대동제 뭉 아카라카 (Yonsei's Festival!)

Welcome to the wondrous phenomenon I like to mildly call the... Yonsei's Spring Festival. Are you ready?

I wish I could extend my stay just so I enjoy the fall festival, which I heard is even more elaborate. ㅎㅎㅎ Well this isn't the main reason, but it definitely would be a plus.

Our Poongmul group (데 동아리) performed on Wednesday afternoon. Here is a photo of some 데friends enjoying the night before AKARAKA. Many student clubs/groups sold food, drinks, etc under tents stretching from the center of the campus to nearly the main gate entrance.

AKARAKA concert was on Thursday and lasted from 3:30pm ~ 11:00pm. After the weeks of of drumming practice and the performance, I slightly suspected that my legs would collapse. But as with many unexpected happenings, the eruption of energy from the mass of blue brought me to life. And somehow I became wide awake, alert and ready to do whatever Korean students do (move your body!) An assortment of blue shirts filled the Yonsei stadium as enthusiastic students piled (not filed into nice, neat rows) into the packed area. Amidst the blazing blue, a few blotches of red spread throughout the crowd. Yonsei (in blue) University's rival is none other than Korea University (in red). To quote one of our 떼 friends, "If you see Korea University student [red] kick them." ㅎㅎㅎ

Never before have I seen such a lively batch of students. It is an understatement for me to say that Korea university students have school spirit. After the initial shock of beinyanked forward, backward, left and right (not in the normal sense you may be picturing) I was fully awake. "왼쪽, 오른쪽...!"
When cheering, dancing and singing you were anything but stationary. Even if you wanted to stand quietly in place I doubt your surrounding peers would permit such behavior! There were two Japanese exchange students seated to my right. The guy was quite an interesting fellow (sooo enthusiastic), while the girl was a bit reserved. I suppose the energy rubbed off because after having someone abruptly grab me around the shoulders, I followed suit and pulled this girl right down with me. Not to worry. This helped loosen everyone up! Oh AKARAKA. And this took place without the appearance of popular Korean singers.

In the beginning, a Yonsei dance club/group entered the stage. One of my friends performed on the very stage that 쥬얼리(Jewelry), Big Bang, VOS, 소녀시대 (Girls' Generation), JYP and other Korean artists would soon enter. I was taken aback I am older than a majority of the budding new singers (of course with the exception of JYP). Normally, in the states I wasn't a huge fan of pop music, but Korea seems to do a good job of opening your mind (even when it comes to something simple like Kpop). Who would have guessed that a school festival could bring about such crazy memories?