Seoul Day 2 - Part 2 [28th July 2011] All about Goshiwon

After a long ride, I finally arrived at Cheongnyangni Airport Bus Stop at 11.15am.
So from 8.35 to 11.15am. It took 2 hours 40mins! Thanks to the heavy jam! If not, it's really fast.

Thanks to Daum map for the picture.

Yes, that's the 6002 Airport Bus and the Bus stop at Cheongnyangni Station.

Alight from the bus and pass the uncle who's standing at the bus stop my tickets. After handing him my tickets, he passed me my two luggage bag and kept the tickets for himself. I guess this is to prevent people from complaining lost of luggage bag issue.

It's also time for me to drag them to the taxi stand next to it to reach my dorm.
The weight of my luggage was alright. But i was a little too tired to drag it over. I mean, i have not sleep yet. Of coz i'm tired. HAHA. The uncle was so nice to get the taxi driver to come over to me instead.

The taxi driver was nice too. He offer to help me to load my big luggage bag and ask me to show him my address instead of me showing him.
When he started keying the postal code into the GPS. I so much wanted to tell him that actually i know how to go. No need to key in. It's a very short distance.

I used DAUM MAP to check out my road around my area before. It was because my parents wanted me to show them where I will be staying.

It's a website that works like our google map. But this website is really cool. It totally looks like you are in Korea even though you are just sitting in front of your laptop/desktop. They show you the roads with picture of buildings. All you have to do is to type your address that you are heading to.
However, the bad point is you only can type in Korean.
It's really very helpful. I used that before I go to Korea. But when I'm there, I didn't use it at all.

So within 5 minutes I reached the dorm area. With taxi fare of only 2400won. Feeling terrible, I gave 3000won since he helped me with my heavy bags and I didn't have smaller notes too.
Two adults working around the area came forward to helped me when they saw my luggage. 1 uncle around the age of 40 plus and 1 aunty around the age of 50 plus. They asked if I was heading to Ovills Dorm. HOW I WISH I WAS HEADING THERE! =(

I was hopping to get that but the dorm was full. With that I found a Goshiwon beside it and made my bookings and down payment with the help of my friend who was here for spring semester. A room with window and toilet. I wanted a window so that fresh air can come in. But everything was broken into pieces when I reached the Dorm's gate.

In case I'm like blogging some alien language, here's some explanation of what is Goshiwon (고시원) and Goshitel (고시텔) after doing a lot of research before flying.


Goshi (고시) means Exam in korean. It was used to be a place for Koreans to stay and study for their examination. It's a room for them to focus on studying and getting to the university of their choice. It's a room that is build very very small with the basic things like, bed, table, chair, closet, fridge, tv, air con and toilet which is very optional. There's really no space for you to walk around. They can only accommodate 1 person. And the most 2, but I doubt there's space to even walk. 
However today, the trend of Goshiwon and Goshitel had changed. They are now usually rent by foreign exchange students and those working in Seoul. But the space of the Goshiwon and Goshitel is still like the past. Small still. 
Of coz the best part of it is, there's no curfew time. The school dormitory has a curfew time at 12am sharp. 


The difference between this 2 is that, Goshitel is slightly bigger than Goshiwon. (Yes! I will talk about that again!) Other than that, I don't see much differences between them.


There was also another choice like boarding house (하숙집). It's a place where the house are usually owned by 아줌마 (Ahjumma). The house itself has many rooms for you to rent and meals (Yeah, korean home cooked meal!) are included. You also get to interact with Koreans and bush up your skills. I heard that it's most expensive than Goshiwon and Goshitel.
It was one of my option but because I was being informed that the one that the school locate does not come with either Air Con or Internet connection. I strike off the idea. I needed both badly. Air con is a must in summer. If I'm in winter, I will definitely take it.

Alright, back to why I was so sad about the Goshiwon that I had rent.

It was full of shoes when I step out of the lift. It was in a big mess too.

The boss came out to helped me to carry my bags to my room.
When he open the room, I did not realise much about the cleanliness. So he help me to place them in my room and bring me to look around the dorm. First, he taught me about the gates. Like how should I unlock the Main Gate to get into the dorm. It was easy. However, if you were to leave the dorm, the boss will know coz his window were directly in front of the main gate.

Next he show me the kitchen. That was when I totally got a shock out of my life! The kitchen was in a mess. Take a look at the website that they show me. Look at the kitchen.

Woah. That's very clean right? But hell no! The kitchen was not in this state! The area where they had the table and chair show in the picture, was full of boxes! Okay, not only that, when the boss open the fridge for me, a very bad smell came out. It doesn't smell of Kimchi. I know how Kimchi smells coz I do have Kimchi at home always or everyday. But this smell was terrible, it smell of something that has gone bad. Then, he proceed to show me where the noodle are placed at. And lastly, he show me the basin. I immediately got another shock again. The basin was full of rubbish! There's a lot of leftovers. I really don't understand why people do not wash after they had used the frying pans. Even if they don't wash them, the boss should help to clean up isn't it? To make the place clean and tidy.

Lastly, he proceed to show me where's the washing machine. He told me that should I need to use the washing machine but not sure how to operate, I can go to him again and he will teach me how. By the way, there was only 1 washing machine and 1 very small area for hanging your clothes. I see that he had tied 4 strings for the students/workers there to hang their clothes.

So after explaining the basic things for me, I return back to my room.

This is the picture of the Goshiwon shown on the net.

Looks clean and nice. My room was in green too but, it was far off from what the picture had shown me. 

More horrible things came. When I turn the knob to close my door, I almost screamed. There's a noodle left on the door knob. And the noodle was already dried off! It was those very dried kind. I guess it was already there for at least a month! Seriously. So I decided to look at the rest of the room. The floor near the door has noodle too.

The steps of the toilet was at least 2 steps. This means that I would need to climb them instead of just stepping in and when I get out of the toilet, I would need to jump and not hurt myself. The picture on the net doesn't look like it was 2 steps right?!?

The toilet was very dirty too. The wall was very bad. There was hair and some soapy thing which I can't understand, left over.

Alright, that's all about the toilet. I decided to look at my cupboard. That's was something I cannot understand. The cupboard was built on top of the bed. This would means that, I would have to step on my bed in order to reach my cupboard. It really doesn't make any sense to climb onto my bed to get my clothes. How would people build it in such a way?

Enough of the cupboard and the room, all i want to do was to set up my laptop to get connected to the world. The table was very dusty and so it was the floor. The fridge, needless to say, it was very dirty too, with hair inside. In conculsion, nobody does any clean up for the room. It was very dusty and dirty (hair, yes many and rubbish.) You name it, yes, the room have it. There wasn't any picture of the room and the dorm on my side as I was really depressed upon seeing them. I have 0 mood of taking any photos! I kind of regret now. I should have taken the picture of the room and show it to do a comparison on real life and internet picture. =(

After getting connected to the world to update them about me, I was thinking of switching a Goshiwon or do some clearing up. I end up deciding to do some clearing up because I had already paid the rental amount of 450 000won. That's like S$530 for a month.

I went down to GS25 (nearest place to me) to get the basic items. I wasn't fully converted to speaking Korean, so I end up speaking in English to the shop assistance. Yup, she couldn't understand. All I wanted to buy was a hand wash washing powder for my clothes. But I couldn't remember what was that in Korean, so I asked her in English and she totally got a shocked on her face. I was quite apologetic to her and kept apologising. She was nice to offer her laptop to me so that I can use google translate for help. I find that she's around my age, so I decided to ask her how old she was. True enough, we were of the same age. Haha. Okay, next on my must buy list was detergent for the toilet. No, they don't sell them. She wasn't sure where to get them too.

Just then, a lady walk in and the sales assistance asked her for some help. The most shocking thing was, she say she would bring me over to the area to purchase them and she told me that it's very cheap. So nice of her. She was a Japanese lady. I paid for my stuff and we went to the DAISO near Hoegi Station to purchase all the things that I need very badly.

On the way. we chatted and that was when I found out that she's studying at the same school as me. She was already there since Spring semester started and was in Intermediate level. She wanted my number but since it was my first day in Seoul, I do not have a Korean handphone and number yet. So I took her number and promised to message her when I get a phone. That was how I made my very first Japanese friend in Korea. (After I settle down with a HP a few days later, we met in school and dinner dates. We still keep in touch till today! A very good friend and important friend to me. She will also teach me some Korean powerful sentence to use.)

Return back to the dorm to start to clean up. By 3pm. I was very tired. I had my lunch by eating the bread from Crystal Jade Singapore, Changi Airport. Yes, the bread was in my handbag since last night. HAHA! Taste so yummy. Eating and missing Singapore at the same time because of the dorm. After that, I decided to clean up faster so that I can take a rest.

Another horrible came. It was something that I shouldn't see. A bible book. Yes, it was a bible book. I did not discover it was a bible book, until I stared at it near 5minutes at the cover page. For someone who had no knowledge of Korean will not know that it was a bible book because the book comes with the school logo. A bible book and school logo doesn't give me a link at all. Till today, I don't understand why these 2 items were link together. So I quickly place the book at the correct place and close the cupboard, telling myself, I will not use the cupboard at all.

It was very stuffy in the room. The air con was not controlled by me. It was controlled by the boss. So I decided to open the window to let fresh air come into my room. Well, you are able to open the window (very very dusty. You can see a thick layer of dust.) but there was no way that the fresh air could come in. There was wire covering it. So all I can see were just day light and blur vision of the buildings opposite me. I totally gave up and told myself, it's okay. It's just a month. I will only come back at night to sleep and leave for school early in the morning. I laid on my bed and decided to nap for a while before heading out again to look at my surroundings in the late night.

This time round. This horrible scene makes me very determine that I will look for another Goshiwon or if there's any space with the school dorm by any chance I will definitely shift out!

The moment I close my eye, trying to rest. I kept seeing some figuring in front of me. I thought i was too tired of everything, so I did a few times trying to close and open my eyes to ensure that I wasn't thinking too much. But it just didn't go away. I got frustrated and scared at the same time. The room temperature got so cold suddenly on a summer. I was very sure it was not the aircon's problem. It was really something else. I try not to think so much and sleep again, but it just got so bad that I sit up to think of a solution. Out of a sudden, I thought of my room's key so I take a look at the area where I placed them. The room key that I place at 1 part of the table gone missing. I was really stunted. I really remembered very clearly that I had place it there because that's the most convient area for me to place the key. After shifting my eye sight to look at another area for my key and back to the same spot again, my key reappear again. And it happened quite a few times in a row.

Giving me a scare, I decided to calm my nerve down by doing all sorts of things. Praying and talking to god. After everything, I really cannot stand it anymore. I pick up my courage and call the school using my Singapore line. The school dorm was full as expected and the person in charge wasn't in Seoul. He will only be back on Saturday. Oh lord, I couldn't wait anymore so I decided to e-mail him for help. At the mean time, I also e-mailed my senior to inform her that I have reached and I need a change of dorm BADLY.

In the meantime while waiting for their e-mails replied, I decided to get out of room and walk to the next building to look for a Goshiwon. However, the apartment beside my Goshiwon was too expensive. The Goshiwon near my area was either full or does not come with a toilet. =(

When I returned, a Korean lady who looks like a few year older than me started talking to me when I reached the Main Gate. Realising that I can understand Mandarin, she decided speaking to me in mandarin. We chatted for a while outside my room. Realising I do not have a pillow and blanket, she told me that since it's summer, she had 1 more blanket extra and she wanted me to have it. She immediately ran back to her room and get the blanket for me. No matter how much I decline (I feel that it's not very nice.), she insist that I must have them. So I took it. And then she decided to bring me out to buy bedsheet coz she herself also feel that the bedsheet was not very clean. When we were walking to the stores behind Hoegi station, I decided to ask her, how she felt about the Goshiwon. She told me, she's also looking for another better Goshiwon as she felt that the current one was quite bad. All got cheated by online. =(

Poor thing, the shop that we went do not sell the one that we used in Singapore. They are the Korean type. Which means, like the one we see in shows. Big and Puffy type. Went back to the dorm and thing of solutions. And since the bed was really dirty, I went down to the DAISO and purchase table mat at 1000won.

With senior and her friend's help, I was able to find back the dorm that she had stayed before. Looking at the website again, I can't seem to trust pictures anymore. I was so afraid that I will get conned again, I kept pestering my senior on whether is the place really CLEAN. I am very afraid of dirty Goshiwon already. I don't really want to move and move for my whole Seoul duration. Senior was so patient with me, keep assuring me that the Goshitel that she stayed at before was good and the boss was very nice to her. With her assuring, we proceed to call the boss at 1130pm Korean time. It was late but the boss still pick up.

ROOMS AVAILABLE was like the best word I've heard.
With toilet was 380 000won per month and without toilet was 330 000won per month. Told the boss to leave the room available for me and I will be down there early in the morning to take a look. He agreed. =)

Feeling much better than ever because I know I will be shifting out for sure. 1 part of me was happy and another part of me was worried on how to sleep for tonight. The room's confirmed not 'clean'.

Proceed to blast some music from my laptop and try to sleep for the night......
No pillow, no blanket. Just a bed with my table mat.
I definitely can survive of coz.