this weekend was the big yon-ko festival in seoul. it's an old tradition that dates back to when my dad was a kid here in korea. it's actually just a series of four sports events between yonsei university and korea university that take place in the olympic stadium. the rivalry between the two school is really old, but it seems to be really friendly.
basketball and baseball took place on friday and soccer and rugby were on saturday. no one goes to actually watch the games. they go to cheer.
the entire week before yon-ko, each of the universities holds cheering practice in their own little stadiums. in these practices, the majority of students go and learn each of the cheers. these aren't cheers like ones in the us. they're basically dance rountines that you learn, some of them being pretty elaborate. i didn't realize this and decided not to attend practice, thinking that i'd just catch on once i was at the festival.
at the olympic stadium, all the yonsei students were dressed in blue and all the korea uni kids were dressed in red (it kind of reminded me of a badger game, but not really). there were two huge stages erected on the track in front of the field where each school's cheerleaders danced around and directed the crowd. these were not normal cheerleaders. they were dressed in incredibly flamboyant satin outfits in bright colors like magenta and kelly green... if you've ever seen the tv show 'the iron chef,' think about the chairman and what he normally wears, only the cheerleaders had a lot more ruffles. so, the crowd danced and chanted along nonstop for the duration of the rugby and soccer matches that i attended, which was a good 5 or so hours. it was ridiculous. there were about 10 different cheers, and i think i finally caught on to about 3 of them by the time it was over.
by the time sunday rolled around, i was so tired i couldn't really feel the lower half of my body.
and, even though this is completely off topic, i finally got a cell phone, so hit me up with an email if you want the number and feel like spending a ton of money to call me.
basketball and baseball took place on friday and soccer and rugby were on saturday. no one goes to actually watch the games. they go to cheer.
the entire week before yon-ko, each of the universities holds cheering practice in their own little stadiums. in these practices, the majority of students go and learn each of the cheers. these aren't cheers like ones in the us. they're basically dance rountines that you learn, some of them being pretty elaborate. i didn't realize this and decided not to attend practice, thinking that i'd just catch on once i was at the festival.
at the olympic stadium, all the yonsei students were dressed in blue and all the korea uni kids were dressed in red (it kind of reminded me of a badger game, but not really). there were two huge stages erected on the track in front of the field where each school's cheerleaders danced around and directed the crowd. these were not normal cheerleaders. they were dressed in incredibly flamboyant satin outfits in bright colors like magenta and kelly green... if you've ever seen the tv show 'the iron chef,' think about the chairman and what he normally wears, only the cheerleaders had a lot more ruffles. so, the crowd danced and chanted along nonstop for the duration of the rugby and soccer matches that i attended, which was a good 5 or so hours. it was ridiculous. there were about 10 different cheers, and i think i finally caught on to about 3 of them by the time it was over.
by the time sunday rolled around, i was so tired i couldn't really feel the lower half of my body.
and, even though this is completely off topic, i finally got a cell phone, so hit me up with an email if you want the number and feel like spending a ton of money to call me.
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