Many students may not feel worry where to live if they come to Korea because they may have no choice, but only staying in dormitory. Others may have to many options to choose whether they want to stay in dormitory or they should live outside of university. I used to be the one who always wonder which place is good for me to stay. Therefore, I tried to moved around. Luckily, I've got my good friends helped me to move around and even contact Korean owners who own the buildings in which I stayed. I really appreciated them very much.
Before starting our topic, I would like to inform you that the thing I want to tell you is based on my experience around Daejeon University in Daejeon city. This information may not be used with other places in other cities, especially price, size of a room, and the way how to rent a room. However, you could use this information to compare which kind of room you would like to stay.
I will start with accommodation provided by the university. My university provides two types of rooms for foreign students. The first type of room is a room in which 4 students stay together. The price is relatively cheap compared to another type of rooms. It costs around 500,000 won per person per semester. Of course, it includes everything such as running-water fee, electricity fee, gas fee, and internet fee.
As you can see in this picture, it is very inconvenience to stay if you want to have your own space. But, if you really don't mind about that, you will find really good roommates and friends in this kind of rooms because you have to share your life here with other roommates at least 3-4 months. You must adapt yourself and think of other people. It is difficult at the first time but when you get use to it, u will be very happy.
As you can see the middle picture above, it is my table which is full of stuffs. I have to many things on my desk and I also put some of my stuffs on my friends' desk also. I feel really guilty and sorry to my roommates. Other two pictures beside are the view outside of my room(balcony area) and the view outside of my dormitory(for this type of dormitory). During I stayed in this kind of room with my roommates, I felt very happy. We usually went to have meals together, go shopping together, travel together, and study together. I felt like our relationship was more than friends, I felt like we were brothers. Unfortunately, since I was young, I have my own space. So, sometimes my friends felt a bit awkward to me. I understood. I am a person who sometimes wants to stay alone. I need my own space to retrospect myself to see what I had done and what should I improve. If I don't do that, I couldn't control myself and act like a childish. So, in order not to make people feel annoy, especially my roommates, I will move the room to another types of room next semester.
Personally, another type of rooms that my university provided for foreign students are much better than the type of room that I mentioned above, but it is very expensive. It costs 1,400,000 won per person per semester including electricity fee, running-water fee, gas fee, and internet fee. However , we need to pay extra 50,000 won for deposit. We will get it back when we move out. Normally, exchange students with scholarship will stay in this kind of rooms for free.
As you see from pictures, one room is divided into 2-3 bedrooms(depend on which room students stay), 1 kitchen,and 1 bathroom. So, of course student will have 1-2 roommates but student still have his/her own space. This kind of room has sink, microwave, refrigerator, and air-conditioner. I used to live in this dormitory before. It seems that it is very convenience and perfect to stay. However, an inconvenient point to stay in dormitory is
curfew. We have to enter dorm before 11.30pm and we can go out of dorm after 5.30am during semester. During vacation, the close time is 11.00pm and open time is 6.00am.
This style="background-color: white;"picture is the view outside of dormitory. It looks really great, right? Last time when I stayed in this dormitory, I usually woke up early in the morning to open the window and breathe fresh air of the new day.
What about meals? During semester, We usually eat in dormitory's cafeteria. It is not delicious as we expect but it is eatable. For me, I feel that the food in cafeteria is sometimes delicious. We can eat various kind of food and we don't need to worry if we can gain all of nutrition each day, as cafeteria's nutritionist and cookers will take care of it everyday.
We can pay the food per meal, per month or even per semester. If we pay the food fee per month or per semester, we will spend money on food cheaper than if we pay per meal. For example, last semester(1st term of the year 2012), I payed per semester. It costed me around 540,000 won. In average, I just payed about 1,600 won per meal as I always went to cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But if I payed the food per meal, I would pay 3,200 won. So, it is a good choice to pay food fee per semester. An inconvenient point is that if you don't like the food, you have no choice but to eat or to buy food outside.
However, Price for food fee in cafeteria always increase every semester.
During vacation, we have to cook by ourselves or buy some food from convenient store or go to restaurant... T^T
Next, I will talk about accommodation outside university...
please stay tuned ...^^
