Akaraka!!!

hello!!

It continues to be a whirlwind of activity here in seoul. Last week was Akaraka! Akaraka is a Yonsei school pride festival. It starts off with Daedong Festival, which is when student clubs set up tents along the main road on campus. Its a long road....there are tons of tents! Each tent is set up as a 술집 (sul jiip), which literally means alcohol house. This is the word for bar in Korean. However it is very different from an American bar because you always order food, there is no actual bar, and everyone is at booths/tables. The atmosphere feels different. Anyway these 술집 along the main road are serving lots of alcohol and food. Street vendors also pull up their carts and people line up. Additionally they had set up four stages for student bands to play on! it was pretty crazy. We don't have a festival like this at Colby (especially since hard alcohol is now banned on campus)! I even think there were people designated to remove drunken passed out guys from the road. While waiting for my friend Emily, Tina and I had the privilege of seeing one guy "sleeping" on the pavement alone and then four guys with special badges around their neck came, each grabbed a limb, and brought him into the student center. lovely.

Anyway this went on for two nights. I personally was a fan of the tent that was selling drinks in a bag. They were all wearing doctors outfits and even had a "tequila syringe"! But the big show was Akaraka, on friday. There is an amphitheater on campus that started filling up at noon. Akaraka is first and foremost a Kpop concert. It is a surprise who comes but it is always very famous Korean groups. Secondly, Akaraka is a cheering fest. I have never seen anything like this before. 10,000+ people all saying the same thing doing the same dance, it was like a music video. I guess it doesn't sound as ridiculous as it looked but it was pretty hilarious. There are some parts where you put you hands over the shoulders of the person next to you and sway back and forth and then make big circle huddles or push and pull the person infront of you in a chain or gather in a circle and kick someone in the middle and there is a lot of thrusting involved...it was interesting to say the least. What really puts it over the top is the leaders on stage. They are so dramatic and have this flare with their arm movements. And on top of that...their outfits! First they are all wearing white gloves (mickey mouse-esque) and have shiny, bubbly almost cowboy outfits with lots of tassles hanging off. It is quite the sight. Every single Yonsei student knows these cheers (and there are a lot of cheers) so it is a good time.

However the main part was the singing (well at least I think and hope it was). It started off with student groups since people get into the amphitheater early because even if you have a ticket it can be really hard to get a seat. It is very competitive to get a ticket; under half of the students get one! Although i know several people who got in without one, i think it becomes a free for all at some point in the night. Anyway I had no idea so many famous singers were going to be there! I actually didn't know who they were (i haven't gotten THAT korean yet!) but once i heard the songs i was like oooooohh this song!!! Here is some of the songs i heard!

First on the stage was Dal Shabet:


Then G.NA (pronounced Gina):


then DJ DOC, actually a friend who spent a year in Korea a long time ago said this band was around then too!


Then came Supreme Team:


AND THEN THE HEADLINERS! 2NE1! (pronounced twenty-one)


and heres another 2NE1 track



so yea that was Akaraka. Pictures are on facebook if you haven't checked them out yet. It was a super fun night.

Im looking forward to the next two weekends. This weekend Jungwoo and Inho from Hubolab are coming up from Daejeon to hang out in Seoul! That will be awesome since Homecoming Day in Daejeon fell through. Additionally, Reed's brother and dad are coming to visit for a week starting this friday! We already have plans to take Reed's younger brother out in Seoul on saturday night to show him whats up : ) and then next weekend LUKAS IS COMING!! i cant believe its almost here! His cousin is coming with him too except just for the first three days of his week long visit. we are going to have such a good time, i cant wait!

I cant believe what little time I have left here. It has absolutely flown by. I am going to be really sad to leave Korea. I have made some awesome new friends that I have no idea how I am going to live without but I am also really excited to get back to all the people in the US that i cant live without! I got a job at Farrington (the farm i have worked at in the past) as assistant to the director and one of my best friends Daisy got a job there too! Mark and Matthew are going to be around, so will Natalie and Aaron and Lukas and other Cambridge people : ) I hope to get down to the cape a lot too!

I think I am thinking of home a lot recently because Jay died. I don't know why but I am taking it harder than i thought I would. I have known this was going to come for a while, and even knew that it was imminent. My heart just feels really heavy and I'm doing my best to hold back waves of tears in Korean class. He was such an awesome guy. He loved his kids and made them some of the happiest and greatest ones on the planet. I know I am going to do everything I can to make sure Eleanor and David know that for the rest of their life. My sports classes have been really nice to have though. When I read the email I had taekwondo later that day and we started kicking targets, which was a great distraction. It was my favorite taekwondo class, I had so much fun, even though I felt bad because I was hitting my Captain's hand instead of the target most of the time. and I also have amazing friends here who can make me laugh no matter what. they are unbelievably helpful. They make me realize how healing a smile can be. Im really looking forward to getting back so I can hang out with the Hardys. I have and will continue to think of them and miss them everyday. Until then, despite being thousands of miles away, I am lucky to have the support I do.

until next time, have a good week everyone!