A few words / FAQ

Image taken from travels.kilroy.net

Introduction: Over the (Australian) summer of 2015/16, I had the privilege of going on a Short Term Program to Korea. I applied to the Winter at Yonsei Program through my university (The University of Queensland - UQ) and had the absolute time of my life. This blog is an attempt to document my 25 days there, and a diary of sorts.

Disclaimer: A majority portion of these posts were written a month after leaving Korea and slowly edited over 2016, so they're not as spontaneous as I want it to be and might have missed some details. They still provide a fairly good idea of what I was up to while I was in Korea though :p

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#number: This indicates subway exit numbers. Where possible, I will put this information after the train station's name.

Currency: 1 000 KRW ~ 1.25 AUD or 1 USD

Getting around (finding places)
I downloaded a bus timetable app (KakaoBus-SeoulBus 4.0 on Google Play) and an offline map (MAPS.ME on Google Play). Since I had limited data (2GB for 25 days), I tried not to use apps that required an internet connection to work. Also, my phone uses up its battery pretty fast.

As such, I didn't use the bus app too often but I could use it for planning beforehand when I had Wi-fi. Also, the app is actually in Korean, so you do need to be able to read the characters. The app had location functionality and pretty accurate times For finding places, so I took screenshots of the map that included the specific location and the train/bus station I'd be coming from.

The offline map was also quite useful, though it looks a bit cute-sy. Before I left for Korea, I had also created a master map of all the places in Korea I was interested in going to on My Google Maps (highly recommend for planning trips!), and when I was desperate/the offline map wasn't working too well, I would use my data for Google Maps.

Trains are very efficient (like Singapore) though train lines that head away from Metropolitan Seoul might take a longer while to come (30mins-1hr). Buses are great because they usually give you a rundown of the bus stop coming up in both Korean and English. You'll need a T-Money card to get around, which can be purchased at their convenience stores (GS25, CU, 7-Eleven etc.). Taxis are cheap compared to Australia and I guess somewhat equivalent to Singapore. Taxi drivers don't speak English though so you'll need to show them the address. The Korean Tourism site is very useful!

Some terminology:
SG: Singapore
AU: Australia
I-House: International House (the accommodation dorm type that I was staying in for the duration of the program)
Psych: Psychology

For any Snapchat videos I might have included at the bottom of a post, you will have to excuse the poor resolution as well as the inconsistent portrait/landscape orientations.