It was hot, but not unbearably so as it has been for the past couple weeks, only hot enough to remind me that I had forgotten sunscreen and to make me wish I had purchased that fan at the convenience store.
"Excuse me," someone said in Korean.
My friends and I turned to look at who had been speaking, and if they were speaking to us. A smiling man in his mid-twenties handed one of my friends and me a fan with his club name and registration information printed on it. "Oh, thank you!" I replied back. We turned to leave but he stopped us once more to hand our other friend a fan as well.
I shook the fan as we began down the pathway again and it produced a cool stream of air. "This is much better than the ones at Daiso."
"Good thing you didn't buy that one!" one of my friends said, waving her own fan without trying to read the club information.
The main road entering the front gate of Yonsei University is little more than a single lane wide, though Korean drivers always find a way. On either side of the road is a section of grass followed by a pathway nearly as wide as the road itself. On both pathways, white and blue striped tents filled the walkway, leaving only enough space for a thin line of passersby and one enthusiastic club member drawing you into their club's tent.
My friends and I had just heard of a girl a few days prior being turned down to join a club. We assumed this was because she was an exchange student and was not allowed into certain clubs. This clearly had not been the case because we were beckoned in towards nearly every club.
My friends, being both of Asian decent, one Korean and one Chinese, were called in with excited Korean. I, on the other hand, was yelled for in English nearly every time. Dance here, play instruments there, and volunteer everywhere! There were probably a dozen clubs I was interested in, and of those eleven of them were excited at the prospect of my friends and me signing up.
I didn't realize the school had so much to offer outside of courses. I suddenly regretted signing up for fifteen credits. I wished I could quit classes altogether and attend every club instead.
The information booth gave us a sheet of paper to fill in with six stickers from different clubs. It seemed that it was my role to enthusiastically sign up for information on every other club, while my friends followed behind asking, "Do you have stickers?". Collecting all six stickers needed gave us an opportunity to win a bike or a video camera. This was clearly meant for the regular Yonsei students (what were international students going to do with bicycle?!). But we turned in our stickers anyway and entered in for a chance at the prizes.
I cannot think of a better way to meet Koraen students than by joining a club made up of mostly Korean students! Some clubs were excited at the prospect of signing up some international students such as my friends and me, while others were either too nervous to speak to us or were simply cold towards us. We simply wrote these people off as the type we probably wouldn't end up getting along with anyway.
I probably signed up for a dozen different clubs, and am excited to join at least two or three of them. The rest of the week and the following weeks is to be filled with not only our initial coursework, but orientations, meet-ups, workshops, and auditions for the different clubs around campus.
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