Tips

1. Purchase a T-money and then later a Climate card when you land at the airport for public transportation funds. Both cards work in Seoul across subways and buses. You'll need cash to top off the cards. Public transportation is cheap, clean, and efficient in Seoul. As you are staying there for a long period of time, I highly recommend getting a climate card as soon as you can because you are able to save a lot of money, knowing that you’re just going to be in Seoul the whole duration of your stay.

   
   

2. Most businesses and restaurants don't open until 11AM at the earliest. Some don't open until 5-6PM. Seoul comes to life at night. Try to find 24-hour spots as you’ll be eating and feeling hungry so many times when you’re in Korea. In addition, most shops also close around 10 PM at night, so be sure that you can find a place to eat between the two if not convenient stores are your best bet.

   
   

3. Hygienic tips. If you're looking for a toilet, just go to any subway station. Plentiful and decently clean. Carry tissues and hand sanitizer at all times. Many bathrooms lacked soap or had communal soap bars. I would always have a mini hand sanitizer and a little tissue with me when I am going out with friends as I have encountered plenty of bathrooms that may or may not have any soap.

   
   

4. Korea is incredibly safe. People leave their cell phones and purses when going to the restroom or to reserve seats. However, it is not 100% safe. Please be aware of your surroundings at all times there’s a lot of cults and strange people that you might encounter so keep that in mind when you’re walking alone and try your best to find somebody who can walk you back to your living accommodations.

   
   

5. Stand on the right side of the escalator. Step to the left side if you're walking up/down. This was a bit of a culture shock to me as in American culture. You can walk on either side however I realized that the citizens followed this traditional golden rule so yeah, just make sure you’re standing on the right side of the escalator, and if you are rushing to a location, you can feel free to step on the left side.

   
   

6. Korea is mostly a credit card-based society. You can look into my preparation guide for what is a recommended credit card however small businesses and typically food stalls would require you to pay in cash so have cash with you. In addition, you would have to pay for laundry and your dorm fees with cash so again, make sure you have enough won to pay those out.

   
   

7. As previously mentioned, Google maps does not work really well in South Korea. A lot of the locations on that app are wrong and so you do need to rely on an app called NAVER maps to get you around. 

   
   

8. Although South Korea is an English friendly country as I did not really struggle getting around knowing only limited Korean, it is still important to still learn certain phrases and gestures as you do not want to appear rude or disrespectful to the local population so, please be prepared when or before you go abroad. 

   
   

9. There’s so many housing options in Korea just like staying at a Goshi but in my preparation I highly recommend staying at the dorms. Not only is it specifically for international students, but it is a comfortable environment and such a cheap alternative when staying in a host country for 4+ months. 

   
   

10. Memorize the trash base system in South Korea in my university of Sogang I had to separate my trash myself and it was quite complicated because South Korea is quite strict with their system and so there is different trash for each category such as recyclable, regular trash, food, waste, and so on. They also have a special designated garbage bag which I didn’t know about initially and you can find a designated garbage bag in any convenience store such as 7-Eleven or CU.

    
    

11. My final tip is to get your ARC as soon as possible and be prepared for it. I ran into an issue where me and my friends had appointments for the ARC but we went to the wrong location and so please be sure you have the right location of where the office of international affairs located for your specific university because of this, we had to sign up for doing the ARC with our international exchange program, and our appointments were voided. We were still able to get our ARC, but it was a bit of a tedious process. 

Cafe Recommendation:

1. Nudake 10.5/10

        2. Koriko Cafe 10/10

        3. Coffee Birthday 10/10

        4. Acorn Garden 9.5/10 {savory}

        5. Tenne 9.5/10 {savory}

        6. Onion Cafe 9.5/10 {savory}

        7. Floor Plan 9.5/10

        8. Colline 9.5/10 {savory}

        9. Cheonsanggao 9.5/10

        10. Rachel’s Kitchen 9/10

        11. Rain Report 9/10

        12. Nakwon Yeok 9/10

        13. American Brunch Cafe {savory} 9/10

        14. Waffle It Up 9/10

        15. Forest Outing {savory} ⭐️ 8.5/10

        16. Potid: 8.5/10

        17. Cheongsudang 8/10

        18. Poem 8/10

        19. London Bagel Museum {savory} ⭐️ 8/10

        20. Jayeon Do Salted Bakery 8/10

        21. Mocumocu 8/10

        22. CinnamonRoll Sweets Cafe 8/10

        23. Rafre Fruit 7/10

        24. Flippers 7/10

        25. Mont Blanc Cafe⭐️ 7/10

        26. Offer bakery cafe: 7/10

        27. Makemehappy 7/10

        28. Chloris 6.5/10

        29. Gabean 6.5/10

        30. Berry Bliss 6.5/10

        31. Tribe Cafe 6.5/10

        32. Overdip 6/10 {savory}

        33. Cafe Pokpo 5/10