연고전 2011

Hello everyone!

This weekend, or rather this Friday and Saturday, one of the major events our university participates in took place. Its called 연고전, or Yongojeon, (though Korea university calls the event: 고연전, Koyonjeon.) which basically is a two day event where two rival universities (Yonsei and Korea University) compete in five sports; baseball, basketball, ice-hockey, rugby and soccer. The games take place at the giant Olympic stadions, where the students all cheer for their team. The whole day. The dancing and screaming is no joke, especially when you're in the sun.


The exchange students had a cheering orientation at the beginning of the semester, and I have to say that it was easier to cheer when you knew the songs beforehand. The songs are completely in Korean though, so singing along took some practice, but I think I managed.

Even though we only won the baseball match, and tied in the ice-hockey, we still had so much fun cheering with each other. Honestly, I don't care much for sports, but I loved this event.

The rivalry is just for fun, and the students know that. Unlike what you would expect from Western people, we actually went back to Sinchon (Yonsei universities 'bar' district) and had a huge party together with the Korea University students. Singing each other's cheering songs, dancing and drinking together.
More surprising for me was that as soon as the students left the stadion, they were completely civil and calm on the subways. A 180 degree turn from the way they were behaving in the stadion only like 10 minutes ago.


On another subject, September 12th here, was the biggest holiday in Korea, Chuseok. As you might have read in the other South-Korea blog, this is a really big deal, and most Koreans go back to their homes, a.k.a, leave Seoul. The streets were very, very empty. The normally bustling Sinchon, was now empty. Restaurants and bars were closed, there were no people in the streets, no shouting girls in front of the make-up stores urging you to come in, even the guy we see dressed up in a garfield suit, promoting the cat cafe every day, wasn't there.


We decided to go to Lotte world, to spend our day there. Lotte world is an amusement park, which is mainly inside. They were giving foreigners a 'Chuseok discount', so it seemed like a good deal.



The park is simply amazing. Especially because most of it is inside, in a huge hall, which has more rides hidden in it than you would guess at first glance. There is a roller coaster that goes through several buildings inside, and over the heads of people eating in a restaurant. There is a wild water attraction, the kind that has the round boats, which was located on the 3rd floor (!!). One of the most fun rides was the hot-air balloon ride that takes you around the ceiling of the hall. In the centre of the hall, there is even an ice skating rink.

There was another water ride underground, and outside, on a small island, there were more roller coasters, including underground ones. Every single inch of space was utilized. Of course, they had to, since this amusement park is in the middle of the city. More room was simply not available. At night, the inside hall was lit, there was a parade, also beautifully lit, and a laser show at 9PM.




Once again, thank you for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed it ^^

Annyeong!