Summer Studies in S.Korea, Seoul National University

As promised, I am going to start writing about my summer studies experience in South Korea. This program is 6 weeks long - from late June to early August 2014. So how did I apply for it? I am a student from Nanyang Technological University and basically, I applied for it through the GEM Discoverer programme. If you are worried that you might not get a chance to go on exchange (GEM Explorer) or you do not want to stay in a foreign country for months, then GEM Discoverer is perfect for you! The only downside is that you probably have to fee pay for it, except for a few summer studies programmes. Other than that, I am pretty satisfied with this trip for the reason that this is my first solo trip with my friend and for being the longest time where I stayed out of Singapore.

Back to my experience, I left for Korea on the night of 29 June since I have to check into the dormitory at Seoul National University (SNU) on 30 June. It was a midnight flight and we took Singapore Airlines (SIA) which costed us $1074.80 each for a two way flight. I would say SIA is my favourite airline, at least for now since I do not fly much. We get a 30kg baggage limit and the food is not bad, so yea I like it. We had a smooth flight and reached Incheon Airport at 7.45am, Korea time.

First thing we did when we got there was to brush our teeth, haha. After clearing the custom, we collected our luggages and head to the 1st floor of Incheon Airport to buy our tickets for the Airport Limousine Bus #6017. #6017 would bring you directly to the Hoam Faculty House at SNU. By the way, you could only buy an one-way ticket there. If you are taking the same bus back to the airport on your last day in Korea, just buy the ticket from the bus stop at Hoam Faculty House. The ticket costs KRW 15,000 each, so KRW 30,000 for two-way.

When we reached Hoam Faculty House, some student assistants guided us onto another mini bus which would bring us to our dormitory. The dormitory is just a little further down (or up the slope, haha). Just being random, there are loads of slopes at SNU. Sometimes, it got tiring trying to climb them. But hey, it is good exercise right?

It turned out that all the summer studies' students are going to stay at Dormitory 906. I would say the school environment is pretty nice, with flowers and plants everywhere. Since we were early, we got to choose our roommates and of course, my friend and I picked each other. All is good! After that, we spent most of our time cleaning the room and unpacking our luggage.

Here is how our room looked like after tidying it up. The dormitory provided us with blue pillows and blankets. I decided to use them since I did not bring any with me. As for my roommate, she brought her own blanket and pillow cover. You probably would have guess the right side of the room belonged to me! The room is spacious and there is a toilet built into the room as well. There is also a seperator blind in the middle of the room. You can spot it on the image above, it is attached to the ceiling. I guess we could use it if one of us happened to be sleeping while the other is still studying.

The last thing we did on that day was to visit the dormitory cafeteria for dinner.

Anyway, I would be doing another post on the cafeteria system and food. It is pretty cool over there! If only we have that system in Singapore...haha. There are also other cafeterias on campus, but I believe this is the best cafeteria although the prices for the food are a little higher than the rest. It is worth it though, trust me!

Till next time.