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A heart’s a heavy burden ✨

♡ happy holidays & happy new year~

Hello my lovelies! I’m officially on winter break and I realized that there are some students getting ready to start their journeys abroad! I know for the Korean universities my home university has partnerships with, school begins late February, early March. So I’m hoping this post helps study abroaders out, whether you’ll be going to South Korea or somewhere else.

Know how to read hangul

In Korea, it’s not necessary to know the language but it helps to be able to read the hangul. Sometimes, in restaurants, the menu will be in Korean. And sometimes, menu items will be in Konglish. It also helps when you’re looking for certain shops and places which is really handy.

When leaving Korea, prepare to ship a box (or two) home.

Believe me, you will end up buying some stuff while in Korea. Everything is just so cheap. Whether it be souvenirs or tons of KPOP merchandise, we’re going to want to send a box or two home before getting on that plane. It will save you the stress of trying to shove everything into your luggage the night or morning before your flight home. And send in it through boat mail. It’ll take longer to get back home, but it’s a lot cheaper.

Phone and Data Plan

If you’re anything like me who can’t survive without having access to internet everywhere, then you going to want to have an unlocked phone and a Korean data plan. Yes, yes, yes, there is wifi everywhere in Korea but I had difficulty connecting to the wifi so I gave up and bought a data plan through EG Sim. And even if you don’t plan to get a data plan, you still want to unlock your phone just in case, or you’ll end up like me and have to buy a new phone.

Apps to Download

Kakao Talk, Naver Dictionary, and Subway Korea are my three must-have apps. Kakao Talk is the messaging app that everyone uses in Korea. Most Koreans don’t need a phone plan because Kakao Talk is all you need. Naver Dictionary is obviously a Korean-English dictionary. It’s helpful just so you can look up words when there isn’t someone who speaks Korean around you. Also, very helpful communicating with some of the locals that know enough English to have a conversation but aren’t quite fluent. Subway Korea (or any Korean subway map app really) is going to be super useful getting the city. It shows the subway system and all the stops. It also has the times that the subway should be arriving and leaving and how many stops the subway is away from the stop that you’re at. I think some apps will tell you which subway cart is the most and least crowded. Most definitely a useful app.

Always carry around tissue paper.

It’s always nice to have some tissues on you just in case there aren’t any napkins or paper towels anywhere you go. But I stress this because sometimes in Korea, when you go use the restroom, it may not be what you’re use to. It could be a hole in the floor with no toilet paper. This didn’t happen to me often. Actually, it only happened once but I had tissue paper in my bag so I was prepared. So always have tissue paper on you just in case.

Your experience is your experience