The so-called Orientation

On the first Monday in March we had our Orientation. All the exchange students and their supporters gathered in a room in the International Building right next to the campus entrance. My supporter was missing this day, but there was another CNU student, who is able to speak German. He is the supporter of two other German exchange students. So he helped me instead.
We met the team, who is responsible for international exchange and their team leader gave a presentation with all the "important" information. They taught us about course registration, course cancellation deadlines, the Alien Registration Card, etc. We also had to fill in a lot of forms, for example for opening a bank account. Lucky are those with a short name, because you have to place your signature on these forms like a hundred times.

The Orientation ended and I didn't really feel orientated. I had hoped for an introduction of the campus, that they would tell us the important buildings, how we could get food at the cafeteria, where can I go shopping, what is the number of the phone in my room, where can I find specific information about the different courses, what language courses are offered, is there a sports program on campus, etc..... They didn't tell us any of this.

So maybe it is helpful if I write down the information I have gathered so far:

1. There are four cafeterias on campus. No. one near the dormitory, No. two in the same building as the Pan Dorothy café next to the main road (building No. E3), No. three in the same building as Hana Bank (building No. W8-2) and No. four in the same building as the post office (building No. N7). And don't expect the menu to be in English ^_~
   Cafeteria No. 3 serves good Bibimbap and also Chinese food. I heard No. 2 is the best choice for Tonkasu (Ger. Schnitzel), but be there early, as they only have a limited amount of Tonkasu. No. 4 is a good choice when you went to No. 2 too often.
   Otherwise, there are great restaurants in the district Gung-dong, right next to the campus, or you just grab some food at the convenience store or at Popeye's (burger) near the dormitory.
2. The big field next to the library (Makdong) is a good place for hanging out and drinking with your friends. As soon as it gets warmer, CNU students are all over the place having fun, while sitting on newspapers and eating snacks.
3. There is a gym in building No. E3. I heard it's around 10.000 Won per month.
4. Apparently, you don't need to have your Alien Registration Card, in order to get a Korean phone number. One of the French exchange students got his number when he came to Korea.
5. You can use your bank account card and your student ID for T-money transaction, e.g. paying at restaurants, shops, or paying for subways and buses. You need to transfer money on the T-money-account. You can do this at an ATM (this option only exists in Korean), go to the convenience store near the dormitory and ask at the register or use the machines at the subway stations. I recommend you to use T-money for buses and subway, because then you can transfer without having to pay the fee for the next ride. This means, you can board the bus (1.100 Won) and then transfer to the subway at a later station without having to pay another 1.200 Won for the subway ticket.
6. You can find your room's phone number in your personal page of the dormitory website. Login to the website (https://dorm.cnu.ac.kr/html/) via the orange button in the upper right corner. Your login is your student ID (before getting your Alien Registration Card (ARC) it might be a different ID). Your password is set beforehand (if you won't get it while moving into the dormitory, go to the dormitory guidance building No. 3 - the last building on the dormitory area - 1st floor, turn right after the entrance and then enter the big glass door on the right side and ask for the ID and password). You will need to change it and after your got the ARC it is changed again to your birthday (YYMMDD). Hit the button "개인정보 변경" in the menu on the left side and then you can find the number at the point that says "전화번호". You also need to login this page if you want to participate in events organized by the dormitory (they will send e-mails, but not every exchange student gets them, so be sure to check out the Foreign Student Community on the website mentioned above).
7. There are two shuttle buses on campus. For the fastest way from the dorm to the campus entrance take bus B. For the fastest way from the entrance to the dorms take bus A.
8. Yes, there are English conversation classes. Be sure to ask your supporter to help you find some if you are interested. They won't be listed in the course list of English courses.

If I remember more, I update this list.

After the Orientation, you have until the next Thursday to hand in a list of the courses you will take. We also got time until the next day to tell the International Office if we wanted to participate in the Intensive Korean Class (this one costs extra money). But I will tell you about the Korean classes in another post. See you <3