Konkuk University Annual Festival

Last week my friend who teaches at Kondae invited us over to the student festival that was going on for three nights last week. Evidently every university organizes a similar festival and it is the biggest drinking event of the year. Each club (and these universities are huge, there are tons of clubs) sets up a tent where the freshmen serve food and drinks. And more drinks. Students go around from tent to tent visiting friends, drinking and socializing. Thursday night, the night we went, was the biggest drinking night of the three day long festival and we saw the campus buzzing with excitement.

While it's a student run event, techically anyone can party crash if they wish. We walked around looking for something good and finally settled on the International Student Association's tent. It was run almost completely by Chinese students and had all sorts of Chinese food to try. We were lured in by the 양꼬치 (lamb skewers) but once in I asked the "waiter" what he recommended. He told me that there was one 특기한 요리 (special dish) that I could try if I were daring. I said ok, and the following was what I wound up with.

I found out later that I this is called a thousand year egg in Chinese cuisine. Rather than explain to you the process of making it, which I am just discovering now as I write this blog post, I will direct you to the wikipedia article if you are more interested in this black substance that I ate. In short, it's a slightly pungent (but edible) egg preserved for weeks to months accompanied by tofu. Actually, I found the eggs to be good enough to eat a few times, but not good enough to eat them all. Half were still left after we finished eating.

And of course, how could we not order 양꼬치? And a bottle of TsingTao to go along?

After eating, we just walked around to take in the party vibe. We felt a little old to actually participate, but it was fun to remember the old college days. Lots of spontaneous dancing and drunken antics to be found everywhere. The only difference between my college's parties and this one was the food that comes a long with it. I guess it's a much healthier way to drink if you've always got some anju to accompany your drinks.......