[LIFE OF A 대학생] #3: 3 Cons of living on your own in a foreign/unfamiliar city

This is just a small post about the things I have experienced so far.

• You have to do everything on your own.

Cooking, cleaning the apartment, doing the laundry, making important phone calls, filling in forms, going grocery shopping, running errands, finding your way around, knowing what to do in every daily situation... the list of things your parents would have normally done for you goes on and on. But no, your parents aren't there anymore to pamper you. This is what life is really like! You have to face every situation that may seem troublesome on your own. Sometimes you can ask your parents or surf the internet for advice, but in the end it's you who has to make a decision. It can be quite a challenge to face all this on your own!

• It can get quite lonely.

This depends on how you live. Either you live together with strangers in an apartment or you're renting an apartment only for yourself. Either way, it can get a little lonely in a huge city where everything and everyone is strange and unfamiliar to you. Making friends as quick as possible is the only solution to fight the loneliness and have people around who can help you or comfort you.

• Life is expensive.

As soon as you live on your own you will notice how expensive life actually is. Your living habits will change as soon as you realise that putting on the stove to make yourself some pasta already costs a lot of electricity. Life without internet connection is unimaginable in times like these. But have you ever thought about how expensive it can get to monthly pay for your 25mbit/s? Especially as a student, things you have considered all your life to be normal, now become a privilege and a piece of luxury to you. Here are four ideas to save money:

[LIFE OF A 대학생] #2: Enrolling and looking for an apartment

English

[September 2014] Hello guys! Haven't posted in a long time because I was so busy with university and other things. Short update again: I have been accepted to three unversities - Tübingen, Bonn and Berlin.

 

After a very very long time of jumping back and forth between unis and contemplating which one is the best, I finally made a decision and sent all my papers to Berlin. It's been almost two weeks now and today I checked the status online and it said the following: "You have been enrolled. Your student ID, showing your student ID number, will be sent to you by mail."
Yay! I officially am a university student, woohoo!

 

The next steps will be: waiting for a letter from uni with my student ID which I have to show my bank so that I won't have to pay for my savings account; finally finishing all the papers I need to fill in and send to Berlin in order to get financial support; finally FINALLY find an apartment in Berlin!

 



Weeks later...

Flashing forward to October 2014 because I haven't really had the time to finish writing this post. I got all my papers from university with my student ID. The last weeks have been torture, I tell you. Looking for an apartment has probably been the hardest thing I have ever done in life. But really fortunately, my mum got in contact with a really nice guy who is a landlord and had an offer for a one room apartment which wasn't too expensive. So I moved pretty spontaneously to Berlin and have been living here for a little bit over a week.
Uni has also already started on Wednesday this week and it is really really tough already. Speaking in more detail about my major: Korean studies is really no joke. Lectures haven't started yet but I already am obliged to attend a course that's going to teach us all the basics. I have to say that everyone expects a lot of us. The Korean professor expected everyone with no knowledge of the Korean language to actually teach themselves the alphabet and how to write it in one day. So you can only imagine how glad and relieved I was that I taught myself 한글 like three years ago, otherwise I would probably be really frustrated right now. The first two days you learn about pronounciation and next week we'll get to know more about the country and its history.
You have to put your schedule together on your own. All of this happens online on a particular website of my university. It's kind of difficult to understand all of this in the beginning, like which courses you have to take when and how to book the lectures online and so on. They also tell you to go slowly in your first semester and to not book too many courses. So, if I have actually gotten this right, then my schedule isn't actually too busy. I have a Korean language course from Tuesday to Friday for two hours plus lectures on Friday about Korean history, economy and politics for two hours as well. That seems really chilled, right? But be aware of having to study loads for your Korean language course. It really takes a lot of self studying at home to become good. Because as far as I have already experienced during the two days of my pre-course, you will have to teach yourself a lot.

This post is a bit rushed because I wanted to squeez in everything that has happened in the past two to three weeks. But I hope it already gave you a first impression about what my life is like right now. I will also post a few cons of living on your own soon, as well more details about my major and about attending university. So far everything has been pretty unfamiliar and new to me so I can't really say that much. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or message me on twitter! :>

(German version of this entry after the cut - click on 'Read more')

[LIFE OF A 대학생] #1: Applying for university, waiting for admission letters

English

Hey there!
I've been absent for quite a while. Short update: I graduated high school and am done with A levels. Now it's time for a new life!

I decided to post everything that's got to do with university on my blog here. Especially because I wanted to inform other on what it's like - from a normal school off to university. Also because I chose a major that's not too common here in Germany yet (although there's already a numerus clausus for this major at all the universities where that major is available) and therefore want to share my experiences with those who are interested in majoring in korean/asian studies as well.

Well, where do you start after finishing high school and having received your certificate? I was eager and immediately applied online at five universities I had looked up information about beforehand. The ones I chose were Berlin, Bonn, Bochum, Tübingen and - although my chances were really little because of the NC - Hamburg.

After applying for undergraduate programmes, all you have to do is wait... and wait... and wait. Deadline to submit your application is always July 15th here in Germany if you want to start your studies in winter. Whether you'll be allowed to study at your favourite university, you'll know either already at the very end of July or at the beginning/midst of August. It can also take longer but at the end of August you should get your admission letter at last. You can check the status of you application online as well.

I couldn't stop whining how I wanted it to be August already so I would know where I got accepted or not... And then bad news: waiting list for asian studies/korean and media science at Uni Bochum.

On July 30th I got an admission letter from Bonn, as well as from Tübingen on August 2nd. Now I only have to wait for a letter from Berlin although my hopes aren't high. After a lot of thinking I decided for Uni Bonn - at least that's the latest news. Before that I wanted to study at Tübingen and later at Berlin until I saw the amazing offer of M.A. subjects I could take later on at Bonn.

Deadline to actually register for university is August 15th at Tübingen while at Bonn you have to go there personally in the midst of September.

So, at the moment I'm still waiting for an e-mail from Berlin and am trying to make a final decision about where I will study in October. I also need to look for an apartment... But that will probably be a topic for another post.

Questions, feedback or just getting into touch via twitter :>

(German version of this entry after the cut - click on 'Read more')

140208

school sucks, chocolate coffee rules

hello there. first "diary entry".
so the whole week has been pretty shit and i am so happy it's the weekend now. i have been ill since monday afternoon and i am finally getting a little bit better. i don't really have anything exciting to tell, to be honest. kpopplus is worrying me a little at the moment because their online shop's site seems to be down/not working/not existing anymore and even though they've sent me an email, confirming that my cd has been shipped, i am still worried that this all might be a scam. on the other hand i know that they have an ebay shop and i have also read a positive review about their actual site and i am not so sure but i may have ordered from their ebay shop once before, so maybe this will all turn out for the good. let's just hope my b.a.p album won't get lost on its way to me :< oh, i'll be posting a review about the kpopplus online shop, so you will get to read all the details and information after my album arrives here safely.
minutes earlier i finished a valentine's day special oneshot and i am so happy because i think it actually turned out quite alright and funny and it's a little miracle for me that i actually finished a story in one go and so fast and it's all really a bit overwhelming because i am a person lacking a lot of creativity when it comes to the point that i have to be creative. and i also never manage to finish a story, so this was really a nice experience. you can already subscribe to the oneshot on asianfanfics (the link is in the 'find me on' box), i'll post the oneshot on friday thera and also here.
i haven't really been on twitter the whole day and i know i missed a whole bunch of news, that's why i haven't really anything to fangirl about right now. i'll just make another cup of chocolate coffee and then maybe go to bed early.
okay, wait, no. i just remembered that it's friday and that means exo's showtime~! so i'll probably watch that and fangirl a little (more like DIE) over sehun and suho...
ps: i already have 5 subscribers and 1 upvote on aff... you guys are crazy!