Allive Goshitell & trying to find a place to stay in Seoul *updated
Before I ever left the US I did a ton of research for a place to stay.
I was willing to stay in a Goshiwon. I found a bunch of really nice and cute places; although I wasn't exactly 100% sure where they were I knew several were by the colleges. I figured, it wouldn’t be that
bad. Until I visited a couple. When I had to find a place to stay it wasn’t as easy as I was making it out to be in my mind. I was lucky to have the help of a good friend. We looked at couple places up and went to check them out. One Goshiwon that I still remember vividly was an old brick building, with dark halls. (Y'know those horror movies with the flickering lights.. picture that- wasn't that bad, but picture it anyway, that's the mood). We were shown rooms that were maybe just enough space to stand next to a bed that was shoved under a desk, and a storage for personal belongings. You couldn't put your arms extended all the way out in this room. It was definitely not a clean living space from my recollection, either. I was quickly ushered out by my friend, and
told it wasn’t fit for humans.
I was taken to one place that was a two story climb to a beautiful welcome room, and all the shoes were in boxes outside, oh and room was nice and clean and I could probably lay in the floor if I wanted. The one stipulation was no talking in the building. Yes... NO TALKING. I asked about phone calls, skype calls? You go outside for that... so middle of winter 2:am you go outside for your call. I was gonna take it to be honest. I wasn't a bad deal considering what I'd experienced thus far... although the Hostel I was staying at was offering me a pretty good deal....
They aren’t ALL that bad. Some are pretty nice, but you
have to be willing to look and pay more.
Some goshiwons/goshitells are CHEAP, you can live in some for less than
$300 a month (Those ones are closer to Yonsei). That, however, is not
always the best way to go. When I needed
a place the University helped me find a room at the goshitell I am at as I
write most of this (I won’t post it until I move). There happened to be an open
space here, so I lucked out. I was living at a hostel, it wasn’t the most ideal
of situations, but it was a better situation than some of the goshiwons. I got
to Allive I was happy to have a place to hang my clothes. Because I was LITERALLY sleeping with my clothes, and bags, and everything else. There was
nowhere to put my stuff. As I learned,
that although the situation changed, as with everything, there was still the good
the bad and the ugly.
I asked the other roommates what the thought were good & bad & worse about being here. So this is the collaboration of myself and about 4 other roommates.
The good
:
The manager is REALLY kind. When I left he even helped me
get my bags to the bus stop.
The manager pretty much leaves you alone.
The building is still fairly new, so it looks
nice.*NO insulation
The rooftop is a cool place to hang out.
Good location, good priced gym, many markets and restaurants
nearby
The rooms are bigger than most goshitells. You can
actually put your arms out and not be touching anything.
We have a kitchen
Mini fridges in our room.
There is free internet (or it’s included).
Private bathrooms (this is more important than you think)
Free laundry (other ones don’t have this)
*He’ll give you a blanket (okay, he gave ME a blanket,
not my roommates)
Big open windows
We have heat (some don’t)
There is a common area (which is nice) Also we only have
8 people per floor, so you get to know each other and visit *except for 7th
floor
2 blocks from the subway
3 blocks from the university
The bad:
The manager doesn’t speak English. *It is an international
goshitell for foreign students, ran by the university, although I worked to
speak to him, it wasn’t everyone’s goal. This caused many misunderstandings that could have been easily avoided if we
could have communicated both ways. I respect that this is the norm, but it would have helped many misunderstandings
The manager doesn’t always warn us before maintenance,
therefore SURPRISE! No shower.
In most goshiwons there are certain things provided ie.
Rice, Kimchi, Eggs, Tea, Water.
Allive only provides water.
There was/is no cooking supplies. No pot, no pan (I bought these
to leave)
 |
| Everyone gets to see your clothing dry. |
The stove top on the 6th floor isn’t the best,
it doesn’t turn off, and you have to unplug it. (tThis was a serious fire hazard, and we'd sometimes find it left on by those we shared the kitchen with, often the floor above us).
The internet likes to stop randomly
Although the laundry is free, he doesn’t want you to dry
your clothes in the dryer (everyone sees your undies)
Bedding is not provided, so good luck aimlessly wandering
around trying to find sheets (because sheets in Korea wasn't a thing) *Also
one thing I noticed was when all the students left new blankets were thrown out
when they left. I saw so many nice new blankets tossed. Such a waste.
*(I don't know if the blankets were donated, but some of us hid our blankets which helped out our returning friends who hadn't been able to get new ones yet)
The windows are drafty
It can turn into a sauna *as I write this we are all
sweating like crazy from it. Winter just
started and the manager has turned the heat up so high we are all very uncomfortable.
**He wouldn’t let us open the outside doors and get air when he
did this, or turn the temperature down- but he would complain about the heating
bill. My room was freezing, but the common area was sweltering. I would open my
door just to get warm. (*I was able to open my bedroom door and it evened everything out a bit and my room warmed up. This good side is, you might not want to open your door at another place. This goshitell was comfortable enough could open your door.
No lamp on the desk (just a giant glaring light)
 |
| He was nice and replaced my entire drain. |
The shower will flood if you turn the handle wrong.
The shower has two settings Frosty the snowman’s embrace
or Death Valley and friends and you don’t get to pick which you get when.
The 7th floor has no kitchen, so the tenants
go to other floors. They leave messes and make the floors smell like whatever
they are cooking.
On the front side (windows) you will hear the trash men at 2:00-4:00 am, they are loud and they
don’t care.
** My Issue: He broke the door handle. I had to pay.
STORY TIME: My door swole when the heat was turned
on. I already had problems with the door when I moved in (My roommates even
remarked on how difficult it was to close) well I came back from a run to the
store, and the door was jammed. I thought it locked on me. NOPE. I called the
manager over to look and he “fixed” the door. I told him I had problems since I
moved it, but he disagreed (you don’t get to disagree here, sir.) He broke the
handle. It didn’t want to turn and the lock no longer worked. If I wanted a new
one I had to pay ₩30,000. In the end I paid to
have a lock.
·
The manager’s lack of English. I wanted to
address this, mainly, because it sparked a huge argument (several). He is a 50+ year old
man, it is his country. We are visiting. He works at the building that is owned
by the university, he manages it (this is what we were told).
·
He works at a building where foreign students live,
most speak English. No, I never demanded that he gain a fluency in English. I was simply stated “He should learn some English”
meaning it would behoove us all. I say this after watching the
misunderstandings between him and the residents, and his severe frustrations over miscommunications. He would also use other residents as his
personal translator, which I felt was rude. This was one major difficulty about
communicating with him. *I had someone already get nasty with me over this and tell me maybe I should learn Korean- that was literally why I was there, and what I was doing. I tried very hard to speak to him in Korean. This isn't my being insulting, it's pragmatism. He's a nice gentleman, regardless.
Before I found Allive:
Finding a place wasn’t easy.
My friends took me to a couple
places, and they
were bad. One place would have had me on the floor by an entrance
and demanded I stay 6 months.
 |
| The door is open all the way |
I said no way. I have back problems and she tried
to tell me the mat was good.
The hostel wasn’t so bad, but the owner’s mother was up early and would make her presence known at about at 9:00 am (not the best for those coming back after a night out). After I moved upstairs, the climb killed
me. I could barely get up and down these stairs (specifically these steep awkward stairs). The university offered me a room as well. Originally there wasn't anything available, which is what put me in this predicament, but someone backed out ( and now I understood why). The gentleman in charge of helping us find housing was very kind, and took me up the massive hill the students had to climb to get to the dorms. He showed me the very nice facility where the rooms were, and ushered me to the end of the hall where he presented a room about half the size of my (not walk in) closet, no bathroom, (I don't remember if there was a window), but it looked so sad and unwelcoming, and he proudly asked, "isn't this better [than the hostel]?" I'm sure there was a look of horror on my face, because I just remember speechlessly shaking my head. At the hostel I had my private bathroom, a must at that time, and a queen (rock hard) bed, granted no storage options.
*I had some serious health issues at the time so the private bathroom was a necessary. You had to pay more for your own bathroom, or if you wanted a window.
I saw the places my classmates stayed at as well, and although their places were not too bad, I feel like Allive Goshitell was so much nicer than anywhere else.
The goshitell was a blessing after all the places I had
looked at. I would recommend it to students coming in. There’s going to be good bad, or really bad, no
matter where you go~ Sometimes, it’s not
that bad. In this case, the good definitely outweighs the bad.
View from my room
Comments
Post a Comment