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Too Much of a Good Thing
It seemed like a good idea at the time. To read as much as I could before we left on our round-the-world trip. In some cases, I chose our stops based on the novels I had read or movies we had seen. Four novels and three films dictated my choices in South Korea. Looking back…
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Seoul
A year ago today, I was in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. This was month 2 of a round-the-world trip that lasted 7 months. My husband and I were following an itinerary I had crafted using novels I had read and upended by whatever happened to cross our path. That trip feels like a…
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Gwangju Spring
Our hotel is mere steps away from Geumnam-ro, the main thoroughfare in Gwangju, South Korea. We’re in this city because of a novel written by Han Kang. Human Acts documents 9 days in May 1980 when a student-led democracy movement was brutally suppressed by the military junta then in power. 7 years later, in 1987,…
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Novel Navigation
Reading and writing is what I do. Every day, all day, seven days in the week. My husband does the same thing and our house in Amsterdam perfectly accommodates us both. So why leave home? And yet that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Travel around the world for 7 months. Go to countries we’ve…