With the end of mid- terms and final exams coming up, many Korean universities have festivals at their school where they hold multiple events that students can participate in and have fun. This week was the festival week for Korea University and during the final day for the festival week, a huge concert was held where many famous Korean artists were paid to perform at the school. Tickets were really cheap (around $9) and you were really getting bang for your buck as trying to see some of these artists individually would cost anywhere from $50 to $100. Also, there were about 8 famous artists in the lineup for the concert so it was really an event worth not missing. Although I did not know a lot of the artists since I was not too familiar with K-Pop, there were still a few artists I was able to recognize and be excited for, like Epik High or Akdong Musicians. For the beginning half of the festival, me and my friends tried to get as close as possible to the stage. However, 4 hours into the festival and with 3 hours remaining, I decided to give up in trying to stand for a whole 7 hours in a crowd of people and went to find a seat. It was fun being close to the stage but I could no longer bear the heat coming from the other people and also the constant standing that we would have to do.
There were also a lot of cheering songs that every Korea University knew and it was very interesting and exciting to be able to experience the culture of Korean college students all linking arms or shoulders to sing and dance together in unity. Unfortunately, I did not know most of the lyrics to the different songs so all i could do was try to follow along and dance. Overall, the event was still fun and a great cultural experience being a college student in Korea.
0 Comments
This week, me and my friends held a Hawaii booth during the International Student Festival. Held every semester at Korea University by KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistants), exchange students have the opportunity to be able to sign up and display the culture of their country at this festival. Even though Hawaii is not its own country, I was able to persuade the people in charge about how Hawaii has their own unique culture, despite being a state of the US. At the booth, we were not able to introduce any traditional Hawaiian food, but instead offered local favorites like spam musubi, Kona coffee, and other snacks. Our booth grabbed a lot of attention and many people were actually interested in learning about Hawaii. Most of their preconceptions of Hawaii was just beaches and sand and not much else. Thankfully, we were able to break this misconception that they had about Hawaii and were able to introduce the culture of Hawaii to some degree. Also, to our surprise, our booth won best booth of the day and we took home the first place prize of $100! Even though it was hard work serving food and operating the booth, in the end, it was worth it since I was able to spend time with friends and also because we were able to win first place. I also felt that this helped people learn more about Hawaii as there was some people who thought that people living in Hawaii did noting but surf and swim at the beach. A few people even thought that we lived in huts....
|
Troy Chong
Freeman Scholar -Spring 2016 Archives
May 2016
Categories |