Norah Phillips-Pinkney, TEAN: Seoul Spring 2025
A lot of people say college will be the best four years of your life, though that opinion might be debatable to be frank I can see the appeal. Being a college student in Seoul going to Korea University is really fun with something happening almost every week, whether that be through club events or school concerts. But day to day might not be that exciting, daily life can feel a little monotonous if you don’t make an effort. Every week I have 1-2 classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 4 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I typically eat breakfast at a cafe with a friend and go out to explore with my friends after class on Mon. Wed. and Friday since my day ends relatively early.
Seoul can be a 50/50 city in terms of whether you use cash or card, most stores accept cards and now delivery apps are accepting foreign cards. But on the other hand you can only use cash to refill transportation cards, and participate in most club activities. As a study abroad student this is a sustainable way of life since I’m only here for a short amount of time, but for long term international students, you need to make a Korean bank account because the main form of money transfer is bank transfer. In all honesty living a temporary life here hasn’t been difficult, yet. But that’s because my life here has been temporary, my phone number, housing, schooling, etc nothing is permanent.
When my friends and I go exploring we typically try to visit different parts of the city, my favorites being Seoul Forest, Mapo, and 경복궁/복촌. Shopping in Seoul is truly an experience, there’s stores for almost anything whether you’re going to global brands in a mall or small trinket shops in the alleys. Yesterday I went to a store that sold primarily stickers, it was amazing. Since Korea is all about convenience there’s a lot of the same type of stores on the same street, you can walk an entire street and see 5 different types of convenient stores, 10 different coffee shops, and 5 different Olive Youngs. But because there are so many stores accessible to you it can be really hard to not spend all your money in the first week being here. Personally I try to exclusively purchase things I need or focus my money on experiences. During weekdays I only spend my money on food or things I need to restock because they’re a necessity, but on weekends I’ll let myself have a little more fun. It would obviously be cheaper to make food in my dorm, but since I can’t buy kitchen utensils because I’m only here for a couple of months I felt it was a better option to just eat out everyday, affordably. Since I mainly spend money on necessities it’s easier to “save” money, I don’t consider it actual saving because I’m not making an income but saving is saving I guess.
In all honesty daily life here is very similar to my daily life back in Pittsburgh, I go to class, I go to clubs, I go buy food, etc. Due to the finality of my time here though, I feel an obligation to do as much as possible, I just have to do it frugally.
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