The Pyeongchang Olympics

The Lunar New Year is widely noted as the largest holiday across Asia. The holiday takes place according to the lunar calendar and is always a special celebration on campus. This year, the celebration coincided with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic games in Pyeongchang, South Korea and KUA was buzzing with activity and celebration.

 

“Can you imagine what it must be like? Winter Olympics and Lunar New Year?  Naturally, our students were very excited,” remarked Joshua Hunnewell, International Student Coordinator. He continued, “The Olympics only come every four years and we think it’s important to celebrate. From a political standpoint, seeing the unified Korean Olympic team was very moving, and because of our large Korean population, both past and present, it was very significant and special.”

 

KUA celebrated the 2018 Olympic Games by kicking off the week with “a terrific and impressive fireworks show Friday night,” recalled Hunnewell, followed by a series of grass-roots Olympic-inspired competitions including human curling on skateboards, toboggan races off Densmore Hill, speed skating, figure skating, and broomball in Akerstrom Arena, as well as foosball and ping pong tournaments in the Barrette Campus Center. “In the dorms, faculty members connected their computers to the TV’s so we could sit together and watch the competitions,” recalls Soobin ’18, going on to comment, “Because it was held in my home country of Korea, it made me proud.”

 

“We celebrated with the annual Lunar New Year dinner at the Schafer’s house,” Stella ’19 shared. “It’s an important time to be together and take a break from our busy lives on campus.” Soobin added, “Students were helping to make dumplings and sushi. It’s a great tradition during a very special time of year. And on top of that, we got to watch some of the Olympics together at the house!”