Staying connected

One things thats really important about going overseas is that there are multiple ways of staying connected with both those at home, and those who you will meet. You will have to decide what ways you'll want to use.

this is by no means a complete list, It's just some things I know of, and the numbers I give are current as of 08-20-2012.

First, staying connected with back home.

the first part of this is knowing "who do I need to contact?"
friends? family? buisnesses? student loans? College? You need to know how to contact them. Also if you are going to have someone doing business on your behalf back home, make sure to get a Federal Privacy Act Waiver for them to do so or set them up on your accounts.

1. Google Voice: Google voice is a service where you can text and make calls through the internet. At the time I got it a phone number in The United States of America was free to get. This will get you unlimited calls to a USA number, unlimited text messages, and they can leave voice mails. no picture messages but you can send things through email. You can check it from your smartphone or on a computer.

2. Skype: Skype can do calls, text messages, instant messages, and video calls. Skype is free from Skype to Skype account, so if you have smart phones and computers, you can do this all free. However, If you are like me, then not everyone you know has a smart phone/computer. Also, business don't have Skype. There are different ways to use Skype.

• You can put money and be charged by the minute for a call, this changes by location, but it's $0.02 a minute right now. Pro is that its cheap short term if you aren't going to make a lot of calls. not good is that your number will show up blocked and people can't call you because you don't have a fixed number. unless you buy one. 
• you can buy a phone number: This lets you get phone calls in, people can leave voicemails. It can also be forwarded to your phone. This cost about $61.50 for a year
• you can get a subscription plan. If you know how much you are going to call, you can buy different plans.
• 60 min per mon    $1.09 a month
• 120 min per mon $2.09 a month
• 400 min per mon $4.99 a month
• unlimited U.S.A   $6.99 a month

personally, I have both a google voice (for the easy free text messaging) and skype (for the calling)

3. International calling cards: You can pick these up all over the place, they range in different prices. I've been told they range from $0.05 to $0.50 a minute on calls. There are lots of different carries as well, but I can't figure out all of them. If you are going to buy one I'd see if someone at your school can help you figure out which one is best for you unless you have good Korean.

4. Call from your phone: You can get a landline in Korea, and/or a handphone. A landline in Korea will be a monthly fee, which changes depending on your provider... I tried calling olleh to ask but that didn't work out well. I also couldn't read their website. soo... I don't have a lot of information on landlines. Cellphones can be used, I know Olleh and KT prices aren't that bad about 500 won a minute. 

5. Using other apps! Free ones! this works well if you get a smartphone or bring over something that can connect via wifi. You can either search for free wifi or buy wificards from the connivence stores to purchase some of the olleh wifi this is everywhere. 

Apps I use: 

• Kakao Talk. You can do free calling, send message, have group conversations, send pictures, video, and voice chats! It's userfriendly, has a easy to mange interface. It has a sister app called Kakao Story where you can post a little blog about yourself that others can follow.
• Hallo: It lets you send little voicemails.
• facebook
• google plus
• skype
• foursquare ( you know your friends when to chipotle and that you can't)
• instagram
• twitter

on a side note, apps you should have when you live in korea are 

1. Jihachul - tells you Korean subway map in English! lets you plan routes and bookmark and leave notes about things.
2. Visit Korea: quick tourist info
3. Korean Cuisine: has information about food. will help with pronunciation
4. google translate: not only does it translate, it will read the word for you so even if you can't pronounce it you can show it to whoever you are trying to talk too.

I talked about phones, and how you can use them, but not the cost of phones themselves, and I'm not going to cover that. I don't have a lot of information about them, as I don't ever use mine.

What I did is I got a phone, the cheapest one on the cheapest plan, through The Arrival Store. I pay like 28,000 won a month for it, and use it pretty much so the school can contact me. I use my ipod and apps to keep in contact mostly, I text my friends here or use the Kakao talk free calling, and I use Skype for calling back home to those without Kakao and without a smart phone or computer. I'm trying to make all my friends get Kakao talk cause its awesome sauce. 

anyways, don't know if this will ever help anyone, but I think this is a post that I was looking for when I came to Korea. Sure, It doesn't have all the info you could want, but it gives me a general idea of some options out there.