Buramsan Butterfly Garden, Seoul, Korea: Hallie Bradley and daughter with azaleas.

About Me

Nest Hotel, Incheon, Korea

I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and have always felt the urge to travel. I took every opportunity given to me to see anything and everything that I could see from visiting family for vacations in Dallas, Texas and Denver, Colorado to driving from Ohio to San Francisco with a college buddy to help him move.

I had my first opportunity to travel abroad when I was singing with the Kettering Children’s Choir. We got to see the Czech Republic and Austria and my family continued on to Germany. It gave me the jitters in a good way and made me want to see so much more. I visited France in my senior year of high school with our French Club and as soon as high school was over I moved myself down to Miami, Florida to see what the southern US had to offer.

Kochia flowers, Yangju Nari Park, Yangju, Korea

After two years in Miami, I moved myself back to Ohio and completed my education at Ohio University. With four years of school finished, I wasn’t at all prepared for a desk job and so I moved to South Korea in 2006 without any knowledge of the country or language. What I thought would only be one year has since turned into many more. Seoul has been a great jumping off point to see Asia and the jobs here are plentiful.

Gamaksan, Geochang, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea
Globe amaranth, Yangju Nari Park, Yangju, Korea

I’ve been able to visit Japan, Beijing, China for the Lunar New Year celebrations, take a month long backpacking tour of Vietnam and Cambodia as well as six weeks in Nepal and northern India and South Korea itself has shown me many good times. I’ve visited Sydney, Australia for a fly by weekend and visited the beaches of Thailand too!

Korean Traditional Wedding: American wife & Korean husband in traditional Korean Hanboks

In 2011, Jae-oo, a Korean national and the guitarist for long time band Every Single Day, and I were married (not just once, but twice!) and so my future in Korea looks like it’ll last even longer to my delight.

Hallie Bradley & Jae-oo Jeong, Sydney, Australia: Sydney Opera House
Korelimited: Hallie Bradley & Jae-oo Jeong

If you want to read about our TWO marriage ceremonies, check out this post for info our traditional Korean ceremony and check out this post for our traditional American ceremony… where I had to coax my husband to stick his hand up my dress to get that garter because I’d forgotten to tell him about that little tradition.

Deoksugung Palace, Seoul, Korea: Hallie Bradley and family

In 2014, we welcomed a third member to our family which means more adventures of the family sort too!

Give me a shout out on here and let me know how your time in Korea has or is going. I hope it’s as spectacular as my time has been.

Get in touch

56 Comments

      • I Heart Travel

        September 28, 2022 at 6:13 pm

        Hi Hallie- so glad to have discovered your blog! Debating between staying in Myeongdong and Hongdae. I read recently that many shops in Myeoungdong are still closed and the area is less busy than it was pre-covid. Do you have an update and/or recommendation? Thanks

      • Hallie Bradley

        September 28, 2022 at 6:16 pm

        There are less shops there than pre-covid. It’s still in the rebuild phase. That said, the food carts are back and there are enough restaurants open and it’s a great location transportation wise. But, if you want to see a lively place everywhere, then Hongdae would be better for that if you’ll be going soon.

  • yongspring

    June 5, 2016 at 4:17 am Reply

    Wow! Thanks I found this blog. It’s very informative and very much what I needed as I’ll be travelling in Seoul next week. And oh, I love Every Single Day band! Say hello to your husband for me! xoxo

  • Annette

    October 11, 2014 at 10:19 pm Reply

    Hi Hallie,
    I met your sister Heather through my nephew Tyler. Our family is falling in love with her! My husband and I are off to Korea tomorrow for a wedding reception in Seoul. Our oldest son Rob married a beautiful Korean lady named NaEun. Heather was at the reception in Michigan. We are getting some great info off your site! Hopefully one day we will get to meet!

  • Annette

    October 11, 2014 at 10:19 pm Reply

    Hi Hallie,
    I met your sister Heather through my nephew Tyler. Our family is falling in love with her! My husband and I are off to Korea tomorrow for a wedding reception in Seoul. Our oldest son Rob married a beautiful Korean lady named NaEun. Heather was at the reception in Michigan. We are getting some great info off your site! Hopefully one day we will get to meet!

  • Andy

    July 4, 2014 at 4:57 am Reply

    I like your blog and you seem to have some great insight into Korea and everything around it. Would you be interested in a potential collaboration with a travel startup?

    • Hallie

      July 4, 2014 at 9:00 am Reply

      Hi Andy,

      You can send me a private message if you follow the link over to my Facebook page and give me some more information that would help in answering that question.

      Thanks.
      Hallie

  • Andy

    July 4, 2014 at 4:57 am Reply

    I like your blog and you seem to have some great insight into Korea and everything around it. Would you be interested in a potential collaboration with a travel startup?

    • Hallie

      July 4, 2014 at 9:00 am Reply

      Hi Andy,

      You can send me a private message if you follow the link over to my Facebook page and give me some more information that would help in answering that question.

      Thanks.
      Hallie

  • Dyan

    February 19, 2014 at 1:28 am Reply

    I know this is too random, but I’ve seen I Hear Your Voice, a Korean drama and I really liked this song from the soundtrack. It’s called Echo by Every Single Day and assuming I’m right, that band and your husband’s band is one and the same. 🙂

      • koreanlearner

        June 7, 2014 at 4:20 pm

        Oh! I really like that drama as well. And I listen to that song almost every day (I bought the OST after watching). What a coincidence!

  • Dyan

    February 19, 2014 at 1:28 am Reply

    I know this is too random, but I’ve seen I Hear Your Voice, a Korean drama and I really liked this song from the soundtrack. It’s called Echo by Every Single Day and assuming I’m right, that band and your husband’s band is one and the same. 🙂

      • koreanlearner

        June 7, 2014 at 4:20 pm

        Oh! I really like that drama as well. And I listen to that song almost every day (I bought the OST after watching). What a coincidence!

  • MalaaDalmatinka

    November 5, 2013 at 6:22 am Reply

    Great blog 😀 So informative and easy to follow; not to mention very enjoyable. I’ll be moving to Seoul this Winter with my fiance (who just happens to be a Korean national as well, and is in the entertainment business also haha small world!)

    I hope to cross paths with you one day! You seem like an interesting person.

    Best wishes, and kindest regards,
    Hana

    http://hanakokanovic.wordpress.com/

  • MalaaDalmatinka

    November 5, 2013 at 6:22 am Reply

    Great blog 😀 So informative and easy to follow; not to mention very enjoyable. I’ll be moving to Seoul this Winter with my fiance (who just happens to be a Korean national as well, and is in the entertainment business also haha small world!)

    I hope to cross paths with you one day! You seem like an interesting person.

    Best wishes, and kindest regards,
    Hana

    http://hanakokanovic.wordpress.com/

  • Hallie

    March 24, 2013 at 6:53 am Reply

    Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. ^^ We got our Korean marriage certificate translated into English and notarized at the American Embassy to show it was a valid certificate that would be accepted in the US. When the immigration officer commented on us not having an American certificate but just a translated Korean one, my husband explained that our American wedding would be 6 months later and we just wanted to have the one valid certificate. Later if my husband wants to became American there’s a whole lot more paperwork involved than there is in Korea and if we have two marriage certificates with dates 6 months apart I was worried that that could cause some problem for him. I’ve read some horror stories with people concerning getting citizenship in the US and all of the paperwork and one little number causing big problems. The immigration officer seemed to understand that as a valid reason and processed our paperwork. We had no issues with that in the end. I hope you don’t have any problems either. Good luck.

    • kerazee

      March 25, 2013 at 1:02 pm Reply

      Thank you so much! Getting married here is not a problem but I suspect getting the F6 visa would be more of a hassle. What I heard is the Malaysian embassy here will actually issue a marriage certificate from the embassy, which beats the purpose of us wanting to go back to Malaysia and get married again.
      I seriously have no idea how to work around this but wish me luck!
      Thank u so much!

  • Hallie

    March 24, 2013 at 6:53 am Reply

    Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. ^^ We got our Korean marriage certificate translated into English and notarized at the American Embassy to show it was a valid certificate that would be accepted in the US. When the immigration officer commented on us not having an American certificate but just a translated Korean one, my husband explained that our American wedding would be 6 months later and we just wanted to have the one valid certificate. Later if my husband wants to became American there’s a whole lot more paperwork involved than there is in Korea and if we have two marriage certificates with dates 6 months apart I was worried that that could cause some problem for him. I’ve read some horror stories with people concerning getting citizenship in the US and all of the paperwork and one little number causing big problems. The immigration officer seemed to understand that as a valid reason and processed our paperwork. We had no issues with that in the end. I hope you don’t have any problems either. Good luck.

    • kerazee

      March 25, 2013 at 1:02 pm Reply

      Thank you so much! Getting married here is not a problem but I suspect getting the F6 visa would be more of a hassle. What I heard is the Malaysian embassy here will actually issue a marriage certificate from the embassy, which beats the purpose of us wanting to go back to Malaysia and get married again.
      I seriously have no idea how to work around this but wish me luck!
      Thank u so much!

  • kerazee

    March 22, 2013 at 11:02 am Reply

    HI,

    I was reading your entries on getting married in Korea and getting your F6 visa. In one of those entries you wrote that immigration asked you why you didnt have an American Marriage Certificate and I was wondering what did you answer them?

    I will be getting married soon too and will need to change my D4 visa to an F6 visa but the getting a Malaysian (I’m from Malaysia) marriage certificate from the embassy would mean they will register my marriage on behalf of me, which is something I dont want because I want to go back to Malaysia and do the whole marriage process again, for the sake of my parents.

    Would you be able to share what you told them and how they let that one pass?

    Thank you ^^

  • kerazee

    March 22, 2013 at 11:02 am Reply

    HI,

    I was reading your entries on getting married in Korea and getting your F6 visa. In one of those entries you wrote that immigration asked you why you didnt have an American Marriage Certificate and I was wondering what did you answer them?

    I will be getting married soon too and will need to change my D4 visa to an F6 visa but the getting a Malaysian (I’m from Malaysia) marriage certificate from the embassy would mean they will register my marriage on behalf of me, which is something I dont want because I want to go back to Malaysia and do the whole marriage process again, for the sake of my parents.

    Would you be able to share what you told them and how they let that one pass?

    Thank you ^^

  • Brent Sheffield

    February 10, 2013 at 1:00 pm Reply

    Wow… talk about the real deal. My girlfriend is also from Ohio and we met in Seoul. However, she doesn’t play the guitar 🙁

  • Brent Sheffield

    February 10, 2013 at 1:00 pm Reply

    Wow… talk about the real deal. My girlfriend is also from Ohio and we met in Seoul. However, she doesn’t play the guitar 🙁

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