I hereby start this post off by stating that I only got five hours of sleep from Friday to Sunday. I completely crashed Sunday night, but it was entirely worth it.
I started the weekend off by going to a baseball game in Seoul. The Samsung Lions played the Nexen Heroes and lost. The game was no different than the only baseball game I'd ever been to in the US (Tech vs. someone else), but there were a few differences in the audience culture. Bear in mind that the only baseball game I'd seen before was a college game.
The stadium
A mosquito advertising an electric bug swatter
First off, the ceremonial pitch was thrown by a tiny girl probably from some kpop group. I missed the actual pitch itself, but it can't have been as bad as this one.
There were also cheerleaders playing loud music (including ABBA's Dancing Queen with Korean lyrics) and dancing on a stage throughout the whole game. I was sadly sitting too far away to get any good pictures.
When I think of food eaten at a baseball game, hot dogs and of course peanuts and crackerjack come to mind. Here in Korea, it's all about the fried chicken. Just walking from the subway to the stadium, we were accosted from all sides by people of all ages hawking chicken. So of course we got some, with a sweet and spicy sauce and white pickled radishes.
Korean Baseball fare
The stands and field
My group
The Nexen pitcher
Nexen is winning!
I really tried to get into the game, but baseball isn't really my thing, so I kind of zoned out during the second half (I read). Nexen won 6 to 7, and we headed back to Suwon.
On the subway, I spotted an interesting sticker. John told me that the government is trying to regulate and/or control the subway companies, so this is their form of protest. Just like guys shouldn't peek on girls, the government shouldn't mess in the transit companies' business.
Protest sticker
Back in Suwon, we headed to a restaurant and generally had a good time eating and talking until the wee hours of the morning.
Yummy chicken, with lots of cartilage that you're supposed to eat, but I didn't
The four of us
Fighting over the free peaches :)
Since the dorms close from 1 am to 5 am, we headed to a jjimjjilbang to sleep. A jjimjjilbang is a Korean bath house. The one we went to was on the 7th and 8th floors of a skyscraper. At the front desk, they gave us each a set of clothes- a t-shirt and shorts, pink for girls and blue for guys - and a key on a bracelet in exchange for 9,000 won. The lower floor was divided into men's and women's sections so we went into the women's area, put our shoes in lockers at the entrance, went into the changing area, and put our belongings in a second locker. There was a spa area with numerous hot tubs, which felt amazing after the long night, and of course everyone was naked. I didn't spend long there, however, but headed upstairs to the communal (clothing not optional) area. There were sleeping mats and block pillows laid out, so I settled down for about two hours before an alarm rang at 7:40 am, and the lights were brightened. After finding the rest of my group, I tried out a few of the rooms. I stayed in a hot room (65° C) until the heat grew too oppressive, and I felt like I couldn't breath. The other rooms I tried included an ice room (4°C), with pipes covered in frost along the walls and a forest room (30°C) with wooden walls and a fake forest behind glass.
People sleeping in the forest room
The walls of the hot room
Detailing in the hot room
a couple watching TV in the hot room
There were many other rooms, including segregated sleeping rooms, and other temperature based rooms, but at that point, I had to leave to get ready for the next event of the weekend.
So I took an almost three hour long subway ride out of the city to get to the SAPA MT. SAPA, if you don't remember is the Sungkyunkwan Academic Photography Association, and an MT is so-called "membership training". All Korean collegiate clubs once per semester, rent a large room/building and spend the night there getting to know each other, eating, and drinking.
As soon as we got there, I passed out for an hour or so, after which we went exploring! There was a valley nearby with a stream running through it, so what did we do? Throw people in! I would have gone in too, but I hadn't brought a change of clothes. We then walked on to a larger river, spent a while ambling along the shore, and rented rowboats for an hour! I rowed most of the time in my boat of course, and we got into a huge splash fight with other boats which left me soaking wet. After our time was up, we headed back for dinner, kimchi jjigae prepared my our leader, Songmin.
After waking up
Cute Korean girl playing in the water
Buildings overlooking the stream
Time to get wet!
The stream
These cute birdhouses caught my eye
Dog and puppy
The river
You could pay for a ride in a flyfish boat that got airborne for short intervals
Hills in the background
Cute couple
Petra rowing
Wet but happy
Soggy waegookins
Kimchi jjigae cooking
I also painted my toenails in between :)
We then divided into four teams (mine was the Ace team) and played many games, surprisingly many of which were word based. One involved having the first letter of each syllable in a word written out and having to guess what the word was. There were categories such as movies, foods, and songs(they had to sing it as well) to make things a little easier. Another one involved four people shouting out a syllable of a word simultaneously and everyone else had to guess. During the last round of that one, the foreigners were the shouters. They said I pronounced my syllable very well. :) At the end, my team won, so we didn't have to help with cleanup.
Then it was time for more food, this time barbecue. We ate two huge sacks of meat and plenty of lettuce(for wrapping.
Grilling the meat (sorry for the blurriness)
YEAH!
Goofiness in the early morning
By that time it was already three or so in the morning, and most people went to sleep. I stayed up and played Mafia for a while, and then watched the Champion's League final. Bayern München losing to Chelsea was a real let down, but the Koreans were happy. After all, Chelsea was sponsored by Samsung, a Korean company.
Is it morning already?
Sleepy Koreans
It was then breakfast time(ramyeon), but I wasn't hungry, so I slept a little, and then it was time to head back to Suwon. We stopped on the way for mul naengmyeon, cold noodles, which were delicious. When I got back to my dorm room, I forced myself to stay up for a few hours, and then slept for thirteen hours straight. I thankfully didn't have class until noon the next day.
One last tidbit: sitting on a hard wooden floor for close to twelve hours is not a good idea. My bum is STILL a little sore. :P
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!
