Latest / Babes, how did you get here / Didn't Know Jamaica Existed, Now I'm Selling Out Korean Food Pop-Ups in Kingston

Transcript

Didn't Know Jamaica Existed, Now I'm Selling Out Korean Food Pop-Ups in Kingston · Babes, how did you get here

• 0:00
  Welcome to a Life Elsewhere, a podcast about people who have chosen to move abroad.
• 0:05
  They've stepped beyond borders, swapping out their regular routine for the unfamiliar.
• 0:09
  I'm April Jackson and I get to sit with someone in each episode who has packed up their bags for a Life Elsewhere.
• 0:15
  I'm so excited to speak with her about what it takes to leave the familiar behind,
• 0:20
  and move to a place where your name, your language, and even your way of being might feel foreign.
• 0:26
  Thank you very much for coming.
• 0:28
  I want to start to talk about when was the first time that you left South Korea?
• 0:34
  It goes back to 10 years ago, actually, around this time.
• 0:40
  I was 15 or 14. I can't really remember.
• 0:46
  I left Korea to go to New Zealand.
• 0:48
  I started my high school career there and then a year into my life in New Zealand,
• 0:55
  I was like, I need to go somewhere bigger, more diverse.
• 0:59
  Why did you choose New Zealand?
• 1:01
  Because New Zealand was one of the only English-speaking countries that my family could afford at the time.
• 1:07
  I told myself there will be other ways for me to find ways to afford my studies.
• 1:12
  I started looking for programs in the US, in the UK, anywhere that's more diversity and there's more people.
• 1:23
  And I ended up finding something in the US and went ahead with that program.
• 1:27
  How long were you in New Zealand for?
• 1:29
  About a year.
• 1:30
  And then you go to the US? What part of the US are you in?
• 1:33
  I went to New York.
• 1:34
  Okay.
• 1:35
  Set in Ireland.
• 1:36
  Or city?
• 1:37
  When you say New York, I'm like, oh, and then you say set in Ireland.
• 1:40
  I'm like, oh, well, most people don't really know much about New York,
• 1:44
  so I just say New York because it's part of the five boroughs.
• 1:48
  And how long are you there in set in Ireland?
• 1:51
  So I went to, I finished my high school there.
• 1:53
  Okay.
• 1:54
  So around three years, I was in set in Ireland.
• 1:58
  And I graduated from high school there.
• 2:00
  Okay. And then we go to university straightaway?
• 2:02
  Yes. I went to university in Boston.
• 2:06
  We're dropping new episodes every single week.
• 2:09
  So make sure you subscribe.
• 2:10
  You don't want to miss this, babes.
• 2:12
  And leave a comment and tell me what do you want to hear out of my next conversation.
• 2:16
  Your support really helps this community grow.
• 2:19
  And if you know someone who's quietly been thinking,
• 2:21
  should they take that next big leap?
• 2:23
  Babes, send them the podcast.
• 2:25
  In Asia, a lot of people think that Jamaica is in Africa,
• 2:29
  maybe because of the history, colonization, etc.
• 2:33
  So I had to tell her everything that I knew about Jamaica.
• 2:38
  Sure. Did we do internet?
• 2:40
  We included all the facts.
• 2:42
  Well, yeah, all the facts that I found,
• 2:44
  which I can't verify because it's not my fact, sure.
• 2:48
  So I told her and she was obviously worried.
• 2:54
  Well, her alone wasn't as worried, but she's very nosy.
• 3:00
  And she likes to get inputs from other people.
• 3:04
  And when she talked to other people, they said,
• 3:08
  you're sending your daughter all the way out in the Caribbean.
• 3:12
  Like, that is so far.
• 3:14
  And she could be, you know, unsafe there.
• 3:18
  But at the end of the day, I talked to her.
• 3:22
  We evaluated the pros and cons.
• 3:24
  And I told her there was one Korean girl who came here before me.
• 3:30
  And she went to Harvard for grad school.
• 3:32
  And you know, like big university names to Korean parents.
• 3:36
  It's a big thing.
• 3:38
  So she strategically just slipped that in it.
• 3:40
  And I told that to her and she's like,
• 3:42
  oh, actually, if you can go to Harvard by going to Jamaica,
• 3:46
  I'm all for it.
• 3:48
  Go away.
• 3:50
  She put me on the point.
• 4:06
  So, yeah.
• 4:08
  Oh, my God.
• 4:10
  Has she visited you here?
• 4:12
  No, not yet.
• 4:14
  She would like to come here before I move out.
• 4:16
  Okay.
• 4:18
  Because I told her all these good things about Jamaica.
• 4:20
  I've been able to witness.
• 4:22
  So you're on the plane and you're getting over.
• 4:24
  We've packed up our stuff.
• 4:26
  What are our emotions?
• 4:28
  What are we feeling coming to Jamaica?
• 4:30
  Oh, very mixed emotions.
• 4:32
  It had been a while that I had moved to a different country.
• 4:36
  Okay.
• 4:38
  Like nine years ago,
• 4:40
  I moved to the US.
• 4:44
  And that was, like, I didn't really remember what that felt like to
• 4:48
  move to a totally different place that I'm not familiar with.
• 4:54
  So I think there was a lot of mixed emotions.
• 4:56
  And then leaving your mom when in your mind you had the possibility
• 5:00
  to stay close.
• 5:02
  Right.
• 5:04
  But I think she knew that I was eventually going to go away again.
• 5:08
  She always tells me,
• 5:10
  you're not my child.
• 5:12
  I think you're the child of the country.
• 5:14
  So you should go and do your thing to make the country proud.
• 5:18
  Okay.
• 5:20
  So you arrive in Jamaica.
• 5:22
  And we go to work straight away.
• 5:24
  How do you find housing?
• 5:26
  How does that work?
• 5:28
  I had to find it myself.
• 5:30
  Oh, really? Okay.
• 5:32
  Yeah.
• 5:34
  If I was here as like a long term staff,
• 5:36
  they would, you know, of course,
• 5:38
  look at it for me and support me.
• 5:42
  But because I was here only for one near contract originally,
• 5:46
  I had to find everything myself.
• 5:48
  But I have Facebook.
• 5:50
  Okay.
• 5:51
  Facebook is a great place.
• 5:53
  No marketing or anything.
• 5:56
  And in each stage of your life,
• 5:58
  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media is just getting the job done.
• 6:02
  I utilize them to the max potential.
• 6:06
  Okay.
• 6:07
  So we find housing on Facebook.
• 6:09
  Yeah, I found something on Facebook.
• 6:10
  Are you living with someone or do you live by yourself?
• 6:12
  Yeah.
• 6:13
  So I found out during my process of moving here that there's actually
• 6:16
  another girl from South Korea who will be working in my office
• 6:21
  at the same time on the same program.
• 6:23
  So we decided to move here together together on the same day
• 6:28
  and also to move into the house together and become roommates.
• 6:32
  So, yeah, I now have a roommate.
• 6:35
  And yeah, we are at this nice, beautiful apartment.
• 6:39
  When you arrived, were there any major culture shocks?
• 6:45
  Um, I think so.
• 6:47
  So he surprisingly.
• 6:51
  Um, I had expected it, of course.
• 6:53
  Right.
• 6:54
  And I had been to the Caribbean before.
• 6:56
  Okay.
• 6:57
  Not to Jamaica, but to the Bahamas and Bermuda.
• 7:00
  Right.
• 7:01
  And what I didn't realize was that when I went to those countries,
• 7:04
  it wasn't summertime.
• 7:05
  Right.
• 7:06
  And so I landed here at the end of June.
• 7:10
  Okay.
• 7:11
  During the hurricane season.
• 7:12
  Yeah.
• 7:13
  It was a humidity and the rain and the heat.
• 7:15
  It was, it was a lot.
• 7:18
  And the cost of living actually really threw me off.
• 7:22
  So when before you came,
• 7:24
  you thought that it was going to be quite affordable.
• 7:27
  Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were saying that Jamaica is expensive.
• 7:30
  Right.
• 7:31
  But because I had lived in major cities in the US.
• 7:33
  Sure.
• 7:34
  I was expecting at least something similar.
• 7:36
  Yeah.
• 7:37
  Like groceries, for example.
• 7:39
  Madness.
• 7:40
  It's crazy.
• 7:41
  Madness.
• 7:42
  I used to be able to shop.
• 7:45
  My weekly grocery for 20 US dollars.
• 7:48
  Okay.
• 7:49
  Because I'm very conscious about my spending.
• 7:52
  Yep.
• 7:53
  And I like to meal prep and I buy, you know,
• 7:56
  produce mostly like no instant food or whatever.
• 8:00
  So I was expecting something similar.
• 8:02
  Yep.
• 8:03
  But no.
• 8:04
  Easily a hundred US dollars on my weekly grocery.
• 8:07
  I bought coconut water, a big bottle of coconut water.
• 8:10
  A dozen eggs, chicken mince, beef mince,
• 8:13
  and a bami.
• 8:14
  One.
• 8:15
  Yeah.
• 8:16
  And it was literally like 32 pounds, which is about what?
• 8:18
  $40.
• 8:19
  I was like, how are people living?
• 8:21
  I know.
• 8:22
  It is like the food.
• 8:23
  I can't get over the food prices.
• 8:24
  Yeah.
• 8:25
  So I can imagine that that would have been quite a big one.
• 8:28
  And then are you shopping in supermarkets?
• 8:30
  Are you going to local markets?
• 8:31
  How do you navigate that?
• 8:32
  So of course, at first, supermarkets are convenient.
• 8:35
  Yep.
• 8:36
  So I would only shop at supermarkets.
• 8:38
  And then as time went on, you know, some friends
• 8:41
  would take me to the market.
• 8:42
  Okay.
• 8:43
  And most recently, I went to coronation.
• 8:46
  Check you out, babe.
• 8:47
  Yeah.
• 8:48
  Which is a good experience.
• 8:49
  Yep.
• 8:50
  And the produce are definitely much cheaper at the market.
• 8:55
  But still because a lot of these products are imported.
• 8:59
  Yep.
• 9:00
  Even at the markets, like if I were to get grapes,
• 9:03
  which are one of my favorite fruits.
• 9:05
  Oh, no.
• 9:06
  They're easily like 1,500 for one pound of grapes.
• 9:12
  Have your favorite foods been replaced by local favorites?
• 9:18
  Actually, my favorite foods have changed since coming here.
• 9:24
  And I think it depends on the accessibility of things.
• 9:30
  Sure.
• 9:32
  What do you think Jamaica has done in terms of you?
• 9:37
  How has it changed you being here?
• 9:40
  In a lot of ways, I think I've learned a lot.
• 9:47
  I think I've learned to appreciate my culture more,
• 9:52
  because of how curious and receptive people were here
• 9:57
  in my culture.
• 9:58
  So every time I talk to them about it,
• 10:01
  I felt more proud.
• 10:02
  Okay.
• 10:03
  And yeah, I just wanted to do more.
• 10:07
  So in that aspect, I think I became more proud to be Korean, of course.
• 10:14
  And what else?
• 10:17
  Another positive.
• 10:20
  I mean, I learned the work of the UN more thoroughly.
• 10:24
  I got to experience it.
• 10:26
  So that was a really good experience.
• 10:28
  So my grandfather was a Buddhist monk.
• 10:31
  Okay.
• 10:32
  And he could apparently see the future.
• 10:35
  Okay.
• 10:36
  Because he was so woke.
• 10:38
  Yeah.
• 10:39
  I wish I could be Buddhist by the way,
• 10:41
  but I have to kill the mosquitoes.
• 10:42
  Oh, me too.
• 10:43
  So it's just the mosquitoes.
• 10:45
  Right.
• 10:46
  Yeah.
• 10:47
  I couldn't kill anything else.
• 10:48
  Oh, and flies.
• 10:49
  Flies, I wouldn't.
• 10:50
  My daughter says,
• 10:52
  Buddha says, no, no, no, you cannot kill flies.
• 10:56
  Wow.
• 10:57
  She's better than us.
• 10:58
  Yeah, she is.
• 10:59
  Yeah.
• 11:00
  So my grandfather saw that I was going to grew up and be a stubborn young lady,
• 11:07
  which he wasn't completely wrong.
• 11:10
  But because of my nature,
• 11:12
  he wanted to lock that stubbornness inside a forest.
• 11:16
  Okay.
• 11:17
  So my name in Korean means clever for us.
• 11:20
  Oh, amazing.
• 11:21
  And he basically locked the stubbornness inside a forest and made me clever.
• 11:28
  That is very cool.
• 11:29
  Yeah.
• 11:30
  So much better than I know.
• 11:31
  Yeah.
• 11:32
  But the mindset, I think, is so unique about Jamaica.
• 11:36
  Like, there's other countries where there's lots of things that people should be proud of.
• 11:43
  Like, for example, my country.
• 11:45
  I think everybody can be proud to be Korean.
• 11:48
  Yeah.
• 11:49
  But we do get shy.
• 11:52
  We're not as.
• 11:55
  I guess we're not as proud on the surface level when you look at them.
• 12:01
  So, yeah, it's the attitude.
• 12:05
  It's the mindset.
• 12:07
  And they're not afraid to be who they are.
• 12:10
  So, which is very, very unique.
• 12:13
  Something to be admired.
• 12:16
  If somebody was thinking about coming to Jamaica to live,
• 12:19
  what would be your advice for them other than searching on LinkedIn?
• 12:24
  I would say do it.
• 12:25
  Okay.
• 12:26
  Yeah.
• 12:27
  Do it.
• 12:28
  Even if it's just for a year, just do it and find it out yourself instead of trusting what's on Google.
• 12:39
  If your life was a postcard, what would the picture look like?
• 12:45
  Oh, my life on a postcard.
• 12:48
  I would definitely be on a beach.
• 12:50
  Okay.
• 12:51
  I don't know if I will be in it.
• 12:53
  I would put myself in it.
• 12:55
  Okay.
• 12:56
  On the beach, relaxing.
• 12:59
  But then there will be a lot of things going around me, happening around me.
• 13:03
  Like, I don't know.
• 13:07
  It could kind of look like an AI-generated picture.
• 13:11
  Okay.
• 13:12
  So, you would prompt it being like, oh, picture this Korean lady on a Caribbean beach.
• 13:19
  Right.
• 13:20
  But then there's big cities around her and a whole bunch of diverse people, a lot of different foods.
• 13:31
  Yeah, just a lot going on.
• 13:33
  But then I'm content.
• 13:35
  Right.
• 13:36
  I'm relaxed on the beach.
• 13:37
  On the beach.
• 13:38
  Yeah.
• 13:39
  Are there beaches in Bulgaria?
• 13:41
  I think you can't access the Black Sea.
• 13:45
  Okay.
• 13:46
  Yeah, because it borders Turkey.
• 13:48
  Right.
• 13:49
  But I have no idea what the beaches there are.
• 13:54
  I would assume that it's nothing like the Caribbean.
• 14:01
  Okay.