Yesterday was the much hyped and anticipated Sports Festival for the students living in Global Village. It was an eight hour tournament between suites playing Korean recreation games. Each suite was paired with another suite to play these games against two other paired suites.
My suite was paired with Heathers suite. This event was mandatory for international students, but optional for the Korean students. As a result, the turnout by the Korean students was not great, but we still had a great time. I was happy to see that six of my thirteen suitemates turned out. We joined Heather and her two suitemates that came for our all girl team, the only one in the festival. The teams were preassigned, and they tried to put a boys dorm with a girls dorm for each team. However, there were two more girl dorms compared to the guys, so we were the only all girls team.
One of the games we played was a kind of leapfrog. I would consider it leapfrog on steriods however. Here's the rules: you must get your "runner" across the field. To do so, you must form a human bridge with everyone on the team bending over, allowing the runner to walk across their backs. There are also two helpers for the runner, who hold the runner under her arms, helping her keep her balance. For this game, my suitemate Yaewon was the runner, while Heather and I were the "helpers." We were given a head start because we were an all girl team. It was a tough game, Yaewon would lose her balance and we would be literally holding her while she tried to gain some footing on the other girls backs. With good communication and teamwork, we were able to win the race!
Another game we played was Korean dodgeball. For all you dodgeball fans out there, this is a totally different animal. The object of the game is to knock out all the "attackers (usually played by girls on a team)." The "defenders (usually guys) each have an attacker on their team that they must protect. There is only one ball in the game. Only the attackers can throw the ball. The defenders can get hit by a ball and not be eliminated, however if their attacker is hit, they are both out. When an attacker and defender are knocked out, they move to the perimeter of the court and try to get the ball and attack the other team. It is a complicated form of dodgeball, but it is quite fun. My team did well playing game as well, mostly because my suitemate Jijong is extremely aggressive and was able to knock out almost every attacker on the other team on her own. I was surprised to see such a competitive side of Jijong, she is usually really quiet and sweet, don't mess with her when playing dodgeball!
There was also a three legged relay race. The twist was that before you could pass the baton to the next pair, you had to complete a challenge. Some of the challenges included answering multiplication questions, search for a piece of candy in flour using only your mouth, and eat half a lemon and whistle when you finish. I was paired for the race with Syngmin, one of my suitemates. I am about a foot taller than her, but she was determined to set a fast pace and not let this "slight" height difference slow us down. We were given the lemon challenge, and I must say the lemon was quite delicious! Our team finished second on this challenge, which was a great finish.
After we finished the games, the winners were announced. My team placed third, which is really good considering there were twelve teams. Considering we were the only all girls team, I think we proved a point that girls can be just as competitive and aggressive in games as guys.
Following the awards came one of the best parts of the day: a mass BBQ. There were huge barbecued pieces of pork slow cooking as we arrived to the picnic spot. A Korean BBQ would not be complete without sticky rice, whole pieces of garlic, hot peppers, and of course the most Korean food of all: KIMCHI! The food was so good, especially since we were only given some cream bread to hold ourselves over during the six hours of games. It was great to unwind after a long day of fun in the sun.
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