Hiking up Bukhansan (Baegundae Peak)

An exciting post! Now I’ve never been the hiker sort and i used to look at liz&fred and think that it’s cute they both like to go hiking tgt cuz i would never do it with the BF cuz both of us are just.. lazy. LOL. But then in my second final week in Seoul, I was looking for places to travel to, and somehow I stumbled upon the mountains page and i had that consideration in mind. Like maybe… i should hike up one of the mounatins…?

Thus started a long night of researching, texting Sheryl and finding out which mountain I should hike. The best mountain in Korea as said by many bloggers and CNN travel, was Bukhansan. I went to find out more about the different peaks so i can decide which peak i should climb. I read that Baegundae was the highest peak and there were different paths you can take to reach there. One of the trails was only 1.9km long but it starts from Baegundae Information Centre when i asked Sheryl about it, she said that starting point was kinda ulu and i couldn’t find any info on it too. So I decided to embark on the most popular trail, the 3.4km one.

There were still some friends around in Korea but one of them moved in their clique of 3, Zenn definitely wouldn’t hike, and so I didn’t bother to ask and just decided to hike alone. Haha. Personally i felt like the hike had to be done alone actually. Because it was my first time actually hiking a challenging trail, I wanted to find out my own limits without the pressure of having someone else with me.

Honestly, I feel like learning to be alone was the best lesson I’ve learned from being on exchange. I don’t know how to say it, but I felt like those who hadn’t learned to be alone, end up compromising a lot of their wants and needs for others. Learning to be alone doesn’t make you a loner. It just means that you’ve learned to enjoy your own company, you’ve learned to feel it’s perfectly okay to be alone even if others think you’re a loser or smth, and it means being able to go out and do your thing alone without feeling lonely or wishing someone else was with you. I think learning to be alone is one of the most difficult things in life but also one of the most useful. You become so strong… like you can be with people of course, but you can also be alone. Learning that skill makes you pretty indestructible. Like okay you don’t wanna go with me? You don’t want to jio me to your outings? Meh…. that’s totally okay with me. I’m just gonna go out and like travel the whole Seoul by myself. it’s like NO ONE CAN DESTROY YOU. It’s the best thing I learned from exchange honestly.

Anyway back to the point. So after deciding on that peak and that trail, I rested early the night before and had a nice hearty breakfast in the morning before setting out.

Not that hearty la actually

I didn’t set out that early actually, I left around 11am. By the time i actually reached the entrance of Bukhansan (after getting lost), it was already almost 1pm.

Stocked up on my supplies. Had a bottle of water and a bottle of isotonic, a bag of chips, two kimbaps and a bag of snacks. It wasn’t enough tho, I had to buy another bottle of water at one of the rest stops.

Entrance to Bukhansan

The entrance to the trail up wasn’t that obvious actually. I got a little confused but I confirmed with Sheryl that there was this row of shops along the beginning of the trail.

You’ll walk past a little counter and a toilet point as you start on the trail up along the shops of houses. Unlike what most sites are saying, you don’t have to pay entrance fee or book in advance. Things have changed I think. Walked for a bit and saw the first signage/checkpoint.

Okay when i saw this i was like WTFFFFFF I feel cheated because no it’s not 3.4km, it’s 4km!!!! I think that makes a lot of difference esp if you’re talking about 600m upslope. For Bukhansan you can’t quite trust the official site or the tourism sites, like things change and they’re not exactly updated. I think the 4km trail was the same 3.4km one they were talking about but the distance just… changed over the years lol. As you can see the 4.0km was clearly a separate plate nailed onto the old one.

At around 130pm it was a nice clear weather and i was enjoying myself taking pictures of the beautiful sights around me. At this point my mood was happy and confident. This is a random sentence but you’ll see why I need to say this now….

The trail to a separate peak

Nice clear weather with plenty of shade

There were also pretty streams along the way and I stopped to take photos, rest and take some selfies haha.

The first part of the hike was truly beautiful! Loving all the beautiful sceneries that are mostly untouched by man. The clear sun also made my photos come out super nice. At this point i walked past some ahjussis who asked me where I’m headed to. I said Baegundae and they let out a collective gasp and gave me a thumbs up and told me to return. That sounded borderline scary but i was thiking like nahhhhhhh they’re prolly just exaggerating.

Then I reached my  2nd checkpoint, 3.5km away from Baegundae. I dub every signage i walk past as a checkpoint haha.

This was when the upslope actually started.

When I saw this slope, my mood was a little bit uh-oh but well it’s not steep so I embarked on it still cheerful and all. I walked past another stream and this one was so pretty! Just look at all that clear water:

dat clear water

So i decided to stop by and post an instagram selfie. Haha.

Selfie first!

After about 10 min of resting it was time to go on. I reached my 3rd checkpoint, at 2.8km away from Baegundae. Good progress mich.

At this point, the scenery began to change. No more flat gentle slopes, slopes padded with rubber to prevent slipping, and staircases. Now we have stone staircases. Yay!

I reached my 4th checkpoint, which is a huge rest area with a carpark nearby. I bought another bottle of water and ate some of my chips while making use of the free wifi in that area. Haha how i love Korea and their wifis. The time now was almost 3pm, about an hour + since I first started my hike. I wasn’t even halfway through but i still thought my progress was okay.

Halfway rest point

This was when I got lost. Very lost.

So from the big rest area, there were 3 ways to go. The first way is the one I came from. The second one was the path on the right of where I came from. The third path was the one on the left from where i came from, after passing the huge rest area. Now, common sense should have told me that the right path is the path that’s after passing the resting point right. The point of the resting point is for it to be on the way right. But nooooooo. I just took a quick glance and saw that the path after the resting stop seemed to be leading towards the carpark, so I went on the other path. Very brilliant. 20 min later I found myself staring at a signage that says 3.5km away from Baegundae, pointing at the other direction.

At this point, my mood was just lakjdghalsjdghalka>!~!!!

I covered all that distance for nothing and now i’m again 3.5km away?!?!?! D:

Let me post some photographs of things i saw along the wrong path so you’d know that you’re getting lost as well if you see these things. Lol. Well at least there were some sights.

If you see this you might be lost pls turn back

If you see this you might be lost pls turn back

On hindsight I should’ve followed my gut instinct when the slope started going downwards but as usual i rationalized with myself that mebbe the slope is just going down a bit but will go up later on LOL wth was i thinkin

Anyway turned back and headed back towards the first resting stop. You know i always tell myself i shouldn’t get angry at bad situations because they always make for more interesting stories, like there’s always a silver lining. Well it’s always easy to tell myself that when i’m in a happy mood and feel like meh i’m a big gurl now who knows how to handle things maturely let’s not be angry, but HI WHEN IT HAPPENS IT’S A DIFFERENT STORY I JUST WANNA KICK ALL THE ROCKS DOWN AND MAYBE MYSELF DOWN BUKHANSAN YOU HAVE NO IDEA

So I went back to the rest point and took the other path. I took a photo of that signage there too that says about 2.5km away from Baegundae maybe, but the picture didn’t come out. On my folder it says it’s an empty file idk why?? Oh wells. I think I lost quite a couple of pictures that come out as ’empty’ :X most of them are just pictures of how the trail looked like but oh wells it would’ve been nice if i still have those pictures.

Along the trail, i saw tons of stacked rocks that i think people left to say that ‘i’ve been here’. In the past it was used to guide people on the right path without really altering anything in the natural environment, and also for meditation purposes. These days i think people just leave it to leave their marks without destroying the environment.

This picture is actually just a pile of rocks HAHAHA. Cuz i lost all the pictures of those stacked ones. Including the ones i stacked on my own where people were judgin when i was taking a photo of it 😦

Reached my 5th checkpoint soon after at 1.3km away from Baegundae! More than halfway through :’D

That was when the path went from tough to bloodyhell.

I just literally slumped against a rock, looked at the sky and thought God why. 

And also, my mood at this point of time was just a bunch of regrets that i didn’t stay home to eat ramyun and watch some funny variety show or some tearful drama. Like i could be at a cafe now enjoying an iced latte wtf am i even doing out here. And it was a lot of self monologue declaring i’m not a hiking person and i shouldn’t be someone i’m not and next time just like sleep in and stay home bcuz yknow, that’s who i am.

But since I already made the decision, let’s take it all the way shall we. So I plugged in my earphones to play some of my favorite music (and also to stop hearing the buzzing of flies around my face as they try to fly into my nostrils and eyes and mouth and ears and basically just want to distract me so i will fall to my death) and went on my way.

the path started to get a bit more precarious

maybe now’s a good time to turn back

they don’t even bother with a path anymore now it’s just slabs of rocks

Then I reached my 6th checkpoint. This is the point of time that i find out something very important.

THAT I WAS FREAKING ON AN ADVANCED PATHWOW THANKS

THANKS TO ALL WEBSITES OF BUKHANSAN THAT TOLD ME THIS PATH WAS ON THE EASY SCALE

YOU’RE PAYING FOR MY INSURANCE

At this point my mood was just.

Let me be one of the few brutally honest folks to tell you that this path is Advanced with a capital A.

After some deep breaths and constantly telling myself i’m a big gurl and i can handle things maturely (not), i turned up my music, used my kopitiam towel from the hostel to try to whack the flies like a deranged freak, and went on my way again.

The paths ahead of me gave me a nice balanced workout that involved all muscles on my hands and arms as i haul myself up rocks. Pretty sure from below i look really unglam on all fours with my butt sticking out like ugh why

slabs of rocks

how is this even a path

At this point I turned back to look at the path i’ve conquered and man i was so proud. Look at those huge rocks that i owned. Hah.

And then i found my 7th checkpoint!! 0.4km to the peak! Mind you. The map earlier on that pointed out the distances from each trails and the difficulty levels, predicted that it will take 20 min for me to reach this checkpoint. It took me 40 minutes. I kid you not. After every 10 huge rocks i had to sit down and catch my breath. Every timing they predict for you, you should times 2 because you’re probably a lot lousier than the average hiker. Really. This isn’t a video game when you are usually faster than the average and better than the average, NO. When it comes to the real world you’re probably twice lousier than the average, it’ll do you good to think that way….. #pessimistic

On hindsight when I look at my pictures, they don’t look very difficult. And maybe you’re thinking nah that’s not as steep or exaggerated as you make it out to be.

IT IS. TRUST ME. IT’S WORSE THAN IT LOOKS. VERY MUCH SO.

My thighs ache just by looking at the pictures only because I’VE BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT IT’S NOT EASY IT’S ADVANCED FOR A REASON like if you’re a first timer like me, you would never have had ‘advanced’ slapped so hard across your face like this one maybe it’s just that i’m really lousy but well like i said, assume you’re lousy first until proven otherwise

7th checkpoint, 0.4km away!

It was a killer staircase upwards from this point on, but seriously, i was so happy to see staircases i was ready to cry for joy. All those rocks really took the energy out of me 😦 i also slipped so often i questioned how i was still alive I scaled the staircases much faster than i did the rocks.

I’m beginning to see the light!!!

And then my 8th checkpoint is there in all its glory, 0.3km from Baegundae! I’ve only traveled 100m from my previous checkpoint!!!?

Throughout the hike i kept questioning where’s the fortress wall that i was supposed to see along this path?? I guess my question was answered here, near the peak.

i THINK this is the fortress wall don’t quote me on it

And then i was beginning to see the view. It was sooooo rewarding after all of that!  Unfortunately the skies were hazy (as usual) so there wasn’t much to see in the distance.

I

t was also really windy here which was nice and refreshing! But then at this point the path really did it for me. Like that’s literally a vertical rock i’m looking at. Who do you think i am man.  Who do you think you are to say that this path is easy and manageable and then give me a vertical rock. Tell me i’m not exaggerating man. I can’t be the only one feeling that injustice. I can’t be the only loser out there.

how is this a legit path it’s literally vertical

i’m tired just looking at the pic

At this point, one of the middle-aged ladies who overtook me halfway up the trail (all the middle-aged people are 1000x fitter than me i’ve long accepted that) walked past me on her way down. Lol. like i’m still otw up when she’s alr otw down.. orz

I really like this photo because it’s a perfect representation of how precarious this climb actually was. Haha.

And then I was at the peak before i knew it. The feeling of stepping at the very top of Bukhansan after so many hours of climbing, thousands of buzzing flies, lots of near-death slips, constant cursing and regrets and thoughts of turning back… the feeling of reaching the top after all of that was…. unbelievable. I don’t even know how to say it. Words fail me.

The famous rock and flag at the top.

Of course this calls for a picture of myself. I wanted a full shot but no one else was at the peak. So it was photoshoot time!!!! Propped my bag against a rock and my phone camera on top of it ,set the timer and scurried over to the rock to pose.

This picture would’ve been legendary if someone had taken it from top-down, to include the view that i was looking at. But we can’t always have everything and honestly i was just glad i managed to get pictures of myself at all without anyone’s help.

you did it mich :’) #smu #productplacement

I spent 15 min or so hanging out at the peak and taking videos and pictures and then others started to come up so I went down a little bit and sat among the rocks to grab a snack and admire the view some more. And then it was time to go down.

At this point, it was around 5pm meaning I’ve taken almost 4 hours up, including the whole getting lost part. That was really late actually, Sheryl and the rest only took 4 hours up and down haha.

The view near the top.

A duck shaped rock

I slid down this part, no kidding

Back to the latest checkpoint and I saw the sign leading to the Baegundae Information Center, which was where the 1.9km hike would start from, and the same place that Sheryl said it was ulu. It’s time to find out where that elusive starting point is actually at.

Hence I embarked on that trail down. It was still quite crey though. Lots of rocks later i finally got out and saw the starting point of this trail.

This was the Baegundae Information Centre where the shorter 1.9km Baegundae trail is supposed to start. Turned out it wasn’t actually an accessible starting point, unless you drive up so

I had to walk quite a distance down the car route until i get back to the main road, hopped onto a random bus that took me to a random station, and finally returned to my hostel.

Bought a packet of ramyun to cook back at the hostel and gave myself a long long long long deserved sleep. ❤

Worth it? Yes. I think I got a lot of unforgettable memories and I’m very proud. But i know i wouldn’t do it again lol.

Anyways.

How to get to Bukhansan (Bukhansanseong trail to Baegundae peak): Take the subway from Gupabal Station, Exit 1 and take bus 704 to the entrance of Bukhansan Park.

836m tall, 4km long. Always remember.

Seoul Accommodation: MORI Guesthouse

My favorite guesthouse! ❤

Because of this guesthouse honestly, i have no regrets or anger or sadness that my goshiwon cancelled on me. I’m thrilled now because i get to find this really affordable and amazing guesthouse! 😀 I didn’t book this one through booking.com or hostelworld as I usually do, so I felt it was so wasted if I didn’t write something on it somewhere on the net…

So without further ado!

I had lots of luggage so I was super relieved to find out that the nearest station Gwangheungchang had elevators all the way, and the guesthouse had no staircase! Phew. I’ve learned from previous experiences that guesthouses are usually not located on the first floor so yeah. But MORi was something more of an entire apartment building if I have to put it that way, so it was nice 🙂

The moment of entrance was a large carpark but it’s used as a space for bicycles and laundry.

Entering MORI~

 

Upon entering they would ask you to take off your shoes and provide really cute little bathroom slippers.

 

Waking up to smiley slippers everyday does help haha

My first reaction when I walked in was woah they’re spacey!! 😀

Very pretty design!

It’s a little bit complicated for me because i actually went through booking.com first and booked 8-bed room for 11 nights, then found their website and decided to email in to see if there is possible ways to make special arrangements because i wanted to stay in 6-bed room. The initial plan was 6-bed room for 7 nights, then 8-bed room for 4 because for two days in between there isn’t room in the 6-bed room. But they made a mistake in reserving so for my last 2 nights they had to move me to another 6-bed room. So I had to move twice and i stayed in 3 different rooms altogether in my 11 nights.

I was honestly just glad they didn’t suddenly tell me i needed to evacuate so it didn’t bother me, and they were very apologetic about it. It also allowed me to see the different rooms and compare. Actually there was a pretty big diference which i’ll point out later on~

Upon arrival James led me to the 6-bed room on the first floor. It was very pretty and i loved the colors! 😀 He told me about the guesthouse rules which were basic, and they had no curfew. They also provided locker keys and small towels.

Now this room’s bed was very comfortable, because they added a comforter on top of it. It was soft and i was so happy when i first sat down on the bed. 😀

I’m a sucker for curtains and now not only do I have my on personal curtain, i also have my personal bed light!! 😀 this was plus points for the guesthouse and it was one of the reasons i chose to book it over the others. The whole privacy thing makes it so convenient for you to change or stay up late without disturbing other guests.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that it was bigger than expected. Most guesthouses have pictures that are extended so they are pretty much smaller than what we see on the internet, but MORI was pretty accurate with their pictures and i was comfortable with the space.

Personal lighting and curtains~ and pretty bed colors!

My fortress at night. All nice and cosy!

There was no window in this room so i wake up every day in some kind of inception thing like is it day or night?? And because it’s so nice and dark and cosy in my little fortress that i often end up like where’s the curtain?? and end up groping the wall on the wrong side trying to open the curtain lol.

He showed me around the guesthouse. There were three bathrooms on the first floor but if you wanna bathe after 12 you have to go the one upstairs. Probably because the three bathrooms on the first floor are really close to the rooms so it’s kinda noisy.

There was also a mini makeup area outside the rooms on the first floor.

 

He then showed me the second floor.

The second floor had more rooms and even more bathrooms!!

bathroooooooooms galore! no waiting for shower stalls! Yay!

Each bathroom looks similar to this:

 

Nice clean bathrooms! Bathrooms are very important to me in guesthouses and often determine whether a guesthouse is yay or nay for me. Haha. This one was one of the cleanest I’ve seen, despite there being so many of them. Everyday at about 11am ish a cleaning lady comes around to scrub every bathroom clean haha. I leave the guesthouse really late everyday which is why i kinda know that they come in around afternoon time LOL.

Cleaning ladies or the owners of the guesthouse also enter the room at around noon time-ish to quickly sweep and mop the floor, as well as change the sheets/blankets for the vacant beds. This is when the curtains are extra useful. Although technically you shouldn’t be expecting people still sleeping at noon but well they were prepared for guests like me.

They’re really diligent and efficient with their cleanliness which was really nice 🙂 They’re not by any means a tiny guesthouse so it was nice to see they had a system they stick diligently to.

Anyway, the second floor had this mega huge-ass makeup room, probably to accommodate the numebr of rooms on that floor.

 

Huge right?! Part of why i really appreciate the sincerity of this guesthouse is that they could have turned this area into like two more rooms and earn more monehhhh (makeup rooms aren’t that common in guesthouses), or they could also reduce the bathrooms if they wanted to. But they’re not stingy with the space and make sure the guesthouse is very comfortable for guests. Bordering on luxurious I’d have to say considering the price they charge their guests. Many guesthouses out there charge much higher and i doubt their service comes close to what MORi offers.

One area of the second floor of the guesthouse, also where i stayed at for the last 4 nights

Bins and water dispenser available on the second floor too!

We didn’t stay around at the second floor much. I got to know the second floor much better later on though when i shifted there after my first week on the first floor haha.

He showed me around the lounge area afterwards!

This is what I see when I first open the door to the lounge:

like woah! I’ve never seen such a huge lounge in a guesthouse seriously ❤

The tables and hangout areasssss

The kitchen area!

I watched the World Cup finals here!!

 

As per other guesthouses, they provide bread, eggs, coffee and juice. But just like Guesthouse 710, they also provide cereal!! Any guesthouse that provides cereal is like a bonus!!! woohoo

 

I end up ditching eggs because there’s always cereal. Glory. When they stock up on the chocolate ones it’s the most glorious thing ever.

After a week on the first floor, i had to move to the 8-bed room for two days. At first she was gonna move me to the one opposite the reception area since i had lots of luggage, but after finding out that eventually i have to go up to the second floor for the last 2 nights at another 6-bed room, i figured meh just move now. And she said the 8-bed room upstairs is bigger than the one downstairs.

So I agreed.

She was right, it was bigger! The pictures online looked quite cramped so i was worried.  But you can see in the picture below that you could fit large luggages comfortably in between the beds!

Luckily for me i had a nifty little corner to tuck my luggages in.

Nifty corner!

This room had sunlight streaming in haha, unlike the first one. No more waking up to a dark nice cosy cave 😦

The beds on this floor weren’t as comfortable as the one i slept in on the first floor. They didn’t add the comforter for these rooms but i wasn’t complaining because i really liked this place~~ i felt that they were already giving me much more than I paid for. Talk about utility man.

On the last 2 days, I moved next door to the 6-bed room one. Actually this was just an 8-bed room converted to a 6-bed room LOL, so the space where the last bed is becomes luggage space. Again I felt like they could have utilized the space to convert it to an 8-bed room but they didn’t and maybe that’s for a functional reason but nevertheless it was nice to have so much space in a guesthouse i didn’t pay much for. The others were always so cramped 😦

So much luggage space over there!!! woohooo! Perfect for when i packed on my last day~

Look at how our huge luggages looked dwarfed in that immense amount of space. glorious

Plenty of space for everyone! If you’re looking to move into this guesthouse you can always let the hosts know that you have lots of luggage, they’re more than happy to give you the room that has more spaces. Because some rooms are smaller than others despite them being the same type of rooms.

Fortress style~

I now understand why they have an almost perfect rating on all the booking sites. Seriously they deserve it for their dedication and attention to detail! So pretty, clean, spacey… and the hosts are so super nice! 😀

I think because of all the makeup rooms the hostel end up being mostly girls-dominated. LOL. They do have male dorms i think but i’ve seen only like 3 males out of all my 11 nights and they only appear during breakfast or at night at the lounge area.

The catch is that this guesthouse is extremely affordable! It’s actually cheaper if you contact them directly, plus they gave me a 10% discount for long term stay. You wouldn’t get the same price if you booked through an agent. But then again the benefit of an agent is that you can cancel without losing any deposit, whereas my direct booking at MORI required me to pay 50,000 won in advance to secure my booking. It didn’t matter to me though because i was pretty sure i wanted to stay there~

With one of the hosts, Jiae! They both speak fluent English 🙂

Name: Mori Guesthouse
Location: 12-8, Seogang-ro 1-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul 121-881, South Korea
Nearest station: Gwangheungchang Line 6, 2 min walk
Nearby: Sinchon (10-15 min walk), Hongdae (15 min walk), Sangsu  (7 min walk)
Price: (via website) 19,000 won / night for 6-bed room, 17,000 won / night for 8-bed room. Discount for long stays. My booking for 7 nights in 6-bed room and 4 nights in 8-bed room came up to 180,900 won which is a little below 17,000 won per night, because of the discount. I ended up with 9 nights in 6-bed room and 2 nights in 8-bed room for the same pice because of their little slip up though hehe. Free upgrade!
Website: http://www.housemori.com/main/index

Its location is probably its worst drawback which also probably explains the price. But i wouldn’t sweat it. I mean unless you’re staying for like exchange or smth tht requires you to keep coming back to the same area everyday (like for exapmle you wanna hang out in Hongdae 3 times a week), then it’ll benefit you to find a guesthouse closer to Hongdae. But if you’re a traveler honestly the subway is all you need and this guesthouse has a subway really close by. There’s a lack of food nearby though but i always walk to Sinchon cuz it’s a straightforward route down and isnt far. All the good food places are there.

How to get into music shows recordings and fansigns in Korea

Triggered by lots of enquiries on how to get into these two places, I’m finally going to make a post that I can directly link people to once and for all!! This is way overdue because the last time I went to these two events was like forever. Nevertheless, better late than never right?

This content is kinda irrelevant to most of my blog that’s been focusing on travel, food and cafe, but nevertheless still a very Korean themed post that might be helpful to some people out there who want to add music shows or fansigns into their Korea itinerary!

I don’t strive to be THE accurate guide, and there are plenty of other guides out there that i’d suggest you cross-refer to for absolute accuracy.

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KOREAN MUSIC SHOWS
how to get into music shows and what to expect

NOTE: I am only going to talk about my experience with SM Entertainment. The reason I’m saying this is because other groups’ fans have different systems of letting fans into music shows, but SM has a group of fan staff that handle the procedures the same way across the artistes in SM.

• Basic Music Shows Info

Five main shows.

Wednesday: Show Champion | UNIQLO-AX, 20 Gucheonmeyon-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul | Gwangnaru Station (line 5), Exit 2

Thursday: Mnet M Countdown | CJ E&M Center, 1606 Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul | Digital Media City Station (line 6), Exit 2 (take bus 7711 from across the street and stop at 상암DMC, or cab… it’s not really walkable)

Friday: Music Bank | KBS, 18 Yeouido-dong, Youngdeunpo-gu, Seoul | National Assembly Station (line 9), Exit 4

Saturday: Music Core | MBC Dream Centre, Janghang-dong, Ilsan-donggu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do | Jeongbalsan Station (line 3), Exit 1

Sunday: Inkigayo | SBS Hall, 58-1 Deungchon-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul | Gayang Station (line 9), Exit 10

I’ve noticed for SNSD at least that Show Champion is the least regular for them. Music Core is the hardest to go to as it’s in freaking Gyeonggi. I’ve never tried to go for Music Core or Show Champion. Mnet M Countdown seems to be the easiest perhaps due to the weekday timing and standing pit system compared to others. Mubank and Inkigayo are equally accessible, with seating systems.

Most music shows take in about 150-300 fans, depending on circumstances.

• How to get a queue number for the music show?

There is this group of young people that work with SM and broadcasting stations called the ‘fan staff’. They are people acquainted with the insiders and have the authority to organize the fans going into music shows. We follow their system. They are the mafia bosses.

Look for SM Staff’s notice | The SM fan staff will put up a notice days prior to the recording. This timing can range. I’ve heard notices being put up 2 days earlier, and some just a few hours before the meeting time. It’s hard to know but just keep yourself updated on social media. It’s good to follow people who regularly go. I used to hear from Zenn that they would post on their fan cafes but it seemed to have stopped and she was caught by surprise several times. I use Twitter to see if anyone has seen the notice. I’m sorry I don’t have a more solid way for finding out, i’m sure other blogs may have though. Going in the morning/afternoon the day before is usually safe, but be prepared to wait if the sign’s not up yet.

Your next step is to find this notice. It’s very elusive in some cases like Music Bank where it was put on a tree across the road. Nevertheless, here is an example.

Mubank was on a tree, Mcountdown is on a heart-sy wall near the entrance of CJ E&M (Cold Stone area), Mucore was on the ground OTW to the broadcasting station (refer to first photo of this post). Just keep a sharp lookout and also look for fans crowding around. You can only attend one artiste or group’s recording so please don’t get it wrong LOL.

Get a virtual queue number | Take a selfie with the notice & send the selfie together with your name and contact number to the number stated on the notice. They will reply you with a queue number. Generally, below 100 is the most ideal. Below 50 is great. Above 100 may be risky but usually i’ve seen them take in fans up to 200-300. I’d still say risky because sometimes when incidents crop up and music show directors get angry at fans (for disobeying rules for example), they cut the number down to 100.

Roll Call Timing | The time you see on the notice above (AM 11:00) is when you have to turn up to take the roll call. This is for Music Bank and roll call was on the same day as recording. More often than not however, the roll call is the night before the recording so you could find the notice in the morning to get the queue number and return the same night for roll call. We all got really lazy after the first time and at the subsequent music show, just turned up an hour before the roll call at night, thus getting really lousy queue numbers haha.

Roll Call Location | For music bank it’s a little confusing as the gathering area is inside. You’ll have to enter the main cafeteria area first and exit again to see a vast area with red pillars and benches. For the other two music shows, gathering area is the same as the notice area.

DO NOT MISS THE ROLL CALL! They will slash your name and fans are eager to shout that you’re not present after the first couple of times the fan staff calls your name. Some fan staff are bad with pronouncing English names so it helps if you understand Korean numbers as they would call that out too. If you’re worried, just go up there and ask to see their board, they’re usually nice and would let you see if it’s your name. I noticed that some international fans offer to help call out the difficult names, in return for that.

• How does the SM staff queueing system actually work? What happens on the day of the recording?

Your current queue number that you’ve received is not your final one, meaning number 20 does not mean you’re 20 on the line.

Fan Categories | Fans are divided into 5 categories. The first 4 categories are for official fans who paid for membership when application was open. I’m not completely sure of the exact details of these 4 categories but i know it’s a permutation and combination of official fans who purchased online and offline albums. As an unofficial fan, you’re default D-5 in category. What this means is that all the D1-4 taking queue numbers after you will still go in before you. So you could be 150 and 50 D1-4s took numbers after you, and you will still be kicked if they only let in 200. Yeah. World’s not fair.

First roll call | Turn up for the roll call at stated timing on the notice. They call by order of number and eliminate those not present. And then they tell you what time to turn up the next day. BE PUNCTUAL.

Second roll call | When you appear again according to the timing they told you to come, they will do a second roll call. This is when they put you in line accordingly. The fan staff will then go down the line later on to write your new queue number after eliminating the people. During Mubank when the recording was in the afternoon, there was only one roll call that happened in the morning and they immediately wrote our new queue numbers. It can differ greatly based on the recording timings so play by ear and just turn up accordingly at the timings they tell you to. BE PUNCTUAL

Note that until they’ve written your categories, you can’t be sure than you can go in, even if your queue number is safely below 100 after eliminating absentees.

Third roll call (album check) | They will now check for official memberships and albums, and write your category. Make sure you have the latest album. You are default D-5 only with the latest album. You are D-nothing with no album goodbye go home A for effort F for research. :c You must have the latest album, the album they are promoting at that moment and the one you’re trying to attend the music show recordings for. Believe me when I say they are very anal when it comes to bring albums. One Korean brought the most recent SNSD’s album CD in the album case of an older album, and she was rejected flat out. She argued all she could but they wouldn’t until she bought another one. So don’t risk it. Don’t even take out anything from the album just in case LOL

Break | After writing your categories, they will usually dismiss everyone for a ‘break’ and tell you what time to return. It lasts usually about 1-2 hours and fans disperse to find cafes or places to chill at. Rush. Rush to a cafe. Rush to A Twosome place if you’re at Mnet. Rush to Cafe Citta area if you’re at Inkigayo. Rush to the cafeteria to find a seat if you’re at Mubank. RUSH. There will be an ocean of people and you don’t want to have to stand.

Final waiting time | Stand back in line at the stated timing. They will rearrange your queues into the categories. At this point you’re safe to be in the quota of people to go in if they didn’t dismiss you (from my experience everyone usually gets in), unless of last minute crop-ups. Now all you have to do is wait.  And talk to the people around you if you’re up for it.  The wait can be really long. My average would be about 5 hours from the time I turned up at the veune to the time I get into the music show. So at this point after you’re settled into your categories, you may have to wait about 2 hours or so. They may release you for another break, but it depends on delays.

waiting in the cold in February~

And then once they get the cue, they’ll let you in. D1 first. Followed by D2. Etc. Basically it’s normal to end up at the back although you took a nice queue number like 40 for example. For Inki and Mubank, you go in immediately and see the loves of your lives. For Mnet, i felt cheated because we went into another waiting area near the recording room. Hahaha. The final final waiting time.

And there you have it. As detailed as I can ever manage. Phew, that was taxing. Live music shows is an entirely different queue and I’ve never experienced it so i won’t talk about it at all.

• Important things to note for music shows

1. Have the artistes’ latest album that they’re promoting
2. Be punctual for all roll calls
3. Do not scream individual members’ names, you can only cheer and follow fanchants. This is important because directors have cut quotas because of annoying name-calling
4. Do not take photos. If directors get angry you could implicate the fandom from attending future shows
5. Prepare for a long wait! Bring things to do if necessary!

• Where to get albums in Seoul

There are no lack of stores to buy KPOP albums, you can refer to this site for a pretty comprehensive list of stores available to buy them from. I recommend getting from Hot Tracks. The ones at Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5, exit 2, connected underground) and Sinnohyeon Station (Line 9, exit 7, connected underground) are very convenient to access. AND they count towards Hanteo charts!

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FANSIGNS
how to get into fansigns and what to expect

It’s notoriously hard to get into fansigns of popular groups in Korea, and what i’m about to write is only going to help you find out how to get in, but does not guarantee being able to get in. You’ll see why.

• How to get into a fansign?

Find out who is organizing it | Find out the details of the fansign. The companies working together with SM to organize the fansigns will post the details on their website. These are all in Korean so it’s good to be updated on Twitter to search for announcements of fansigns and for translations of tweets regarding it. The organizing companies will post the dates of the fansign(s) they’re organizing, the location of the fansign, the members turning up, the number of fans allowed to attend the fansign, the number of fans allowed to watch the fansign etc…… and also where to buy the albums. The last point is important to take note of. You have to buy albums from their stated stores to get a chance at the fansign. Bringing me to my next point~

The lottery system | The organizing company uses a lottery system to determine who gets into the fansign. So for every album you buy at their stated store, they give you a slip of paper to fill in. So if you buy 50 albums, you get 50 slips of paper, which equates to 50 chances at the lottery. They have a limited time period (usually 2 days) for you to get the albums from them, that’s the only period window for you to have a chance at the fansign. Albums bought before or after that period are not part of the fansign event.

This is how you get into a fansign. You buy albums from the organizing party’s stated store. You get chances. You participate in the lottery. You hope for the best. That’s why I said it’s not guaranteed.

You will know the results of the lottery about a day or two later. It’s really fast. They will post details of the lottery on their website (which again is in Korean, so Twitter is a good way to get the link to the list of lottery ‘winners’).

• How many albums should I get?

The golden question. One i can’t answer myself. I have to say it depends. First of all, on the artiste(s) you’re supporting and the members turning up for the fansign. When I was trying for SM the Ballad fansign, we purposely chose the fansign that had only Taeyeon and Jonghyun. The other fansign had more idols from SM The Ballad including EXO, which would make our chances very slim. So we pooled all our album purchases into the TaeJong only fansign.

For that SMTB fansign, Zenn and I bought 15 albums each, and we both got in.

For the subsequent SNSD Mr Mr promotions, there were lots of fansigns. One of them had OT9, which we ruled out completely. There were two fansigns that happened at the same time, so the members split up. We tried for that day, choosing the fansign with Taeyeon in it. We bought 10 albums each and none of us got in. I heard about my friends who bought 30 albums each and they didn’t get in either. I’ve also heard about my friend who tried for IGAB promotios and pooled 15 albums each into both OT9 fansigns, but only got one of them.

So really all i can say is it depends. On your judgement, on your luck. Fansigns remain one of the hardest and unpredictable things in my opinion. It’s not necessarily expensive if you are able to sell off your albums (we sold off all of ours at the cost price), but that’s also a very hard and tedious task. I’m sorry if this post destroyed your hopes in getting a secure fansign opportunity this is partly why when a lot of people gush saying how lucky i was to get a fansign, some part of me bitterly reminisced the distance traveled to purchase those albums, the torture bringing boxes of albums back, the painstaking efforts selling them off, shipping them back, and all the stress received generally. Haha. It’s not all luck, it’s effort too. Music shows is like very little luck and lots of effort hahaha.

• When are fansigns usually held?

Usually fansigns happen about 2-3 weeks after the artiste/group’s first comeback promotion. Fansigns are a means for agencies to increase album sales, and about 3 weeks after comeback is a perfect time to start boosting sales after the initial rave has died down. Some fansigns are spread out over two weeks, some happen in the same week. If you’re in Korea for a group’s promotions, you can usually predict when a fansign will happen.

• What happens during the fansign?
  

I’ve only attended one fansign so my knowledge is limited but I will try. You will take a random number which will designate your sitting area. I got 60ish at that time which was in the 5th row, a little to the side. It wasn’t first row but it was still a great view!! ❤ When you enter, they give you a piece of post-it for you to write your name on it, and some also write message. I don’t think you’re allowed to ask them questions but i know lots of people do, secretly maybe?

They will line people up row by row to go up stage to meet the idols. As you are waiting in line, they will check your album and your post-it to make sure there isn’t anything weird. Then they will tell you not to run and walk calmly. Hahaha. Then you go up there and freaking meet your idol!!! Stay calm (or not) and remember the experience 5ever.

• Private vs Public fansign

If you’re a KPOP fan reading this, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of fansigns. Those are the public locations. You can figure out if it’s a public fansign or not by checking the location. If the location is a shopping mall in the open space you can be sure that it’s public, and there’s no limit. You can watch from anywhere from any floor!

Sometimes some fansigns will have a section saying the number of people allowed to ‘watch’. These are like runner-ups. So if you don’t get selected for the fansign you could be selected to watch. Typically for 100 people attending the fansign, about another 100-150 can ‘watch’. I haven’t been to a fansign like this one so i’m not sure what it means by ‘watch’, they may have an area for people to linger around in.

You can guess it’s private if it’s held inside a hall for example, or a roof top. My fansign experience was at the rooftop of Hyundai dept store and it was a private event. Exactly 100 fans were present, no more no less.

• Important tips to note for fansigns

1. If you’re attending a private fansign, do not take photos! As a matter of fact, if they say don’t take photos, don’t. Especially not before you get the signatures, obviously, you’re going to get kicked out! They will also make you delete the photos. Also because of the nature of fansigns being small in general, it’s hard to get away taking photos with so many ushers watching on. It’s not a concert atmosphere haha. If you’re in a private fansign, just sit back relax and enjoy the view.
2. Bring the album they are promoting. Of course.
3. Make full use of that post-it. Write things like ‘give more hearts please!’ and stuff that will get you fan interactions. The idols may not do it but you should maximize your chances since a fansign is so hard to get T.T
4. Ask for a handshake. For sure. The only physical contact you’re probably allowed with your idol. A hug would probably be turned down by the manager. And if you’re Taeyeon’s fan, she shakes fans’ hands with both of her hands so that’s probably your only chance to feel her hands clutching yours. Ever. She has also given hand cream to a fan before for dry hands so yeah. DO IT. SHAKE HER HAND.
5. Prepare gifts and write letters. If you want to, this is the best time to get a gift or letter to an idol securely.
6. Look your idols in the eyes. Even if it freezes you up or makes you tremble. When else would you get this opportunity.

I can’t help you any more than that. I can’t tell you what to say because i didn’t even know what to say myself. I can’t advise what’s the best way to get the best interactions because idk i also freeze up and fail to carry out all my plans and scripts. Just be respectful even if you’re spazzing inside that’s all i can say LOL. Being excited is ok though, they’ll probably find you cute.

Finally, that’s all for a very long post!! I hope this post has proven useful for some people out there hoping to get into these two elusive events! It’s certainly the best way to meet your idols close-up without paying a single cent!!! Paying instead with effort of course. Loads of it.

Paragliding at Ulsan w/ Ulsan Paragliding School

The post has come! I’ve just received the photos and videos so I can write this post! I was so excited about this trip and I hope this post can help a lot of people, because personally for myself I had trouble finding the right place and the right agency to engage.

The company that I chose was ulsanpara.co.kr they have an english website too, although the English is not perfect. Because Mr Lee’s written English is poor, on email he is going to sound rather… un-legit in the way he promotes his school. But don’t worry, from personal experience he’s a great guy and his team was very kind to us!

There were plenty of options around but because I was in Gyeongju and was heading to Ulsan, I hunted down this company! I’ve written the contact details etc at the bottom of this post.

So we started the day getting up early to eat breakfast before heading towards the meeting place at Taehwa hotel. It was kinda funny because we alighted at the bus stop right ouside Taehwa but couldn’t spot it and walked around the roundabout everywhere before finally realizing that it was right under our noses sigh.

A while later he turned up and brought us to the van. At this point Amber and I were still at that state of preparing to run if necessary HAHAHA, but after that we found out it wasn’t necessary. He was very friendly and spoke decent English, telling us there were 9 other Koreans coming along for this trip.

le paragliding van

The other Koreans came within half an hour’s time and then we were off! He chatted with us a lot and told us his travels from young, he’s litterally been everywhere including both Singapore and America – he really liked talking about Singapore! He said he had brought 5 Singaporeans before me in total, so i was the 6th haha. I was telling Amber that seeing Mr Lee talk made me both envious yet happy. It’s rare to encounter someone who has lived his life the way he wanted to and is still living the way he wants to. He’s had many years of work traveling as an engineer, and now he’s running his own paragliding school. And just by talking to him you can tell how fondly he talks about paragliding and his life. How often do we meet people perfectly contented with their lives like that?

Mr Lee told us that we were going to go to a new mountain that day and that we were lucky. That mountain was open because of an upcoming competition that weekend – usually it was closed. we drove up to the mountain but it seems like the winds were not in our favor.. Amber and I kept catching snippets of his conversation with the rest. Haha. It followed with a lot more driving to random mountains and landing areas and it seemed like that day really wasn’t favorable enough 😦 It wasn’t just Ulsan Para, there was a team from Busan as well and i got the feeling that they’re all acquainted and they typically help each other out by updating the conditions of various mountain locations. I fell asleep at one point and woke up to see that we were stopping somewhere. No idea if it was a landing or take off point but we all alighted and sat around while they talked and discussed about the weather.

The view from the place we stopped at!

It looked pretty and we were looking forward to fly in this area! But nothing was updated so we just sat in the warm sun and basked in it. A lady came over and asked us if we prepared lunch. We said we didn’t and she brought boxes of chocopies and asked us to take more :’)

We told her and some others from the team where we were from, and she was commenting in Korean how pretty we are. Haha. This is why I love Koreans, they are always so kind with their comments :’) She sat down with us at one point of time and told us in Korean that she is a hair designer and she closed her shop that day to follow the team to the mountains. I was quite surprised and did begin to wonder how many of the ordinary people meet have stories like these to tell. What kinds of lives do they lead outside of their work? I also hope to become someone like that, that apart from a career that I love, I would indulge in life and find things that make me happy. Let’s hope so~~~

After so many chocopies that she made us take, there was still no progress on the paragliding part. The team was still discussing and at one point they were climbing trees for idk what reason>???? the shoes they had on for climbing was cool though.

After that they all packed up and said they will go another place, i guess because of poor wind conditions. We headed back to the car and was offered some more food by the rest of the team LOL.

Bananas and chips!

We then took off again and went to search for more mountains. This time, we finally found somewhere to settle and we alighted again. I’m not sure what mountain this is but I know that it was somewhat a hiking and biking spot for the locals. There were tons of young children biking up and ahjummas and ahjusshis hiking up when we were driving.

   

Mr Lee took some test recordings from the camera lmao i didn’t think he was recording and i was cold, sorry for mah faceu. And then suddenly we were all getting ready! I dont think it was an official take off area for paragliding but everyone just took out all their equipments and Mr Lee started getting Amber ready for her flight!!

Amber getting prepared. Or was it me?? can’t tell omg

The flight itself is about 20 minutes long and we landed in the field a little ways off from the take off point. They give you a camera to hold the entire flight and they sent the files after that! I was looking through the photos and videos captured for mine and Amber’s flights, it was awesome! The camera quality was good (i think it was a gopro), our videos turned out so high quality and stable 🙂  To me, the photos and videos are important and it’s one of the reasons i would encourage paying a bit more to find a school that provides this service 🙂

with Mr Lee! Thanks for being a great host!!

All dressed up!

Amber in ze air

Me in ze air

love this photo of amber that i took~~~~ altho abit dark and i lazy adjust heh

Paragliding was a lot more peaceful than we expected. It was slow and i think the main part of it was seeing a good view. So i’m glad they brought us to that mountain which had a splendid view. At one point Mr Lee would do some stunts and tricks which included a very fast spiral downwards that got mucus all over our faces. I’m being gross here but it’s true it happens because it’s cold up there……..

He compiled our flights into a video which was cheesy HAHAHA. He also sent us the raw unedited version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvo-JSFzzFg Clicky to watch Mr Lee’s cute edit. Wind was very loud though LOL.

After our flight as we were waiting for everyone to finish, the team invited us to their table and fed us AGAIN. LOL. This time there were rolls of kimbap, grapes, coffee and bottles of coke. Haha. They were super nice to us and even gave us a blanket to keep ourselves warm.They made us feel so at home and also they were really funny, poking fun at all their team mates flying haha. I think they rarely have girls signing up to fly, especially girls without their boyfriends haha.

It was all over soon and it was almost 5pm at this time. We met up at 10am so do expect that it might take up most of your day, particularly because the winds are unpredictable so it might take time to find a good location. we all piled back onto the van and he drove us back to Taehwa hotel. He offered to drop us at Ulsan train station since we were headed to Busan to have dinner with Amber’s pastor and his wife, but we decided to go Taehwa instead since we can take a quick, affordable bus to Busan from around that area.

A Korean couple that was with us heard the conversation and called up their friends to ask about getting to Busan! o.o They told us they will bring us to the bus stop, so after Mr Lee dropped us off they drove us there! We were so surprised at their initiative and kindness :’) It all turned out well. We managed to rush to meet Amber’s pastor and his family, and had some really delicious chicken in Busan.

Yumz.

We rushed back to Busan bus terminal and caught the 8pm bus back to Seoul! Phew! Amber invited me to stay at her place sine we reached back pretty late at the bus terminal, but i really just wanted to go back to my bed in the dorm and have a good bath so i turned her down. She is really kind, love this girl so much. (And I miss her so much too, I’m typing this in June 2015 lol)

Type of Paragliding: Tandem Paragliding
Location: Ulsan (about 4-5 hours from Seoul, 40,800won for two-way bus ticket)
School/Agent: Ulsan Paragliding School
Price: 100,000 won / person
Flight Duration: Approx. 20 min
Website: http://eng.ulsanpara.co.kr/
Contact: Mr Lee Sang Cheon | ds5nfd@hotmail.com | 010-5510-3502
Mr Lee speaks English so you can contact him in English.
How to reserve: Just send him an email stating when you want to paraglide and for how many people. He will ask you to transfer the money and let you know where to meet.
How to retrieve your photos and videos afterwards: Mr Lee would ask you for the best way to send your files. Most likely he would upload to the site and send you the link. You can access the files from the home page under the videos header.

The start of cafe hopping~

I’ve been telling people the next time anyone asks me what my hobby is I’m going to say cafe hopping. Mainly because i’ve received that question 10000 times since exchange started, not surprisingly, and I always gave lame answers.

So far I’ve been to a little under 10 cafes in Korea? Been busy the first week with administration stuff and i only have two free weekdays and yeah ._. But trying to get into the habit of it!

Sogang has a few cafes inside the campus and I’ve been to two of them! Cafe May is really awesome because of its convenient location and also its nice affordable coffee. You can get a caffe latte at 1900 won which is about $2.50! Super cheap and nice! We hung out there a couple of times after class. I was googling for images of Cafe May but ah there was nothing 😦 will try to get a shot if i get the chance to! It’s a really popular cafe here in Sogang because of price location and ambience~ also speed, they take orders and make them really fast!

I’ve also been to the International Cafe which is at the Business building, it’s quieter and less of the cafe feel. But it has a bagel set consisting of a bagel of your choice and english breakfast tea for only 2200 won ($2.70) which is super worth it! It’s also a place where I see people studying a lot. They also have board games for you to play with! They call themselves the International Cafe with the promise that they will not speak Korean lol.

Right outside of Sogang, just next door from the main gate, is Coffee Break. I think it’s kind of a chain cafe but I haven’t seen it around so I might be wrong. It started off with one floor but expanded to the second floor and it’s really huge! It seems like a nice place to study! No pictures unfortunately ugh i need to get into the habit of taking pictures inside cafes without worrying about getting judged HAHA. Korean sim cards don’t let you turn off the camera shutter sound so i guess it’s a little tougher.

Just opposite the road near Coffee Break is Caffe Bene. It’s also kind of a chain cafe but oh gosh i love th einterior so much! So cosy ❤ Of course a little more pricey on the coffee price but what can I say, cafe hopping is an expensive (and fattening) hobby to begin with.

Remembered to take pictures this time!! I went with Jasmine during my long break and we didn’t want to go far so we just crossed the road LOL. I learned my lesson that i should probably explore my own area first and not keep thinking i have the chance to go there any time and thus should venture further if there’s time… because chances are i wouldn’t get to visit the nearby cafes at all hahaha. That’s what happened when i lived in Hongdae for 10 days and only visited one cafe ._.

Cosy seats!

More cosy seats and environment!

It was a good studying period because of the ambience and I sneaked in Kimbap to eat like how i always sneak in Old Chang Kee back to Coffee Bean in Singapore when I want to stay long periods at the cafe but dont’ really want to eat elsewhere. Hahahah. That officially kickstarted my Korean language revision and learning.

Another cafe I’ve been to is A Twosome Place. This is a pretty large chain cafe in Korea, there’s a really huge outlet near Sinchon station near my school, but I’ve only been there to look for Zenn. The one I went to was at CJ E&M building for music shows, and during morning periods they have an affordable breakfast set for 5000 won (sandwich + coffee). I say affordable because their cafe latte cost 4400 won haha so it’s just plus less than a dollar for sandwich. Unfortunately without that breakfast set the sandwich itself cost almost 5000won in itself.

Yet another chain cafe I went to is Hollys Coffee. Their coffee isn’t that expensive, similar to A Twosome Place, and the atmosphere was comfortable. Zenn and I sat there to talk for an hour plus!

A long time ago, early in the time I first came to Korea, we went to this very small homey cafe called Damso. Man their coffee was so expensive (6500 won for a latte, equivalent to almost $8) but the place was really nice for a long chat away from the noisy streets of Hongdae.

I haven’t talked about the coffee in particular in all the cafes haha… i’m a fan of coffee personally, the classic latte grew on me very gradually and became a favorite very quickly, but i’m no expert HAHAHAHA like tbh all cafes make good coffee and unless you really screw up the coffee i will like it. Some may be a little more bitter, some a little more sweet, but honestly as long as I like the taste I never take notice of that difference enough to remember or talk about it. I will only remember very particularly with flavored coffee like Mocha etc. Like Caffe Bene’s Mocha Frap was super sweet which wasn’t to my liking. But lattes are usually all good.

Note to self: Take more pictures of cafe interiors/exteriors since you don’t even talk about the coffee!!!

Another note to self: Organize an index for cafe hopping

Day 11: SNOWBOARDING!!

Finally!! Been waiting for this since forever LOL

I woke up at 6am (surprise surprise i woke up) and had to drag myself off the bed. The Korean girls that were bunking in just reached home at this time and one of them asked me for a shirt to borrow. I almost didn’t want to lend her cuz i don’t like them veyr much, but I did anyway and i prayed she would return it cuz it was an SMU shirt and i loved that shirt LOL.

Dragged myself off the bed, skipped breakfast and trudged to Hapjeong station and made it with time to spare. Met Zenn by coincidence and we got breakfast at a nearby convenience store.

Finally met the rest of the exchange kids! From SNU mostly though, so me and Zenn were just at one corner deciding how to join the conversation. We took the free shuttle bus at Gwanghwamun and the ride took about 40 min tops. Before i could even sleep we alr reached!

Gwanghwamun is famous for its palaces but haven’t gotten a chance to explore yet 😡

Jisan Resort~

We decided to wait till afternoon because it was alr 930 and a good one hour would be gone by the time we have suited up. We nua-ed in the canteen and bought really expensive food hahah.

Korean food always looks so good tho?!

We discussed about whether we should ski or snowboard and in the end it was only Nicole and I who decided to try snowboarding, Nicole mostly because she thought snowboarding was less taxing on her healing ankle. We only paid 33,000 won ($39) for the entrance + equipment as there was 50% citibank cards and enough people in the group had them!! 😀 The jacket and pants rental was only 12,000 won ($14~) so altogether we only spent a little over $50 for 4 hours of skiing/snowboarding!! SUPER WORTH IT i would totally go more often if i had time and a citibank card LOL.

Me posing before i knew what i was signing up for.

I learned very soon that snowboarding is as tough as it looks LOL. It was so tough trying to balance and I learned it the hard way. If I went straight down i would go too fast, and everytim i try to turn the board to brake i either fall before i succeed or i brake too suddenly and tumble. I had the most dramatic types of falls that day and probably the most times i’ve fallen in a few years. I’ve tumbled, rolled, leap-fell, head-over-heels-fell, somersaulted etc basically all the stunts that would seriously injure me if i wasn’t in the snow. At one point my head started ringing because I fell too hard down the slope and my hands were stinging from the cold and everything hurt :< I was so frustrated I googled to see if i was doing it correctly and found that i was supposed to keep my left leg in front instead of at the back. That’s actually the most common style, rarely do people use their right leg in front -_- I tried again the other way and it was a bit better, but still tumbling.

The slope isn’t even steep gdi mich you gotta buck up

“Calm the fuck down” #relevant

I rested after I made my way ONCE down the slope LOL and sat down with Zenn who kinda gave up cuz she hates extreme sports. You tried gurl, you tried. After resting and cooling down (was sweating man), I decided to go up once more. It’s a good thing I did, because suddenly I figured it out. Just like that. I didn’t do any thinking or deep pondering while i was resting but somehow my body figured it out. I figured out how to keep the board slanted to slow myself down, how to come to a stop, and how to steer left and right. All of a sudden i was doing it rather nicely, and the times i fell down were on purpose if i was going too fast and couldn’t brake on time. YAY!

At the end of the day i couldn’t decide if i liked skiing or snowboarding better haha.

I MISSED CURRY SO MUCH crey we ate at a Korean style food court after that at Gwanghwamun. In Korean style food courts, you have to order at the cashier and they’ll give you a receipt or in some cases, a device reflecting your queue number. The menu is divided into the different stalls and you have to take note which stall you ordered from, and keep watching the queue number reflected at the top of that stall. Korean food court stalls are usually large open kitchens and the counters are used only to serve food, so it looks clean and empty. Will try to get a picture of it soon.

Zenn and I also found out that SM The Ballad was still promoting so we dropped by KBS building to see if the notice is up. We also had some coffee and HTHT’ed, it was a great session :’) We didn’t manage to see the notice so we went home earlier.

OTW back to the hostel, I met these two girls who stopped me and asked if I was a student. Upon discovering I was a foreigner, they spoke to me in English and talked about really weird things like karma and fortune. I was freaked out and i held onto my bag tightly in case this was a case of teamwork robbery. I had no idea what was their end goal?? Do they want me to consult them and pay? Do a survey? idk. I was tired from falling everywhere and now you’re gonna tell me about my karma?? :< I got scared as it was late so i told them i really needed to go off. Luckily they let me off and i made it back safe in the dorm phew.

That was my only creepy encounter so far in Korea. Hongdae streets are always alive at night so I never felt worried returning home late. Anyways that was my last night in Mamas and Papas Hongdae Guesthouse since I’m moving into the dorm!

Day 8: Yonsei dormitory and the 1st Korean friend!

Day 8 began with Zenn moving to Yonsei dormitories! We took a cab down and I went along to help her with her luggage. The cab driver was chatting with us and he revealed that his daughter is a SHINee fansite OTL but we didn’t ask who God bless him he was so proud and supportive

Her dorm is actually quite spacey I’m jealous! ):

blurred pic damn! But the light was bad and i left the house immediately after waking up so no camera LOL

I doubt our dorm is gonna be this spacey!

We met up again with Sarah and Dinny (once again i think im spelling it wrong) and Shaun (the yonsei shaun not the hostel one) and we had some yummy tofu soup! My favorite in Singapore! But so spicy here 😦

We hung around abit more and I returned to the hostel. I wasn’t really in the mood to do any traveling and decided to just go home and rest. I also decided to save money by eating the hostel bread for dinner.

HOSTEL UPDATES!

As i was lazing around, a new roomie entered! She started speaking to me in Korean and for a while it was okay. Then after a few minutes she tentatively approached me and asked if I’m a Korean, and I said i’m not. Then she asked if I’m from China OTL T.T She was really nice and very quirky, she was eager to keep striking a conversation with me and was just so warm and friendly. We spoke a bit in half Korean and half English and she invited me over to view some videos. At first I thought it was some random videos and it turned out it was videos she made herself! It was a very nifty app called Magistro or something like that. She showed me videos of herself traveling that day and then asked if I wanted to make a video. Just like that, we took random videos acting cute and also invited Sasha, another exchange student from Sogang in that dorm, to join us.

She started talking about her travels and I asked her when she was leaving. She said tomorrow, cuz she wants to go see Insadong and return back to Busan that day. She asked if I’ve been to Insadong and I said nope and she then asked if I have plans tmr. So that’s how we settled on going Insadong together! And officially, the first Korean friend and technically unnie because she’s older than me, that I’ve made in Korea! And school hasn’t even started yet!

I think that’s really the beauty of staying in hostels, people who come and go here are mostly alone, especially those who stay in the 6-bed girls dorm haha. There’s a sort of automatic mutual kindness between travelers that I’ve seen often on this exchange. It’s like an unspoken bond is formed instantly when you know you’re a stranger in a foreign place, and this stranger you see before you is exactly the same. Even if you both are too different in personality and background, at that moment you are companions bonded by circumstance. I personally find it so beautiful because it’s friendship forged in the purest of intentions. Too often we are settled in our comfort zone and never find the need to spare a smile or start a conversation unless it serves a purpose to us. I really think traveling has pushed me out of this comfort zone and in the process, i’ve heard so many beautiful stories and met so many incredible people. Grateful for the journey so far and looking for more to come. I always tell people who ask me how’s Korea so far, that the most interesting part of it is the people. Not the sights or activities or food, but the people that come and go.

I have quite a few things to talk about Insadong and the travel with Yumi unnie, so I’ll leave that for another day as I’ve got to sleep and rest for skiing!!!!!! (This is Day 10 that I’m typing this it’s 1:20am and i just ate bread and egg and i’ve got to wake up at 6am to catch the shuttle bus it’s okay it’s exchange so #yolo)

Day 2 and 3: Myeongdong, “Moon Embraces the Sun” Musical, Digital Media City and Gwanghwamun

On Day 2, I received a Facebook message from Sam and she and Matthias just reached Seoul the day before! So we decided to meet at their place in Myeongdong because we needed to get EG sim card and they are only available in certain places in Seoul, Myeongdong being one of them.

So it’s Myeongdong again yay!

I like this place although it’s a rip-off to tourists, please do bargain when you purchase stuff, usually they’d allow cuts of 2000 won, any more is usually hard and depends on how good or convincing you are. For the sake of it, here are some terms:

깎아주세요 Gga-gga juseyo: “Please lower the price”
깎아주면안돼요? Gga-gga ju-myeon an-dwe-yo?: This is my own way of saying it, it’s a little more of a sad plea LOL “Is it not possible to lower the price? :(” and it gets the shopkeepers looking a little more flustered/somehow LOL.
저는 학생인데요… jeo-neun hak-saeng in-dae-yo: “I’m a student…” which is a way of saying you have no money. I tried this a few times and one time the shopkeeper replied “I’m also a student!” so i failed oh wells but it should work most times LOL.

We chatted with one shopkeeper and he cut the price for us nicely. He was asking us which country we liked better, Singapore or Seoul? And praised our country for being clean. It was awkward cuz it’s not that we couldn’t understand but how do we praise his country in return and even begin to answer if we like Spore or Seuol better?? I wouldn’t be able to answer these questions even in English.

Zenn was telling me to pull the ‘oppa’ card if the shopkeepers refuse, it COULD work but I never tried it! Oppa is a friendly way of a younger female person greeting an older male person. Oh yes on this note, Koreans typically ask for age pretty early in any conversation, in fact they hardly ever ask for my name before my age, cuz they wanna find out first how to talk to us. I’ve been lucky to meet Koreans younger than me so far so if I slip up on my formalities it’s okay hahaha. But when I meet older Koreans, especially elderly, I’m going to have to formalize my speech like by three levels OTL I’m REALLY bad at that…

Oh yes fun fact! 네 ‘Nae’ means ‘yes’ in Korean, and is a typical general response when talking to people to acknowledge what they said or answer their questions. For elderly though, we’re actually supposed to say 예 ‘Ye’ as it’s more polite, I had no freaking idea and  we have been saying nae to everyone including the elderly asking us stuff ._. sorry!!

The street food too!! Super amazing and cheap :’) mostly ranging from 1,500 – 3,000 won (less than $5)

 

 

Ah btw here’s some explanation on EG Sim card for foreigners that we obtained on Day 2: https://darmawanders.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/eg-sim-card-for-foreigners/

Anyway it was a short trip because we had to head to Seoul Arts Center for Seohyun’s muscial! Yay finally!

The musical was great, based off a drama i really loved “The Moon that Embraces the Sun” ahhhhhhh i loved that drama so much I had to attend the musical, specially since Seohyun was playing. I understood less than half of it but oh wells it was still great :’)

As we left, we were lucky enough to bump into Taeyeon and Yoona who were leaving from backstage after watching Seohyun’s musical :)))) Really lucky to have seen all three of them up close in just the 2nd day of Seoul!! ❤

(As promised, no spazzing here, spazzing remains in IGAT. Let’s just say i had no idea they attended the musical and it was an amazing surprise :’))

Fast forward to 3rd day!

3rd day was a lot more lazy. We again slept in till the afternoon and headed down after that to Digital Media City because we heard the notice was up for MCountdown! For those who are unsure what it is, basically Korea holds 5 weekly music shows for music artists to promote their latest albums. M Countdown is one of them. Zenn and I wanted to go for at least 1 because currently both Taeyeon and Jonghyun are promoting TOGETHER for SM the Ballad and it’ll be so awesome to watch them perform live. The best part is that it’s free lol.

So how it works is that as soon as the notice is up, you’d have to head down to CJ E&M Center at Digital Media Center (at least for M Countdown) and take a selca with the notice and send it to the number posted there. The notice would be at some random wall in the area LOL. They’ll reply you with your queue number, mine was 23 and Zenn 24. What this means is that we were 23 and 24 in line for the non official fans queue. Official fans are those who paid to register membership and so they get in first no matter what. So let’s say on the day itself 300 official fans turn up and 300 is the quota that day, then you will never get through. But still, 23 and 24 were good numbers so it was pretty hopeful we could get in. We would have to return at night for a ‘roll call’ where they will confirm your registration and slash out those that didn’t appear. They’ll then tell you what time to come the next day to catch your artist’s recording live. Still no guarantee tho cuz as i mentioned, official fans always get priority.

Regardless, it’s nice we don’t have to physically queue, just get down early when you know the notice is up, so you can get a good number, and turn up for the roll call. Next day is a designated time so you can relax and if you’re not meant to enter cuz of the official fans, getting earlier isn’t going to help anything!

After this, we headed down to Kwanghwamun to explore, meet Shaun (another Yonsei student  and also to get SM the Ballad album because we need it to enter music shows. Lol. Turns out it’s pointless though, because we found out later on there’s gonna be two fansigns going on and you have to purchase an album from the organizing party to qualify for the lottery/lucky draw! So we’d probably head down tmr and get those 🙂

Oh yes and SM the Ballad got cancelled .____. we were so disappointed to find out! They rarely ever cancel shows but I think it was a rare circumstance. So we won’t be going any music shows, but instead try to get a fansign.

We also met Shaun going to Yonsei!! He just arrived today so we had dinner with him~ nice to meet another Korean speaking Singaporean!! He said apparently Kwanghwamun was also a Running Man filming location but i didn’t take photo 😦 We walked around abit and ate somewhere with a really nice ahjumma but the food portion was so big lmao. When you see food prices a little pricey, e.g. 18000 won for one portion ($20ish), sometimes it’s not that the food is actually pricey, it could just be the portion was huge. We packed them back.

Good news is I seem to be catching on Korean a little faster now! After all the speaking with service staff I could catch on a bit faster when they speak, but my talking is still weak. Haha.

Two new Koreans from Jeju moved in today! They’re super cute and are EXO fans and we sat down together at 2am+ to watch Kim Yuna skate and own everyone. Koreans are SO proud of Kim Yuna it’s really cute ❤ she’s like their national treasure. The Koreans I watched with just kept sighing and proclaiming 멋있다 which means ‘She’s so cool’ haha. And she didn’t let them down yesterday – 1st place!!

That’s all for now! Today we’re separating to help each other get the albums for the two separate fansigns, so it’ll be interesting i think. We promised to get each other a 5000 won gift from the different sides of the world we’ll be in~ I’ll prolly explore Ilsan while I’m at it! 🙂 Shall plan my itinerary~

Planning for an exchange in South Korea // Sogang University

So this is a long overdue post but thought i’d make one for people who’d be interested to read if they’re going Korea for exchange! This post is going to contain some Sogang stuff as well. When I was preparing I had such a lack of information when I google, the bulk of the info was from friends or discovered when they happened, so I decided to write a rough one for people seeking info. Warning: very lengthy post ahead!!

This post is only relevant when you’ve received confirmation from your university (btw congrats if you’ve already received!!! Yay you’re going Korea on exchange!!!) so this will NOT include the health checkup, filling up Sogang’s application form etc your school will assist you pretty closely on this part. So without further ado, some important things you need to prepare before exchange~

1. Flight ticket and visa

I got my flight ticket wayyyy before i got a confirmation from Sogang because I’m quite kanchiong and there was a promotion hahaha. I got myself a round ticket for $820 from STA which to me is quite a steal considering I’m flying Singapore Airlines. You could get a single trip too but I think it wasn’t much cheaper, and it was more worth t getting the round trip ticket and paying a little more to change the return flight afterwards. Granted, you must decide on your return date earlier (2 months prior) because the admin fees get a lot more expensive the harder it is to get a flight. Minimum admin fee was quoted to be $75. I have 30kg baggage allowance and 7kg handcarry. Yay. Don’t scrimp too much on flight because you’re gonna have lots of baggage.

Now coming to visa. The troublesome part. First of all, which visa to get? There are two types of visa for exchange students, single entry and multiple entry. The trick is that when you enter Korea, you need to apply for a compulsory ARC (Alien Registration Card, ikr we are aliens basically). Mine is due to be arranged by Sogang so I don’t have to worry. The ARC should be done by around April, about a month’s time period, and with that ARC you can leave and enter Korea multiple times no matter what visa you have. So if you’re not planning to leave Korea and then return in that one month period while your ARC is being made, get the single visa. Single visa is about $76 and multiple is about $110ish if I’m not wrong. You can play safe and get multiple entry if you’re worried but I think it’s money well saved, if you’re not planning to leave Korea in that time.

Things you need to bring for visa application? Gawd I was so annoyed because I had to return and come back despite being prepared and researching about people’s experiences. So on top of what you can find on other’s blogs, take my list into consideration and play safe on this part. The first 10 are what was given to me, the next 2 are the additional things I had to bring.

1. Passport, valid for at least 6 months
2. Birth certificate
3. Visa Application form (download at their website)
4. One color passport-sized photograph taken within the last 6 months
5. Certificate of Admission issued by Partner University
6. Acceptance letter issued by Partner University
7. Certification letter issued by home university
8. Documentary proof of financial support of yourself (bank statements, salary slips etc)
9. Letter from Financial Sponsor stating/confirming support (if any)
10. Census registry (only for Mainland Chinese)
11. IC and photocopy of IC
12. Re-entry permit 

Because I was not Singaporean I had to have IC etc and i didn’t bring it for some stupid reason on that day, so I had to return again. And I printed by re-entry permit just in case and thank god i did because they asked for it. If you’re not Singaporean take note of these additional details.

For me, they didn’t need the birth certificate and proof of financial support (note that this could ONLY be for Sogang, because in Sogang’s form you could indicate how you’re financially supported and the form was signed by Sogang, thus it was enough proof that I had financial support. I noticed Yonsei didn’t have this). My friend from Yonsei got her bank statements stamped by the bank to verify. For those getting financial support elsewhere unfortunately i’m not sure how the letter from financial sponsor would be like.

The staff there are not very pleasant as expected from a lot of embassy staff, so please prepare very very well. They’re not kind on the unprepared at all. I didn’t bring photocopies of the acceptance letters etc for example and they are NOT going to help you do it. They have a photocopier there but no paper stocked up when I was there and they’re NOT willing to give you paper. Very reluctant, if they have to, or else they’ll ask you to recycle whatever papers you have on hand. In my case, the photocopy of my birth certificate which they didn’t need – they asked me to use that to photocopy my other stuff. Also paste the photograph on your application form I just pinned it there and they weren’t happy LOL.

They also wait for your queue number for about 3 seconds and skip you if they don’t see you getting up. Which is mean because they put a TV there and that makes it distracting. I got passed over once and had to prowl near the counter the second time i took a number, and leap up dramatically the moment it’s my call.

Overall, not a pleasant experience but i’m at fault too anyway for not preparing properly.

So after you’ve finally succeeded (congrats!! i hope you made it 1st try) they’ll issue you this slip of paper for you to collect your passport. It took 3 working days for mine.

2. Insurance

Ah insurance, another headache. STA had a student assist insurance for $310ish for 6 months ,which is quite okay but the downside is that they don’t include illness medical expenses. They only include accidental medical expenses which is self-explanatory. Stomach flu, food poisoning and the likes, are all under illness medical expenses so they are NOT covered. Medication from doctors etc NOT covered. Take note!! It is only covered when you get Plan B I think, which is a lot more expensive than basic Plan A.

The cheapest so far is from Direct Asia at $270+ but I’ve heard about difficulty of claiming so I didn’t get that.

In the end i got myself the MSIG basic plan which includes illnesses etc and it cost me $319.50 for a coverage of 5 months. They have some of the best coverage out there for travel, in terms of variety and also amount claimable, and i heard they are easier to claim from. Of course it’s more pricey than the rest. 6 months insurance from MSIG was quoted $380 i think. I may have to extend but for now I doubt I’ll be staying more than 5 months.

3. Sogang related!

this part is all about Sogang so skip if you aren’t going Sogang~~

The letter from Sogang came rather late. I received nothing since the first letter regarding acceptance into Sogang, in fact the next email was chasing us for insurance. It was written in the acceptance pack that we need to submit insurance evidence but at that point we had no idea how we were supposed to do it.

The official email arrived on 10th January which was slightly less than 2 months before the semester starts. The email attached a pre-departure handbook and a guide for incoming students. At this point they will also invite you to join the Facebook page which is very helpful and the best way to ask for help or stalk the other students from other universities!!! The guide is very comprehensive and should answer all your enquiries.

Course registration for Sogang began on 21st January and it was super hectic. Take note that the modules you’ve mapped based on last year’s courses are but a LOOSE guide because a lot of modules were removed for my semester which means re-planning. Courses for the semester started to be released and confirmed a few days prior to the registration day, so make sure you set aside ample time for re-planning. Course registration are based on the fastest fingers first lol so i was camping on my IE (yes they only do internet explorer sigh) at 10am.

Sogang is very very helpful with this and the staff on facebook are cute with their replies. Could feel the concern and sincerity from them so I’m super pleased I’m in Sogang.

After registering courses they will prompt you to register for Korean classes, which is every Monday Tuesday and Thursday. Yep i doubt you can expect to have many free days for Sogang, since regular classes are also twice a week and mostly mondays/wednesdays/fridays combinations and tues and thurs you have Korean so alkjghlaksjdhglka. You could choose not to take Korean though. About $350 deposit required for Korean classes, it will be returnd if you have 80% attendance and you pass. Placement test will be conducted if you’ve learned before. Also  you will sign up for other things like your buddy if you need one, airport pickup, etc. They ask you if your personality is outgoing or reserved in the buddy form I WAS SO CONFUSED I HAD A PERSONALITY DILEMMA. And also your interests hahaha.

4. Accommodation

If you’re planning to travel before you’re allowed to check in to the Sogang dorm, accommodation is going to be very tiring. Now I’m travelling with Zenn from Yonsei so we were looking for a hostel near those Yonsei and Sogang. We raided airbnb, hostelworld, hostelbookers and finally narrowed down to two choices. Here are some things you can consider when looking for accomms:

• Location. Hongdae is a good young-people hangout place that’s relatively close to Sogang and Yonsei. Sinchon is even nearer, but you get less of the excitement in Hongdae (I think? I’ll find out soon) Find those that takes 5 min walk from Hongik Univ station if possible. We got the 10 min walk one though, but mostly because other factors were taken into consideration.
• Price. Depending on your budget~ Zenn had a budget so we searched for below $20 per night, since it was only a couple of nights.
• BATHROOM i kid you not this was important to me. It was the deciding factor for me because the other option, Sinchon Kimchee Guesthouse, had cubicle style bathrooms which i generally dislike.
• Reviews. There are bound to be good reviews but trust the bad ones over the good ones. If there are no bad ones, take the chance, they could actually be that good.
• Rooms. The bf forbid me to go for mixed dorms so i tried for 6-room female dorms.
• Facilities. Some of them don’t have heaters and some hostel sites don’t state heaters, they just state air-conditioners. Read the description of the hostels, if they have heaters they will say they have heaters. If they don’t, don’t bet on it, you don’t wanna freeze to death. Washing machines and dryers are some things to consider as well.
• You get what you pay for. Don’t expect too much paying $16 per night!

Taking all of these into consideration, we picked Mamas & Papas Hongdae Guesthouse. I made the booking via hostelworld which was the cheapest rate for this guesthouse. Remember to compare across all platforms, they tend to differ and even though hostelbookers is generally cheaper for a lot of hostels, hostelworld was cheaper for Mamas & Papas. Research research research.

Granted, Mamas & Papas was not the best ever choice because it gets noisy and it’s small and reviews are also rather mixed. But we decided on this as it seems more cosy and is as good as you can expect for $16/night, so let’s see how it really turns out!

Book in advance because it gets bothersome if some dorms are not available on one or two random dates in your entire 10 days stay.

For those with more budget, you can get decent single or double rooms for $20-$30 in the same guesthouses with bunk beds. Sinchon for example had double rooms for $23/night which is super great given the bathroom is ensuite. I think that if you’re staying single or double rooms you can be assured it will be comfy and private, just look out for other factors like location price etc. I’d think it’s more worth it to get double / single rooms in guesthouses than in a private apartment because essentially you still have your own room so why get an apartment? Esp if you’re traveling with a friend, a double room in a guesthouse is sweet. That’s just me though.

Then again, i’m prolly hypocritical when the BF comes along in May I’m looking out for apartment style LOL. You can find a decent, small studio apartment on BnB for $50ish per night (exclusing booking fee – oh yeah hostelworld and hostelbookers have no booking fees \O/). Airbnb does this per person thing so make sure when you are choosing options, state the number of people and they will help you calculate automatically if there are extra fees, and just give you the total cost. On some days it could be cheaper rate too but they don’t break it down for you on Airbnb. Hostelworld and hostelbookers do. So anyway back to extra charge… e.g. an apartment was quoted $50 per night when you selected 1 person. If you see they state $13 extra charge per person, it means the rate for 2 people will be $63/night. You’ll see the rate automatically re-calculated when you change the selection to 2 people. They also have the maximum number of people they can accommodate.

I’ve been prowling around and dammit the family apartments look sooooooo cosy i could cry. They are designed so prettily with so much space in the house creycrey

Oh yes before I forget, goshiwons! These are one-room accommodations that’s basically like your own dorm for only $18ish.

Goshiwons are typically for students and was actually created for students who can’t find dorm space in their universities. So these goshiwons are very near our universities. But heard from Zenn and her Korean friends that goshiwons are sometimes shady and info is very limited so we decided not to. But if you must, try goshipages. One problem is that you need to call and speak in Korean, I sent a message in English because it wrote that messages in English are okay, but no reply.

I’m probably gonna try a goshiwon for the extra month I’m staying in Korea though, so you can expect a review of that!

SO yeah. That’s about it for accomms.

5. Moneyyyy

okay so i’m not settled on this part yet so i have no right to really be blogging about it but anyway. Plan is to change a thousand or two to settle accomms and expenses for the first 10 days, once i move in to Sogang I’ll open the bank account and TT the money to the Korean bank. Which is really quite sucky actually, transferring online is a sucky rate so as much as I can, my parents enourage me to bring cash that I change over here and deposit there.

Citibank is the only bank Korea will accept, so if you don’t have an account there probably you’ll need to open one in Korea.

6. Clothes

Nope not really that important but just the vain part of me speaking

Do you know Korea has those kind of fleece leggings that are really warm but don’t look thick. Some even look translucent. Zenn brought me hers and it was actually like an inch thick and lined with fleece despite how it looks. E.g. this one here from qoo10:

Get your main coats in Singapore in January period where they start putting winter stuff on sale, because they’re not much cheaper in Korea. But thermal wear don’t get too many because Singapore winter wear retailers especially are quite rip-offs and may not be the best solution. Trust the locals who lived in winter seasons to come up with cheaper, more efficient winter essentials! Especially essentials where you don’t compete on fashion but more on efficiency. Trust locals! And leggings > jeans anytime i always froze my ass in jeans but these leggings are so warm. Also sweaters are affordable along Edae area in Korea so be patient and wait for it, they’ve got stuff as cheap as 5000 won!

I got my thermal leggings a bit expensive from Uniqlo (no time to order from qoo10 and hope it can arrive on time) but you can bet i’d get those sneaky fleece leggings and jeggings in Korea. I have finally uncovered the secret behind those japanese and korean girls prancing around in thin looking leggings and i was always judgin and thinking ‘pfft it’s ok they must be freezing to look that good’ WHEN I’M THE ONE FREEZING IN MY AUTHENTIC EXPENSIVE JEANS DAMMIT

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That’s about it so far! Feel free to ask me about anything~

I also have some things to rant about my packing list and my expense excel sheet HAHAHA but that will be a separate day for another post. Right now i’ve got some frequent Topik vocabulary list to memorize so i won’t screw up in Korea LOL ciao!

D-12!

So recently it’s just been announced that Taeyeon and Jonghyun are going to be collaborating for SM the Ballad!! Now this is superb news for me and the fox because we are Taeyeon and Jonghyun extremely-biased fans. Earlier before the fox had kindly offered to go for music shows with me for SNSD’s comeback, and agreed to pay $100+ to accompany me to Seohyun’s musical. It’s so much more exciting now because she has her own intrinsic motivation to go to the music shows and don’t even get me started on how I imagine Taejong’s voices would sound together lakjdhglakjg.

It’s D-12 and I haven’t started packing but I’ve got a packing list already! *pats myself on the back* And I’ve been focusing my time on studying Korean so I won’t flunk the placement test.

Our itinerary for Korea right now looks fab.

Day1: Check-in to the dorm, eat street food, take a train down to a shopping mall to shop for winter essentials.
Day 2: Visit our schools – Yonsei and Sogang, and also drop by Ehwa while we’re at it because beautiful campus. Attend Seohyun’s musical at night!
Day 3: Go to Myeongdong for more city exploring and shopping! At night queue for M Countdown!!!
Day 4: M Countdown!! Taeyeon and Jonghyun!

And basically that’s all we really planned AHAHAHAH but we’re getting there. I’m sure skiing would be somewhere in there.

I’m checking in to my dorm only on Day 10 so I still have almost a week to plan for. No worries I’m certain we’d find something to do even if it means hobo-ing on the streets.