Here's a little breakdown of what to pack to prepare yourself for living here in the land of Kimchi :)
Girls:
- tampons (I have found them here but they are quiet pricy, and if you are a little picky (like me) do yourselves a favour and bring a years supply, they dont take up that much space and are so light!
- towels (i am so happy that I brought over 2 fluffy woolies towels, probably unnecessary, but I am a city girl and that was one luxury I wanted to have). I havent seen normal size towels sold here, all Koreans use tiny had towels for everything, and while thy are fin in Summer, in winter its lovely to wrap yourself up in a nice big towel.
- Face products: Korea has lots of amazing face products avaliable quite cheaply, but i did bring my own stuff over. They have Neutrogena, Clean & Clear, Vichy & all the other high end products like Clinique etc as well as cheaper local brands~and they do state whether they are whitening so don't worry about getting a nasty surprise, they do warn you.
- Deodorant: They sell aerosols at all the little local stores but are quiet pricy, and the roll ons are harder to find, so bring your own if you can. It gets incredibly hot and humid in summer so make sure you find one that works well before you come over (as Koreans dont seem to sweat~and we sure do!)
- Toothpaste: they have everything you need here, except dental floss so bring that over if you want :)
- Shampoo: They have lots of products here so no need to bring your own over.
- Clothing: If you are anything bigger than a siza 10/34 pants then pack at least 1 pair of jeans, 2/3 pairs of pants to work in, 2 pairs of shorts and skirts. The Korean girls are tiny! Im a size 32/34 and I struggle to find pants/shorts and skirts. But there are stores like Mango and Zara that have all the usual western sizes but they are very pricy. They have lots of dresses/tops here for all sizes so no need to worry about that. But everyone is very conservative on top...no bare shoulders/no vests/no sleeveless tops/no bra straps showing...so if you do like to wear vests etc when its hot then bring over 2/3 light cardigan things! They will save ur life! But the clothes here are really really cheap! And very fashionable and easy to get hold of...so rather bring less clothes and more of the staple things.
- Shoes: the shoes here are AMAZING! They are all so cheap...BUT they have nothing bigger than a 6. I am a size 5 (which is Korean 245). Most shops have up to 250 (which is about a 6) but you will stryggle to find 255 (6-7) unless you order online. If you have slightly bigger feet then I would say you need 1 pair of boots/1 pair of heels/ smart shoes to go work in like pumps (but you take your shoes off when you get to school and wear 'indoor slippers' which your school will provide for you, and a pair of takkies (outdoor shoes) to go walking/exploring/gyming etc.
- Medicine: I have heard that you can find the pill over here, i didnt want to be messing around with finding one ad then changing etc so I brought a yeasr supply. How I did this was to pay cash for them, as medical aid back in SA will give you max 2 at a time). If you have your script just tell the pharmacist that your going away and they can usually give you 4-6 packs. I started gathering my suplies 3 months in advance. I also packed the usual myprodol, panado, nausea, flu things too...coz when u get sick here (which you WILL!!!) its nice to know what your taking. But be warned, when you pack meds just get the doctor to write you up a prescription onf what you have packed just in case you do get stopped at customs and the take a look see through everything (with the language barrier I doubt they will understand the words precautionary medicine :). But visits to the doctor are extremely cheap here. When i got hit with a bad stomach bug & flu, the visit to the doctor cost W4 000 (about R28) and the anti-biotics cost another W4 000...So R50 for a trip there and for the meds~
- Underwear: they only sell granny panties here, really weird! Unless you are buying from the lingerie stores, and the bra sizes are realy small, so if you can, just bring your own over. Stockings/legings, socks etc are really chap over here and can be found at every corner store
- Adaptors: everything here works on 240V which is fine for most things coming from SA as we use the same voltage. But if your from the US/Canada/ Australia/ New Zealand/England Im not entirely sure...but u can get adaptors from the big supermakets here like E-Mart & HomePlus . All my 2 pin plugs from SA work perfectly here. The only thing i needed an adaptor for was for my laptop~which was organised for us on our orientation..but can be found here (but if you can, bring an adaptor from home to save you the stress.)
- Electronics: I have NOT found the electronics here any cheaper than at home...which was something that people alwasy seem to say. For this reason I would suggest bringing a laptop over with you from home. Here they only have their standards makes like Samsung and LG and the prices work out around the same. What is cheaper here though are Apple Macs (but only slightly). Also if you bring your laptop from home the operating system will be in English. If you decide to buy one over here dont worry, you can get the computer guys to download windows in English for you. Cameras, video cameras, etc are about the same price, but I have heard rumours about electronics being really cheap in Seoul at the Tech Stores (but then again, its up to you if you want your laptop with you straight away, or whther you want to wait...All my friends and myself have a computer at school to use with fast internet so you will survive without one, but its great to be able to Skype/email/fb at home.
- Stickers/Stamps/Cute little thingys for your kids: always works well as prizes, althought they have amazing stickers here and the kids like to get sweeties as prizes.
- Gifts for your co-workers: This was a hard thing to manage. I had my mom spend hours finding but a few things to give as gifts to my Principles and after all of that, all the Principles actually wanted was Whisky! So I would suggest buying it in duty free when you come over, and then everynow and again I get cookies.chocolates for the staff room that we all share. But I also know lots of people here who havent given anything to their Principles (out of Principle :) hehe) but appearances are very important here and so I would suggest a little something to thank your school for having you would be greatly appreciated (well at least it will make you look like a grt asset to the school).
- Phrase books/guides: These kind of things are better to read before you come over here, and actually just take up space. What has been really helpful is the Korean Phrase Book from Lonely Planet. But i ordered it online here in Korea (it was really cheap, about R50 including posting, and arrived in 2 days).
- Make up: they have amazing makeup here, as well the higher end brands like Mac/Bobby Brown/Clinique too but are very expensive... the local makes like Face Shop/Skin Food/Misha are fantastic! Oh they also have BodyShop here (I have seen the one in TimeWorld, Galleria which is in the centre of Daejeon). If you have a much darker skin ( I have struggled a little) then you might need to pay a little more for Mac/etc but everything else is amazing!
