Well, after doing a lot of thinking I’ve decided to go ahead and stay in the off-campus apartment provided by SNU.  Yeah, it’s pretty freaking expensive and probably isn’t in the best location.  But, what I want right now is to know that I have a roof over my head and a relatively nice and private place to stay.  SNU has apparently put about 18,000,000 Won of key money down on each apartment and was able to lower the original rent prices which leads me to believe these will be a step up from a 원룸형.  The studio apartment I stayed in when I was in Vancouver was more expensive than the one SNU is offering, so I can’t say I haven’t seen these kinds of high prices before.  I have to move out in June, so maybe I can scope out a cheaper, nice place until then.  I just don’t want to have to deal with all the crap of finding a place right after I get to Korea.  I only have a month, so I’d much rather spend it hanging out with friends and doing things I want to do.  I really hope I’m not disappointed.  I still have a week or so to change my mind, but at this point I can fit this apartment into my budget so I’m pretty stuck on taking it.

For those interested in what the SNU off-campus housing for this semester looks like, here’s a pic (this is the generic picture of one of the apartments, kind of looks like a 원룸형 IMO):

I can’t believe I started this blog at the end of 2008 and have successfully blogged for over a year!  The last year has been pretty eventful.  I survived my last semester at BYU, successfully transferred to the University of Utah, resigned from the LDS/Mormon church peacefully, found a great job, and got accepted to Seoul National University allowing me to finally go to Korea after years of preparation.  How about that?  Well, I’m looking forward to another great year where I’ll be spending most of my time in Korea.  I’ll be able to study and make friends with some of the smartest university students in Korea, travel and see beautiful sites both in and out of Korea, continue to improve myself and learn more about who I am and who I want to be, and who knows what else.  Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, I hope that we can all learn together and have some laughs as I start my journey to Korea.  I’m sure that I’ll have my ups and my downs, but part of learning is experiencing the hardships and getting through them and learning and sharing your experiences with others.  Bring it on 2010.

See title.  That is all.

I just got an email from SNU saying that my fee for four months of off-campus housing would be 3,600,000 won.  That’s pretty expensive.  100,000 is a refundable deposit and 500,000 won is an installation fee (Internet connection, electricity connection, blanket & pillow, kitchen utensils, etc.)?  Yeah, that installation fee is more than one month’s rent for me know.  That really seems like an unreal price, it’s around $700 a month.  That’s twice what I’m paying right now and my current place is pretty expensive for around here.  Now, I know that Seoul is an expensive city, but they’re expecting a student to want to pay that much for an apartment?

Due to a health problem I’ve encountered for the past two weeks, it looks like I have to stay in the USA an extra month to make sure I recover.  This should put my trip off until the end of January =(.  Oh well, I guess it’ll give me some more time to get ready.