From South Korea to America: A Brief Description

As you will have gathered from my ‘about’ page, I have somehow ended up in the Deep South/ Bible Belt/ America. How did I end up here? Well we need to rewind all the way back to 2019 in a pre-covid world, for context. I hope you enjoy traveling back on this reminiscent journey with me, and keep coming back for more each week. Let’s begin!

August 2019

It’s August 2019 and I’ve just landed in South Korea. I know no one in this country and this is my first time leaving the European continent as an adult. I’ve got a piece of paper with instructions to follow on which bus I will need to find my way into the city, Seoul. There I will be met by my new boss. It’s hot, I’m jet-lagged and confused at what I’ve done, in complete shock that I am really, truly here all by myself. The reality of being a foreigner in an unknown land, with an unknown language all around me starting to hit me in that moment. I stand and stare at nothing and everything all at once, then I take a deep breath and get on with it and figure out where I need to go. Nothing in my life would ever be the same from that moment onwards.

Why was I in South Korea in the first place?

I began working as an English teacher in Seoul, my plan was to go there for one year and if I didn’t like it, at least I could say I tried and head home. Or if I did like it maybe I’d stay just a little bit longer…

I had no idea how much moving there would change who I was as a person, all the way down to my thoughts and behaviors, the way I interact with others, even the way I speak, how I carry myself, my lifestyle habits, and my style. More importantly, I really had no idea how much it would change the course of my future. 

I ended up staying for three years, and I feel as though I lived a thousand different lifetimes during that time. I changed, I grew, I regressed, I healed, I had the highest highs and a few lows. It may sound cliche but it is true that I became more of myself and let go of who I thought I had to be, based off of how everyone at home had always known me. I was shown love, kindness, and spitefulness and toxicity. Such is life. I’m grateful for all of it. Suddenly the world seemed a lot bigger and more full of opportunity than it had ever done before when I was living in England. 

It wasn’t a simple or easy process, but it was worth it.

It took some time to figure out life there, but that’s a different story for a different post! But eventually I had the time of my life, I had incredible friends, a fun social life, and for the first time in my life I had a bit of money to spend and only myself to worry about. I always knew it was a moment in time that I had to cherish and that life wouldn’t always be that way. We explored all over South Korea, we hiked mountains, we partied and we had fun. We worked hard too, but again that’s a different story!

Moving from South Korea to America

There are a few reasons why I felt my time in South Korea was nearing a close, which I can discuss in more detail in other posts another time. But the reason I left when I did;

Let me set the scene…

It’s a warm spring evening, me and my friends have been out having coffee and taking photographs. The energy is good and we don’t want to disband. We decide to throw on some cute outfits and head to the bars. Hongdae area, to be specific. I’m queuing for a drink, talking to someone. A tall American overhears and says to me “Wait, are you British?“. Of course, that tall American is the start of the explanation for how I have ended up in the Deep South! That American is called Tommy, he is from California and he was stationed in Korea with the Air Force. He asked me to follow along to his next base with him- which at that time was going to be in California. 

Being the impulsive character that I am, of course I agreed. He has a very convincing smile after all.

Along the way, some things changed- as I have come to learn with tagging along with the military life, anything could change at any moment. That move to California that we were going to do together, ended up being changed by the military to a move to good ol’ Georgia, USA. So here we are.