Study Cafes: This week I had my first Corporate Finance quiz so I went to quite a few study cafes around Hongdae, Sinchon, and Ewha University to go over my notes and problem sets. Shockingly to me there weren't as many (not saying there aren't any) non chain cute study cafes near me as I had expected there to be. South Korea is of course known to have hundreds of hundreds of cute dessert cafes but some do not allow you to study in them or they don't have outlets to charge your devices. Good ones are a little tricky to find sometimes but fear not I've found three this week! The first one is right in Hongdae not that far away from my apartment, called Cafe Blanc. The tables here are quite large and spacious for studying and the pastries and drinks are on the cheaper side of what I've seen which was icing on the cake. I'm not the biggest fan of coffee (which does not bode well for me as there is a big coffee culture here in Korea) but this cafe has a variety of other beverage options to choose from. I personally like the Cafe Blanc's "noisy" atmosphere but if you are sensitive to sound when you are getting work done I would not recommend this place, especially at night. The second study spot that I went to this week was Pao Book Cafe, located near Ewha Womans University. Pao's has a cozy vibe to it as the interior is surrounded by books and the tables are rather close together. The third and final study cafe I visited this week was 독수리다방 in Sinchon right outside of Yonsei University. I heard a rumor that this study cafe is almost always filled with Yonsei students or that it is Yonsei's representative study cafe. I'm not sure if this is accurate but if it were to be true I wouldn't be surprised as it really is very close to Yonsei and when I went about 50% of the cafe was filled with Yonsei students. The items on the menu at this cafe were a little more on the pricier side but the vibe and scenery from the cafe was really nice so I would definitely study there again. There is also a separate room that you can reserve for about an hour if you happen to need a space to take a midterm, do an interview, or hold a group meeting. I'll definitely be on the search for more study cafes so look out for posts about different spots in the future! Homeplus:
On Monday, my roommates and I took a short bus ride to Hapjeong to go to the nearest Homeplus. Homeplus is basically a supermarket that has about everything you think you might need. I think the closest equivalent in Hawaii that I can think of would be Target. The store has an array of snacks, beverages, fresh seafood and meats, a bakery, tons of ramen choices, condiments, haircare, makeup, frozen foods, cleaning supplies, clothes, stationary, and a bunch of other things. We were on the lookout for Clorox wipes as we were running low in our house and Homeplus was the only place that we could find it at, after trying No Brand, eMart, and CU's. Gyeongbokgung Palace & Hanok Bukchon Village: In honor of Chuseok being this upcoming Monday-Wednesday, my friends and I thought it was the perfect time to go to Gyeongbokgung Palace and dress up in Hanboks which is Korea's traditional clothing. When you dress up in a hanbok you get free admission into the palace. We rented our hanboks for 4 hours from a store on the main street right next to the palace for 20,000 won. There was a variety of vibrant and neutral colors and styles to choose from. We were also able to choose a traditional handbag to go along with our outfit. The staff even helped to style our hair and gave us a large bag to store our belongings in while we were away. The Gyeongbokgung Palace was humongous and absolutely breathtaking (figuratively and quite literally as well since walking around in the hot summer sun in all the layers from the hanbok had me sweating buckets). At the palace there was a cafe where you could rest and rehydrate yourself which was nice as it was really hot when I went. After visiting the palace, we decided to visit the Hanok Bukchon Village. It was about a 20 minute walk from the palace. The village was filled with traditional Korean looking houses which was interesting to see especially since it was on a hill and when you look past the village everything else was modern skyscraper buildings. Pro Tip: do not walk from Gyeongbokgung Palace to Hanok Bukchon Village in hanboks in the summer. Other than the heat I was really glad to have been able to visit the palace and dress up in traditional clothing. I think it is an experience that I will remember for a long time. In the following months when the weather gets cooler I hope to dress up once more and visit the Changdeok Palace. Until next time bye for now ☆
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Online classes officially started this past Monday, August 30th! My solidified course schedule consists of Corporate Finance (BIZ 3119), Korean Wave and Popular Culture (IEE 1154), Money, Banking, and Finance (IEE 3159), and Strategic Management (BIZ 3147). This week of classes mostly consisted of professors giving general course overviews and going over their syllabus. Some of my business classes did, however, straightaway start posting the required lectures to watch on my own time. My corporate finance course requires me to view all the additional lecture videos posted for the week by the end of every Sunday as well as go through accompanying problem sets. After every Sunday passes the lectures for the week are taken down and can't be rewatched which seems to be the case for a lot of other business courses at Yonsei. All of my classes are live synchronous on zoom from Monday to Thursday.
Moreover, since this week was the first week of the semester I almost entirely dedicated it to school and campus related tasks such as opening a Korean bank account at Woori Bank (bank branch available on campus), debating back and forth about what classes to keep, drop, or add because the the add/drop period ends next Tuesday, purchasing my textbooks and Yonsei mentors club. Since I was on campus a lot this week I paid a visit to my campus cafeteria for lunch yesterday where I ate Kimchi Fried Rice and went to the Central Library for the remainder of the day to get some work done. As the semester just began I am both excited and nervous to see what the semester has in store. I am also excited to be visiting the campus libraries more often to study and get work done. So stay tuned for more posts! Bye for now ☆ |
Sharon ♡Thank you for checking out my blog! For live updates about my time abroad you can follow my instagram Archives |