As the weeks continue to go by I continue to feel more and more comfortable going through various things whether it be as simple as ordering food in the cafeteria, taking the subway, or remembering to study. Midterms are coming up and I honestly haven't taken multiple midterms in a week in a few years so this feels like a new experience to me, and I'll share how they went next time. For now, here's a couple of the things that I did these past weeks.
ARC Process (Finally)
So I finally got around to applying for my Alien Registration Card. It's definitely not a hard process but just something that I had to go through. For reference, if you plan on studying in Korea for more than 90 days, you need to fulfill this requirement. The hardest part is making the reservation online and waiting for your appointment. I personally made my appointment in the morning so I still have the rest of the day to do things. Below is an outline of the steps that I took to get this done.
1) Go to https://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/main_en.pt , allow the drivers to be installed to complete this process; I use Windows 10 so I'm not sure if this works on other operating systems. If you need to, there are Windows machines around campus. Reserve your visit at the correct location (Seoul Southern Immigration Office for Yonsei students). Don't try to do walk-ins as it is more than likely going to be a waste of your time, and also don't be late for your appointment.
2) Prepare your application materials. You can arrive early for your appointment to get all of these ready, however, somethings that you might need ahead of time include proof of residency, headshots (35mm x 45mm), and both copies and the original of your passport information and visa pages. I forgot about the headshots, and I ended up taking them at a subway station photo booth. I wouldn't recommend it as it's 10,000 won for 8 pictures, but if you need to it's there. You can also make copies of your passport at the office if you happen to forget. There are also application forms to fill out there so don't worry about printing that out. Lastly, there are government revenue stamps, which are used to pay for the ARC. It cost me 30,000 won for the card and 3,000 won for delivery to my address. You pay for these on the second floor to the left where you'll find Woori Bank machines and attendants who will help you complete it (this was cash only unless you have a Woori bank account). If possible, you should arrive early to pay so you don't have to do it later.
3) To get to the office, you can either take the subway or the bus. I used the subway system as the directions were listed in the Yonsei handbook. But basically the gist is if you're leaving from Sinchon station, you can take that line until Yeongdeungpo-gu station. There you get off and transfer to Line 5 (purple) until you get to Omokgyo station. After taking exit number 7 you walk straight until you see the office.
4) After arriving you can head to your respective floor, (2nd floor for Chinese passport holders; 3rd floor for everybody else). There should be a stand or on the wall posted your name and associated calling number, ex. 28. From there you wait until you're called and the appointment should take no longer than 10 minutes.
Thoughts: I didn't go through the on-campus application process and though I didn't, it wasn't something to be worried about. As long as you go through the process before the 90 days is up, and you don't mind constant emails to say that you haven't done it yet then there is no issue. One of the cool things was that I stumbled upon Aori Ramen, which was/is a popular ramen chain. I had to go there, even if just for the name. The ramen was okay; noodles were a little chewy for my taste and the broth was a bit oily, but the ajitama (egg) was really good. Overall the atmosphere was pretty cool as it was a booth style in which you fill out your order and then you're almost eating alone, but not really. My total was about $9 for the ramen and an extra side of the pork and egg.
LOL Park (League of Runeterra Event)
If you've heard of League of Legends this is where the pros in Korea play! I sadly didn't get to attend any of the matches as they finished early in August. However, this was the first time that I got to visit this place. Recently, Riot Games celebrated its 10-year anniversary of League of Legends. They announced a whole bunch of projects one being a card game. This event held at LOL Park was a special event held just for the announcement of that game. For this part, I'll separate my thoughts into two categories, the event itself and my first experience at LOL Park (although not a complete one). So getting to LOL Park is actually pretty easy and not that far away. I again used the subway and took Line 2 (green) until Euljiro 1, took exit 2, and walked straight, made a left, and on the right next to Shake Shack is the building in which it is located on the 3rd floor. Going up the escalator was really neat as there were characters from the game on each side and it made you knew where you were going. Outside the arena which I didn't go into, there is a cafe, restaurant, gift store, PC Cafe and exhibits of various players, teams, and other artworks. The experience was really cool and the PC Cafe was the coolest to me as it had replays of the World Championship games on it. There was so much eye candy that if there was no event, but you were a fan of League of Legends it's worth going anyway. Anyway, the event was really cool and ran extremely well. It was a 4-day event and I went on the third day being a Saturday. Basically you wait in line until you get to play the game, and after that, you can get a T-Money card with Legends of Runeterra characters on it, a pack of Legends of Runeterra physical cards which have QR codes can show you animations, as well as a drink and food voucher. Despite having to wait over an hour to play the game, it was worth it as I got to take in the atmosphere that LOL park creates. They had at least 30 laptops with gaming peripherals set up in a lobby area and were also utilizing part of the PC Cafe. Luckily, I got to experience a PC Cafe for the first and probably last time as if I go once, it'll probably become a bad habit for me. Honestly, the feeling of using dedicated peripherals for playing a game is something that I truly miss and can't be replaced by using a laptop. One elephant in the room is that I don't speak Korean, but that was almost a non-issue for me. The staff was really helpful despite me only knowing how to speak English, and they even were able to let me play the game in English as well. Finally, after playing a couple of games I really liked the concept of the game having played Hearthstone for a while. I've also had friends tell me it's similar to Magic the Gathering and Yu-gi-oh. Once I finished I was able to use the voucher for food and drinks. I forgot to mention but everything about the event was FREE! I was super surprised yet I also didn't expect less from an event that was being hosted by Riot Games. Here are some pictures from the event as well as the things I saw.
Next time:
By the next blog post, I will have completed my midterms and will share the struggles I faced. I am also hoping to have gotten my first haircut here as well as have gone to a baseball game or two.