Hello! I just wrapped up my first week in South Korea, minus the quarantine period of course.
The first week has been crazy busy as I was moving into my dorm, meeting new people, getting familiar with my neighborhood, and starting the first week of classes.
The first thing I did out of quarantine was go to the public health center to get my vaccination card registered. Many places such as restaurants and cafes require a QR code or a vaccination paper that has been registered by the government in order to get in. Therefore, this was a crucial first step I took after being released from my quarantine apartment. My quarantine airbnb was in Mapo-gu, but my Korea University is located in Anam-dong. It is quite far from each other, so I paid roughly $13 for my taxi which is much cheaper than the taxi fares in the United States.
Moving into my dorm at Korea University was quite easy. I arrived past the check-in late, so I was able to avoid waiting in long lines. The security guard checked my PCR results (had to be within 48 hours), vaccination, and TB test results. I signed a consent form and then was given my key card to my room. I am living in a double room, but it was much smaller than I expected. The pictures and videos of the dorm that can be found online appeared a lot bigger, so I was quite disappointed. Luckily, the dorm facility I am in was built in 2020 so everything provided in the room was in extremely good condition.
I mainly spent my first week meeting up with new friends. I mostly spent my first week in Hongdae. To be honest, I did not really explore the area around Korea University. Somehow, I just was not interested. Anyways, I have four months in this neighborhood so I am not in a rush to familiarize myself with the area around KU.
I made a lot of exchange friends who were at other universities rather than KU for some reason. I had a lot of friends that were attending Yonsei University and Ewha University so I spent a lot of time in the Hongdae and Sinchon neighborhood the first week. There are so many university students in this area, so I loved the energy and vibe it gave. I found there were much more exciting things to do in this area as well compared to Anam. There were so many unique cafe shops, great restaurants, bustling nightlife, and a great selection of cute clothing stores in this district. However, the downside is that it takes me nearly 45 minutes to go to Hongdae from Anam. I also visited South Korea before, so I honestly did not have to adjust much to the live here. I was familiar with how the public transportation such as the , subway, kakao taxi, and bus work here so I did not struggle much as all getting around Seoul.
Classes started on Wednesday. To be honest, I am not enrolled in any business classes. The registration period was extremely competitive, and I did not get the chance to register in the courses I needed in order to graduate. However, nothing can be done until the add/drop period. I was quite stressed about this issue as it happened before I flew to South Korea. However, this is out of my control. I feel there is no use in dwelling and feeling miserable on my first week in South Korea. I am going to patiently wait until next week when the add/drop period occurs. Hopefully, I will be able to register for the courses I need to graduate. I am currently only enrolled in one Korean language class, so it was extremely easy and relaxing as it was just syllabus week. I will update in the next blog on how my class registration situation goes in my next blog!
