Korea: AKARAKA!!

Going to a big school (about 36,000 students, ugrad and grad combined) means lots of school spirit. This is displayed at various sporting and school events throughout each semester. One of the major events each year is Akaraka, which is Yonsei's version of spring concert, but is as big of a deal as 36000 students can make it (so about 10x Babson's).

It starts with a festival in the center of campus that lasts for a few days. The festival was mostly food, but campus organizations also had some things going on. Apparently there was an American booth for a while, but we missed it. There was also a lot of music playing really loud, including some live performances and some karaoke.

The first night I went with Megan and Joaqim (please excuse the spelling; he is our Swedish friend who had dreadlocks for about 10 years until he cut them off this past weekend). We enjoyed looking around for a while, then sat on the curb because we saw a couple other friends and hung out for a while. Our friends had coconut milk to drink (like straight from the coconut) and then Joaqim broke open the coconuts and we sat there eating coconut and saying "아녕하새요!" (Hello!) to random people as they walked by. We turned it into a game to see who could get the most responses. Joaqim totally won, which is probably because I pronounce hello more like goodbye, oh well. We then got the delightful surprise of fireworks. Apparently our school can afford a fireworks show? It was kinda awesome. But then I was tired so I went back to the dorm while Megan went out to what was apparently a lame after party.

 

When she got back a group of us went to the basement (the only way to hang out with a group of guys and gals past 10pm) for nutella and snacks, yummmm! (Suddenly there is nutella everywhere here? I don't know how/why, but I approve ^.^) We were up until maybe 3am.

The next day (Thursday) was when international students could attempt to get tickets. There were about 200 tickets for about 400 international students. They went on sale at 7pm, but people were lining up by 2pm. I, not wanting to skip my entire day for tickets, had arranged with a friend from my Biology class to get a ticket ahead of time. I was one of few students in Korean class that day.

That evening Parth, Sammi, Avery and I went back to the Akaraka festivities. We got some food and drinks (it's a Presbyterian university, but they have NO issue with selling alcohol on campus. Except in the dorm. Having alcohol in the dorm is grounds for dismissal, as is being in the room of someone of the opposite sex, or having someone of the opposite sex in your room, or being on their floor at all after 10pm. #Korea).

We met up with Megan, Christina, and KaylaAnn at some point, but in the end everyone dispersed and Parth and I sat listening to Koreans singing really hard music (the type I don't listen to that is more of yelling than music. It confused me greatly but Parth was amused). I recall being up until 3am once again, though I can't remember why. Maybe with Sammi in the study lounge? Maybe?

Friday was the big day. We all put on our blue Yonsei t shirts, skipped our afternoon classes, and enjoyed Akaraka. Only about 10,000 students could get Akaraka tickets, but we were ALL in the amphitheater. 10,000 people in blue in one small area. For hours.

My Akaraka ticket, courtesy of my friend 문월 :)

 
I got there at 2, at which point there weren't too many other people there. They had some music playing from the stage at the front, and a slide show with some amusing little bits going (like Oscar the grouch).

A brief clip of Oscar the Grouch

Not too long later, the amphitheater was FULL and the event really started. Yonsei has a number of school cheers which all of the students know, and I picked up on well enough even though the were all in Korean. The cheers also had dances that went along with them. It was a sea of 10,000 people singing the same song and doing the exact same dance for a while. Then they rotated in the acts of the evening.

Out came an apparently famous comedy act (I don't know who they were or what they were saying, but the Koreans loved it), and some musical acts. I didn't recognize any of the performers (cut me some slack, I don't really follow kpop at all). The last group was a subunit of SNSD, Girl's Generation, a group which I would've recognized if it were in full.

apparently famous Korean comedians?

SO many people wearing blue!

Cheer leaders (not to be confused with cheerleaders)

Ms. Korea came to visit!

Another apparently famous Korean act

That couple just got engaged. Cutest. Engagement. Ever.
Although I'm pretty sure there were nerves on both ends.
They were in front of 10,000 of their peers after all.

SNSD

Then there were more school cheers, a laser show, fireworks, and more school cheers. I had figured this would all be done by maybe 8pm (really starting at around 4, that's still 4 hours) but I was VERY wrong. I left after 8 hours, hungry and tired, at just shy of 10pm. It went on for another hour of so after I left.

Megan, Christina, Parth and I got dinner, then Parth left and the girls and I attempted to go out. We ended up at a 24hr Krispy Kreme that was pretty much out of donuts (#fail), and then watched Tim Burton's new movie Dark Shadows around midnight. It was a fun night, but we were once again up until 3am (I really didn't sleep much that weekend).

Fail KK, Fail.

                                       

Christina really wanted her donuts. She made a song.

And that is pretty much the story of Akaraka: days of festivities, hours of cheering, apparently famous kpop acts. All very amusing and fun.

Korea: One Epic Weekend

So the whole weekend kind of blurs into one. It continues on the very next day after when my previous post leaves off (If you haven't read that one, this one still flows just fine, no worries):

Friday I woke up with one single goal: get an outfit for the Lady Gaga concert. Operation Sparkly commenced. Megan and I (and Christina was supposed to join us but for some reason didn’t) got lunch and went shopping. Some of the things Korea has just make me laugh. Take a look:

Go Boston Red...wings? Close, Korea, but not quite.

In case you can't quite tell, that's an American flag bow
with a Queen Elizabeth coin in the middle. For those  of
you still wondering, I am, in fact, from the US, not Canada
(or South Africa, or Romania)

This one made me laugh and think of you Madd Dogg

Finally it was time to head to the Lady Gaga concert. This, by the way, was my first legit concert. SO much fun! But silly me, I was wearing heels and Lady Gaga was only the start of my evening. She performed most of her most recent album and all of her classic songs (Judas, Poker Face, Paparazzi, etc.).

(I will insert a picture of my outfit later as no good ones were taken, and while it would be fun to put a not good picture up, it was a not good picture of me and Crystal, and that just wouldn't be nice.You'll just have to trust me on this in the mean time)

After Gaga I met up with Megan and Christina in Hongdae for clubbing. I navigated my way off the subway and into Hongdae, which was about as much as I could remember. It had been about 2 months since I had been there and I always had someone else leading the way before. So it turned into me on the phone with Megan trying to navigate my way through Hongdae while neither of us had any similar landmarks. Finally, just after midnight, me in heels, Megan looking awesome (I can’t remember what she was wearing but it was awesome) found each other and made it to the club. Right in time too, as Christina was holding our place in line and was maybe two people away from the front.

And so begins hours of clubbing. If you have ever tried to dance in heels for 5 hours, you understand that it is not easy. I made it through though. And when I say 5 hours, I’m not exaggerating. We were actually out until 6am. My feet are still a little numb.

In the hours of clubbing, Christina and I managed to learn the Korean dance to virtually every song they played, and heard each one about 5 times. We split our time between two clubs which were right across the street from each other. By the time we came out of the second club the sun had risen. Mission: accomplished. We had stayed out until the subways were open. But instead of taking the subway we just grabbed a cab because it was 6am and I was walking slowly in my heels.

We got a few hours of sleep and then met up for lunch in Insadong. Megan had heard of a vegetarian buffet for Avery so we ventured to it. They had broccoli and apples. It was amazing. So simple, but I don’t think I had had so many fresh fruits and veggies since coming to Korea so it was exciting.

Afterwards we returned to Yonsei to get ready for the evening. Megan had managed to get us all on the guest list at one of the top 3 clubs in Seoul, Club Answer (Seriously: http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/drink/seoul/top-3-hottest-clubs-seoul-496115). I was so tired I almost didn’t go at all. But then I figured, I have this new outfit (I bought two choices for Lady Gaga) so I at least need to join them for drinks. Parth, his friend Maria, Megan, Christina, Avery and I went and got fruit soju (because drinking regular soju is like drinking nail polish remover, gross!). Then I obliged to join them at the club.

We took taxis because the club is in Gangnam which is on the other side of the river.  At first there really wasn’t anything special about the club other than having expensive drinks. But as the night wore on we realized that this club is absolutely ridiculous. I seriously felt like I was in the future. And if that is what the future is like, I’m okay with it.

There was a section of the dance floor that periodically rose. At first I thought I was having depth perception issues, but no. I would just go up for a while so it was like dancing on a stage. Meanwhile, there was a heavy amount of smoke (or smoke like substance) wafting through the club (for the effect, of course), and a laser light show.

Here are a couple of pictures I found on the internet since I was too in awe to take pictures myself:

This was all well enough and if that was all there was to it I would have been satisfied.

But then they cleared everyone off the stage and brought some Korean dancers out. After watching them do their thing, they started throwing things (I don’t know what, but things) into the crowd. Pretty fun.

But it gets better.

About an hour later they raised the stage again. This time a robot came out shooting smoke, lasers, and flames. EPIC. AWESOME. RIDICULOUS. There was a flame & laser shooting robot. Like seriously, where does this happen?

KOREA.

And the night continues.

At one point Avery and I ran (slash got sardine squished) into Eddie from our KLI class. We were all pretty excited about this (mind you, Avery, Megan, Parth, Christina and I are all in the same KLI class to begin with and the class only has 13 students). We made our way off the dance floor, found Megan and Christina, and got drinks. Then it was back to dancing. Somewhere along the way we had lost Parth and Maria, but on our way back to dancing we picked up Parth again.

The next thing we know they were throwing money (like real money not just Monopoly play money) into the crowd. Ummm, how awesome is this? Take me to the future now please!

Around 4 in the morning we decided that it was time to leave. Eddie had disappeared, and apparently Maria had found some other friends, so we squeezed the other five of us into a cab and made our way back to Yonsei where we all slept for hours.

And so ends the most EPIC weekend I have ever had. Slightly more epic even than that one time we went to Japan.

Coming soon: the story of my Korean homestay. Stay tuned!

Korea: April Adventures

After Japan I was pretty much consistently busy (hence the taking FOREVER to finish posting about Japan and April). But busy really just means having adventures and stories to tell. So here is what went on:

The week before the CIEE group went to Japan, Megan (link to blog) from Parth and my KLI class had made a group of us grilled cheese. That one fateful night then turned into KLI family dinners (we are having one as I write this; Megan is making grilled cheese while Parth gives everyone a hard time, Christina (our friend from the US via Ukraine) sits on the counter, and Avery is straight up chillin’).

So anyways, it was then my turn to cook. I decided to make stuffed peppers, vegetarian style because Avery doesn’t eat meat (Side notes, Megan’s grilled cheese is DELICIOUS and Parth is talking about imaginaaationnn and North Korea). But yeah, my stuffed peppers were fabulous. (Another side note, Christina is now dancing with a spatula and Parth is claiming he is Christina, while Megan disapproves and Avery eats grilled cheese. It’s very amusing). And I served a salad, mashed potatoes, and failed chocolate cake too. Megan ate most of the peppers. She was quite happy.

Most of the pictures that follow are screen shots from Megan's videos. Blogger wouldn't let me delete them, so for now they are slightly out of order, somewhat awkward. Go with it.

Megan & me

Christina was sick that day so she wore a mask. But then, she
is almost always sick.

Avery helped wash the lettuce for the salad

yummy cheesy mashed potatoes!

Megan's stuffed pepper. She wants more still.

Parth skipped out on us that night, but this is him.
Eating cake. With chopsticks.

The original grilled cheese. The grilled cheese that started it all.

Prepping to cook (Potatoes in the pot already)

It should also be noted that Parth and Matt (Australian friend) made fried rice and omelettes (which were actually pretty good) and Avery made curry which was also good. Christina made potato pancakes (Ukranian), which didn't nearly fill us up so we then got MiniStop chicken (chicken on a stick). But nothing tops my dinner...except maybe the grilled cheese ;)

The next day I partook in a movie shoot. Apparently Yonsei needed smiling, foreign looking girls so Hannah from CIEE and I joined for a day. It was LONG but kinda fun and really legit.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures (because I was being filmed, give me a break here!) But they had a make-up artist and real film production stuff.

All dolled up for the movie!

Legit camera & lighting stuff (not so movie tech savvy)

Then the next day (like I said, I was busy in April) CIEE had a Seoul Mate picnic. We went about an hour and a half away (by subway). Neither the program director nor the assistant director was there (Boram apparently had errands to run…). We had kimbap, pastries, and drinkable yoghurt.

Lunch!

Then we walked around the park for a bit. We played games with our Korean friends like this one where you hop on one leg and knock the “queen” down. This amused us for a while, but we continued.

Apparently there was an International Horticulture Festival?

We came across some Korean traditional things. There was a seesaw of sorts. Except instead of a normal seesaw that children sit on, you stand on it. One person jumps, then at just the right moment the other person jumps and is launched really high into the air. Niko (from CIEE, who also happens to be from Massachusetts) was really good at it and a mother put her child on across from him. The poor child didn’t quite get what to do and didn’t jump. Instead the child just quivered on the end for a moment then left. Then Boram’s sister got on. She, mind you, is extra tiny. Like 100 pounds soaking wet tiny. She launched into the air so fast that her knees went up and hit her nose. We then promptly moved on.

It was a fun afternoon, but then it was time to head back. When we got back to Sinchon we split up for dinner. Funny enough, we all ended up at the same restaurant though. Then a few of us hopped back on the bus and went to a new neighborhood (I don’t remember what it was called). The neighborhood had some good shopping and lots of cafes.

The day after the picnic adventure Suzanne (CIEE program director) took us on a hike up an apparently nonexistent mountain. Not really sure how that works, but I went with it. Let’s be real, though. It’s a mountain. There’s only so much to say so just look at the pictures and read the captions.

A neighborhood of old Seoul. The entire city used to be like
this. It's all changed in just the past 50 years. Remarkable.

Cherry blossoms in Korea!

The old Seoul city wall

View over the city

And again, towards Namsan

Pretty purple flowers that I had to stop to take a picture of
...their color just stood out too much not to take a picture

Stopping at the exercise machines, of course. They are every where in Seoul.

A little dude carved into the mountain, and a  little friend for
the dude (get out your glasses, this is like a
Where's Waldo game)

Temple offerings: Soju (alcohol)

That used to be a prison, now it's a museum or something like that

Apparently the rock formation looks like a person. I don't
see it (they really tried to explain it to me, too)

Notice how this rock formation looks like a tiger?

View of Seoul from a rock outcropping we climbed on,
Namsan tower in the background.

Nestled in the ridge you can just see the top of the Blue House
(Korean equivalent of the White House)

The old Seoul city wall, centuries old and still protecting the city

Our guide for the afternoon

Down from the rocks. Caution: do. not. fall. Also, the two black rocks
supposedly look like monks or something. Clearly I just need to be more abstract.

The group: Parth, Michael Comella, Ashley & Angel,
and some other foreigners we met

Inside a temple

The monk stone thing, covered with magpies (a Korean bird)

Food offering to the spirits

A traditional ceremony. Apparently they cost a few thousand
dollars and can last for hours

Also, we were apparently lucky to be allowed to see it at all.
The doors are usually closed.

If memory serves me right, that is really potent either N. Korean or Chinese alcohol.

Korean oreo!

Traditional Korean style roof

A few days later (I needed a break, rest and recovery, and it was pre midterm week.) Crystal, Sammi, Sammi’s friend Kayla Ann, two of the Seoul Mates (Jieun and Sol) went out to dinner. We got chicken and beer. Apparently we looked so foreign that we needed about four forks per person. Seriously. Chicken in general to me is meh, but after we got bingsu which was extra delightful (ice cream, shaved ice, and toppings).

So. Many. Forks.

Since we didn't have knives, Crystal put both forks to use!

Sol and the bingsu. So much bingsu!!

Over the weekend Avery and I met up with her pen pals Jowerny and Stacey for lunch. We went to a vegetarian restaurant that is just inside Sinchon, then for coffee. Jowerny and Stacey are the CUTEST couple! They told us about their plans for a tour of the world on bikes, and we told them about our time here in Korea and what we do back home. It was a nice afternoon and we decided we must do it again (currently working on plans to see them).

The final day (Wednesday April 25^th) was Crystal’s birthday, though. So Brittany and I ventured out into the rain to get her an ice cream cake from Baskin’ Robbins. Yummmm J

Happy birthday Crystal!

Trying to hide from the camera...

Making her wish (she didn't tell us what it was, but I'm still
here so it wasn't to get rid of me!)

On Thursday I attempted to go tutoring. After I had managed to get lost on the way there two weeks before, then slept through it the next week, I finally managed to make it. But this time the woman I was supposed to tutor didn’t show up so I proceeded to walk around the neighborhood. First exciting find of the day: Nutella Waffles!!! (I didn’t have one because I wanted to wait for my friends to be with me).

After making it pretty much all of the way around Sinchon and Edae, Megan called me to get lunch with her. I happily obliged and then we decided to head back to Edae for shopping. After walking around the neighborhood twice in one day, we headed back to Yonsei for KLI where we came across a sign on the way down a long set of stairs. Thank you for the warning Korea, thank you.

"Warning: Steps ahead"

So many people at the crosswalk!

Pretty flowers outside KLI

Nutella waffles!

No nutella at grand mart :(

So that night we had another family dinner, after which we adventured to find the Nutella waffles again. Mind you, I didn’t remember it being quite so far, but I visually knew how to get to it. After walking for what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the waffle place. But it was closed L So then we went to find nutella in the grocery store because Crystal claimed she had seen it there. While I believe her, I had never seen it, and still haven’t seen it there. We ended up getting crepes instead (really good crepes, but not Nutella filled :/)

Here I will take a break to let you move on with your day. Next post (already written) is about how epic the last weekend in April was. Seriously epic. It includes seeing the sun rise and robots. Stay tuned!