Aysia A.: lifestyle

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12 Days of Christmas: 9 FAV Christmas Songs

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12 Days of Christmas: 11 All Time Christmas FAVES

The holidays are my favorite time of the year. Family, presents, nothing but love and laughter. Here 11 things that I consider my favorite holiday things to do:

Wrapping Gifts

A lot of people that I know don't like to wrap presents, I personally love doing that because I'm able to try out new styles and I honestly find it relaxing to do. If you have presents you need to wrap, let me know!

ABC - 25 days of Christmas films

Christmas movies have that nostalgic feeling of my childhood hanging out with my little brother and binge watching all of the movies!

Christmas Music

Singing at the top of your lungs all versions of Silent Night is a great time!

Hot Cocoa and Socks

My mom makes the BEST Hot Cocoa ever, and she puts them in the cutest Christmas cups which makes the seasons even greater. As soon as we wake up on Christmas the hot cocoa is ready for us!

Christmas Decorations

If I had the time and gas I would drive and walk around all of the neighborhoods and embrace all of the colorful lights and different styles that everyone has created.

Giving Back

Although gifts are the best to receive, I love giving back to those in need. Last year I donated to Ronald McDonald House and asked everyone to drop off things that they didn't use anymore so I can give it to those in need. It warms my heart to know that I can help out in some small way that may make a great impact.

Christmas colors

Dark color are always my favorite, I always lean towards maroon colors for the fall. But this year I'm in love with mauve colors. <3

BAKING

Baking is such an essential thing to do during the holidays. This year I've been branching out and trying to bake new things. For my job I will be trying to make a Peppermint Ice Box Pie!! YUUUMMM.

Santa Claus!!

Y'all know he is real, right?

Opening Gifts

I love opening gifts but what I love even more is see others open gifts and the look on their faces on receiving things they ALWAYS wanted.

Spending times with ones you love.

#1 thing to do is make sure you're celebrating with the ones you love. Even if it's for a day or on a phone call, always remember and embrace those moments.

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adventures

yay, girls are awesome!!! This next girl with adventurous goals is none other than my cousin, Rachel! I can go on and on about her. She graduated from UCSD, which kind of pushed me to see what college was all about. She pursued her degree and moved allllll the way to Korea to teach English to high schoolers and now at COLLEGE!! She is a creative writer who writes with such imagination, she is also another reason why I love to blog I wish I was as a creative writer like her; PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. She has accomplished so much and still has so much more to go! She is the epitome of strength, and kindness. I love everything about her and just take a look at her interview:

1. Tell us a little about yourself!

Hmm.. a little about myself? Well, I'm originally from San Francisco but am currently living in Seoul, South Korea. I am working as an English professor, diligently trying to incorporate more travel and adventure into my life constantly, and working on and off at my main life dream of being a published writer.

2. What did you major in and where?

In undergraduate studies, I majored in English Writing & Literature at University of California San Diego (UCSD) and my graduate studies were at California College of the Arts (CCA), getting a MFA in Creative Writing with a focus in fiction.

3. I know that you're currently in Korea, what made you want to work there?

After finishing my master's degree, I felt like I was at a unique point in my life. I wasn't married and didn't have any career yet to keep my in the states so it was a really great time to live abroad. Living abroad was something that I had wanted to do for such a long time but didn't have the guts to do until that time. On top of that, I knew that in addition to being a writer, I had a real heart for teaching. So I thought that teaching high school English abroad would be a great way to a) gain experience, b) challenge myself, and c) help pave the way to what I eventually wanted which was professordom. I was educated, energized, ready for a new challenge, and really wanting to start what I felt would be one of the first real main chapters of my adult life. Why Korea specifically? I had some interest in Korean culture and my Pacific Asian family background and upbringing made me feel like I would be able to really adjust more while probably figuring out a lot more of who I am as an individual in Asia. 

4. What were some challenges being in a whole new world?

Oh geez, what wasn't a challenge?? Haha. No but seriously, there were a lot of difficulties when I first came to Korea. When I first moved to Korea, I moved to a rural area that didn't have the conveniences and rampant use of English that Seoul has. At that time, I couldn't speak a word of Korean and I was awkward, missing my family, flustered, lonely, and had arrived in Korea fresh off of an emergency surgery only the week prior. Ordering food at places without pictures, figuring out directions in a country where Google maps isn't allowed access to accurate coordinates, adjusting to being stared at so much in a country that is known as being the most homogenous country in the world.... there were so many difficulties at first. But, as I learned, they were also a lot of brand new opportunities to learn, conquer, and push myself in ways that I didn't know I would be able to, not only withstand, but succeed in.

5. What were some goals you accomplished in your 4 years being in Korea?

I feel like part of what makes my life interesting, hectic, and ever adventurous for me is that I am never satisfied. This can come across as seemingly negative but that isn't what I mean. I am so humbled and grateful for the strength to have climbed so many steps and to find new opportunities and new doors opening constantly but I rarely think about what I've accomplished because I am more often considering the list of things I have yet to do (or, in more truth, adding to that evergrowing list!). If I take step back, I'd say in the past four years that I have been in Korea, there have been a few accomplishments, both personally and professionally. Professionally: I worked hard at several high schools with students from many different backgrounds and honed skills that allowed me the opportunity to finally move into being a full-time faculty professor at an accomplished and respected university in Seoul. I've worked on different collaborations with other teachers or other writers on several projects in the past few years. I've joined writing groups that help encourage and critique my writing in order to help make publishing more possible. In hopes of research journal publication, I've started the small beginnings of a research project about the use of creative arts in the academic settlings of learning language. Personally: I've added a bunch more stamps to my passport. I've learned a new language with quite conversational proficiency. I've been taught how to be far more relaxed and how to decipher what needs to be attempted and what is useless to try in terms of controlling life's many varying journeys. I've met so many amazing and terrible and brilliant and hilarious and disgusting and life-changing people from all over the world. I learned to allow myself to love. I feel like the list, in terms of personally, could go on endlessly. 

6.  Being that you accomplished so much already, do you have any future goals in mind?

Like I said before, I am an overflowing cup in terms of future goals. Far too many to ever accomplish but it will be quite a ride trying. If I were to force myself to name just a few of the big ones, I'd say: publishing at least one novel, having a novel that makes it onto one of the big international bestseller or awards lists, traveling to every continent, living in at least one more country, learning at least four languages (hopefully more like seven or eight) conversationally fluently, eventually being able to be a creative writing professor working in both an undergraduate and graduate program, opening up a thriving and active center specifically for children in domestic violence situations,..... andddd having a huge ranch full of rescue dogs who needed homes! 

7. What is a quote that you live by?

Because I think it is both speaking to all the different forms of relationships we have with one another and the relationships we have with ourselves, I have long been captured by this one quote of Rilke's from Letters to a Young Poet: “It is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical will live the relation to another as something alive.”

Thank you for taking the time to interview, and thank you to those who have read it!! #girlswithgoals have so much to offer!!

Best,

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Inspiration

#girlswithgoals: Valerie Schmidt

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Inspiration

NEW SEGMENT! #girlswithgoals

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lifestyle

What College Has Taught Me,

College has just begun and I can ~~happily~~ I mean sadly say I will not be attending this year. I am now an ALUMNI (for now, unless I want to go back...probably not). But college was really one of the best things that I experienced, aside from actually going to classes :) The atmosphere, the people you meet, the things you learn inside and outside of class it was pretty amazing. For those just starting off as Freshman here is my advice to you. Enjoy every moment, the good and the bad. It helps you grow and learn about yourself. Embrace your surroundings, and just live! Because it'll be gone in a blink of an eye and then you're an adult in the "real" world. For college I loved being prepared, writing in my planner, making sure I had all of my syllabis, and living in the dorms!

Here are some tips on how to prepare for college:

Get familiar with the campus

Some colleges are HUUUGE it probably takes 30 minutes to walk from one side to the next. Luckily I had a medium size school and it only took about 10-15 minutes to walk.

Check your emails for syllabis

Teachers usually like to send out syllabis the week before school, so always be on the lookout for that. They usually like you to bring it to class day of so that they can explain what the class is all about.

Get organized with a planner

I LOVEEE PLANNERS. Every year I would buy a nice, easy to read planner. One year I got bored and bought about 10 in one YEAR!! But I love to organize and see what is due is day or an event to look forward to.

DO NOT buy your books from the bookstore..unless you need it right then and there.

I know it's weird to say not to buy BOOKS from a BOOKstore. But they rip you off!! Well, at least I know mines did. They overprice books that you're probably not going to use and yeah, they'll buy it back but for like $10-$20 the most...and the book was $150! Your best bet would be to buy it from Chegg or Amazon! :)

Join an organization/club

Joining a sorority was the best thing I could have done for myself! I met friends who I know will have my back till I'm old and wrinkly! Check out my post HERE.

Make NEW friends

Yes, I want you to socialize. That was probably the hardest thing for me to do and sometimes it still is, but I have become maybe 50% outgoing and that is a big improvement for me and I know you can do it too! College students I believe are WAAAY outgoing and nicer than High School students. I guess because we are growing up and the campus is bigger which makes it more intimidating.

SAVE MONEY

MAJORITY of us must be like, "what money?!" we are college students we shouldn't even have money. But whatever money we have whether it's from a school job or winning the lottery - SAVE IT! It's fun to treat yo self here and there but not ALL OF THE TIME. I wish I saved money for after college just to have an emergency fund of some sort.

Have fun once in awhile

College is all about studying, cramming, and hopefully achieving with the major we dream. But sometimes we need a break too. Whatever you type of fun is whether it be reading, heading to the beach, going out to a party, shopping, etc. do it or else you're going to go NUTS.

Know that things WILL change.

Change will occur whether it is good or bad. I thought in my freshman year that things will stay the same. I was going to major in Nursing and move to the mainland or transfer to a mainland school, I wouldn't wear makeup (lol). EVERYTHING now has changed. I graduated with a Sociology degree, I met SOO much new people, I'm still living in Hawaii, and I wear makeup and have a side business as a freelancer. Change can be scary but it opens new doors and possibilities that you never would have imagined!

"Freshman 15" is a LIE

It's more like Freshman 50+, in my freshman year I didn't understand self-control in the cafeteria, I mean it said buffett so I would go back all the time. Also, Netflix was my best friend. Now I attempt to workout and eat healthier. But indulge sometimes and maybe only go once in the ice cream line (lol)...but have 10 scoops JK!

What are some tips you know of to prepare for college?

Best,