I don’t think it matters how many times I spell the word Ajumma, I never spell it the same way twice nor do I know the correct spelling.
Last night Kaisa, a girl I work with, and I went to Emart. Emart is like our walmart, 3 floors of heaven. We were grocery shopping. Of course with the greatest grocery etiquette every Korean looked in our buggie. Two ajummas stopped us and began to speak with us. When I say speak, I mean we had a conversation with our minimal korean and their minimal english. Basically they looked in our cart and were nodding their heads saying ahh ahh. Then they said Canada, we said no meegook, (which is American) they thought this was impossible based on their expressions and tone of voice, motioning that we were way to short and skinny to be a Meegook. They said bap (rice) and made big tummy motions and tall lengthy motions. Basically we had to eat more rice to be tall and fat like Americans.
Then they walked around giggling and talking korean a mile a minute.
I thought it was great. Neither of us spoke each others language and yet, we had a full conversation. The power of presence!
More from Korea
More from Korea
Intentionally and incrementally. Most families who live this way did not leap from conventional to adventurous overnight. They built remote work capacity, paid down debt, tested longer trips, and had honest conversations about what they want from their lives.
Different for every family. For some it is long-term travel. For others it is weekend adventures close to home. What connects them is intentionality about how time is spent and a preference for experiences over accumulation.
By finding stability within the adventure rather than treating them as opposites. Routines, rituals, and family rhythms travel with you. Kids need consistency in relationships more than consistency in geography.
That people are fundamentally similar across cultures. That comfort zone is a smaller circle than it feels from inside. That the things worth having in life require effort and discomfort. And that time together doing hard interesting things is the most reliable source of family closeness.
By getting clear on why you made the choices you made and returning to that clarity when outside noise gets loud. Most families living unconventionally describe an initial period of explaining themselves that gradually gives way to just living the life.
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