Zip housing - housing consultant

Hello cutie pies ! This time I have a bit different blog post for you guys. As you guys know, Sara & I moved to our own place few weeks ago. Neither of us have ever before lived on our own, so getting your first own apartment on the other side of the world is definitely not an easy task! Except that for us it was, thanks to Moon & Roy, our dear friends also known as the staff of Zip housing, a housing consultant for foreigners here in Seoul. They've helped us so, so incredibly much during this month we've been here in Korea, and completely free of charge, so I thought the least I can do is to write a post about them and their great work here on my blog.

We first learned about zip housing several months before arriving to Korea. Sara saw a post on tumblr  recommending their services, and we were, of course, jumping with joy when we heard there's someone willing to help clueless people like us to find an apartment in Seoul. Our original plan for finding an apartment was to walk around Seoul, dragging along few of our friends, and visit various real estate agencies. That could have turned out to be a really long and a difficult way though since we know nothing about the real estate market here in Korea.

We contacted Roy & Moon via kakaotalk and explained our situation. Later, we sent them our application form and they promised to start looking for apartments for us few days before we arrive to Korea. Which they did. Only two days after coming here they had a bunch of apartments to show us and they took us to a guiding tour. I never made it there though because of a sudden jetlag / fever so instead Sara went and took a whole lot of pictures and videos for me. We found our apartment in one day after one guiding session. All we had to do was to send them our application and they went through so much work and trouble to find apartments suitable for our needs. 

We met again after few days to sign the contract, and Roy also helped us with bank accounts and paying the deposit and all the other fees. He always translated everything into English for us and made sure we were on the same page and knew what we were getting ourselves into.  In addition to the whole apartment stuff, we've been bothering them with the most ridiculous little problems we have here, from the awkward language barrier with our landlord all the way to ordering the right wifi router for our home. They've been patient, and always there to help us even when they are really busy with their own lives.

These guys are seriously the best. If you ever need an apartment here in Seoul, don't hesitate to contact them. They're professional yet still fun and comfortable to hang out with. You will get the best service available here in Seoul, no doubt, and also new friends. Friends are important. Friends who have a long temper and are fluent in Korean are important when you are trying to get your life together on the other side of the world, lol. Trust me, I know.

Here's the guiding story of our apartment hunting and here's the review we wrote about the whole process. P.s it includes some pictures of our apartment as well ! 

Go read them, and then go like and support them here.

xx,
Julia 

This and that

Hello !  This time I really don't have a certain theme or thing to write about so I'm just gonna briefly write down some things. 

Our apartment is still not completely ready, so I don't want to take pictures of it yet. We did visit IKEA the other day but due to its huge popularity in Korea right now every other of their items were sold out. So was the table I wanted, and the lamp I wanted, and the clothes rack thing I wanted- I could list these things for the next 15 minutes. We did, however, get meatballs and other useful stuff! In Finland IKEA trips were a mother-daughter thing for me so it felt really nice to finally go there. It was nostalgic. Mom, I miss you ! 

Last Friday we visited our school and registered for the language school. We also walked around the campus a bit and just took it all in. And let me tell you, the campus is huge. We got lost like 3 times before we found the right building, hahah. We also killed some time at this cute CNN cafe. After the school trip we went to Dongdaemun  & then to Hongdae. Sara did some shoe shopping while I was hunting for a new jacket and bag. Which I did find after like 2 hours. Few more weeks of winter vacation left and then on the 10th of March we have a placement test and classes start on the 13th. Then for the next 6 months it will be just studying Korean every day all day. I look forward to that but at the same time I'm kinda terrified, lol.

Otherwise we've been pretty much just hanging out in our apartment, meeting up with friends and going to club cocoon more than too many times (I swear I could go there and dance the whole night every damn day if it was up to me). Life here has started to settle down. Moving into our own apartment changed a lot. We have our own beds to sleep in, own kitchen to cook in and a lot of just...own space in general. It feels good after 3 weeks in a guesthouse sharing everything with everyone. 

Next week is probably going to be pretty busy, but I will try to write something here too when I have time. Otherwise more updates on my insta & twitter. I have a bunch of writing ideas but somehow I just always end up doing something else... Still kinda trying to get used to the fact I'm here. 

Life's good. Also Happy late valentine's day to you all ! 

xx,
Julia

Hongdae nightscape

Hello beautiful people~ We have finally moved into our new, tiny and cute apartment in Idae! We moved in about a week ago, slept 3 nights on the floor surrounded by suitcases and now this week the stuff we've ordered from gmarket has been arriving little by little everyday. We got our mattresses, mirrors, wifi router etc. The only super important things missing right now are our electric fans, so we can turn off the floor heating which costs way too much for our budget. 

I will take a bunch of pictures of our neighborhood and (still kinda empty) place for the next post, but for this post I walked around my favorite place, maybe in the whole world, called Hongdae. During the day it looks like just a normal artsy area with a lot of shops and restaurants and music playing on the streets, but in the evening it becomes just something magical. The music becomes louder, lights brighter and the streets are full of people going clubbing, or shopping for clothes even though it's 12 AM, street bands showing off their skills and the already familiar older women and men selling steaming hot street food from their small booths right next to the station. Unfortunately the pictures cannot capture the atmosphere fully, but maybe I'll do some vlogs from Hongdae later on, especially during Friday or Saturday evenings since I took these photos on a Tuesday evening, hahah~ 

Daytrip to nowhere

Hello there! Yesterday our mission was to visit the IKEA store in Gwangmyeong. However we had some bank business to take care of so we ended up not going. Today we left the house again, confident and determined to find the store and do some shopping for our new home ! 

After a long train trip we ended up in the middle of nothing. Needless to say, we never made it to IKEA, lol! We took the subway line 1 back to Seoul station and went shopping in Lotte mart instead! They had a cute daiso section there so we got some home supplies. 

Everything is so colorful and cute. And most importantly, cheap. For poor university students like us a place like this is a dream come true. We got a lot of useful things for our new apartment. Spoons, forks, chopsticks, glasses, plates, cups, bathroom stuff, pots and fry-pans... the list goes on and on. We also visited the Daiso in Myeongdong, had some dinner there and then just walked around and came back home. 

I don't think I will ever get over how beautiful this city looks at night. Every now and then it just hits me and I have to stop and take a bunch of pictures of all the buildings and lights.

We should move into our new apartment on Monday, but right now I have no idea if that's possible. We still have so much things to figure out, and we need to order our mattresses and tables and whatnot. We'll see how things turn out. I have so many blog post ideas, too, but right now I don't have time to write that often. After we get to our own apartment and settle down a bit, doing all this social media thing is going to be a lot easier. 

Tomorrow we are going to homeplus to hunt for sheets and duvets and pillows. But for now, I'm gonna make a cup of tea for myself, eat some chocolate and watch netflix. Good night world ~ 

xx,

Julia

Getting used to life in Seoul

Hello guys ! I'm sitting in this super cozy twosome cafe in Hongdae near our guesthouse, drinking coffee and doing some major people watching (I love watching people-) and decided to write on my blog as well. A lot of stuff has happened during the few last days. I've been taking care of important things, getting used to my new life here in Seoul, and of course, enjoying the nightlife of this city. I've missed this all so much and I am so incredibly happy and thankful that I can call this city my home now.

On Wednesday we had an apartment hunting trip with Roy and Moon from zip housing. We had an amazing luck and it only took us one day to find the perfect apartment for us! It's a two bedroom apartment in Idae (Ewha women's university area), only two subway stops & a walking distance from Hongdae. The apartment is in a villa building and all the apartments are being renovated, so they are brand new and clean. Ours is almost finished, only a new stove, washing machine and a fridge is missing but they will bring them to us before our moving in date, which is 26th of this month! I will take pictures of our new home the next time we go there and clean the whole place. 

We also made us Korean phone plans & bank accounts. Paying rent, taking care of money business, contacting friends and all that kind of daily things are a lot easier now. My korean skills are getting better everyday, too, slowly but steadily. I can understand a lot already, but sometimes when I should open my mouth I just totally freeze, hahah. 

Small daily things keep surprising me. Some positively, some negatively. I'll write a whole post about those later! One thing that I do love about Seoul more than anything is that this city never sleeps. Many cafes stay open 24/7 and shops close around 11pm - even the H&M in Hongdae was open around 11pm when we were going to the club last night. Food is amazing. Cheap and amazing. That didn't necessarily surprise me, but seeing the prices when we order something always make me go "oh damn this is cheap".

So right now life is looking pretty good. Next week we're gonna visit our university to get some papers, meet up with our friends and maybe do some home utilities shopping at Ikea & daiso ! Tomorrow I plan to go walking around Hongdae to take some more pictures for my "Hongdae nightscape" blog post I've been working on. So until the next time ! 

xx,

Julia