Spring Festival 24 - 25 - 26 Two Thousand & Eleven

** Mini delay in posts due to my trip to Thailand, I am back in Korea now =)**

May 24-26, 2011

Every Spring semester most universities around Korea hold a school spring festival. From what I have heard they mostly last 3 days and the school will shell out big bucks to invite famous Korean singers/groups to come and perform during the festival.

There are also performances from clubs from the school and talent contests that involve singing or dancing. During the day different majors set up booths around the school selling snacks or other things to try and raise money for their major. At night some of the majors will run a small bar like tent where they sell some food and alcohol.

This year the festival was called "Like A G6" and they sold t-shirts for 500-1000 won, which is 50cents - $1.

Yu & Akiko started decorating people's t-shirts and this one is for Olliver.

During this time the campus looks super busy and many people are walking around. The bigger universities will most likely get a lot of people who are not even from their school attending their festivals, especially if their guest stars are someone super famous that many people want to see.

The people above wearing red are selling pineapples (cut up on sticks) to raise money for their major.

The first night we had DJ DOC come and perform. They were great! I had a heard a lot of songs from them and didn't even realize it was them. Their stuff is really upbeat and they performed for a good hour, maybe even more.

I didn't actually get a chance to walk around on the first day through the stands so I did that on the second day. I purchased a few snack items Banana and Chocolate plus a pineapple because one of my suite mates was selling them for her major. They were delicious and were only $1. Can't go wrong with that.

The 2nd night Kristen and I also tried eating at one of the restaurants that are set up on the side of the road by an ajumma. During festival times other street vendors also line our streets with tents to sell street food and such to the students that are running around, most likely hungry.

On the 3rd night there was a singing competition on the main stage. It was kind of funny to observe because when someone was popular or talented students would rush towards the stage, but if they didn't find them appealing they would leave so the crowd size was always fluctuating.

Supreme Team performed at our school at the last night and they were the most popular group. When they arrived every started rushing towards the stage...I decided not to join the crowd this time around.

I tried to get a picture of a bunch of Korean students dressed up in animal pajamas swaying to the music but I was too far for that unfortunately and only for that blurry mess. Here is my friend Patty modelling one for us! Aren't they cute?!?!

Lastly even thought this was one day after the festival a b boy group just randomly started performing in front of the Unitopia building!!! They were really good I highly enjoyed their performance (or what I caught of it).

A Day With The Girls

May 21, 2011

It's fun just relaxing and enjoying the time with the girls. I went to gangnam (강남) and met up with Eun Young and Christina first at De Chocolate Cafe. De Chocolate Cafe is turning out to be one of my favourite chain coffee shops. I'm not sure why, the drinks aren't particularly cheaper than other ones but I guess I like the way their drinks taste and the atmosphere. Those are the two most important things if the price is not ridiculously expensive.

I had a Vanilla Latte, my favourite type of "coffee" if I had to choose one. I'm not much of a coffee drinker so I always go for something on the sweeter side.

After De Chocolate Cafe, Eun Young had to meet other friends and Christina and I met up with another friend of ours Jenny. We met Jenny in Vancouver when she was studying English. It's so neat to meet together in Korea and hang out. Most of the students I met at the international school I worked at I knew I would most likely not see again. But it's nice to be able to keep in contact with some and actually be able to visit them in their home country!

We went to eat Mexican and shared a nacho's platter.

It's pretty legit for what it is. The only thing about Korea is their cheese...for some reason their cheese is always kind of fake.

Next we just walked around gangnam shopping and browsing. We also took sticker pictures!!! Which I love and adore. I think they are so much fun and there are quite a few shops in the gangnam area to take them.

Gangnam is definitely a neat cafe district, but on the weekends they put a minimum charge at most of the cafes so it's really hard to go there after a meal and share something. I think if you go on the weekends you would plan to have your meal there. These are the independent cafe's, the chain ones have no such policy thank goodness!

They have really neat looking places and I wanted to try them, but next time. I found the prices a little bit too expensive this time around.

We finally settled on a chain cafe, Seven Monkeys. Jenny and I shared a honey bread (which I have not had a chance to try up until now and they are DELICIOUS!) and Christina had a Tiramisu.

I know for a fact the Tiramisu's I buy from most Asian bakeries are not that authentic tasting, BUT I actually like this version more because it's lighter. Earlier I mentioned I'm not a huge coffee fan and I've had Tiramisu from an Italian bakery before...there is way too much coffee flavour for my liking. I am thinking other Asians have the same thought so their version is lighter, flufflier and focuses more on the creamy vanilla-y taste with a dazzle of coffee.

Writing Competition & Global Village Sports Festival

May 12, 2011

My Korean teacher asked me to participate in a Korean writing competition and I was so worried. At first they told us it was going to be outside so I thought it was going to be a very informal competition. We write our little compositions and that's it. However, it turned out to be more formal and organized than I thought. There were performances and speeches, plus many prizes and awards for the students who participated. The competition consisted of the Chinese Village students and us the English Village students.

At first I was scared because I don't think I am at the level to be able to write something worth reading in Korean yet. My level is that of when a little kid is writing English for the first time. But my friends and I all tried our best. In the end I thought it was a fun experience.

With my Korean writing teacher and friend Becca =)

After the competition I also ran into my friend Jae Geon who was all dressed up for this graduation photos! It's photo season so recently we've been able to witness many graduating students around campus taking photos outside in the sunshine.

May 14, 2011

The suite leaders in our dorms plus the international education office organized a Global Village wide Sports Festival for us all. One girl suite was paired up with one boy suite. The sports festival games were more so relay like games, not actual sports but I had a pretty good time. Plus we had a massive barbeque meal at the end that was fantastic!

Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures while we were playing the games. I took lots at the end with may of my friends.

Here is my team capital B.

The weather turned out to be very nice and quite hot. It was our first actual taste of "summer" like weather. This is the weather I enjoy, it's hot but it's not humid. When the wind blows it's cool! Good thing we all put on sun screen! Some other students did not and actually burned that day =(

Another cool thing about Korea is that they really like to eat together on the field. They just gather around and eat and drink outside. This started when the Cherry blossoms came out and hasn't really stopped since then!

I kind of like eating outside on the ground. Constant picnic-ing. I don't feel like I do that enough in Vancouver, I think I will continue this trend when I go back!

Although this wasn't an event that showed off anyone's athleticism I had fun. I know some people did not want to participate but it was nice to have an event with ALL of Global Village! Even though I don't know everyone in our dorms it was nice to see us all in one place. Besides I got a free t-shirt and towel from this event WOOT.