Akaraka Festival Week (Day 1)

Akaraka Festival Week is a week filled with events hosted by different clubs, organizations, and community groups that lead to the actual Akaraka Festival Concert. Akaraka is the most famous and BEST festival throughout all of the other Korean universities because of Yonsei's pride, enthusiastic student body, and the performers that they bring down. I'm not being bias but other students from the other universities told me this :P The other universities also have their own version of the festival.

Akaraka happens every May! So if you are studying abroad in the Spring semester, look out for the announcement and grab your ticket AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Especially in the first round of ticket sales which is to be reserved online. There are second and third round as well but those are really competitive.. It's like a scavenger hunt to find where the ticket sales are located. I sat on my computer between 9-11am refreshing my page to check for the location release. They make it even harder for exchange students because the notice is in Korean! Then we have to run around campus just to find the location, and the line is already long.. I was very fortunate to be able to get my ticket in the second round of ticket sale.

If you're studying abroad in the Fall semester, don't be too sad about missing Akaraka. There is the Yon-Ko-Jeon (연고전) event, which is a massive sports competition between Yonsei University (Yon) and Korea University (Ko). I heard it is really fun and competitive between the two rival universities!

The first day of the Akaraka festival this year started today, which is Wednesday. I am a part of the Yonsei International Community (IYC), a club that supports international relationships between Korean students and exchange students. IYC hosted a cooking festival for Akaraka today and I participated in this event. Korean students and exchange students work together in 4 different groups representing 4 different countries. This year we have American, Italian, Mexican, and Japanese dishes to be sold at the booth. I was in the American group and we made hamburgers and hotdogs. It was a great seller and possibly the most sold amongst the other groups. I felt like I was home again with my family out at the beach cooking some barbeque :)

Day 1 of Akaraka did not finish yet but I finished my shift for the cooking festival. It was a great experience and I recommend you guys to JOIN A CLUB! IYC would be a great one to consider because they try to work really close with the exchange students and always inviting us to participate in their events.

Also I heard this year Akaraka concert performers is rumored to include:
PSY - famous singer for the song Gangnam Style!
EXID - a 5 member South Korean girl group, also known as Exceed in Dreaming
JYP - also known as Park Jin Young. He is the CEO and founder of JYP Entertainment that produce famous artists such as Wonder Girls, Miss A, 2AM, 2PM, Rain, etc. He is also a singer and record producer. Best of all, he is a Yonsei University alumni!

I will update again about Day 2 and Day 3 (final day with the Akaraka concert!). I'm so excited for what's coming up this week!! I can't wait to finish all my classes and go back to check out the other booths.

IYC Cooking Festival food from the 4 different countries! 

We have Hamburgers/Hot Dogs from USA; Quesadilla/Nachos from Mexico; Okonomiyaki/Yakitori from Japan; and Pasta from Italy