Moving into CJ International House at KU

After my first jet-lagged night at Anam Hostel, Jess met up with me to go find my dormitory on campus, CJ International House. Turns out the house is on top of a very high hill! When we finally got to the correct building, as hot and sweaty as can be, we were met by the KUBA team, KU Buddy Association, who brought me to my room and told us about the building. This building and the one nest to it have every possible thing you could need, I think you could survive without ever leaving the building...! There's a cafeteria that serves every meal including breakfast!, a music room, a student lounge, a fitness room and even (Mama will be happy to read this =D) a prayer room!

As for my dorm room, it is sooo big, well at least in comparison with my room at Anam Hostel AND there is lots of closet space! You might also want to know that it's a lot cheaper to live here than in a student house outside campus, and that most of the time the rooms are smaller than here. If you're interested in coming you can see the rates here:  https://reslife.korea.ac.kr:5001/v1/src/main/page.php?code=rate

My roommate is Grace. She is from Northern China and as you can probably tell from the picture, she's really nice!

Grace and I, yeah I'm starting to take pictures Korean style =P

We share a bathroom with a girl from Colombia, who I first met the time I got looked out of my room...=P

It's really nice living here, there are literally people from EVERYWHERE! There are 2 kitchens we share with the other girls on our flour, but I haven't seen too many people using it yet. 

They have a very strict rule about no guys on the girls flour and vis-versa. There are even separate elevators! One for girls that doesn't stop at the boys floor and the same for boys! Actually you can't even call the boys elevator from my floor! So Daniel you don't have much to worry about =)

So, I'll tell you more about what it's like living here later! Take care

Goodbye Switzerland, Hello SEOUL!

So my adventure starts here!

Dubai Aiport, Ramadan decoration

I took the plane from Geneva (CH) on the 16th of August 2012 with Emirate Airlines for my first flight to Dubai. After a 4 hour layover and a little chitchat with some Brits, it was FINALLY time to board the plane for Seoul! =)




I arrived at Incheon Airport at 4:35 PM on the 17th of August. My friend Jess was waiting for me and took me to the subway station for a long ride to my hostel. The subway is CRAZY! There are so many lines, entrances, exits, people... And it's tricky, every exit leads you somewhere else making it super easy to get lost! Without forgetting that everything is translated in English... But no problem yet, Jess knows the way and after introducing me to my T-Money card (a transportation credit card you swipe after entering and exiting) we sat down for the one and half hour ride to Anam Station which cost... 6000 kwon ≈ 6 chf! How about some of those prices back home!

Literally my WHOLE room at Anam Hostel

The hostel was easy to find, really close to the metro station, no biggy. The realy trouble came, when we noticed that the hostel was on the fourth flour of a building that had NO elevator and that I had my 30 kilo suitcase to bring up... Hmmm. Luckily the hostel employee was super nice and carried my suitcase up without braking a sweat! My room was super tiny, probably about 2m long and 1.75m wide. I'd have to describe it as cosy =P

I really enjoyed staying here though, it is situated near Korea University, the staff is super nice and helpful and the rooms are very CLEAN (which isn't always the case!). One night is about 22'000 kwon ≈ 20 chf.

So if you're ever coming through Seoul, you can find them
here: http://www.anamhostel.co.kr/en/




The time finally came to explore the neighborhood, YAY! Since the neighborhood is so close to the University, there are TONS of coffee shops (the regular kind not the dutch ones =D), restaurants, stores , and people! I was surprised to see that there are hardly any bicycles here. The streets in Seoul can be very steep and most people get around by public transportation or on foot. I'm also sensing that riding a bike would be kinda dangerous around here... =)

 The food here is incredibly good tasting! Eating out is really inexpensive. Jess and I had 12 mandoo (korean dumpling) and a large beef soup with side dishes for 11'000 kwon ≈ 10 chf. On the contrary and rather surprisingly buying food in a super market can be quite expensive. Fruit is really expensive here four apples is about 5'000 kwon, and cereal also like 5'000 kwon a box! But of course anything rice based (just about everything else!) remains rather cheap.

12 delicious mandoo

Beef soup with side-dishes

That's it for the first day!