Chapter 1 : Arrival
We touch down at Incheon International Airport in the early hours of the 26th of August. We filled some forms at the immigration section of the airport, before finally reaching the arrival halls.
We walked along the hallways before we finally met the student representatives, donning blue and white Dankook University T-Shirts. They ticked our names on the attendance sheets, before bringing us to the PCR Test center for us to get our Covid tests. Due to the current regulations in Korea, all who touched down in the country had to get themselves tested first before we could explore the rest of Korea.
The university had chartered large tour-sized busses for us in advance. When we settled down at the waiting area, we also visited our first convenience store (C U) at the airport. Entering the store, we were pretty shocked to find out that it was actually unmanned! However, we would soon find out that it would be the case for many other convenience stores as well, as the norm in Korea was for stores to be unmanned (Quite unthinkable in other countries!).
I decided to test out my YouTrip card by purchasing an item in the store, a small box of chewing gum. I scanned the item, tapped a few times on the terminal, inserted my card and then that was it. It was as simple as that!
Chapter 2 : Our Dormitory
The busses came and brought the group of us and many other exchange students to the dormitory. We stayed at the 10 Story Woongbi Hall, located at the topmost part of the University.
The University is massive, with many of its main roads being 4 lanes wide. The whole school is situated along the mountain, meaning in order to access the dorm you would need to climb up quite a bit. The bus stop also required around a 3 minute walk before you could reach the actual dormitory itself.
Dormitory blocks are split apart as there are multiple, however it seems like foreign exchange students only stay at Woongbi Hall, with the left side of the building for Females only and right side for Male only.
When we reached the dormitory, we were each given a file with our university identity card slotted in and a set of documents with dormitory rules and regulations, as well as our bedding sets that we had pre-purchased earlier before coming to Korea. We used the cards that were given and went into our dorms to explore our living quarters for the next 4 months.
Each room in the dormitory held 2 persons each, had a en-suite toilet, a fridge, shoe cabinets, wardrobes, desks, swivel chairs and ofcourse beds. Each room had no fan, but instead a temperature un-adjustable air conditioner and a window with 4 layers.
The hallway was also nice, it had clothing racks for residents to dry clothes and also housed a lounge area outside with a microwave, tv, several couches and a balcony.
Laundry rooms for each respective sides were located on the first floor, while the rubbish center was located opposite from the building in a blue shipping container shack.
Even though it was just our first day, we weren’t there to take a break! We quickly dropped off our luggage, brought our belongings along and went straight for lunch.
Chapter 3 : Food
As we were deciding where we wanted to go along the way down from the University, we ended up meeting some other foreign exchange students, namely from European countries. Together, we went to visit and eat at the diner near the bottom of the hill, right outside of the university.
The first meal we ate in Korea was definitely delicious, we had a pan in the center with meats and lots of spicy sauces.
The food here in Korea, especially when visiting restaurants, almost always comes with many different free-flow sides, such as Kimchi, Pickled Radish, Coleslaw, and many other variants of spicy vegetables.
Places for food also always have water dispensers, meaning that water is free flow as well wherever you go. You don’t ever have to pay for water, and we even found water dispensers along shopping malls sometimes!
Chapter 4 : Transport
After lunch, we had to settle our means of transport. In Korea, just like in Singapore, you would also need a card to board public transportation such as busses and trains. A T-Money card needs to be used, which can be purchased from convenience stores outside the university (We went to a 7-Eleven) for around 3,000-4,000 won.
After purchasing the card, you can also top it up inside the store. We recommend topping up 50,000 won, as travelling a lot will rack up costs pretty quickly as we found out from experience. With the 50,000 won balance, you won’t have to worry about the card for another few weeks.
There is a large bus stop located right at the entry of the university that is outbound. The most important bus services are bus 24 and 8100, the bus service goes through the school and outside to Jukjeon and Downtown Seoul respectively.
Taking bus 24 costs 1,350 and will bring you to Jukjeon interchange after a few stops, which houses the Shinsegae Luxury Goods shopping center and EMart, a large 7 floor store with many groceries and household items (Just imagine NTUC in Singapore, except more MASSIVE). The interchange also has Jukjeon metro, which you can use if you need to access other locations by train.
Taking bus 8100 costs 2,800 and will bring you to Myeongdong, the Orchard Road of Korea. The trip takes about 1 hour, and you should only be taking this during excursions on weekends.
The way transportation works in Korea is different than in Singapore. No matter how many stops you take on a bus in Korea, the cost price will always be the same, and will be charged immediately upon entering the bus, as displayed on the card terminal as you tap in. You must also make sure that every time you leave the bus that you tap out.
Bus 24 is special for Dankook, as it will also bring you up from the bottom of the university to the middle part (You will still need to walk up to the dorm). Boarding the bus at the entrance of Dankook inbound, you actually do not need to tap your card, and the bus will still bring you up 2 stops.
Chapter 5 : Shopping
On our first day, we took Bus 24 to the EMart and bought many things we needed for living, such as food, cloth, baskets, soap, etc. Opposite the EMart across the street is also Daiso, but unlike Singapore’s outlets, its not all $2, but rather a large range of prices from 1,000 – 5,000 won. From there, we bought containers, bowls, plates and many other household items.
The shopping experience in Korea is alot more advanced than in Singapore, as most stores already have self-check out systems and manned checkouts are not as necessary anymore. However, most stores do not offer plastic bags and you would need to top up extra for it.
Make sure to bring along your backpacks and large ikea bags, because you’re gonna need it to store all the stuff you’ll be buying!
Chapter 6 : Downtown Seoul
On our third day, we decided to get out of Jukjeon and visit downtown Seoul, where all the shopping malls and shopping districts are located at. We visited Myeongdong using Bus 8100, and spent our whole day there.
Not only were we really tired, but we didn’t even manage to explore 10% of the area! There was really too many things to see, and definitely 10 hours, despite being a lot, was not enough time to explore the whole area.
Together, we visited many different stores, jumping between cosmetics, clothes and sneakers!
Chapter 7 : Orientation
The following days from our expedition signaled the start of 3 days of orientation, where we went to the lecture theatre at the international hall to hear about information regarding our lessons and life at school.
They showed us introductory videos, where the location of schools are on campus as well as the stationary shop, cafeteria, convenience store locations, bank and ATM to withdraw money.
They also had an introductory Korean language lecture, where we were taught many basic terms and the alphabet in Korea, and we left being able to form simple sentences and read some basic characters.
When coming to Dankook, you will have to fill up certain forms, with student information and most importantly the ARC form.
As a foreigner in Korea, you will have to apply for the Alien Registration Card, which gives you access to most services just like a normal Korean citizen. However, due to the Covid situation now, the card is expected to arrive in about 3 months, meaning that we will be getting it right before we leave the university. How unlucky!
Chapter 8 : Korean Folk Village
On the third day of our orientation session, we had the chance to travel to Korea Folk Village, a tourist attraction in our city of Yongin-si. The location was a goldmine for ancient traditional housing and lifestyle, as they had kept most of the old house still standing.
While the school paid for the trip and transport, they allowed us to freely roam around the location to our hearts content. And so, we started exploring the different sections of the village.
The village was huge, and divided into multiple parts, namely the amusement park, sculpture park, village park. The moment the bus brought us to the location, we were greeted with a traditional Korean dance and performance, where many dressed in traditional Korean outfits were parading down the stretch of road near the entrance, dancing and playing many musical instruments such as tambourines while smiling at cameras along the street.
The village park included many old pavilions and mansions both belonging to regular people and royalties. We visited ancient government buildings, as well as peasant farmer homes to see the differences in architecture and living conditions.
The amusement park had more modern attractions, such as a pirate ship ride and a drop tower that we tried many times over until we were finally satisfied.
Chapter 9 : Lessons
After the 3 days of orientation, we started the first days of our lessons, where we visited the classrooms with our laptops and notebooks.
The lessons are held in classrooms quite similar to NYP, with some rooms having round tables (Like group project rooms) and some other rooms just like normal classrooms, with desks arranged like in secondary school. The only lesson that required us to visit a lecture theatre was Discrete Mathematics.
Despite the classes being held solely in English, we were surprised to see that majority of the people attending the lessons were still Koreans. About 50% or more of each class was Koreans. The teachers were Korean too, so for some of them when they were talking they had a slight bit of accents which made it hard for us to understand them completely.
However, most of them were still able to put across the message they were trying to convey, so the lesson could progress. Overall, the topics that we took were definitely interesting, but since it was still the first week most teachers did not cover the actual topics, but rather just did an introduction for the class content.
Closing : Writer’s Thoughts
The first week of our exchange program was packed to the brim with lots of exploration and discovering. Together, we spent every single day out since the day we arrived, and I was tired by the end of the week.
It felt extremely rewarding, however going out alone you may feel out of place, and hence I hope that you, the reader reading this, will be able to experience it whole with your best friends and people that are the most closest to you.
This way, you would be able to squeeze out the best and most amazing parts in visiting a country you are unfamiliar with.
The next issuance of the blog will continue with Yong Lin’s input. See you again soon.
Signing Off,
Holden
(NYP -> DKU) Exchange Program 