THE WAY of Life in Dubai (EN)

Every month on WOMENCANFLY.CO’s blog series, The Way, we introduce inspirational women who live abroad.

In this segment, we meet Aiko Mizuno, a flight attendant living in Dubai. While studying at university, she went on exchange to Sweden and ended up moving there. In 2008, she gave birth to her daughter with her Swedish partner. Following this, she left her family, changed jobs and moved to Dubai on her own.

We talk about the Swedish and Dubaian lifestyle, Aiko’s job as a flight attendant and raising a child.

Eight years in Sweden with cloudy weather and a lonely heart

Aiko spent about eight years in Sweden since she was a university student. At first, she was planning to study in America but gave it up for an unexpected reason.

“My name was the same as a member of a religious group that was in the spotlight at the time and they were on the American embassy’s blacklist so I couldn’t get a student visa.”

Aiko then chose Sweden as her new study abroad destination.

“Sweden’s official language is Swedish. It wasn’t an English-speaking country I was hoping for but I had a Swedish friend and thought I would have a good time.”

However, unlike the overseas lifestyle, Aiko had envisioned, she was lonely.。

Aiko recalls spending those eight years, “having unrequited love with Sweden.”