안녕하세요 (Harloe)!
Wow, in a glimpse of eyes, this marked the 12th week of me in Seoul, South Korea.
In these 12 weeks time, I had also completed my first level of Korean Language Education.
The journey in Seoul National University (SNU) had been fun and challenging so far.
The challenges of having to memorize new words and being introduced to many new grammars in such a short time (the course was really intensive); the need to prepare for weekly role play and weekly speaking test require either high concentration in class or best self discipline at home.
The lecturers basically speak only Korean with minimum English so they naturally train your listening too.
It is somehow surprising that even with my level 1 Korean, I am now able to understand some dramas or TV programs without looking at the subtitles.
I am now too more confident to talk to a Korean.
I can also go to karaoke (which they called nuraebang 노래방 in Korean) and sing Korean songs.
So the environment really does help to forcefully improve my Korean.
These are some pictures during my completion of first level there.
There are few types of different accommodations here available for students if you did not get into the university dormitory like me.
- The Gosiwon (고시원)
- One room
- Apartment
Staying in Seoul is not cheap and can be rather expensive especially if you are going for one room or apartment. They usually require a lot of deposits and minimum of one year contract.
I am now living in a gosiwon.
It is rather similar to our country university single room dormitory but is smaller.
It is very small believe me.
The cheaper one can be around 200usd a month with shared bathroom.
The room only has the length of a bed or a few inches more and the width of near to two single beds.
I do not think that my room can fit even a king size bed.
But of course you can go for the better one with attached toilet but it will make your room even smaller as the toilet occupied a lot of space too.
You will usually get a study table, super tiny wardrobe that can hardly fit any clothes and a television.
I accidentally deleted the picture of my room thus unable to share it here.
This is the view from my gosiwon's balcony.
Even though there are a lot of working middle aged adults living in our Gosiwon,
it can be scary at times but some can be sweet and caring too.
We had received free seaweed, chicken, kimchi while we were cooking our meals in the kitchen.
At the beginning, we packed the left over food every time because we could not finish the food.
We reheated them, fried some vegetables and there goes another meal for the 4 of us.
But sadly, now that our appetites got used to the huge portion of food, nothing has left to be packed home now. We are all having a gorilla appetite now!
And of course, the increased of body size T^T
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So now move on to my university.
SNU apparently is being ranked as the number 1 university in South Korea.
We had met some parents during our placement day which coincide with the university's graduation day.
Those parents were absolutely proud of their children.
We met some parents during the enrollment day as well.
A single mother came all the way from out of Seoul to university just to see her son's enrollment ceremony.
This is the main gate of the university.
The graduation flowers stands along the street.
The benefit of staying near the Seoul National University subway is that the university provides free shuttle bus to school on everyday.
Transportation fees is expensive in Korea.
The minimum fees is 1050won each way and goes up depending on the distance.
But the public transportation in Seoul is very extensive and there is no additional charges apply during transition of bus and subway or vice versa within 30 minutes.
The free shuttle bus run from exit 3 of SNU subway and stops at the front of the administration building.
Then you can choose whether to walk to your department or catch the in campus shuttle bus.
My language center is not too far from the administration building thus I choose to walk to class on everyday.
The journey requires about 10 minutes and it involves some uphills and downhills.
So, yeah, I am exercising everyday.
The journey is somehow beautiful to me as I get to witness the change of the scenery from just dry branches to flowers blooming everywhere.
It was the beginning of Spring when I first got there but the weather was still very cold having average of about 0-5c or sometimes -5c.
It did not snow when the weather was very cold then it suddenly started snowing when the weather was a bit warmer. We got so excited seeing the snow.
But the weather after snowing was crazily cold again especially when the killer wind brushed against you~!
This is the free shuttle bus. The queue is always long but the bus come quite frequent. So do not get freak out if there is a super long queue because the bus come every 5 minutes when the demand is high.
This is the view from my classroom, facing the business department and tennis court.
In Malaysia universities, the canteens usually offer the same variety of food everyday.
You just need to choose what do you want to eat and pay.
Here is SNU, there are a few cafeterias around the whole campus but I always come to the student center's because it is spacious.
First, you need to choose what to eat from the offered menu (usually 3 types of set menu - 1700won, 3000won or maximum 4000won), then order at the cashier, paid and pick up your food at the respective station.
Below are the pictures of set lunch I ate.
They are mostly delicious, big portion and best part is, refillable!
1700won ham jiggae
3000won cheese pork cutlet
3000won spicy pork with tofu
3000won chicken chop
3000won bibimbap
2500won kimchi tuna top rice
3000won stewed beef
3000won chicken fillet
There are whole lot more of food that I did not captured.
So I am having my 3 weeks holiday now.
Due to the budget problem, I have not plan to venture out to Jeju island or Busan yet.
I am now exploring around Seoul and may be some places around Seoul.
This is indeed a very special experience in my life as every little thing is different from where I come from be it the culture, food, life style and etc.
I believe that my adventure had just started and it is going to be nothing less than awesome.
Do not hesitate to drop me any question at sinye1709@gmail.com if you have any question about getting into SNU LEI program. I truly understand your helplessness when most of the stuff you need to know is available only in Korean.
Stay tune for more interesting places I had visited during this period.
Too many pictures to be filter and edit before posting them up.
Have a nice day~!
