Author: ekang6

Seoul Forest 서울숲

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Seoul Forest is absolutely beautiful and a great place to take a break from the busy city and be in nature. It is a hot spot for couples and families, but I had a great time going solo too. It is HUGE and has several different parks, bicycle rentals, convenience stores that sell some street food and ice cream, deer that you can feed, a butterfly museum, children playgrounds, and more. It’s a good place to just take a book and pack a picnic and go walk around!   

Dorm – 기숙사

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Ah and it feels like I am a freshman again! The dorms here are pretty nice though, I live in Roseville which is a 10 minute walk to the center of campus, 5 minutes to Wangsimri Station. It is filled with International students who mostly speak English. I live on the fourth floor of the narrow building. There are a lot of restaurants and cafes nearby, as well as a convenience store right next door.

The dorm has its own little kitchen, laundry machine, bathroom (with a shower rod, not a separate shower), desks and bunk beds!

The bathroom doubles as the shower, there is a shower rod next to the sink and the floor has the drain. So make sure to always wear shower shoes!

Cafe Onion

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This place deserves its own little shout out because out of all of the delicious bread I have had here, which is a lot, this place takes the crown. Found this insta famous cafe and had to check it out for its hipster artsy interior. It was swarming with people but had huge different rooms to be able to sit in. We ended up finding a room with a nice couch to lay down on.

The whole cafe was an art piece! 

“The building in which the café’s located has a long history of its own; built in 1970’s, it was previously a supermarket, a restaurant, a repair shop and most recently, a metal factory. While the whole space has indeed been restored with ultra-modern features like wide windows, minimalistic furniture, and a well-curated garden, the café’s wide-open interior retains all of its old, rustic and broken-down elements. Just like any trending spot in Seoul, Onion is often seen on the social media and usually busy with young crowds. But because it’s got so much space and many available seatings, you won’t have to worry about waiting to get a table (even if you do end up waiting a little, there’s a bit of atmosphere you can enjoy in the meanwhile).”

 

That Pan’D Or white bread (5,000) is what they are well known for, and is so soft, airy, light, and sweet!!! The other bread (4,500) has walnut and cream cheese filling, and was chewy and a great complement with the other bread. We also got milk tea (5,000) which was nothing too special.

Opening hours: Mon-Fri 08:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-22:00
Transport: Seongsu Sation (line 2) exit 2. 2 mins walk.
Price: Flat White 5000 won, Carrot Juice 5500 won, Red bean butter bread 4000 won, Pain d’or 5000 won

Gym – 피트니스 센터

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Immediately upon arriving I set forth to find the gym, knowing I would need some sort of physical activity to accompany the massive amount of sweet desserts and bakery goodness I am eating here. Here are pictures of the Fitness Center on campus that I was able to take on a Saturday morning, where I was one of two people there.

These pictures aren’t really the best, but it is a pretty small gym. This is really all that it is- one big room with weights, treadmills on the side (I was taking the picture from one), and a mirror room.

I’ve only ever gone in the mornings, but around 8am it won’t be that crowded and then gets busier around 10am. You check in with your student id and they give you a key to a locker that you can use. You can also pay 5,000 per month to rent your own locker.

Mirror room with yoga mats and balls in the back.

Now the poopy part is that you have to pay for a membership here. It is 50,000 per month, but for 4 months its 35,000 per month. It gets cheaper if you stay longer than that too. Apparently that is a really good deal in Korea where gym memberships can get up to 70-100 per month. You can also pay more and they have clothes that you can rent to wear. A pink shirt (that the girl in the pic is wearing) for girls, blue for guys (yes, gender norms very apparent here), and long black shorts. I didn’t pay extra for those and feel very abnormal in my own gym clothes because most people do wear the gym attire. Also, I am usually one of 3-4 girls every time I go, and especially one of the only ones doing weights.

It was worth it for me to get the membership and I enjoy starting my day off well with working out, but walking around in Korea alone (with all of the hills and stairs) is also an extra dose of exercise compared to the standard American life!