When I first got accepted into the GKS Research Program, I pictured the next six months as an easy trip full of new friends, conferences, and weekend travel. The reality hit as soon as I landed. Arriving without a local SIM made basic navigation frustrating, and I quickly found out the international office doesn't handle your Alien Registration Card (ARC) for you. Without an ARC, you can't complete phone verification for everyday Korean apps. My main piece of advice is to book your immigration appointment on hikorea.go.kr before or immediately after you land. ​On the academic side, skipping coursework to go straight into full-time lab work was a bit of a shock. I had to learn local software like NetMiner for data analysis on the fly and switch from Word to Hancom Office (.hwp) for official formatting. Finding your groove between lab duties and paper deadlines takes time, but once you get the administrative setup out of the way, researching here really pays off.