I’d read so many blogs talking about how crappy and unfortunate the dorms are here that it made me really nervous, but so far… it’s been okay!

The doors open outwards here; that’s the norm in Korea.

Once you enter, there’s a little area for you to take off your shoes, and the the rest of the room is a bit higher than that area. I think it’s so that the floor can be heated in the winter (the heating is through the floor).

There’s a shoe closet for you to put your shoes away, and then another cupboard for you to put things in. We chose to make that a cleaning/cooking/washing supplies cupboard.

Similar to a hotel, you need to stick your card in in order to gain power. Don’t forget to take your card out before you leave!

The double room is strange in that the toilet and the shower/sink are in separate rooms, one on each side.

        

There’s a door to the toilet (like one that you can close) but there is no door to the sink area. There is a glass door between the sink and the shower, though. If you don’t know your roommate and you feel awkward changing without any doors in between, I would suggest grabbing a shower curtain and a rod to hang that curtain from Daiso. Daiso will become one of your most frequented stores while you’re here.

The sink/shower area is also lowered so that no water floods out.

There’s one of those medicine cabinets that you always see on TV on top of the toilet.

THERE IS NO TOILET PAPER WHEN YOU ARRIVE. MAKE SURE YOU EITHER BRING ONE OR TWO ROLLS WITH YOU, OR GO OUT AND BUY IT RIGHT AWAY. The first night, we found a place that was selling 1+1 toilet paper (1+1 means buy one get one free! I always wait for these sales now before buying anything.)

In the shower, there’s a 3 level glass rack, and there’s a rod on the door for you to hang your towel. Near the sink there’s another rod for you to hang your towel. If you have a roommate, a way to maximize towel hanging space is to hang hangers from it and then hang your towels on your hangers.

There are two beds, one on each side. I picked what I think is the better bed, because it’s more similar to the configuration of my bed at home, so the wall is to my left. Some of my friends sleep facing the window (which Stef and I both think is weird, cos when we both entered the room we didn’t even think and we decided that we would sleep facing away from the window).

First thing we did was make our bed. We each brought our own fitted sheet for the mattress (we first slid on the one they gave and then put our own on top), and our own duvet covers as well (we brought matching ones without even knowing it); I went to the extreme and brought my own pillow, because I sleep on this special one for my back. Good thing I can throw it away, because it’s been a long time since I got it and it’s time for a new one. I also brought my own fleece blanket, the light blue ones from IKEA, since I thought it would be cold (but the rooms have heating so I brought it for no reason).

I also brought my own small pillow that I need to fall asleep, as well as a huge stuffie. I know, so unnecessary.. but it’s nice to have a little piece of home here with me.

Stef and I were both pretty lucky with our linen bags, but Vivian was not with hers (or maybe she just has really high standards for cleanliness) – her pillow smelled so bad, the pillowcase was gross, and the duvet was really gross too.

There should be a heating control panel, and a space for the AC remote (the remote will be given when it gets hotter.. hopefully). There’s also a phone but… who uses the phone? It’s in my way and I hit it sometimes. I’m always scared that I’ll knock it onto the floor.

There’s a really small closet at the end of your bed, and it may or may not come with hangers. I brought 3 just in case but mine (thankfully) had a lot inside, so I didn’t have to buy any. There’s a mirror on the inside of the door (good for me because I need to be close to the mirror to put on my eyeliner), and in the bottom compartment there’s a wire basket.

There’s a hole underneath your bed to put your suitcases in. Stef and I both brought 1 bigger suitcase and 1 slightly smaller suitcase, so we could put the smaller suitcase inside the bigger one. Clean that space before you put anything in – I saw that some people found some things like a deflated basketball and chocolate wrappers (gross).  There’s also some space to put your clothes underneath your bed as well, and this closet thing (which is apparently a safe – you can get the lock from the office for 10 000KRW). The safe doors bang really loudly and it really annoyed me, so I got the things that you stick underneath chairs to keep them from scraping, cut them in half, and stuck them there to muffle the banging noise (again, got them from Daiso).

The desk is really good in that there’s a built in shelf too; I watched someone who’s at SNU and living in their dorms and their desk just looks like a desk… which sucks for them. There are some drawers; mine were really dusty inside so make sure you clean those too.

They originally told us that we can only have internet connection via a LAN cable, but when we arrived they were in the middle of setting up wifi.. so much for telling us to bring a LAN cable. Obviously you’re going to need an adapter as well; I would suggest bringing a power bar so you can plug in multiple devices at once while using only one adapter. Stef’s dad gave her this box that you can plug into the LAN plug (? I’m technology illiterate) and then it created our own wifi. Which is good, because my computer can’t access the locked Yonsei wifi.. I think you need to download something. You may also want something to prop up your adapter with because it may droop (both Stef and mine did).

Window has 3 doors (strange to me too): 1 bug screen, and then 2 glass doors, both with locks. And then there’s a balcony (which is dirty)! For a while it was cold enough that I just put things that need to be refrigerated outside in a box that we bought at Daiso, but now it’s warming up so I moved everything down to the fridge. Our room has two windows, one big one small, and they both have blinds to cover them. Make sure you cover these at night because it’s still quite bright outside, and the sun rises quite early as well.

In the rules and regulations, it says that you’re not allowed to stick things on the wall and ceiling. So I haven’t stuck anything on the wall and ceiling, but I’ve been decorating my bookshelf. Stef also came back from the Big Bang concert with some stuff, and she stuck that up as well (not on the wall or ceiling). She wanted to hang her fairy lights originally too… but they weren’t long enough!

      

Depending on what floor you’re on, you might or might not have a common lounge which contains the garbage area, a water dispenser, a sink, compost, some couches, a TV, and a computer. It might also have a study room which is just two tables, some chairs, and another computer.

I always find it really confusing that the ground floor is B2 (basement level 2) instead of 1. On B2, you can access the laundry room (there’s one for guys and one for girls.. which I don’t understand; I will explain laundry on a later date), the tiny exercise room (I used it and I was scared I’d hurt myself because it wasn’t secure), and a computer lab with a printer inside.

         

       

B2 is also the floor that you’re going to enter the dorms from. The RA desk is here (ask them if you have any questions about anything, even if it’s about getting delivery to the dorms), and you need to tap your card to enter.

On B3 is the communal kitchen. It’s a big room with a stoves, microwaves, and sinks on one side, and fridges/freezers on the other side.

There are tables in the middle. I had a super bad first impression of the kitchen the first time I entered it, because it smelled like onions (clearly whoever cooked didn’t clean up after themselves…) and it made me not want to cook. But needing to save money made me need to cook, so I bought a pot, knife, cutting board, vegetable peeler, chopsticks, tongs, and spoon (all from Daiso) and some groceries from Grand Mart, Lotte 999, and Homeplus. We also got a box from Daiso to store all our stuff in. If you put things in the fridge, I suggest covering it with a plastic bag and clearly labelling it with your room number and writing a big DO NOT TOUCH on it.

There’s also other rooms on B3 that you can reserve to use, but those aren’t interesting so I have no pictures of them.

People live from B2 to 7, and each floor is gender coordinated. Opposite genders are allowed on opposite gender floor’s communal lounges and study areas until 10pm, but they’re not allowed in the rooms. There’s CCTV everywhere so it’s really up to your own discretion. They also allow you to sign guests in, but they also have to be out of the building by 1opm. If you’re leaving over night for a trip, you’re going to have to sign out because you’re not allowed to stay out overnight.

I can see the other dorm from my room – meaning I’m not on the construction side of the building!

There is literally so much luck in which room you get. I honestly think that each person in our group of friends had different things about our room that were good: Claudia had a drying rack and garbage can already in her washroom, my side of the room was cleaner. There’s also a lot of luck in other things, like which side of the building you’re on (all of us are on the not construction side.. but I know that if you’re on the construction side you can really hear the banging in the morning), where your room is (if you’re next to the garbage it’ll smell, if you’re next to the lounge/study room/elevator/stairs it’ll be loud), what floor your room is on, what type of roommate you get… there are so many factors to it that you can’t control.

Making your room your own is really important as well. Obviously don’t bring your entire house with you, but know what things you need to buy/bring over (next blog post!)

But in the end a room is just a room and a dorm is just a dorm; if you get the short end of the stick, then just try to make the best out of it!