"New Friends, Who Dis?" | Yonsei Orientation + New Friendships

Yonsei Orientation: Meeting New Friends

On August 26, 2019, Yonsei University hosted an orientation for all 1000+ international/exchange students for the Fall 2019 semester. I met up with Michelle and Natasha at the Woori Bank on campus in order to pickup our ID and Certificate of Enrollment. It was really busy with a long line of students also picking up their IDs and students trying to open a bank card. To let you know, your Yonsei ID card can also be used as your bank card and transportation card if you set it up with the bank. Keep in mind all the international students would be at the bank as well, so be sure to show up early. Since I already had a Woori Bank card from last summer, I just needed to pick up my ID which took about 30 minutes or so.

We then went to the Main Auditorium in the building next door. This orientation was very informational and helpful, presenting the necessary information during our time abroad. Starting the event was Yonsei Fever, a dance club at Yonsei; they danced to NCT 127's "Regular" and BTS's "Boy With Luv". I got so hyped during these performances as a fellow ARMY myself. Afterwards they bombarded us with all the information, introducing things regarding alien registration, using the library, safety, and the international clubs on campus. The overall orientation lasted for 2.5 hours starting from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm.

Afterwards, one of the clubs, Yonsei Mentors Club, was hosting a Buddies Night at a local restaurant and bar as their introduction orientation to the club that day. We met at the front gate and were separated into various groups and went to different restaurants in Sinchon. For our group, we had pork belly! Then we all reconvened at Barfly for a night of drinks and friendships! At that place, our friend group of five (Michelle, Natasha, Lisa, Le An, and I) grew even larger, meeting Brenda from Philadelphia and Daniel, Timmy, and Lydia from Canada! We ended the night once again at Sulbing for some delicious shave ice. As you can tell, I'm addicted to bingsu. 😍

New Friends, Who Dis: Raccoon Cafe, Trickeye/Ice Museum, Stylenanda

The following day with our increased friend group, we hung around Hongdae. First, we grabbed lunch at a cheese chicken place advertised by Mamamoo. It was delicious and super filling, but we had to order multiple portions as it was a family-style restaurant. Then, we headed to a raccoon cafe and played with the dogs and raccoons there. It was 8,000 won for entry with an optional 2,000 won for a drink. We also grabbed our daily dose of boba at The Alley before embarking on our adventure into the Trick Eye Museum and Ice Museum. It costed about 17,000 won for the ticket to both. If you don't know what Trick Eye Museum is, it is basically a location where you trick the eye to seem like you are interacting with the art by taking pictures. We also went inside the Ice Museum which was hella cold at 0 Celsius, something Hawai'i residents never experience. Lastly, we migrated to Myeongdong to do another shopping haul and to eat dinner. We ate a boujee restaurant where the servers cook for you and the meat was prime quality, spending about 25,000 won per person for our four-person table. However, we ate really 1 beef portion, 2 pork belly portions, and a seafood pancake. Afterwards, we explored the Stylenanda store which had the aesthetics of a hotel. It was a fun time getting to know our new friends while doing fun activities around Hongdae and Myeongdong!