Evan and Rachel: Travelers. Expats. Lovers.

Yangsan Time Lapse

Evan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:28:09 +0000

I made a time lapse video from our balcony in Yangsan a few weeks ago. I like it, but I thought we could do better. So, I made another time lapse video! This one was shot from half way up Mt Obong behind our apartment. Check it out! This is our lovely city.

An Autumn Walk in Beomun

Evan — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:57:57 +0000

This is a more artsy video composed of a series of still images taken as we walked through Beomun-dong in northern Seoul in the first week of November. It was gorgeous.

Shot with an E-PL2 and a 14-42mm lens. Sequenced in Sony Vegas. Colors and diffusion played with in After Effects. Music made by Evan in Studio One, based on the melody to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Autumn movement.

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Korean Food Adventures, Episode 1: Sam Gyeop Han Bon

Rachel — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 06:19:59 +0000

Have you ever ordered something from a menu without knowing what it is? It happens a lot when you’re traveling or living in another country. It’s one of those things you just have to accept about being an expat! Sometimes, even if you think you know what you’re ordering, when the food comes out it will be completely different. When we were traveling in Malaysia, we had a hard time getting both of us fed! We would somehow confuse the servers, and end up getting only one meal and one drink. We couldn’t figure it out! haha!

In Korea, it happens less often because we both read Hangeul very well and are familiar with most Korean food. We were craving samgyeopsal, so we went into this cozy looking bbq restaurant in the “New Town” area of Yangsan. And SURPRISE! We didn’t recognize anything on the menu, except “Sam Gyeop” 삼겹, which means 3-layered meat. I looked around at what people were eating, and it seemed everyone was eating Sam Gyeop Sal, the delicious pork belly that’s so popular here, along with something else I didn’t recognize.

At many Korean restaurants, the menus are displayed on the wall rather than in paper form for each table. Honestly I just ordered the first thing on the menu because it had “Sam Gyeop” in it, and hoped for the best! It ended up being “Sam Gyep Han Bon”, which we later found out means “one big plate of pork belly” !! AWESOME!!
I also ordered one of my favorite Korean dishes, Doenjang jjigae 된장 찌개, or soy bean paste/vegetable stew.

So this is the first episode in our new series, Korean Food Adventures! Because we love Korean food so much, and so many of our best moments here are those centered around food experiences, this year we want to share more of those moments with you! Enjoy the video, and leave your thoughts! ^^

Our first neighborhood walk in Yangsan

Rachel — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:36:13 +0000

Me and Evan like to take walks. I’m always surprised at how much a walk can uplift you and change your mood. Some of my fondest memories of last year were walking around our old neighborhood with Evan. We knew that neighborhood inside and out, and our friends definitely noticed! haha. When I was asked finally how I knew the area so well, I told our friend that we like to take walks around, find small alleyways and get lost. Usually that’s when we found the best spots to eat, drink, or sit! Basically, we enjoy really getting to know our little niche of each city we live in. It makes us feel more at home.

Our neighborhood is on Mt. Obong, which means “five peaks”. Our apartment is just below the entrance of hiking trails to the mountain, so we see a lot of eager hikers (koreans love hiking!) walking around. So as you might have guessed, we do a lot of climbing really steep hills and tons of stairs just to get to convenience stores! We will definitely be in great shape by the end of the year!

So yesterday, we set out to do our first walk around our new neighborhood in Yangsan! It had been raining on Friday and Saturday so we were excited to get out of the apartment and do some exploring! We decided to make it a photo walk so we can share it with you guys!

Just a little ways down from our apartment building, starting the walk!

I love living in the mountains! These landscapes make a simple side street more interesting and beautiful!

At first we thought it was a new business, but then we figured out it was a florist who makes those huge bouquets for new businesses!

There are tons of gardens in our neighborhood, does it say “No Trespassing”?

Climbing higher and higher, you can see more of the city!

We climbed up to the hiking trails and found this place, Soyo House. It’s a cafe and a guesthouse!

It was a beautiful little cafe with a terrace overlooking the city!

Evan’s view from the cafe

My view from the cafe

On the walk home, there were several piles of furniture on the side of the road. We scavenged this little table for our new apartment! I was so excited! ^^

Hope you guys enjoyed our photo walk! We will be trying to blog more this year so leave a comment to give us some feedback! Thanks!

Sunrise to Sunset in Yangsan : Time Lapse

Evan — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:05:08 +0000

This is a time lapse of the sunrise to the sunset over Yangsan, South Korea as seen from our back balcony. This is our new back yard! It is AWESOME.

I filmed two sunset to sunrise time lapse videos. The first was a test shot to get position down, and the second is the one you see here. It’s still not perfect, but it’s decent. The video covers from about 6:00AM to about 7:00PM, with a few hours of boringness cut out around 2-4PM. 1 picture every 6 seconds or so.

The music was composed and played by me about thirty minutes before uploading.

As always, thanks for watching our stuff and giving Evan an excuse to do more time lapse videos. He loves them!

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Why I Kiva

Evan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:14:06 +0000

We made our first loan with Kiva on September 11 to a woman in Palestine named Mervat Ziedat. We are big believers that microfinance works and are excited to be a part of this!

If you Kiva, leave a comment and make a video like this one about why you Kiva!

LONELY PLANET CONTEST!

Evan — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:03:56 +0000

We were selected as finalists in Lonely Planet’s Youtube Video Contest! We submitted our “Eating Live Octopus” video, and apparently they liked it enough to move us on to the final round and give us some awesome prizes!

We are up against 4 other people. GO VOTE FOR US!! To vote, go to the Lonely Planet Youtube page, Click on VOTE at the top, and then find our EATING LIVE OCTOPUS video! Click the big green THUMBS UP! You can do this once per day till the 25th! PLEASE pass this around – if we win, we get 10,000$ dollars!

VOTE FOR US HERE: http://www.youtube.com/lonelyplanet
Click on the big “VOTE” button, then click on our video – ‘Eating Live Octopus’ Then, click the big green THUMBS UP! Vote everyday and PLEASE send this to your friends!!!

Kopi Luwak : Poop Coffee!

Evan — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:03:27 +0000

We tried some Kopi Luwak, which is coffee made from beans that have been eaten and pooped out by a palm civet in Indonesia. Poop Coffee! Apparently this Kopi Luwak stuff is the most expensive coffee in the world. Crazy! It tasted really good, and had a sort of flowery aftertaste. Delicious! We actually never tried any Kopi Luwak while we were in Indonesia, but we got some from one of Rachel’s students a while ago, so we were able to try it finally.

Here’s a video of the whole Kopi Luwak experience:

Awesome! Try some Kopi Luwak if you get a chance!

Earthquake!

Evan — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:31:56 +0000

There was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on the East coast of the United States today! We felt it here in North Carolina. Apparently it was centered in Virginia, and people felt it as far as Washington DC, Maryland, New York, and more. Strangely exciting! Everyone is fine thankfully. Here’s a link to the USGS info page for the quake.

Busch Gardens!

Evan — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:32:29 +0000

We went to Busch Gardens Theme Park in Virginia! What a blast! This was shot entirely on Rachel’s iPod Touch.

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