My first week in Korea consisted of a lot of solo exploration. I arrived in Seoul on February 15th and the semester didn’t start until March 2nd. That meant a lot of other exchange students and fellow UH students weren’t here yet. So it was just me, myself, and I. I won’t lie, while being alone with no plans, responsibilities, or obligations felt very freeing, I was also very lonely. I wasn’t really used to going out and doing things like sightseeing or casual shopping by myself. This is also my first time living alone. And by alone I mean ALONE. My goshiwon is a one person room so I don’t have any roommates and barely see the people in the other rooms. I didn’t want to waste this precious solo free time, so every day I forced myself out of the room around or before noon to explore the surrounding neighborhood.
Housing
I chose to live in a goshiwon, which is basically a small apartment with a private room. Mine fortunately came with a private bathroom, refrigerator, and AC unit. This particular goshiwon was recommended by my friends who previously studied at Yonsei, and is within walking distance of campus and the Sinchon neighborhood. You can search for goshiwons on https://goshipages.com/.
I remember deciding to not even try to apply for the dorms because everyone said it was too competitive and I figured I wouldn’t get in anyway. I also assumed the dorms would be more expensive, with communal bathrooms and a curfew. However, after meeting some friends who live in SK Global House, one of the dorms for international students, I began to regret this decision. I learned that SK Global does not have a curfew and only 2 roommates share one bathroom. It is also significantly cheaper! So that’s all my initial assumptions proven wrong. But oh well, at least I have a (slightly) shorter walk to campus.
I also suspect that my goshiwon room does not really have heating. Or if it does, it’s very minimal and does little to counteract the cold. Temperatures dip below freezing at night and I find myself having to wear 3-4 layers to sleep. And even then it’s not enough. However, other friends who stayed in this goshiwon didn’t mention anything about a lack of heating so it might just be the room I’m in. Guess I’ll just have to stick it out until spring. See some pictures of my room for reference, before I moved in. I promise it looks smaller than it actually is. I don't feel cramped, which is good because I am mildly claustrophobic.
Weather
Living in Hawaii for almost my entire life meant that I had no idea what it was like to live in temperatures below 40 degrees. I felt like I was decently well-prepared for the cold but I still found myself needing to buy more warm clothes for everyday use. My first day in Seoul it started snowing and I was so excited. This was my first time ever seeing snowfall and it felt a little magical. One moment it was raining and the next I realized the raindrops were actually crystals that weren’t instantly melting on my jacket. I took so many photos and videos that day.
While I’ve always said I wanted to experience cold weather and constantly overcast skies, I started to really miss the sunshine. Really made me realize all the things I take for granted living in Hawaii, weather being just one of them.
Shopping
I went to Olive Young and Daiso every day for the first 3 or 4 days to buy essential items like shampoo and conditioner, along with many non-essential items like makeup, skincare, and cute products. I’m learning how easy it is to spend money in Asia. I visited several Uniqlos, a LINE Friends store (didn’t buy anything, but did you know that BT21 is LINE affiliated?? I didn’t lol), and a Kakao Friends store (also did not buy anything, only recently learned that Kakao Friends is even a thing that exists). I went to Hongdae, Sinchon, and Myeongdong in the first few days to buy beauty products, clothes, and accessories.
I also needed to buy warmer clothes for the weather so I focused on finding sweaters, jeans, and heattech from Uniqlo. I found myself several hundred dollars poorer after just a week in Seoul. I definitely plan to be much more conservative with spending in the next four(!) months.
Transportation
Arriving here, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Seoul is such a walkable and public transportation-friendly city. I began to actually enjoy walking to places, although this was also a byproduct of being in a completely new place with so many bright lights and colors to look at. Nearly every day so far that I’ve been here, I’ve racked up upwards of 15k steps, one day even reaching 20k. Definitely bring comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk a LOT, especially in the beginning when you’re sightseeing and just getting comfortable with navigating surrounding neighborhoods.
Naver Maps is the best navigation app for Korea, since it has English and is very accurate. The buses run frequently here and are usually always on time. Despite the ease of use of this transit system, I was not thinking with my entire brain the first time I hopped on a bus. For some reason, I thought the “stop” buttons littered throughout the bus (much like pulling the cable to request a stop on Hawaii buses), was only for emergency stops (due to the glaring redness and shape of it). Therefore, I failed to press the button at my designated stop and stood there confused for several stops past my desired one when I realized the driver wasn’t stopping. This is in no way shade towards the Korean bus system, I fully recognize this as a personal error. Eventually the bus stopped and I had a long walk back to my final destination. Fortunately, this is a lesson only needed to be learned once.
Also had another L using the subway. As you may know, you have to scan your card before entering and exiting the platform. Once, on my way out, there was a turnstile and I scanned my card on the thing. However, I wasn’t sure if it had scanned properly so I did NOT go through the turnstile. Then I tried to scan it again and it said that I had already exited. So I stood on the side panicking for a solid 5-10 minutes and texting my friends for help. There was an open exit for handicapped people to come and go that did not have a turnstile or similar physical barrier. I was afraid that an alarm or something would go off if I went through so I spent a while debating if I should risk it. Eventually I just decided to go through and it beeped a little at me but I speed-walked away.
Food
Being alone the first few days, I was very afraid to step foot into a formal establishment by myself with absolutely no Korean language abilities aside from kamsahmnida. The best I did was a fast food-esque tteokbokki place after my ARC appointment that had an ordering kiosk in English and required no wait staff interaction.
Especially in Korea, eating out in formal establishments like Korean BBQ is something you really only do with friends. As I mentioned earlier, I spent a lot of this solo time getting food from convenience stores and exploring the different ramyeon options (although I ended up eating a lot of udon, my #1 favorite noodle). I also tried some street vendors in Myeongdong; foods included grilled squid, tanghulu, and this fish-shaped bread thing filled with red bean. As I type this, I realize I need to start better educating myself on the Korean names for food. I did also eat samgyeopsal and dimsum (Din Tai Fung!) but only out with friends.
Another first week fail involved an electronic phone number waitlist for a $5 shabu shabu place I’d seen on Tiktok. There was an iPad set up at the front to add your phone number to a waitlist but contained absolutely no English options. So I copied the lady in front of me and put in my Korean phone number, hoping for the best. However, what I hadn’t known was that they would contact me through Kakao and not standard text messaging. I changed the phone number on my Kakao account to my Korean number from my U.S. number, but by the time I changed it, I think they had already contacted me, failed, and moved on to the next party. I did not have the courage to go and ask the worker about it so I waited about 30 minutes in the hopes that they would still contact me. Eventually I gave up and left.
Other Solo Activities
My lovely friend Tina, who studied abroad at Yonsei in Fall 2023, suggested two activities I could do solo that I actually followed through on. The first was taking photobooth pictures by myself. I was a little nervous stepping inside but fortunately there was no one else in there. It felt weird posing alone but I utilized some available props and got a nice souvenir with pictures of myself lol.
The second activity was going to a noraebang (karaoke). Tina recommended a specific place in Sinchon that cost 500 won per song. I exchanged a 1000 won bill for 4 coins and, after having some difficulty figuring out what all the buttons in Korean did, managed to successfully sing 4 songs. They have songs in English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and I think a few other languages too. If you’re someone who feels embarrassed singing at karaoke in front of a group of people, I think this is the perfect activity to just relax and enjoy yourself without fear of judgment.
Journaling
One thing that helped me was keeping a journal of everything I did that day. At the end of each day when I got home, I forced myself to sit down and write down a summary of my daily activities. I use the Apple Journal app on the iPhone that recently came out. I like this one because it allows you to add up to 13 pictures per entry.
Journaling really helps because without work or class, my life feels like it has no structure as I flow from activity to activity. All the sightseeing and food and shopping all blends together and makes me forget all the exact things I did on any given day. I hope that I can continue to be consistent with journaling so I have these things all written down for my future self to look back and reflect on. It’s actually helping me write this blog post retroactively since it’s been a while.
In Conclusion…
If you made it to the end and read all the way through this post, I appreciate you. I know it was a long one but I feel like I really learned a lot in such a short time, especially from being in a completely new environment. Stay tuned for future posts and check out my Instagram account @seoulwithmo for daily updates if you care about that.