My journey to Seoul already started with a very pleasant surprise: before boarding the plane I received an upgrade to travel in the Premium Economy class. After 9 hours of enjoying the extra leg room, welcome drink, movies and Korean food, I safely arrived at the Incheon International Airport. After getting off the plane I made my way to immigration where after one hour of waiting the airport personal took a photos and fingerprints and stamped my passport. Fortunately, also my baggage made all the way to South Korea. Next, I was looking for an ATM to get some cash. After some searching I noticed that there are some ATMs located in the currency exchange booths. I used my collected cash to buy a ticket (only about 4€) for the AREX train that brought me to Seoul Station. From here I made my way to an accommodation that I booked on AirBnb.
The next day I left my accommodation and headed to the university’s dormitory. The Natural Science Campus of Sungkyunkwan University is not directly located in Seoul but in a close city called Suwon. It usually takes about 45 minutes to get from Seoul to Suwon by metro. After wandering around on campus for one hour due misinterpretation of the half-Korean half-English instructions I finally managed to get the keys to my dormitory room. I’m sharing my room with a very friendly Korean master’s student.
I had to go to a nearby department store to buy my bedding and some other stuff. The bedding was surprisingly cheap, however the groceries were almost 3 to 4 times as expensive as I was used to from Germany. Generally, it is cheaper to eat at a restaurant than to prepare food by yourself.
After unpacking my baggage, setting up the internet connection and enjoying my first Korean dinner in the canteen I had a relaxing night in my new bed.