1st Day E-mart

Well...to get straight to the point without missing any major details, I couldn't sleep. All night I kept tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep. At about 5 in the morning, I gave up on trying to go to sleep. I laid in my bed texting, surfing the web, and listing to music until 7 in the morning waiting for my roommate to wake up.
When she awoke, we were both starving because last night before we went to bed, we spent almost an hour looking for food and found nothing, nada, zippo. So last night we settled for chips and a drink from a small shop in front of our dorm. >.<

Anyway back to the morning, we both agreed that we still needed to go out and buy some stuff for the room (most importantly adapters) so I checked the time for E-Mart which is semi-close to our dorm. I checked the opening time online which stated it opens at 9 A.M.

E-mart logo seen from our window. E-mart is a store like Walmart, but for Korea, however not as cheap as Walmart.

We got out from our dorm, which is located on the map above (For the future Kookmin Students), and walked all the way over there. The walk was about 30~45 mins. We got to E-mart and it was still close. E-mart opened at 10:00 am!! I most have looked up the wrong location hours. We were still hungry so we started looking around and found a cafe (surprise, surprise). We sat at the cafe drinking coffee since brunch was not offered until 10:30 (No Breakfast available) around 10:05 and headed back to E-mart. 
We headed in and went through ever floor. We bought stuff for the dorm and ourselves, ate a kids meal, at the cafeteria , which was really good, since we were both jet lagged/sleep depraved/starving young adults.  

Anyways after lunch we continued shopping and bought pillows, toothbrush holders, snacks, laundry stuff, a hamper, lamps, a mirror, breakfast stuff, and water bottles. My roommate and I split all the stuff up and each spent around 90.00 USD. However while we were checking out, the cashier only gave each of us one bag for an extra fee. We didn't know we had to bring bags! We both had a cart full of stuff that we were not going to be able to carry to the dorm.

So my roommate, Luisa, and I go out to catch a taxi which we failed to do so because we didn't even know our address. So Luisa being all smart goes back in and buys a small folding cart. We put all the heavy/ big things inside the floding cart, while I carried two full bags.

The type of bag we bought. 40.00 USD

       
 We made it back to our dorm, sweaty and tired. Hahaha. But at least we made it there with all our stuff. Afterwards, we organized our dorm, which took a couple of hours, since Luisa was putting all of her clothes away.( I regret not bring as much clothes as she did.)  Next we went out to the train station and headed out to Myeong-dong. Both of us walked for a while and got trapped by the people giving out free facial masks! Beware!! Once you grab a free facial mask they pull you in and persure you into buying something! We headed back to our dorms and were starving. So we looked around our neighborhood. We ate some kimbap, which is like sushi but without the fish, and spicy cold noddles. 

Future Kookming Students that will Live in Gireum, Here is my Advice 

• Bring Bags anywhere you go, if you plan to go shopping.
• Don't buy everything in E-mart, try other store like Daiso which is cheaper (I'll Talk about it in                                                                                                                              the next blog)
• A lot of locations open around 10:00 am even the Hyundai Department store, which has expensive stuff in there. 
• You need to buy your own toilet paper. 
• You can take the train to E-mart. The stop would be Miasageori toward Danggogae or bus 153
• Bring your own adapters. The outlets look like the image below.

Gireum Dormitory

When I arrived in Canada I was not 100%  sure if my baggage would be sent to Seoul or if  I had to pick it up at baggage claim at the airport. So I went through the Canadian customs and talked to the man in United Airline who assured me that my bags were going to Korea. From there I had to go back through airport security, which I only had 30 minutes to get to my gate, which was extremely far from the security check point. By the time I made it to my gate, people were starting to board onto the plane. 

After a long, stressful 12 hours, I arrived at Icheon Airport in the evening and made it through customs quickly. I was excited when I saw my luggage waiting for me! It made everything 10 times better. From there I got onto the bus and headed up to Kookmin University which took about an hour and a half....or maybe more. There was a lot of traffic so it could have been longer. I was jet lagged so nothing made a lot of sense. Hahaha.  Once we arrive on campus we had to carry our luggage down about 4 or 5 flights of staircases!! I had two bags and it was difficult going down with them. However my roommate and I had to catch a cab to our dorm which is 10 minutes away  from Kookmin University, without traffic. Once there we got our room.

           (Image Left) This is the bunk beds, which is were we sleep!

 (Image Above) This is the study area. You are not allowed to move furniture. The cabinet is where you keep your clothes. One side is my roommate's and the other side is mine. (Image to the right) That is the entrance to our room. There is small drop, which is where we leave our shoes before coming into the room. Next to the door is the bathroom where we shower.  

(Image on the left) The toilet is in its own room across from the shower room. You have to buy your own paper, so if you are plan to go to Kookmin, buy toilet paper. ;P A toilet scrubber and plunger are already there.





(Image on the right) That is the shower room. There is no door, however when you shower the glass is frosted. You can barely make out someone's silhouette.Only a tile scrubber is given to clean the bathroom.