I think one of the questions you'll be asking yourself is where you will be staying; and if you're staying on-campus, you probably have to pick one of two choices: SK Global House, or International House.
So as much as possible, I'll give a brief introduction to both choices and hopefully make it easier for you to make you choice!
Background:
I live in International House currently.
General information about both SK and IH (things they don't tell you!)
- Both SK and IH are connected internally. This means you can move freely from IH to visit your friends in SK, and vice versa, without having to go out in the open. Entrances to both residences are separate though.
- However, you can only enter and exit from your respective residence. This means that even if you want to visit your friend in SK/IH first before going back to your room, you have to enter through your own side first.
- You can use facilities in both SK & IH if you are a resident of either one.
INTERNATIONAL HOUSE (I-HOUSE)
General stuff about I-House:
- Only has double rooms. In my opinion, it's pretty small, but it's more of cosy than too small.
- Toilets and showers are shared per level.
- A lounge on every floor. Includes water dispenser, hotplate for cooking, microwave over, large fridge. Also has television with cable, cosy sofas, and coffee tables.
- Fully air-conditioned, ondol also available (during winter).
- 5-storeys, Lobby, two for guys, two for girls. Basement (not accessible by elevator) has laundry rooms and study room.
What's good in I-House:
- Refrigerator inside the room - Store your personal groceries without the worry of them spoiling or being stolen (unless your roommate steals them). Refrigerator works even if nobody is in the room.
- Level-shared washrooms - No need to buy toilet paper, no need to wash toilets. The toilets are kept clean at all times, unless it's the weekends. That's because the janitor does not work. Then the toilets are really clean again on Monday. Even so, on weekends, they are still clean, just not super clean.
- Good storage solutions in the room - several cubicles for you to organize and categorize your items. Makes use of vertical space so you have more places to put things compared to SK.
- Air-conditioner works all-year round (I think) - Don't need to return the remote controls even when the weather turns cold (unlike SK)
What's not-so-good in I-House:
- Washrooms are outside - May be inconvenient for some
- No shelter whatsoever to the entrance of I-House - Rain or snow, or when the weather turns cold.. You need to walk out into the cold just to buy food from Global Plaza. You have to run through the rain just to get home.
- Motion-sensor lights, even in shower - It isn't very smart. Sometimes it switches the lights off right when you're in the middle of shampooing/soaping yourself, or washing your face. Stuck in the dark, you hastily wrap yourself up to wave at the motion sensor, near the entrance to the showers.
- Less facilities than SK - more inconvenient to walk a whole big round just to print notes at the computer room, or us the gym, or whatever.
SK GLOBAL HOUSE (not a resident so might be lacking in some details)
General stuff about SK:
- There are single as well as double rooms.
- Personal bathrooms
- More storeys than I-House
- Lounge available, various types of rooms around are accessible
What's good in SK:
- Bathrooms inside the room - Convenient
- Slightly larger than I-House rooms
- Directly connected to Global Plaza, KLI, and New Millenium Hall - You can wear your comfy clothes to get to Global Plaza to grab some food, because you won't be out in the cold at all. Speedy travel to KLI and NMH for lessons.
- SK lobby is a great place to chill - don't need to be a resident to sit there, quite a lively place too
What's not-so-good in SK:
- Bathrooms inside room - Clean it yourself, buy your own bathroom supplies including toilet paper. Trust me, cleaning the toilets are often the source of perpetual frustrations especially with roommates who suck at cleaning up or keeping it clean. Single room, not too bad, I guess.
- The entrance only allows one person to enter at one time - Troublesome.
- Kitchen with cooking equipment at the basement - Gotta go all the way down to cook if you want to. Inconvenient.
- Less utility of space for storage - You gotta find somewhere to organize you items.
- No refrigerator in the room - You can't store your milk or other groceries ):
TIPS AND OPINIONS (important! You will regret not reading this part)
- If you are travelling by cab, access I-House through Yonsei's main gate and drive all the way in, and stop in front of New Millenium Hall, that's the closest you can get to I-House. For SK, if you use this method, you need to take the elevator down to the basement level to access the lobby.
- There are TWO wall sockets at your desk. One is used for the table lamp, the other is for the IP Phone (which we never use). If you need more sockets, I suggest getting an adaptor for your HOME plug, and then bring an extension (like in this picture: click) in your home format, so you can easily use those sockets without hassle.
- There is NO WIFI in the room, please bring LAN wire, and learn in advance how to share your ethernet connection through wifi using your computer, so your phone can tap on it.
- The troublesome part about both SK and IH is that the power slot (the place you have to put your card key in so there is power in the room), only accommodates ONE card. It's a stupid design, especially if your roommate is one who is not spontaneous enough to make their card easily accessible. Imagine this, you wake up in the morning wanting to go for lessons and your roommate is still sleeping. You don't know where their card is, so you leave the room, with your roommate in a powerless room. (My roommate is one such person, she always keeps her card to herself.)
- SK and IH are located very far away from the nearest subway station. 15 minutes brisk walk to get there. Inconvenient much.
- Getting to lessons on main campus is also a pain in the butt, always prepare sufficient time to walk.
- In I-House, laundry rooms are split into Male and Female, although you can access both freely. In each room, there are three washers, and two dryers. Washers take 37 minutes per wash (1,000 won), and dryers take 45 minutes on high heat (always use this. and it costs 500 won). Detergent dispensers are available. Coin exchanger at the lobby. Yes, there is an iron.
- Global Plaza has convenient store, food, florist, nail shop, fastfood (burger & shake). On Sunday, only fastfood and convnient store are open. Food isn't cheap or exceptionally good, in the day, you can go to KLI basement for some good Korean food at lower prices (:
So that's all from me about IH and SK, both sides have their good and bad, so pick one the suits you better. Although, SK seems to run out of rooms faster than IH does so... yea. It doesn't mean IH is a bad place, it has its charms (:
