I’m 3 weeks into my semester here at Sogang University.
It consists of two tall buildings with the ground and basement floors connected.
As you could’ve guessed, one building is for guys and the other for girls.
Forewarning, if you get caught in the opposite gender’s building, your housing contract is immediately terminated!
You take your dorm ID card and scan it and a pair of gates will open to give you access. (You also got to scan when you leave your dorm building)
So, the system keeps track of when you’re in the building or not.
It may seem like a lot but it’s their strict way of maintaining safety, I guess.
Even more, there’s a curfew between midnight and 5am. (Shorter curfew on the weekends, though)
You lose points whenever you enter or leave the dorms during that time. Buuuuuut, for foreigners (like me!), we’re given ONE free one-way pass any given night of the week. So we can stay out late and come home during the curfew, and it’ll be granted without losing points.
Oh, the points. If you lose enough points, your contract is void lol! There’s many ways to lose points (get caught smoking, drinking, cooking, damaging, etc in the dorms). But, there ARE ways to receive points, though, but it’s not easy.
Anyways, you also got to receive permission if you’re going to stay out “overnight,” which means coming in past 5am.
This type of behavior is common, such as having to study all night for an exam.
Now, if you don’t get permission (btw, it’s pretty easy to get it. You just got to ask) AND you stay out overnight, they’ll know, alright.
How? Because the gate system knows you’re out of the dorms! MUHAHA!
There’s a lot more technical stuff to this dorming lifestyle at Sogang, but I won’t get into it all.
My roommate is really nice.
He’s 26 years old (Korean age). Old, huh?
He’s graduating this semester. And with the combination of serving in the military & double majoring (Ch E and Law), he’s where he is now.
I definitely look up to him as a hyung, and I hope to learn a lot about Korea from him.
He’s really considerate and treats me well, so my fears of getting an incompatible roommate are gone~
He bought us Papa John’s pizza a few nights ago. Awesome!
Now, I guess it’s time to show you around my dorm room!
You’ll notice pictures of a room with a toilet/sink and another with a shower! Yeahhhhh. Personal (or I guess bi-personal?) toilet and shower :)!
Location: Seoul, South Korea