A Weekend Away from Seoul: Jinju

This weekend I was invited to see my friend's hometown, I didn't know but it was outside of Seoul! My friend took me to Jinju, a small riverside city in the south, outside of Seoul. Jinju is known for it's breathtaking scenery and lantern festivals in the fall. Jinju is a small city of approximately 400,000 people but it's nice nonetheless. 

My friends house was amazing! It was my first time in an actual Korean furnished house. The furniture was...different. There was an old fashion heating device, Korean style cabinets, and lots of Korean artwork. 

The first attraction I saw was Jinjuseong Castle. This castle has spectacular views of the Namgang river and is the main historical place in Jinju. Around 1592, Jinjuseong Castle was apparently the location of an important battle in Korean history. At this castle the Korean army held off a massive attack by the Japanese (I think my friend said that it was 20 Japanese soldiers for every 1 Korean soldier). Now this castle pays tribute to the thousands of soldiers who gave up their life defending Jinju and is visited by tourists and Koreans alike. 

Some famous General of one of the battles of Jinju

AKARAKA!!!

Today I went to AKARAKA!! So what exactly is AKARAKA? Well in layman's terms, Akaraka is Yonsei's yearly concert which is held in their Amphitheater. During Akaraka there are comedians, singing contests, school cheers, and (the best part) k-pop idols performing live k-pop songs! 

In order to go to Akaraka you NEED tickets. Tickets this year sold for 10,000 won a piece (roughly $10). The only catch is that the amphitheater can only hold so many people and it becomes a daunting task to get a hold of a ticket. I was told that half of the Yonsei University student body fails to get tickets. Luckily I had an amazing friend who hooked me up with VIP tickets which let me bypass the long line to get into the amphitheater. Normally for exchange students, Mentors club helps get tickets (normal tickets) but they are inefficient and it's a cumbersome process. This year mentors club only had 200 tickets and they sold the tickets the day before AKARAKA during KLI (the Korean language class most of the exchange students take) and there weren't enough for all the exchange students. The trick to getting tickets is to ask your upperclassmen friends (which are Korean students). 

My VIP Akaraka tickets

The VIP

Pre Akaraka

Comedians 

One of the many cheers! Yonsei has so much school spirit!!

PSY

Yonsei singing competition finalist 

What really shocked me was that there was a proposal during Akaraka! It was like something out of a k-drama and was really romantic. 

Girls Generation 

Another cool thing about Akaraka was that there was a mini laser show followed by fireworks!

And to end the night Akaraka finished with school cheers! I never ever seen a school with so much spirit! I'm so proud to attend Yonsei! It amazes me how all the students know the cheers and it's amazing to see a whole amphitheater cheer in sync. 

Nothing Like a Two Day Festival and 주점's

Today was the start of Yonsei's two day festival. During the festival, school clubs set up various booths to fund raise money. The booths can be anything from games, rides, showing their clubs talent, food booths, dance clubs, and even alcohol. Yes that's right, you heard it. In Korea it's A-OK to drink on campus, especially during the festival. This alcohol fundraiser is called 주점 and is very popular in Korea. Here you can see students selling drinks and professional bartenders mixing drinks. During the festival students, teachers, and even non-Yonsei students flock to Yonsei to enjoy the school festivities. During the festival, professors don't assign homework, and if you have a cool/nice professor they will even cancel class! This festival is simply AMAZING it's no surprise why Yonsei is one of the top 3 schools in all of Korea.

It's only 11:30 yet the festival is getting crowded

Electronic Bull Ride

Crates and Crates of Soju, beer, and imported alcohol can be seen behind the club tents/booths

Students love the games here

At night is when the lights come on and the food vendors get packed

hundreds of tent/sitting space is provided and is the main area students come to talk, eat, drink, and play drinking games

At night you can also find both outdoor and indoor clubbing areas, on campus

There's three stages where student bands perform original songs and covers all throughout the day

Overall, Yonsei's festival is like any carnival/festival but on steroids. In addition, the alcohol just kicks it up a notch. Never would you ever see this in America. 

Boy how I love Korea!