School Festival

When I say, "School Festival", what comes to mind? tents, games, food, fun? Well, in Korea, School festival means that... and a lot more!! The students start planning for this at the very beginning of the school year and then the actual preparation takes a good month or so. The entire month surrounding the festival, I had students out of class to prepare cheers, practice soccer, etc... There is so much school spirit in the air and everyone is excited about and proud of their individual departments. The actual festival wasn't until Thursday and Friday, but the games began on Monday. There was soccer, kickball, relay races, basketball, foot tennis (a new game to me, but really exciting to watch), and tug of war. On Thursday, each department set up their tents and get down to cooking. Each tent sold different foods and drinks and some even did desserts too. There was a department giving away free hugs, a photo board for people to throw water balloons at you, and the English department held a QR Quest. All in all, there was never a dull moment. Thursday's weather was a bit hectic, making it a little hard for people to sell very much. It was rainy on and off and very windy. In the evening they had a big concert with "Sunny Hill" and "Dynamic Duo" which I heard was a lot of fun. I had a lot of studying to do so I actually didn't stay the whole evening. 

Now, what is a QR Quest, you say? Well, two professors made a really fun game that all the kids could play. Basically everyone downloaded a QR reader on their smart phones. You would scan the first QR code at the English department tent, it would take you to a Youtube video telling you where the next code was. The quest took you all over campus and there were various things you have to do at each place. It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed it. If you completed the course, your name was added to a raffle and then prizes were given away at the end of the event. Kids walked about with coffee coupons, free hamburger coupons, Gym memberships, and restaurant coupons. 

At the end of the quest, Jared interviewed them in English :) 

Robert and I did the QR quest too... 

Foot Tennis... 

And then the rain broke out... I got tickled at the number of little huddles of people everywhere. 

The ladies (and gentlemen) hard at work in the English tent... 

On Friday, the President Kang, along with her Administrative board, took time to visit each department's tent and give a little encouragement speech. She loves each student so much and they can feel that love. Our tent served a sample of all the food selections served in the English tent... it was delicious.  

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Prize winning Time!!! 

Getting geared up for the concert... 

Ailee, a Korean-American singer that is brand new on the K-pop scene, opened the show. I really enjoyed her performance and her voice is really lovely to listen to. 

About an hour later (no exaggeration) we were still waiting for DJ DOC and finally I got tired of waiting and just went home. As we were driving away, I heard them finally come on stage... 

All in all it was a wonderful time and I really enjoyed seeing the students all working together in their departments. It was a really fun experience! I'm so glad I got to be part of this school activity :)