KO-YON GAMES!

Ko-Yon Games:

Courtesy of KU's website, this is what I had read about the Ko-Yon games before experiencing them for myself.  "Korea University (KU) and Yonsei University (YU) are regarded as the most prestigious private universities in Korea. The two schools compete in everything from school buildings to sports games. Each year since 1956, five sports teams - baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby, and soccer teams - of KU and YU compete against each other. This is the annual Ko-Yon games, definitely one of the biggest events for the students of the two schools.

"After the game ends, don't go home right away. There is a party that follows, which is called gicha noli (train game). Students make long trains by lining up and putting hands on one another's shoulders. They run around slapping high-fives with students in another train coming from the opposite direction. They also make circles and sing cheer songs together. Also, the trains of students go into restaurants near KU and ask for free food. The owners willingly give food to the students on this day. In this way, they also celebrate the Ko-Yon games." 

It was even more intensely awesome than the description makes it sound.  You are required to wear red.  You are required to scream, dance, cheer, and sing until your throat and limbs are sore. No one watches the game. You watch the cheerleaders and follow their choreographed dances for which you have practiced for hours. (As a freshman, you attend a 4-hour cheer orientation to prepare you for this.) You wave your giant hand, your bang sticks, your plastic bag. Occasionally, you check the scoreboard.  But your duty, as a loyal student, is to cheer your team on to the best of your ability. And that means constantly and loudly.

Friday: Basketball

Pretty interestingly, the games are so important that they were held in the Olympic stadiums of Jamsil Sports Complex. Note: go to the Sports Complex, not Jamsil, station.
(Yonsei, our rival university, beat us in basketball and ice hockey, and we tied 3-3 in baseball.)

Saturday: Rugby

I'm going to go on a little tirade right now. Forgive me, for I know that I will sound anti-American.  But, seriously, WHO INVENTED AMERICAN FOOTBALL?  WHY DON'T WE PLAY RUGBY?? Rugby is a real man's sport. It's fast-paced, intelligent, and thrilling.  I'm completely ready to ditch the NFL and replace it with the National Rugby League. I am in love with this sport, and I have the Ko-Yon games to thank, because Saturday was my first rugby game!

The rugby match started at 11 AM, and KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistance) had buses to take us to the stadium at 9 AM. It was raining, and I almost didn't convince myself to get out of bed. The rugby game was great, despite the fact that I didn't know any of the rules and that we lost (pretty badly).

Football

You could tell that football was the main event, because the stadium became packed with people for the 1 PM match. After hours of cheering and dancing, WE WON! I made a video of some of our cheering.  Check out the video below for a real treat - the surprise is in the song that they are singing!  After all, who knows how to sing Champs Elysee better than thousands of Korean students at a football match?!

Saturday Night: Anam Party!

Pretty much every bar in Anam had an alum sponsoring the evening.  The restaurant would serve food and beer and soju to students for free, because the alum would pay for everything in honor of his school.  That meant, of course, that we had to say "Gamsahamnida" to and take lots of pictures with older men who had graduated from Korea University!

We would go from bar/restaurant to bar/restaurant cheering, singing, and dancing in the street.  (There was a stage in the middle of the street, too, from which a DJ was blasting tunes.)  When there was room for us, we would swarm in and partake in the free goodies.  My favorite memory from the night occurred on a rooftop bar. The twenty of us had been already served pitchers of beer when a Korean gentleman came out to see us.  We were told that he was the one paying for everything, so we thanked him profusely (in our mangled Korean).  Beaming with pride, he asked the waitress for soju (Korean vodka).  He personally went from person to person, pouring soju into our beer glasses, explaining, "Balance! We like balance!"  Picking up his now well-balanced glass, he tried to lead us in some cheers for Korea University! Because of the language barrier and the late hour, people answered his cheers in their native tongues, but the message came across loud and clear: KOREA UNIVERSITY IS THE BEST! GO KOREA UNIVERSITY! WE ARE PROUD TO BE TIGERS!

I love Korea.