같이 가자!

Coco Residence, 1601-6, Bongcheong 7-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul

코코레지던스 서울대점, 1601-6, 봉천7동, 관악구, 서울특별시

Instead of explaining what is a gosiwon (고시원), please check out the detailed info (and list of gosiwon) on Galbijim XD There are many gosiwon available and my only pointers on how to choose mine were based on my budget and strategic location of CoCo Residence to Seoul National University (SNU)… oh well and the fact that there is an option for room with attached toilet.

For CoCo Residence, it’s located within 100m away from Exit 2 of Seoul National University Subway Station (서울대입구) which is on Green Line 2. Once you get out from subway Exit 2  just walk straight all the way for around 3mins maybe. You shall see on your right side the following: 7-11, Mr. Pizza, T-World, Hana Bank, Caffe Bene, Outback Steakhouse, CoCo Residence. If you took the airport bus instead then you will be dropped off at a bus stop nearby Exit 3. As such you would want to decide on whether to cross the street to go to subway Exit 2 or drag your luggages down the stairs of subway Exit 3 to go to Exit 2 through the underground tunnel. If crossing street, you can walk further down from where the airport bus dropped you off (towards opposite direction of the subway Exit 3 i.e. you should be going the direction of SNU; you should see Starbucks, Paris Baguatte the likes along the way) until you see a traffic light. When you need to take the airport bus back to Incheon, the right nearest airport bus stop will be the one just nearby this traffic light (the direction should be going opposite from SNU). Do take note that there is no escalator nor lifts available at CoCo Residence which is housed on a 4-floors storey building. Be prepared to carry your luggages and good luck if you are at highest floor >.> 

I had some issues with CoCo though I won’t go into too much details here but just that I do not appreciate being informed on not having room with attached toilet after I was done with the booking deposit. As well when being informed able to change to room with attached toilet after several days staying in one without attached toilet yet still being charged same price as someone who stayed fully in room with attached toilet.  Especially when it was agreed earlier would be charged lesser. I think business like this should really stick to what was agreed instead of changes and then giving excuses such as language communications as barriers etc.

Nonetheless I will still provide a quick run through review on the overall of this place so that others can have better perceptions and expectations of what’s in store.  BTW you should know that the one who is handling the email enquiries (aka the owner) is not the same person as the one who is in charge in the gosiwon (aka the CoCo manager). My rental fee for the period that I stayed from 29/7 - 21/8/11 added up to approximately 400K won. 

My final room (since I had to change room as mentioned above) is an average small single sized room considering gosiwon is where you cramped live for study/temp stay. IMO it was more than enough for a temporary stay, I mean you wouldn’t want to end up having to spend a lot of time cleaning up the place (which is one of the task you have to do on your own, be it cleaning the room or the attached toilet). There is one single (creaking) bed, one study table with chair, one bar sized fridge, some upper head wall shelves, one small one-door closet and an old looking small TV. The bed comes with just the bed sheet and you have to bring/buy own pillow and blanket. If you are lucky there should be some leftover hangers from previous occupants otherwise you need to bring/buy those as well. The attached toilet has a toilet bowl, sink, mirror, and a moveable shower head. You have to buy your own cleaning tools as well cause I didn’t see any for public use.  I didn’t ask the manager for I have left over from the previous occupants XD Above the bed area there is a long railing where you can hang things. In my case I was a bit luckier in the sense there was a table fan when I moved into the final room. Apparently it was requested by the previous occupant from the manager. The fan was important because (1) I am one who can’t stand the heat (prior to moving to the final room I even went out to buy a small USB portable fan coz summer is crazy hot!), (2) the centralised air-con has timing to be switched on by the manager - switch on in afternoon (I forgot the exact timing) after mostly students return from the uni and then switch off around 5pm and then switch on again at 9pm till midnight. However depending on the weather on that day, the air-con is switch on/off accordingly by the manager. The (dirty) ventilation in the room is ok when the air-con is switched on. But the manager will probably tell you to keep your small room window (which faced the corridors) open  if you feel stuffy but as a female staying in a floor of males, I didn’t agree this is a good way especially I tend to forget the small window is open lol!

The kitchen is a cramped small area where you can cook (with stove or microwave) and dish washing. The good thing is that the water dispenser is free for use and there is also free cooked rice everyday. If you happened to be the last person to take the rice and if it’s still eating hour, you should cook the rice again for the next person ^^; There is a small table at corner with two chairs if you want to eat in the kitchen. None of the appliances, utensils etc are to be taken out of the kitchen though so you should bring/buy your own basic utensils. There is a laundry room in between floor 2 to 3. There are 2 washing machines free for use. You provide your own laundry powder/detergent. You can then choose to dry your clothes on the 2 racks placed in between floor 3 to 4 or go to the open space on the highest floor of the building to hang dry your clothes on the clothes lines provided together with the clothes pegs. You can request for the public use iron and iron board but as they are kept with the last person requesting to use them, upon new request to use them, the Manager actually have to get hold of this last person before the next requestor can use them. I found this a bit ridiculous since wouldn’t it be more efficient to use then return to the manager once having done with the ironing so that the next requestor has no problem in obtaining the items? O_o Oh and no shoes are allowed beyond 1st floor - shoes are to be kept in the shoes locker provided to each individual; don’t bother with locking it, doesn’t seem to work anyway =.=

One thing you will learn (if you haven’t) when you stay at CoCo is to separate your garbage for recycling purpose. As well as to clean your own room hand broom and dustpans are provided) and toilet (unless you are using public toilet then the cleaning lady will take care of it). At the end of the day when you leave/move out from CoCo Residence there will be room inspection to ensure cleanliness and room in good state before your key/room deposit is return by the manager. The deposit was 50K won for me, which is quite a lot. To be honest they wanted us to keep clean but then couple of times I had cockroaches visiting my room and even crawled onto my bed >.>

Anyhow, as I was there for only a mere 3 weeks, I didn’t really get to hang out much with the residents of CoCo but I did chat up 2-3 of them whenever I bumped into in the kitchen or up down the staircases. Most of the SNU foreign students stay at CoCo Residence though. As for food around this area, unfortunately I find that there is not much cheap choices or within what I would call students’ budgets >.< There are the usual fast food like KFC and Two Chicken, standard cafe like Paris Baguette, Caffe Bene or even Starbucks, standard restaurant or eatery places for local Korean food or even Japanese & Chinese food or street stalls food selling kimbap for 1000won. The convenience stores are always out of food like dosirak or bread due to the fact that the area is a students area! Anyway, I would like to recommend eating at Maru (마루) whereby the samgyeopsal (삼겹살)  is consider cheap for the amount they served together with side dishes and rice and they are delicious too ^^/ From CoCo Residence, you just need to turn to your right from the front entrance of CoCo, then walk for less than 2mins you will see Maru on your right side. There are quite a number of noraebang (karaoke) and motels surrounding the area though XD At the subway Exit 3 & 4 is the sorta big mall (forgot the name) but there is really nothing much inside haha.  The post office is just right across the street from CoCo Residence. Both T-World and Olleh shops are available in this area though do take note that reload is not available on weekend and when requesting for each reload you need to show your passport.

I probably miss couple of things but feel free to ask if anything ^^ For the pics, I was so sure I took pics of the toilet & shower stall but not sure why couldn’t locate them now >.<