EXCHANGE STUDENT TRAVEL TIPS PART1: What to bring to SMU?

*for TIPS Part 2 << click here

TIPS Part 3 << click here

Hello to my future 동생! (Juniors^^)

Congratulations to the students who made it as SMU-UniKL Exchange Students for this coming semester!

Ok, so that is just the tip of the iceberg. Now I bet some of you kids are freaking out about what to bring. Sebab kalau cite pasal duduk kat hostel UniKL, mesti ada banyak yg bawak atau tinggal berkotak2 barang untuk diguna balik for the next semester. Dgn baldi, papan seterika, hanger baju la bagai~ blablabla, hahaha, za pun macam tu jugak :p

One of the obvious issue here is that you're not gonna come here to Korea with your family's car. You're going to take a plane, which has a luggage weight limit. So, confirm korg kena tinggal baldi yg korg dh pakai for 6 Semester kt Malaysia.

Not to worry! I'll try to narrow down the list for you lovely kids as much as I can.

First thing first;

MUST HAVE/DO

1. CLOTHING: bring ONLY your favourites, like 10 pairs, if possible MUCH LESS. Believe me, when you come here, you guys would be purchasing new clothes here. Plus, this helps lighten your luggage. Tips: when you guys come here it'll be end-of winter and early spring. Only bring  one coat, or borrow from family/friends. When you guys arrive we can go shopping for better coats here and a lot cheaper, because during late-winter season, the price of the coats will drop to the price that will make you regret buying that rm300 jacket at that Travel shop in malaysia.
2. SHOES: bring your sport shoes, or casual shoes. Better, bring only two pair of whatever shoes you guys love. Tips: Selipar-Jepun for the regular toilet trip you guys can just buy it here. 
3. TOILETRIES: You don't need my advice for this, this is all your own opinion. But just in-case you guys were wondering, the shampoos and shower gel/soaps price are not that different from Malaysia, depending on your preferences.
4. BLANKETS: Awesome Tip from previous students who came here, they brought their own sleeping bag. It doesn't just act as a blanket but also as the mattress cover. Well, it doesn't really cover the mattress, but at least your body won't be touching the bare mattress surface. AND it also helps to keep you warm during the Spring season. Anyway, one of the Korean students habit here is that they don't even use the mattress cover! just a plain blanket to cover on top of them when they sleep. 
5. PILLOW: Don't bring this, again we can buy the pillow here if you want it, but this will cost around less than RM30 for that common bed size pillow, or you can bring your favourite bantal busuk (^_^) I did! hehe
6. PRAYING MATS: For muslims, bring along a traveling size sajadah. This will be convenient when you travel around Korea and there are no Masjid nearby (Sorry, I don't really like the english term of Masjid). and of course telekung for the ladies. Tips: Again for the ladies bring an easy-light-weight strap-on jubah as a telekung when you pray (a'la Musafir). This will be convenient when ladies want to do their solat anywhere possible. Of course, a traveling size Al-Quran, or just download the app on your smartphone.
7. TRAVELLERS ESSENTIALS: The obvious, your passports and all identification needed to come here as a foreigner. Tips: if possible, take like 8 passport size picture of yourself, with WHITE BACKGROUND before you come here. You will need this during Temporary Foreign Residential Registration Process in Korea. Wear a black scarf or tudung ekin style for ladies wearing hijab. They are going to like beg you to take another photo showing your ears. believe me, so if you girls wear ekin style they would let it go hopefully. **More Important Tips: This is just an opinion, as a foreigner I suggest you guys keep a soft-copy of your travelling documents in your email account, or any cloud server you know. This is just for pre-caution just in case you lost the original documents while staying here.
8. STUDY THE KOREAN ALPHABETS!! This is really easy, I promise, not as complicated as chinese writing, MUCH easier than chinese writing. Plus this will help you a lot to kick start your language learning experience once you arrive here. Don't mind the words, just memorize the Alphabets first.
9. INTERNATIONAL BANKCARD: Money is what you will definitely need to survive anywhere. Make sure you go to your representative bank and ask them about changing the card to international use. I don't really remember the protocol, but just tell the bank personal that you want to use your card (Maybank, CIMB, etc.) in Korea in a certain period of time. Tips The best option is to apply for a Citibank. It got the lowest exchange rate and cheaper transfer service. When you do this you'll be able to take out money from your current bank from any Korean Global ATM here. They also have 4 of that ATM in the town 15 minutes away by bus from Semyung University.
10. ELECTRONIC ITEMS: As you may know the socket here is different than Malaysia, so my advice is bring the extension sockets, depending on how much you need for the electrical items you brought from Malaysia. 5 sockets or less would be the safest.

ATTENTION TO INTERNET GEEKS!!
This is an option for you guys who love to keep on-the-line-ALL-the-time. Though I know we got free internet line here, but the Building's WiFi link inside the room is very-very-very-weak, despite the fact they got crazy awesome network system here.

What I did was I bought my own WiFi Router to keep inside the room. This way pegi toilet pun bole dpt WiFi. Anyhweiii~ The reason why I did this was because I hate dragging long cables all around the room. Especially when using laptop, you would definitely want to be able to get lines via "wireless" when you're dragging your laptop on the bed or the floor. Or the ceiling if you like. What ever rocks your boat.(^^)

again this is just an Option for those who's interested.

to be continue...

-Ladies must have/do...
-Food related...
-Culture reference...
-Health issue...
-Being the foreigner in a foreign land...