Welcome to my unusual yet interesting life in South Korea

A little about myself

Hello! My name is Aisha (ah-sha). I am a 30-something American living in Korea. I grew up in South Carolina and Florida.

This isn’t my first time blogging. First, was in high school, then started again in university. It has been off and never since. This is, however, my first time blogging on my own site. So yay~! For almost 10 years, I have wanted to do this. I figured I might as well do it now and not later.

When did this journey start?

Living abroad has always been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. When I was young, my father was in the military and traveled to many countries. His stories fed my curiosity even more. Other cultures, languages, and countries have and will always be intriguing to me. Because of all of this, I never wanted to just stay in one place forever without exploring this vast world at least a little bit.

Where did it take me?

Right to Korea in 2012, as a bright-eyed early 20-something university student that was studying international politics and Asian studies.

Before you ask…

Was it for kpop? No. First, K-pop wasn’t popular in the West or close to mainstream yet when I got into it. Youtube wasn’t really a thing yet either until a few years later. I listened to it a lot since middle school in the early 2000s around the end of 1st gen and the beginning of 2nd gen idols. However, that’s also a story for later. However, I came here for school. 2012 was my last year of university and I felt like I needed to study abroad for my degree, so I did it for the summer. Studied the relations between North and South Korea, along with other Asian countries and the US. I had some other fun classes that thankfully counted towards my major and/or minor too.

Ok, so how did I end up teaching here?

After having an amazing time in the summer of 2012, it felt like the perfect time to move abroad after graduating later that year. So, I made up my mind after some other things happened in my life, to move. I thought about China and Japan too. I took Japanese in university so, it would have been a bit easier for me. However, Korea was my choice for a variety of reasons. I started preparing my documents, got a TEFL certificate, and started trying to get a job. It didn’t take too long before I got an offer and bought my ticket to come back in 2013.

So, exactly a year later, to the date, I came back to teach. I know, teaching since 2013? That’s a long time. Did I plan on it? Honestly no. Trust me, if you told me I would still be here, I wouldn’t have believed you. I thought I would be here for a year or two and then continue with what I had planned. As everyone can see, those plans definitely changed.

Do I regret anything? Maybe…maybe not? We shall see. I have experienced a lot of things, both good and bad throughout the years. This is why I have so much to share with you all.

I just want people to remember that:

1. These are MY unique experiences only.
2. These events have already happened, some at least 5+ years ago. Did I make the right decision each time? Probably not, however, I learned from the experience and now have a story to tell. Maybe you can learn something from it too or…laugh at it.
3. When I talk about certain people, it’s about them. Not their nationality or ethnicity. It’s about them as an individual. Especially, when it comes to the dating stories.
4. I may talk about the culture in some countries including here in Korea. It is only my opinion based on what I go through personally.

What kind of posts should you expect?

I have a lot of posts from over the years that I’m going to put here from my tumblr. I’m going through them to make sure that they make sense overall and maybe add in some details that I left out. However, they will stay like how they were written at that time. So, it’s going to be interesting to see what happened over the years leading until this moment. It’s like opening a time vault for myself and you guys are going to see all the craziness that has happened. I’m going to be releasing those on the site starting from right before I came in 2013. You’ll see the dates of when they were written at the top of the posts. Thankfully those stayed. I would be in trouble trying to remember all of that. haha.

With that being said, can’t wait to share my stories and experiences with everyone!