Immigration affairs

Every person who is not coming for tourist reasons and is staying in Korea for longer than 90 days needs to apply for the Alien Registration Card and Number in the Immigration Office.

Immigration Offices are local to your residence area, and the list of them is in the internet. Ask a Korean assistance to explain where is the nearst one for you.

In Seoul it is near Omokgyo Station, where you follow the exit indicating Seoul Immigration Office, turn right after you exit the subway and go straight until you see a triangular crossing. The Immigration Office is on your left.  You will see signs bringing you there which are on the 3m height attaches to the trees or other things, though not many of them.

In Suwon, get the transport to Yeongtong Park. From Ajou University you can take the bus number 11-1 from in front of GS25 minishop near the Main Gate. Once on the bus, count 14 stops or focus until you hear Yongtong Koongwon, and you pass under the curvy bridge over the road and immediately on your left you will see the Tesco/ Home Plus Megastore.

Get off the bus. Go back until the curvy bridge. Climb the bridge. Go across the bridge. Cross the road. Go straight through the narrow road full of small businesses. Cross the road. On your right there is Suwon Immigration Office blg.

Make sure you have sufficient documents with you. Normally these are: passport, two photos, and a certificate indicating that you are a student or a faculty member or that you are anyhow else employed in Korea. If you don't have the photos, you can make them in the machine. Warning: the machine accepts only 1000 or 5000 KRW. The current fee for photos is 6000 KRW.

Once at the window, explain what you need. The clerks speak pretty good english, unlike in Seoul. You may also ask for reentry permit and ask for your card to be sent to your address later on. The waiting time is apprx two weeks. The fee is 10 000 KRW and you need to by a Revenue Stamp and give it to the clerk ( do it before you approach the window - it's faster).

When you go out of the Immigration Office, make sure you take the proper exit, it's very easy to get lost. If you are lost ask where is the Home Plus, it's your orientation point.

The bus stop which takes you back to the University, is under the bridge. You can take the bus 720-3. Focus until you hear "Ajoodehakkyo" in the name of the bus, and get off. This will be either the University Hospital, or the next stop. Both are ok to get to the campus. Good job, you made it.

So again

I arrived to Korea and from now on I will cover Korean issues with doubled attention. There will be also some changes to the blog, which I will introduce later.

I wondered what to write about at first. Today we had the orientation day at Ajou University, Suwon.
We have been introduced to the stuff and the facilities and got bit more familiar with the campus life and the formalities.

At one moment there was a minute of speech about the aclimatization shock and cultural shock as well. We all come from somewhere and belong to somewhere and are afraid of what's new and unknown.

There were symptoms presented such as radical changes in behaviour. Emotional withdrawal, overreacting, stigmatization and stereotypization of the host culture, long sleep, sudden cleaning attitude and so on.

However I have been to Korea I wonder if it got on me, because I am very well sorted out and I live a healthy life this time. I have enough of sleep and I eat only healthy food and not much, on a very regular basis. And I stick to my European food habits, first meal after 1 pm. But I am much more sorted out than I was in Europe. So I simply ask myself if I have these symptoms or not?

Irritation feeling was one of those mentioned. I have that recently. I feel knocked off my balance. I hope this is only because since I arrived I don't really have time for myself. A lot happens all the time and my friends keep talking and talking to me. No chillout so far. Now I feel like my balance and energy flow on place because I type this in my room in a total silence.

There will be changes to a blog. I will group posts into simple tagged categories like: politics, society, culture, cross culture issues, anecdotes, tourist usefull, business usefull. Once a week there will be a post labeled by one or more of these tags for more clear overview. I will also relabel the old ones.

Enjoy. And please contact me with any questions you have. I'll try to answer most of them.

Aga