Photo: Yonsei University Fall 2012

Truly beautiful. How I miss Yonsei.

The Flight to South Korea and Arriving at Yonsei in Seoul

The flight to South Korea was just another obstacle on the way to South Korea, but the final one until I could finally set foot in my study abroad country. There was no way 24 hours of traveling in the skies and through various airports was going to be a pleasant experience. We arrived in Tampa International Airport at around 7AM on August 23rd. While checking my bags the American Airlines employee made a joke about “Seoul Food”, but nobody laughed….too early for jokes. ;] We made our way to the gate and decided to get some Burger King in the airport since it was the only thing open. I hate breakfast at Burger King…it gave me a stomach ache later.

The flight from Tampa to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport wasn’t too painful. I spent most of my time playing Pokemon Yellow on my Game Boy Color. That game never gets old. Once we arrived in Dallas I decided to have a burrito via a recommendation from my Mom at Blue Mesa Grill in the airport. They advertised a 12″ burrito and I asked the Spanish employees if they had Carne Asada…their response wasn’t convincing but I was hungry. The burrito was a mess.

First of all it was 6″ burrito…not 12″ as advertised and it cost me $10. I passed a McDonald’s on the way there and probably would have been better off eating there. The burrito had almost nothing appetizing in it and fell apart the minute I started eating it. I paid extra for sour cream as well. It was a waste..but I was hungry so whatever.

The next flight from Dallas to Tokyo was the real challenge. I landed a window seat for a 12+ hour flight. I didn’t anticipate I would need to pee at least once every hour. The Japanese woman sitting next to me slept almost the entire flight so it was awkward waking her up every time I had to use the bathroom. American Airlines served some stomach turning food as well…especially this frozen ham and cheese sandwich. Towards the end of the flight I got the guts to speak some Japanese to her and it felt great to be able to communicate with a real Japanese person in a language I have been studying for years. After 12+ hours of boredom we finally arrived at Narita Airport…the view of Japan flying in was awesome. The rice fields and feudal castles were visible from the plane. I thought to myself I will come to Japan one day!

Once we touched down in Narita Airport we had to pass through another inspection and then head to our connecting gate. Narita Airport was awful. I would be happy if I never have to return to Narita Aiport again. There was no air conditioning and it was ridiculously hot and congested in there. There was no free Wi-Fi and I honestly expected a Japanese airport to be more high-tech. Ironically, Incheon Aiport in Seoul has free Wi-Fi and looks more modern than Narita Airport. In addition, during my visit you could only get 79 yen per dollar and with items well over 1,000 yen you were sure to lose tons of money if you exchanged and bought something there. I decided to wait it out and exchange my dollars in Seoul for wons.

The flight to Seoul was actually the best flight of the entire ride. The American Airlines flight was hosted by Japan Airlines (JAL) and they were the most courteous flight attendants I have ever had the pleasure of riding a plane with. The view of Tokyo at night from the plane was amazing…completely lit up.The flight was less than 2 hours, but they still provided a meal and the meal was delicious. A fusion of different Asian cuisines in a bento box. The flight attendants also brought plenty of drinks and stayed busy throughout the flight instead of just sitting in their seats like on the other American Airlines flights. I would recommend Japan Airlines to travelers.

After the flight I finally arrived in Seoul at around 9:00PM on August 24th. I passed quickly through the passport inspection and then proceeded to the baggage claim. Korean people use these carts to put their baggage that I have never noticed anyone using in the United States. I decided to grab one and it helped me out since my bags were so heavy. I spotted another American and decided to wait next to her for my bags. Turned out she was also on her way to Yonsei and I made my first buddy.

We decided to go together and exchanged our cash and then headed to the bus stop to wait. The bus took quite awhile, for some reason all the other buses kept coming around at a quicker rate. When it finally came we were so excited to be on our final transfer to Yonsei University. One interesting thing on the bus was that the bus driver made sure everyone had their seat belts on…in the USA it is sit at your own risk. There was also a television with Korean TV on and Korean magazines in front of us.

We got off on the Ehwa University exit as recommended by Yonsei and then I realized I was going to need to carry over 75 lbs of luggage (4 bags) up a hill to SK Global House. Luckily, we found another foreigner who helped us out. I am not accustomed to walking up hills, especially with luggage and when we finally made it up it was a great relief. We were given our key cards to our dorms and I headed in to find out I got my requested roommate. Awesome.

He wasn’t in the room when I made it to the dorm and I decided to go exploring downstairs. Turns out there is tons of things in the SK Global House building. Restaurants, a 24-hour convenience store, a fitness center, laundry mat and dry cleaning center, phone store, computer labs and more. I was fascinated…especially with the computer lab since I wasn’t sure how to hook up my internet yet and wanted to update my family and friends on my status.

I came back up afterwards and unpacked a little before calling it a night and heading to bed. I had arrived in South Korea and I was officially a student at Yonsei University.

Study Abroad How-to: Registering for your classes at Yonsei

First, Let me say that registering for classes was mainly stressful because it was the first time I had to do it and I was afraid I would mess it up. I was on chat with many exchange students and we were all having a panic attack about getting the classes we wanted. I think if I had to do it again it would be pretty simple. The Yonsei study abroad office sends you plenty of information on how to register for classes, a list of all courses offered in English, and even a FAQ…I don’t think many people read it though.

Yonsei has a different way of timing classes than my university. Times correspond to numbers. For example, time slot 1 corresponds to 9:00-9:50AM and there is a 10 minute delay until the next time slot. I personally do not have the attention span to last longer than 50 minutes so I am glad Yonsei has 50 minute class intervals. Most professors had the syllabus available during registration (something USF should do more often) and there is also a professor profile that tells you about the credentials of the professor.

You cannot access the registration system until the registration wishlist period begins. Remember to use Internet Explorer or you will have issues saving your classes and deleting courses from your wishlist (many students were having issues because they were using Google Chrome or Firefox).

Start off at the Yonsei Portal Service: http://portal.yonsei.ac.kr/main/indexe.jsp. It is essentially the same as the Oasis student system at USF. Log-in at the top left with the ID sent to you by Yonsei and your password and then click undergraduate course enrollment to enter another secure page.

Once you reach this page you have to log-in once again and the page also shows you the course registration times. You won’t be able to log-in unless the wishlist period had begun. Once it has, you can make a wishlist of all your desired courses by searching for them either by course number or through the search menus. I will try to post a screenshot of it when they re-open the portal for the second registration chance.

There will be a yellow/orange button the left of the course to add the course to your wishlist. You can open your wishlist on the top right and then you wait until course registration officially begins. If you need to delete a course you click the delete button on the right list of the wishlist window. The wishlist would only let me put down five classes that equal 18 credits. I will probably drop some, but so I wanted to safety courses just in case classes I wanted were full.

When course registration begins you click the course numbers on the left of the wishlist menu one by one and before you know it you will have a complete schedule. Be quick because once a class is full you’ll be out of luck unless a professor signs a form for you to get into his or her class (also provided by the study abroad office in an e-mail). I suggest clicking the classes you want the most first.

I was done just one minute after registration opened. Hope this helps other future Yonsei students. 🙂

Carlos Abroad on YouTube

USF World is providing some students studying abroad with Flipcam cameras to record their adventures in other countries. I was one of the lucky students chosen to receive a camera and now I am more excited than ever to bring you footage from my travels in South Korea. Expect lots of restaurant and street food footage :). If there is any event or place you would like to suggest for me to travel to, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Checkout and subscribe to my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/carlosabroad

P.S. Excuse my Korean pronounciation…it will get better when I take classes in Korea!