So this past weekend was 연고전 (YonKo Jeon)! It's a huge annual sporting event rivalry between Yonsei (my school) and 고려대학교 (Korea University). It is a 2-day event that includes games of baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby and soccer. I had class on the first day but I went on the second day and watched the rugby and soccer games!
On Friday we won the baseball game, barely lost the basketball game and tied for hockey. On Saturday we lost the rugby match by 3 points (it was such a good game!) but we lost soccer as well. So, Korea University won overall. But all Yonsei students were proud of their players! It was such a fun time.
The games are even broadcast on television. That's how big of a deal it is. There were thousands of students there from each school: Yonsei in blue and Korea in red.
Walking into Jamsil Stadium.
Our band.
Rugby teams warming up.
Go Yonsei!
Rugby!
Cheerleaders!
One of the things about YonKo Jeon is that you NEVER, EVER STOP CHEERING. It's not like a college sporting event like in the U.S. where you are totally fixed on watching the game and you cheer when your team does good things. We never sat down and there were no cheering breaks. I was so involved with cheering, I barely got to watch the games. Only when a team was close to scoring did you really do any watching of the game. Definitely a different experience than in the States.
The rugby team right after we lost. Half of them were crying because they were so disappointed. The team captain couldn't even speak because he was so sad. This game is such a big deal!
Rugby team after they changed and calmed down. Much better!
So many explosions and fireworks!
Soccer game!
To give you an idea of the amount of people there...
This was just the student section. There were tons more Yonsei students on the other side of me. All of the non-students were on the other side of the stadium. I don't think they wanted to sit with us. WE WERE SO LOUD!
One of our songs:
Rushing the field at the end!
Even though we lost, Yonsei students know how to show their school spirit!
Banners hanging over the streets leading up to YonKo Jeon.
GETTING PUMPED!
One cool think I will say, is that Yonsei and Korea students have excellent sportsmanship. After the competition was over, you can see them walking around Sinchon together, going out to eat and drink, as if they were best friends. The are in competition with each other, but they know it is all in good fun.
A tradition is for students to go around Sinchon and politely ask restaurants to give them free food (this only happens during YonKo Jeon) and most restaurants do! We went out for Pho that night and paid for our food, however. Maybe we should have asked for it for free!
Later that night, there was a concert on the main street of Yonsei. There were various performers, but the most anticipated was SISTAR, a four-member KPop girl group.
The stage.
Some famous MC. Not sure of his name though...
SISTAR.
There was a group of about 20 Korean boys right next to me. THEY WERE GOING CRAZY OVER THEM.
Did I mention this concert was free?? With free beer?? Haha gotta love Korea.
The night before, we went to the Han River to a bridge that shoots water out from one side and lights up in an array of colors. Sadly, it didn't light up while we were there. But, we still had a good time exploring.
Right on the Han.
Namsan at night.
Chocolate Mousse cake from the cafe on the river.
My next post will be about the Rain concert that we went to. Stay tuned!
안녕!
