Eskara School Festival

Here in Korea, every university holds a school festival once a year. Why? I have no clue. It seems like a waste of money, but I was let out of class early several times and got to go to several free concerts, so I'm not complaining.
The first day kicked off with a mini track and field competition. I could have participated, but the foreign exchange students were notified too late. The event pitted students from the Seoul and Suwon campuses against each other in events like tug of war, limbo, soccer, 400m and 100m dash, and foot volleyball. All participants were given a free shirt and a 2,000 won coupon.

Everyone assembling on the sports ground

Tents for the participants

Cheerleaders for the soccer game

The soccer game. 

Some of my friends from Le Foot were playing.

 One section of campus was turned into an art display for several installations and artworks.

There were a bunch of umbrellas hanging from trees and lamp posts

Suspended shoe pots

Marching shoe pots

Children's shoe pots

There were also many booths set up serving food. These were operated by various student organizations. In the evenings, they would lay out tarps, set up tablecloth covered boxes with candles, and call it a bar, serving food and alcohol for inflated prices. This took place on the field in front of the library, where all the entertainment was held.

A grill booth

They even had arcade games

Street food vendor attracting med students like flies

Patbigsu, Korean shaved ice with red bean paste and fruit

Hand drip coffee

Run by the coffee club, which my friend Victor is a part of

Candles at the makeshift bar

People enjoying music, food, and drink

The performances on the first night included a cheer/dance squad, several singers from Super Star S which is sort of like American Idol, Super Kidd(a rock band), and Secret, a very popular Kpop girl group. I learned a super annoying chant from the first group: Kara kara S. K. kara, kara kara S. K. K. Over and over again. blah.
My favorite was Super Kidd. They really got the audience involved and were quite talented. They actually played their own instruments, unlike Secret who basically danced and only sang a few parts of their songs (most of it was lipsynched to the prerecorded background track).
I had gotten there at the very beginning of the performances, so i had a spot at the very front. This provided an excellent view with the side effect of being squished by the press of people from the back. There was one girl in particular right behind me who was practically hanging off me the whole time. I could barely move!

The stage

Cheer group cheering in their funny costumes

Introduction of the athletic teams

The cheer/dance team

 My favorite Super Star S singer

Super Kidd. I took some video, but I was too close to the speakers, so the sound is very distorted by bass. This is a video I found on youtube. If you want to listen to more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzZEUDnGFJc

Secret(Sorry for the audio quality. As I said: too close to the speakers). The hot lipsynching kpop girl group. The guys certainly went crazy over them. If you want to see the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ab8YpVuMTc

The next few days included more hot dancing girls and plenty of eating/drinking contests.

A dance group

Eye candy for the guys

There was a milk drinking contest, a noodle eating contest, a beer drinking contest, and a couple contest. I wanted to enter at least one, but arrived too late once I figured out how to participate. All of the contests were based on speed. For the noodle eating one, participants were in pairs- a blindfolded person feeding the other team member. They then switched positions and did the whole thing again. The couple contest involved two stages. For the first, the pair had to take either end of a pepero stick in their mouths and eat it together. They then had to drink 500ml of coke together through two straws. There were even two same-sex couples, one male one female. I couldn't tell if they were really together or just playing for laughs.

On your marks, get set

GO!!!

All done, and the MC is freaking out

Noodle time!

This team won the first round, but lost the second

About to get started

Aw...

Drinking away

Couple or no?

Many students were wearing military garb this week. After they complete their military service, all Korean men have to go to training camp once a year for students and up to three times a year for  the general population. All the electrical and computer engineering students at SKKU have today designated as their military training day. One of my friends was upset because they get excused for class, and he doesn't have class today.

With SAPA, after a day of military training

 And for the grand finale of the festival: fireworks!