Yon-Ko Jon!!!

So, I've been really busy this week with one thing. Yon Ko Jon. This is a sports even consisting of five games( hockey, rugby, basketball, baseball and soccer) played between Yonsei Uni. (mine) and Korea Uni. (the enemy) the top two schools in Korea. This event happens every year at the beginning of the school year and has been going on for about 50 years now. The whole event is sponsored by major companies like Samsung and ABC who, I assume, have alumni executives at their heads. It's a very big deal.


It started at the beginning of the school year when the clubs started putting up signs advertising the event and the international students were bombarded with information about going. Then the cheer practices started.

Koreans don't cheer like we do in the US. It's not just "rah, rah go team" every school has about 30 choreographed cheer/songs that they memorize. These cheers are led by a dance /cheerleading team who wear elaborate costumes and are all physical education majors. The whole school follows the team in these songs with much enthusiasm. After just one practice you can't help but have school spirit and I, who love to dance, had alot of fun with this.

So, here one of the cheer practices I went to. This is in our campus amphitheater. And here are the cheerleaders. Are theme is renaissance and Korea University's was ninja/monk/china.
Now, here's where is starts getting big. At the cheering sections, (a practice/ pep-rally sort of thing) A famous Korean Pop star came named Lee Seung Ki. I didn't recognize his name but I did recognize some of the songs he sang. But when he came out girls screamed and fainted and I have to say he is very cute. But what really blew me away was that this was a school pep-rally and he was there just to cheer us on.


So, on Friday it officially started. Classes were canceled and everyone piled onto the subway to go to the 1988 Olympic Sports complex. We all had to wear blue because that is our school color. (Korea U.'s is red). And everyone went by club so your blue club t-shirt was your ticket in. This is me and Karlijn, my dutch friend. First, was baseball. We were supposed to stay with the mentor's club (yonsei's international student organization help group) but me and a few others (Hi Myung and Patrick) were tired of being separated from the normal Yonsei students and so we left and cheered with the physics club.
This is the baseball field. We won this game but no one was really paying attention because this sports festival is not really about sports but about out cheering the other school. The cheerleaders got up on stage at least 30 mins. before the game started and cheered the whole way through baseball and all the way through basketball which happened directly afterwards. And the crowd followed. No one sat down that day. And these cheers are not simple but take a lot of energy. I was amazed that no one gave up. Both Yonsei and Korea sides cheered for about 8 hours straight on two different, consecutive days. (the same thing happened on Saturday)
And here is our mascot. It's an eagle.
And this is me with my roommate, Kyra (left) and Giles (right). I look ridiculously happy in all of these pictures, but I can't describe how much fun I had during these three days.
Both teams are not that great at basketball especially when compared to UNC but it was still an exciting game because it was so close.Yonsei and Korea are evenly matched in all the sports and so it comes down to the very end. We lost this game by two points in the last four seconds.

What I really liked about the basketball stadium is it shows the divide between the schools. We're blue and they're red. And though the separation is drastic the students get along well. On thursday night I went out in Shinchon with friends and we joined a yelling match between some Korea students and some Yonsei students in the streets. It was definitely competitive but there were no harsh words or feelings. Everyone was hugging and smiling even while yelling is someone's face about how much they loved their school. I don't think Duke and Carolina students could ever do the same. Here's one of my favorite cheers.

Saturday, was rugby and soccer inside the 1988 Seoul Olympic stadium. Two Olympic venues in a month. The stadium was smaller than Kenan stadium at UNC.

Soccer and the torch. Rugby. By the way I want to play this game now.
More cheering.
Una (serbian), Eddie (US), Karlijn (Dutch) and me after we won the festival. (we won both soccer and rugby and tied in hockey) Again, I was amazed by the school spirit both schools had but also by the discipline the students had. Even after we had won the students all went down to the fields and danced together.

See.
Then Saturday night we went back to campus and saw the Wonder Girls in concert. They are a girl group, equivalent to Pussy Cat Dolls or the Spice Girls. I had heard of them in the US and actually can sing along with their songs. One of their songs "Tell Me" started a dance craze earlier this year in Korea that hasn't died down yet.



Now, the best part of the evening I don't have pictures of because my camera died. (as always) But after the games the students from both Yonsei and Korea go out in their respective neighborhoods with their clubs and beg and sing for food and drink from local restaurants. I, once again, ditched the Mentor's club because they just went to a bar and paid for their dinners, and joined up with the Doctors/theater club. (a group of guys I had met at the stadium while in a congo line that are all pre-med but like to put on plays such as the Crucible and How to succeed in business without even trying). These guys were crazy and so much fun. We conversed in broken English and Korean and went around and got different bits of Korean food and alcohol for free. Even some free photos in a photo booth. Then we went back to campus with all the booty (chicken, ribs, cow intestines, soda, pictures, soju, beer, rice wine and rice enough to feed 15) and I was initiated into their club and they taught me and a friend several more drinking games. I had one of the best times of my life and now I am so tired.