Sorry, my
intention was to update the blog much earlier, but I’ve simply been too
busy/tired for the past month. Finally, the midterm exams of this semester are
over so I actually have some time to write. So many things have happened since
the last post. Here are some updates to what I did in September.
Chuseok (추석)
This year
Chuseok was celebrated on September 14-16. It is a harvest festival that is
also known by name “Korean Thanksgiving.” Many Koreans travel back to their
hometowns to their parents or grandparents for Chuseok. Traditions include
respecting their ancestors by performing ancestor worship rituals. More about
the subject for example here.
My birthday happened to be on the most
important day of Chuseok (this year September 15), when basically nothing was
open. Well, I had managed to fall down with flu so I wouldn’t have had any
energy for crazy partying anyways. With couple of my friends we luckily found an
open restaurant, where went for lunch and later that evening I went to a dinner
organized by one of my friends from Korean class. We gathered to make some
dinner together and celebrated Chuseok that way. Not a bad way to celebrate one’s
birthday I’d say.
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| Original picture. A family making songpyeons (송편) that are traditionally eaten during Chuseok. |
Trick Eye
Museum
On Friday
September 16, despite Chuseok, the streets were crowed with people and almost
every store seemed to open again. With small group of friends we decided to
visit Trick Eye Museum, where the exhibitions are based on optical illusions.
Instead of writing I think it’s much easier just simply show you some pictures
from there. I had such
an amazing day! Thanks everyone that were there. :)
Korea-Yonsei games (고연전)
One of the
biggest events here is the Korea-Yonsei games, in which Korea University and
Yonsei University compete against each other in five events: soccer, rugby,
baseball, basketball and ice hockey. The games are two-day event – this year
they were on Friday Sept. 23 and Saturday Sept. 24. On Friday most of the
lectures were either cancelled or the teachers were not taking attendance for
that day’s classes. The event is that important!
Sadly, I was still a bit feeling the
effects of the flu I had caught earlier so I decided to skip the games for
Friday, and rest at home. Moreover, I wouldn’t have been able to watch ice
hockey game anyways since you needed a ticket for that, and one could win the
ticket only by participating to the “cheering orientation.” I wasn’t able to
participate because of my flu. :( KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistants) had
also organized an “cheering orientation” event, but the tickets were
distributed only during the orientation for all students. Literally, the
orientation was about learning choreographs to various cheering songs.
On Saturday I felt much better, and
decided to go to see the games. And it was worth it! Cheering is a serious
thing around here. The songs were played with no breaks, and you weren’t able
to sit down in that hassle because people kept pushing you to participate. I
found couple videos to give you a little example.
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| Color coding! Red = Korea, blue = Yonsei |
Saturday’s
events were rugby and soccer. Korea University was the winner of the games
since it won two games: baseball and soccer. Yonsei won the rugby game.
Basketball and ice hockey games were ties.
I think
this is enough for this time. Within next couple weeks I'll try to write posts about my trips to
Jeju island and Jinju Lantern Festival. I’m so sorry that these updates are so
late, but better later than never… Right? ^^’
xxx
xxx
