrying I talked about above. I'm a planner through and through and I want to know what the next five steps are in advance. And it goes without saying that sometimes there's just no possible way of knowing or things can change last minute (especially here in Korea) and it can stress.me.out.  
4. Favorite piece of jewelry {other than your engagement/wedding ring} and why?I have two pieces of jewelry that mean the world to me. The first one is a pearl necklace that my grandma gave me when I was born. You are supposed to add another pearl each year but I liked the simplicity of just a few tiny pearls on there. 

The second one is my great great aunt's engagement ring. This is a woman that I looked up to and admired. She was the oldest of 13 children and spent her life caring for others and raising her siblings. She was brave enough to walk away from a dangerous marriage even at a time when it was highly looked down upon to do so. She then married a wealthy man because he promised to give her an education (one of the most important things to her) and she continued to work until very late in life editing and reviewing books. My favorite story is when she told me about her second marriage, how they never ummm....consummated it, how there was always another man with them when they went out to dinner, and the list goes on and on. In her upper 90's she sat in her chair, tilted her head and told us, 'ya know what...I think he was gay.' Even though this ring isn't from the best marriage, it reminds me of her and what a strong and hardworking woman she was. 
5. What's something you love about yourself?I really love my bright blue eye color. My whole family has dark features...and then there's me with my pale complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes. I used to hate it because I stood out and didn't look like the rest of my family. But over the years I have started to love my eye color for the fact that it's unique. My siblings actually used to tell me that I was adopted when I was little and I remember believing them and going up to my mom and telling her it was ok if I was adopted, and that she could tell me the truth. Thankfully I have my grandma's nose and my sister's laugh to seal my fate as a part of my family. 
6. Tell us something we don't know about you.Deep water makes me a little nervous. Weird coming from someone who loves to sail and is scuba certified. But something about not knowing what's around you...or beneath you, makes me nervous every time. 
Pick six to answer for yourself:1. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?2. If you had an endless supply of one food, what would you get?3. If you could hop on a plane right now, where would you go and why?4. What is your biggest pet peeve?5. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be? 6. What is your biggest fear?7. Would you rather be rich and stressed? Or poor and happy?8. If money and university major didn't matter, what job would you want?9. Why did you start blogging? Do you still do it for the same reasons?10. What makes you the happiest?
I'm tagging:KatieCrystalNicoleJamieKenzieJenna--------------------And as an added bonus today, I'm jumping on board with Crystal from The Happy Type and some very lovely ladies to bring you a truly Korean giveaway! I have to admit, Korea has some of the best beauty products I've ever tried, and they're super affordable too! And lucky you can win some of these amazing products to try for yourself!

It’s no secret that South Korea is any cosmetic and beauty product lover’s playground. For years South Korea has been one of the world’s leaders in beauty product production and most recently its innovative BB and CC creams have set the states a buzz. Birchbox calls South Korea “ground zero for beauty innovation”, so why not see what all the fuss is about? 

Lucky for you, you don’t have to get on a plane to Korea to take part in the Korean cosmetic boom! I have spent the better part of two years living, learning, and loving the country of Korea and in honor of my return home to America, my friends and I are giving little old you the opportunity to get your hot little hands on a whole slue of Korean cosmetics and beauty products.

 

Here are the lovely sponsors for this crazy awesome beauty product giveaway!

Kayli Wanders | The Gap Year Guru | Living In Another Language | The Style Dunce | Lost In Travels |Daisy Bisley | Inspiration Sparks |The Happy Type

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules:

1. The validity of the winner’s entries will be verified by me and if any entries are false a new winner will be selected.
2. Winner will be contacted no later than the 23rd. Winner will have 48 hours to respond, if winner does not respond with 48 hours a new winner will be notified by email.
3. Sit back and relax because I’ll package your pretty little package up and get it in the mail. Contest is only open to U.S. residents.

You Asked, I Answered Part III

People sent in questions from all around the world asking about our lives here in South Korea. So...you asked, I answered! Since I had so many awesome questions, and I would really like to answer them all, I have decided to split this up into a three part series, this being the second installment. For Part I click here or Part II click here. Let's get started!

photo courtesy of dots.i.am photography

Jenni from The Beautiful Little Fools asked
If you could go back in time to any time period what period would you choose and where in the world would you go to during that time period?
I would love to be in Chicago during the 1920's. As a fashion major, this is my favorite time period and I also think that with all the historical events that take place during that time, it would be so interesting to observe first hand. And besides, who wouldn't want to go do the charleston at a speakeasy?

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Kate from Another Clean Slate asked:
What do your family and friends think of your blog?
Hmmm, I'm scared to ask! Actually, as much as my husband sometimes hates me being on the computer so much writing, he's been my number one fan. Brainstorming to help me collaborate pieces and series, proofreading, photo taking and majority of the editing. As much as I'm the face of the blog, I truly feel like it's a joint effort. All of my friends and family know that I write and they comment from time to time, but it doesn't come up in discussion all that often (which I'm partially thankful for! Anyone else feel awkward when people bring up your blog?!) 

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Jess from A Stamp in My Passport asked:
What is your least favorite part of living abroad? 
The staring. I feel fortunate enough that we live in a city with a large amount of foreigners here so it doesn't happen as much as other parts of the country. But there are still plenty of times when foreign women are stared at solely based on the fact that we're foreign. (I even had a three year old look at me and start crying because I was the first foreigner she'd seen! Talk about a rough first day at a new job!) It's not so much the children staring because we look different, it's the parents that join in as it's not seen as a rude social aspect like it is in the states. And don't get me started on the drunk guys that litter the streets at night. I got less cat calls when I lived near a bar area in Chicago than I do here. The worst experience was when an older man walked into my classroom before it started and had his buddy take a picture of the two of us. This sadly isn't that uncommon so I reluctantly obliged. He took it too far when he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me close to him. I have never felt so objectified by a person just because of the way I look. This definitely does not speak about Korea as a whole, it's just a frustrating experience that I, and many foreign women I know, have had. 

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Bailie from The Hemborg Wife asked:
Do you ever get confused when where you mean when you are talking about home?" 
YES YES YES! I many times have to stop myself after I say the word 'home' to clarify where I am talking about. This is especially true when we visit the states. When we leave Korea, we tell people we're going home. When we go back to Korea, we tell family and friends we are going back home. In our minds we have two homes, plain and simple. One that we currently live in, and one that we will one day return to.

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Laura from Inspiration Sparks asked:
What's your favorite part about living/exploring South Korea? I really wanna visit Seoul soon!!!!! 
The landscape is truly breathtaking. Where we live, the island is filled with mountains, all with seaside views from the top. I never grew up by water or mountains so just having the view of mountains plus several beaches within a short drive away is so much fun in the summer!
If you're visiting Seoul a few things that are must see's are: Namsan Tower, Meyongdong (for shopping), Bongeunsa Temple and Insadong traditional market. But honestly, whatever you do in Seoul you will love! It's such a great city to visit!

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And when you say "spend your lives traveling the world" does that mean you're not wanting to come back to the states? 
We're not planning on coming back anytime soon! When we first came over to Korea, the plan was to stay a year, two tops. Each year we're here, we extend is another year! We have just realized that we love the expat life. Sure, there are times when it's more difficult but all the positives that we have experienced with traveling, lifestyle and our own relationship have made it well worth it! With all that said, we do plan on moving back eventually, most likely in a few more years, we just haven't made any concrete plans to yet. 

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Aukele from 91dash asked:
What is one thing you miss about the USA or your home (no family answers!)
I've said it before and I'll say it again...TARGET! I think that would be the most popular answer for the majority of expats actually. I miss being able to walk into one store and find clothes, groceries and house goods. That's practically impossible here. 

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Bonnie from A Compass Rose asked:
Who are bloggers that inspire you and help you to dream bigger? 
Great question! Some blogs that I love reading and turn to for inspiration and a great model on how to run a blog are Elsie & Emma from A Beautiful Mess, Jenni from Story of My Life and Megan from Across the Pond.

Thank you so much for everyone who sent in a question! I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed answering them!

You Asked, I Answered Part II

People sent in questions from all around the world asking about our lives here in South Korea. So...you asked, I answered! Since I had so many awesome questions, and I would really like to answer them all, I have decided to split this up into a three part series, this being the second installment. For Part I click here. Let's get started!

photo courtesy of dots.i.am photography

Chantal from Scattered Seashells asked:
What was the scariest moment you've had while traveling? 
Oh goodness, I'm so glad you asked because I'm not sure I've ever told this story before. We were in Thailand at a night market. By the time we left, most of the cabs and tuk tuks had been taken and it was a good several mile walk back to where we were staying. Well, in Thailand, you have the option of renting a motorbike much like a cab. There is a driver, and you just hop on the back. This looked like a safe option...that is until we started driving. It was the driver, then my husband, then myself, all holding on for dear life as the the driver zig zagged through traffic, coming close enough to oncoming cars for me to stick my hand out and touch them. At one point my husband leaned forward and asked the driver if he could hold on to him. Needless to say, we were more than happy to get off of the death machine and we won't be doing that again!

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Casey from We Took the Road Less Traveled asked:
When can I come to Korea to visit? ;)
Anytime! We've got a spare blow up mattress and I'll make sure our fridge is fully stocked with kimchi ; )
Also, what are 5 things you miss from America that you can't get living in Korea? 
Over the years we actually (thankfully!) miss less and less from back home. But there are still a few that will never go away! Like oatmeal! Ok, we can get it but for $15 a carton! Every time my parents send a package, they make sure to pad it with packs of oatmeal for us. Next up is Mexican food, nothing compares to back in the states. Actually many times my parents will send us chips from our favorite Mexican spot back home. Needless to say, they don't last long in our house. Other things we miss include being able to find our sizes in any store we go into, cheap diner breakfast food (common breakfast here includes seaweed soup, kimchi and rice...it's just not the same), and TARGET! Or really any store that you can go for every.single.thing you could ever want including great clothes and housing supplies. I feel like I have to go to several different stores to find everything I need on my grocery list and clothes and housing items are more expensive than what you can find back in the states. 
There's probably so many things I'm forgetting to add to this list!

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Sam from The Married Couple asked: 
What is your favorite vacation you've been on, and what is your favorite activity, or thing you've visited on a vacation? 
Ooh that's a hard one. We've seen some pretty incredible stuff while traveling and it's hard to narrow it down to just one! I'd say our favorite destination so far has been Thailand. There's just so much to do and see and the country is beyond beautiful! Second up would be New Zealand for pretty much the same reasons. Our favorite activity was hands down, snorkeling with whale sharks this summer! It's been on my bucket list ever since moving to Korea and it was beyond explanation how amazing of an experience it was!

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Courtney from A Golden State of Mind asked:
Hi, I love you blog it is so well established and polished. I am new to the blogging scene and I just started my blog a few weeks ago, I am wondering if you have any personal experience tips on how you got such a huge following and what really helped your blog "take off" in the beginning?
It seems like it is really difficult to get much exposure even with social media links, ect. I only have 2 Bloglovin followers and 1 of them is myself .
Thank you so much! I mentioned in my last post about connection, content and presentation. But in the very beginning I did a lot of footwork to go around, find blogs I liked and focused on growing relationships. I asked a lot of questions to blogs I admired (some answered, some didn't), and I approached blogs my size to do ad swaps and swap guest posts. I would encourage all blogs starting out to do this along with focus on your blog brand. Kenzie from Chasing Happy has a great series all about this!

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Kailagh from Love Always, Freckles asked:
My wonderful question for you is.... What is your dream job, and where is your dream location to do it in?
I studied fashion marketing in university and would love to use my major again someday. I chose my degree because I wanted to work with a company that gave back, and that used fashion to do so. My dream job would be for a company like Warby Parker, 31 Bits, or Apolis. These are all great humanitarian-focused company that are extremely sustainable in their business plans. Instead of just giving things away for free and leaving, which can sometimes create dependency, they work in the communities they are helping to provide knowledge and jobs in order to create a brighter future. 

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Emily from Inhabit Your Moments asked:
How long were you and the hubby married before deciding you wanted to travel? 
We made the decision to move to Korea just a few months before getting married. So the timeline was September-I graduated from university in Chicago and moved to Oklahoma. October-got married. February-moved to Korea! It was all pretty quick but I wouldn't have had it any other way!


Thanks so much for sending in all of your questions! I love answering them all! You have made me realize what things I have neglected to answer in some of my posts so thank you! I have more coming up next Wednesday!

Also, click here for your chance to win a FREE ONA camera bag, camera strap and Starbucks gift card!

Linking up with Rolled Up Pretty and Shanna

You Asked, I Answered Part I

People sent in questions from all around the world asking about our lives here in South Korea. So...you asked, I answered! Since I had so many awesome questions, and I would really like to answer them all, I have decided to split this up into a three part series. Let's get started!

photo courtesy of dots.i.am photography

Debbie from Bohemian Dreams asked: 
I'm really curious as of how you got to the idea of start travelling together and how you finance that. I'd love to take my man with me but it's impossible money wise with his own company. 
It all started with a text message. We were long distance for the majority of our dating days and when the wedding date was approaching I randomly text him saying that I wanted to travel as much as possible before settling down. He text me back saying he already had a job possibility in mind. My husband's old college roommate actually found us our first job in Korea and we've been here ever since! Someday we'll return to the states and settle down but for now, we wanted to travel as much as possible and experience as much of the world as we can.

As far as financing goes, I covered a lot of it in this post. But the gist of it is that we're really blessed with great jobs that pay well and we live in an area that centrally located and is affordable to travel to nearby countries. Other than that though, we budget for everything. Without a fairly strict budget and priorities on what we want, we wouldn't be able to travel nearly as much as we do now. Sure it'd be great to have the latest phones and go out to eat every night, but we prioritize what's most important to us and budget accordingly.

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Kayli from Kayli Wanders asked:
What's the best blogging tool you've found thus far?! I know connecting with other people in blogland is super important, but you seem to have it down to a tee- totally adoring your site...and your adventures! 
You're too sweet! I'm glad it looks like I have it all figured out but I'm still learning new things on a day-to-day basis! In my opinion, the most important things in blogging are connection, content and presentation. 
Once I started getting connected in the blogging community (participating in link parties, commenting on other blogs and advertising or swapping with others) I noticed a huge difference. Not only did I enjoy it more with my new friendships, but my readership also grew. 
But no matter how much you connect, if your content isn't up to par, it won't matter. Figure out what you want to write about and stick to that. There are blogs that write about anything and that works great for them, but as for me, I have a list of things that I will blog about and if it doesn't fit into any of my categories, I won't post it. I want my readers to know exactly what they can find when they come to my page. 
And the last is presentation, make it look good! Spend time creating a great and functional layout, design and high quality photos to keep people coming back!

In your travels, what areas do you and your husband splurge on and which areas do you tend to keep lowkey?
My husband and I are self declared 'budget travelers'. We figure that if we budget everything out, we can do more, see more, and go more often! With that being said, we often times don't spend that much on hotels or food. We figure that we're not going to be in our hotel room much anyway so we'd rather spend our money elsewhere. Our typical budget for a hotel (breakfast included) is 50 dollars USD or less. Traveling around South East Asia, we could definitely spend less (but we could also spend way more) but we've found that around this price we can still find great quality, locally owned, boutique hotels. Also, with food, we typically stick to local spots, street food or other cheaper places suggested by the place where we're staying. We've found that the cheaper, more local spots have the best food anyway! 

What we do splurge on is points of interest. We want to make the most out of our vacation and experience as much as we can. So, elephant parks? Yes. Deep water solo rock climbing? Why not? Swimming with whale sharks? Do you even have to ask?

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Crystal from The Happy Type asked:
What's your comfort food in Korea? And I don't mean a western spin, what Korean dish makes everything ALL better?
Oh goodness, when we first came to Korea, I couldn't stand the food! Everything had spice and everything had a dang half-cooked egg on top (which has now become my favorite part of the dish). But that quickly changed when I had two dishes: 1. 참치 김밥 (tuna gimbap) and 2. 김치 볶음밥 ((kimchi bokkeumbap) or kimchi fried rice. If you can, order these at your local Korean restaurant!

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Caroline from Perpetually Caroline asked:
What are 3 places that you haven't been to, and would like to visit? Do they match up with your husband's to visit list, also? 
Thankfully my husband and I's wish list is fairly similar. As of right now our top three are South Africa (we're hoping to go this winter!), Nepal and Norway. We're hoping to see all these places before we return to the States!

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Setarra from Quaintrelle asked:
How do you watch American movies in the theaters abroad? In a different language with subtitles or voiceovers? I've always been curious about that experience haha! 
That's a great question! We're really lucky because quite a few American movies come to theaters in Korea, even though they're mostly action/adventure. For adult movies, they are all in English with Korean subtitles. But any kids movie or animation is dubbed over in Korean since most of the movie goers wouldn't be able to read the subtitles.

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Helene from Helene in Between asked:

What's your favorite movie?!  

This is an easy one! Definitely Easy A. It was one of the first movies I had watched with Emma Stone and I fell in love with her characters dry sense of humor. 

Thanks so much for sending in all of your questions! I really truly enjoyed answering them all! I have more coming up next Wednesday!

Linking up with Rolled Up Pretty and Shanna