THE ULTIMATE
TRAVEL BLOG
UNIVERSITY OF SEOUL
SPRING 2019
SPRING 2019
Things are getting real. I'm about to start my next adventure. Booking my flight was one of the easier tasks. I had booked it a few months in advance and got a good price from Hawaiian Airlines. The ticket was about $260 one-way. I plan to travel around Asia while I'm here, thus I didn't book a flight back to Hawaii yet. I am planning to book a flight back to Hawaii from another country in Asia (possibly Vietnam?).
Some other steps I needed to take before venturing off to Korea was obtaining my visa. It was a process that took me one too many trips to the Consulate of Korea in Honolulu. (Note: They are VERY strict about how your photo looks for your visa. There are several requirements that your photo needs to meet. For example, you MUST show your ears.) It also takes about five business days for your visa to come in. My last visit was the last day I could've attempted to obtain my visa before my flight. Luckily, they accepted my visa application! One errand done, several more to go... Before traveling to Korea, I had to fill out the Shidler Course Equivalency Form to make sure my credits would transfer over. Since the University of Seoul class registration is from March 4 - March 8, it was a little difficult to petition for classes because I was flying out on February 24th. I had to pick the classes that I was hoping to register for and submit the syllabi to Shidler B-101 ahead of time before having a set class schedule. The process was a bit daunting at first, but Rikki helped me to understand that I didn't need EXACT transfer credits and simply needed business electives to graduate. This made the class registration process much less stressful! Once I submitted all of my paperwork, I had to exchange my USD to Korean won. A major tip is to go to DFS to exchange your money! They have the best exchange rates on the island. Although, sometimes they don't always carry won. It depends if anyone from Korea flies in and exchanges their won for USD. Parking in Waikiki is also difficult to find. Fortunately, my girlfriend worked near DFS and was able to check every day for won. Another helpful tip is to pause your car insurance (you can temporarily lower your insurance premium if you don't want to completely pause your insurance policy). You should also download the Kakao Talk App because that's the main communication channel in Korea. Make sure to take care of all paperwork that needs your physical presence and signature before leaving (such as filing your taxes and adding authorized users to your bank accounts). You should also make sure to figure out your phone plan before leaving. I opted to purchase a phone plan with T-Mobile in Hawaii because it gave me unlimited calls, texts, and data while traveling internationally. One last tip is to start packing EARLY!!! I procrastinated and waited until the very last minute to pack. This definitely wasn't a good idea because I had to pack 4 months worth of supplies in less than 6 hours. I packed about 7 days worth of shirts, jeans, underwear, socks, and shorts. I also packed two jackets (one heavy double-layered parka and one thinner casual hoodie) because the Spring semester in Korea starts off at the end of the Korean winter and the semester ends during the beginning of the Korean Summer. If you are traveling during the Spring semester, make sure to pack clothes for both cold and warm weather. Or come prepared to purchase some clothes while here in Seoul. I also packed the typical toiletries such as toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, mouthwash, a razor, shampoo, conditioner, etc. Overall, I think it's better to pack light and only bring the absolute necessities in your suitcases. All of the small miscellaneous items can be purchased while traveling. Also one more tip is to make xerox copies of all of your important documents such as your passport, ID, visa, etc. Xerox copies won't bleed like normal printer ink if it gets wet. You'll want to have these copies stored separately from your other important documents to reduce the chances of losing both at the same time. That's about it for this blog post! I hope you found this both entertaining and informative. Please leave a comment down below if you have any questions 👇
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Michael ImaiEntrepreneur, Archives
July 2019
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