1) Travel/여행
Traveling around South Korea is easy but there are different ways to travel around the country. My personal favorite is through the express bus. Yes,using the KTX is faster, but it is also more than twice as expensive as the buses. A KTX ticket can be 48,000 to 60,000 each way depending on the type of train you take(most prices being 52,000 and 58,000). An express bus ticket can be 11,000 to 26,000 one way depending on what region you are going to. Taking the bus is also a great way to see the country road trip style without having to drive.
First, you would download this app, make an account in settings (you can ask a Korea friend to help you but I made mine on my own. it was really straightforward) and then choose your departure and arrival cities and reserve tickets for those seats. It's a lot more convenient than going to the Express Bus terminal (고속터미널) and hoping there are tickets remaining.
After you get your tickets, there will be a little image showing you how to scan them in the bus when you are boarding and the menu showing you all your tickets will look like this bottom picture (I had tickets for all my friends on my phone for our bus trip to Busan).
At the bus terminal there will be all these signs with numbers and cities. On your ticket on your app, towards the bottom of the center there will be a number. that is the departure area and look for that number outside where all the buses are. I can't explain everything to get you to where the buses are but if you pay attention to the details and read your ticket and everything, you should be able to find the correct terminal for the correct bus line. It is really simple.
Next, traveling to China from Korea is easy. If you are in Seoul, go to the Seoul square building in front of the bus depot at Seoul Station (서울역) and apply for a visa for China. Mine was $160 and is valid for 10 years (same price for a single entry visa for Americans. The price differs for France). The process took a long time and in order to get the visa you need a hotel reservation in your name in China already for the whole time you will be there. Having different reservations in different parts of China makes it a lot more difficult to get a visa but not impossible. You also need to show who is paying for your trip and if it isn't you, the person paying needs to fill out the application too. You also need to give a detailed itinerary of what you will be doing in China. Along with having a hotel reservation, You need to have a plane ticket in your name (not 100% necessary but it does help the process). If you go to the Chinese embassy to apply, you WILL be turned away and rejected. They do not like having people go to them to apply for visas to enter China. Flying to China only takes 2 hours and the average price of a ticket is under $200.
2) "Working"
If you need a little extra money and didn't receive the global A scholarship (for native English speakers) then you're not out of luck. If you have a Korean friend ask them to put up an ad for you on the CAU board. They should know what you're talking about. It's an online bulletin board. Have them put on there that you want to tutor students in English and you give away for them to contact you the fastest, how much you charge and your description. Don't set a price too high and most of the Koreans I tutored strongly preferred Americans and Canadians more because of the dialect of English and their positions requiring them to have meetings online or in person with business people in LA, Washington and other states. An average price one should want to charge is 15,000/hr and don't expect your student to always show up. They cancel last minute sometimes and you have to understand it and sometimes suck it up. They will come back the next time and pay. Since Koreans don't like handling cash with these types of transactions, they will prefer bank transfer so be prepared with your bank acct info you get in your bank book when you get your card from the school/OIA.
3) Dating/Relationships
A lot of my friends here immediately tried looking for boyfriends/girlfriends (each for different reasons) but one shared reason for the most part: to learn Korean hands on. I am just going to say that typically, a lot of Koreans aren't completely comfortable being in a serious relationship with foreigners for obvious reasons you will see when you arrive in Seoul and start spending more time with Koreans. That's not to say they won't do it. Most of my friends are in serious relationships with Koreans right now. However, Koreans will be more prone to want a 썸남/썸녀 type of relationship. If that. Some will just want a hookup now and then to be able to say they slept with a foreigner. A 썸남 (something guy)/썸녀 (something girl) is a type of relationship that is undefined, ambiguous and not exclusive. It's basically casual dating. There is kissing, holding hands, eating out and for some people, even sleeping together. Unless you define the relationship, automatically assume this is all your relationship is. Koreans are big on DTR. One more thing, the reasoning works both ways. Let's say you want to date a Korean to learn Korea. A Korean would want to date a foreigner to learn English (I know a few who want to learn Chinese and Spanish) and they will be reluctant to speak to you in Korean and will want to speak your language. Yes, they will teach you some Korean but they aren't going to make you a fluent speaker in a year. One last thing on the topic, the less Korean you can speak, read or understand, the harder it will be to get into a relationship with a Korean. It sounds harsh but it's the truth and you have to understand that it's the way it is. Talking to a foreigner is out of their comfort zone as it is, so dating a foreigner that can barely speak their language is going to be a no-go about 65% of the time, but being friends will be A LOT easier as there's less pressure and less expectation to commitment. If you make a tinder or go online and want to meet someone and their profile says "번개" it means "hookups only" but "번개" (beongae) literally means lightning. Think about what they're trying to imply...
4) CAU Jackets (Designing and Ordering)
NOTE; Only one design can be decided upon. The ONLY change that can be made from jacket to jacket is the name that goes on the left arm by the wrist. For a varsity jacket order, there must be a minimum of 6 jackets being ordered.
The site i used was townus.co.kr and they were very helpful. In order to make the jackets, get a Korean friend to help you with the whole design process. I had one of my friends help me pick all the design options because i don't know a lot of technical terms in Korean, but other than that, i placed the order, deposited and transferred the money and made the account myself. The whole process is lengthy but easy and straightforward. Make sure you have at least 6 people to make a jacket. The total price of the jackets can be between 48,000 and 50,000 per jacket depending on the options you get. All the badges you want on your jacket must be pictures you upload and they must be excellent quality pictures (meaning perfectly straight, no blur or pixels or writing too small to miss). After you place the order, the company will contact you through kakao and they do have employees that can type and understand English fluently so don't worry. After placing the order and paying, getting the jackets will take 3-4 weeks to receive. Read the note above again and remember it. The reason we have to make our own jackets is because the logo shop in R&D refuses to make or order jackets for exchange students and the departments don't really include us in their jacket orders (or even notify us until after the jackets are in and by then its too late). One more piece of advice: do not get a jacket that says 'Exchange Student" in Korean. The Korean students here will brutally tease you behind your back about it. I saw it happen so many times.
5) 흑석역부터 중앙대 후문 까지
From Heukseok Station to the back gate
If you get lazy from time to time and don't want to walk all the way up to the dorms and you just got out of the subway, there are a few ways you can get up to the back gate and walk from there. The stop you want to get off at is 중앙대 후문 (Chung Ang Dae Humun). From the side of exit 3(?) of the subway you can take the 5511 bus to the back gate. By the pharmacy/Isaac toast there is a us stop with 3 buses. I THINK those buses are 01, 10 and 21. Those three buses also go up to the back gate. There are only 2-3 stops between where you start and where you get off. If you do want to walk but want a short cut go from the front gate towards the dragon pond and walk on the left side of the dragon pond and past the OIA to 203. Get in the elevator and go to the 4th floor and walk to the hallway on your right (not your left) and walk out of the building then go to the building on the left (building 303) and get in the elevator that goes to the 6th floor (aka NOT the middle elevator) and go to the 6th floor. Go right and you'll be at the back entrance of 310. walk around or through it nd you're at the dorms.
6) Online Shopping
If you want to shop online on sites like 11st.com or gmarket.com that are more foreigner friendly you need to register your debit card at the bank on campus. tell them you want to use your card to make online purchases and they will register it. The registration takes 3 days to finish so keep that in mind. Also, IF you want to shop on other sites that more Korean and don't want the help of a Korean friend, you will need to apply for a 공인인증서. basically, it is a card full of codes that you need in order to process an online order. it is used for security purposes since about 95~99% of the Korean population has had their identity stolen (estimate not exaggerated). I haven't applied for one so I don't know everything you need for that but I do know that it also takes time to process that order as well. Personally, I recommend paying a Korean friend and having them order what you want for you and having it shipped to your dorm. it is a lot easier and requires a lot less waiting.
