A two month update on my research/arts grant to South Korea.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Today’s blog post comes from South Korea, where I’m doing a quick write-up of my second Fulbright month. I found out back in April 2026 that I had received my second Fulbright award, and I thought it was a bit of a second chance, as I never made it to India for my first award. I danced back and forth on accepting, but ultimately decided to go for it because the memories would be something I go back to forever.

My project is a creative writing award technically, but I grounded it in anthropology and oral histories. I’m specifically writing poetry documenting the stories of West and South Asian immigrants to Korea, which an emphasis on Seoul and Busan, although I think I’m going to be taking some side trips to Ansan in the near future.

To add some context, I’ve been to Korea twice and lived here two months each time under different scholarships (NSLI-Y + CLS). I would describe myself as intermediate in the language, but there’s definitely a lot more to learn.

Let’s get into how my second month has been going!

I feel like I’m finally starting to gain ground on my research and the work I set out to do.

When I was writing my blog post for the first month here, I think I was struggling on how to get my actual project on the ground and moving. I think I didn’t realize that for a lot of people, the first month of a Fulbright definitely doesn’t mean you’re making leaps and bounds with your project. You’re literally moving to a new country and learning how to be a human being there instead.

I’m used to hitting the ground and running in everything I do, so I was trying to figure out how exactly to track progress in a way that was fulfilling. I tend to quantify everything in my life and set harsh deadlines/goals so I can work hard to achieve them, so when I do rest I often feel guilty.

Month two I was actively reaching out to more people and scheduling interviews, making local connections, and finding that there’s a lot more to learn. I also started reading a lot more academic papers and books on the research area I’m in and the topic itself, which feels much more productive.

At the time of writing this I have ten poems done, which is 1/6 of a book. I have some interviews lined up to film, which makes me feel more confident that yes, I can actually do the thing I set out to do.

However, I feel like I’m not doing enough sometimes.

I started to get at this in the previous section, and this is something I wrote about again in my first blog post. I struggle a lot with imposter syndrome in general, even though I’m acutely aware I’m a hard worker and try to get as much done, in the best way possible, in a short amount of time.

I think the fact that the research grant is only ten months plays into this feeling for me. I know that my time is so limited that I want to get everything I want to do done in terms of my work and research, but I also can’t rush things at the same time.

Everyone keeps telling me I’m doing well, but maybe a part of this journey is to about learning to be more comfortable with myself in the sense where I take more time to do things! In Korea everything seems to quick with the fast-fast culture, but I don’t have to assimilate in that sense.

I’ve started to explore more of Korea and make local connections.

When I have some free time, I try to take day trips whenever possible or short two hour adventures. For example, one Friday afternoon I had a free block when I didn’t have anything lined up or scheduled, so I went to Haneul Park to see the silver grass before the weekend hit and it got too crowded.

I went to Incheon for a weekend trip to go to a music festival, which felt like such a big splurge in the moment but something I’ll remember for a long time. It was a Japanese and Korean rock festival, and I think I paid 205 USD for the two day pass. I saw like 20 acts across the two days and had a blast, plus some of the longer sets, like DAY6 and One Ok Rock, I think I would have paid 200 USD to see back home.

Going forward my goal is two weekend trips a month around the country with smaller day trips scattered here and there. I’m grateful to have savings and be able to travel around the country like I am planning to do, even though I think I’m going to be playing catch up when I go back to the United States.

My family came to visit me, which was a much-needed break.

Before I had won the Fulbright my family had booked a Korea vacation, so this ended up working out. I took a few days off of my project work in order to show them around, and we actually ended up going to six cities across their time here. They saw Seoul, Paju, Busan, Gyeongju, Chuncheon, and Nami Island, which is pretty impressive considering how little time we actually had.

Seeing them was a nice reminder of home, and they were able to bring supplies from home. They brought me some more za’atar, as I see myself running out of what I have at this rate, Iranian rose petals, Cheezits, Goldfish, kidney beans to make more ghormeh sabzi, and then actual cans of ghormeh sabzi.

It was sad to say goodbye, but we had a good time overall! Them coming didn’t really make me homesick, but it was very nice.

I’m feeling really comfortable living in Korea, especially Seoul, overall.

Something I was realizing when I first arrived is that I feel so comfortable living in Korea. I’ve lived here twice in a short-term capacity, and know a decent amount of the language, so I feel comfortable navigating the systems in place. Learning comes more with like doing medical appointments and whatnot on my own.

But overall life in Seoul is very comfortable. Once we received our ARC cards from immigration I could order food and Coupang deliveries, so now I get heavy groceries, like rice and potatoes, sent to right outside my apartment’s door. In Korea most things arrive the next day so it’s too convenient sometimes.

We’ll see how my mood is the next month. Eventually the loneliness is going to catch up to me I think, but it might be a bit. Until then, I’m having a great time!

Follow me below on Instagram, Goodreads, and Letterboxd for more.