Korea 2015 #8: CLOSING CEREMONY, FINAL PERFORMANCE & GOODBYES!

Our group performing. Lee Min Ho. Group picture.

Click to Read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 , Day 6, Day 7

Hello everyone!

I cannot believe I am writing about my last day. I hope you have all enjoyed tagging along my recap of this amazing trip. Writing this has seriously awakened in me my love for blogging and as a Journalism student, this was a reminder as to one of the reasons why I chose to follow that career path.

Well here it goes.


This day went by so fast, that it felt like everything happened in a flash.

As usual we started with breakfast ~ 아침 식사 at 7am and proceeded to do last minute rehearsal before the ceremony. I went on youtube to watch a video and first thing I saw was an ad with Lee Min Ho, that was a welcome surprise—I loved how everything on TV was in Korean and how all the ads were in Korean as well. I see myself becoming very proficient if I lived in Korea.

The opening ceremony started with a video montage of the past few days, it was really emotional watching it and it felt so real seeing our interactions filled with awkwardness on the first day and how we ended up on the last day being friends and comfortable with each other. It also put into perspective how much we did, how much we experienced and how well people can interact with each other notwithstanding language and cultural barriers. You can check out the video below :)

The performances started with the Kpop group who performed dance numbers and acapella, followed by Taekwondo group's  demonstration and then my team, samulnori and lastly the traditional korean fan dance. After the performances, our teacher had to leave so we went out to bid him goodbye and give him the presents we prepared—I forgot to mention that the night before we had dinner at this huge department store food court, one of the best meals I had in Korea, and afterwards we went shopping in the department store. seriously that place was huge!! One of the things we bought was gifts for our teachers and helpers. After the thank you's we took a photo and headed back in.

We had a few dignitaries in attendance and as usual they gave speeches in Korean. The president of the Sejong Foundation also give his closing remarks and then it was time for the buffet lunch.

The spread was spectacular, there was korean food, western food, asian food, vegetarian, all sorts of desserts and a lot more. The sushi display was sooo pretty, I was too busy loading up my plate and updating my snapchat that I forgot to take pictures. But luckily James did, so I borrowed his snaps below :)

During lunch, awards were given out to the volunteers, and also the students who performed a few nights ago at the cooking competition. Prices were given to the teams that won the competition and my team came third, yayy!!! 

After lunch, we presented the rest of the gifts to the staff members in our team and our two lovely 도움이~ helpers started crying which made everyone else feel more emotional too. It was amazing how a week felt like a lifetime. It felt like the last day of high school, we stared signing each others books, exchanging numbers and taking lots and lots of pictures. In retrospect, I realise how many people I met on this trip, very kind and lovely individuals who made me smile so much in a week.

Check out my smiles in these pictures...

After everyone said their goodbyes, some people headed to the airport and the rest of us who had a later flight or next day flights went out for some last minute shopping and sightseeing. We headed to the famous shopping district of myeongdong!! My gosh the number of cosmetic stores in Korea, and everything is packaged so nice that you want to buy it all!!! It was interesting being on the subway with like 10 other foreigners, with everyone else being Korean :)

At myeongdong, some celebrities were doing an event in one of the cosmetics shop but there was a crowd so we weren't sure who they were. After exhausting the high street store, we went underground to the subway stores were there was a lot of handmade goods shops, Kpop merchandise and cosmetics/fashion stores. I finally was able to buy the cap GD wore in the Good boy video and a bunch of other kpop stuff.

After this we all split up and me and Bhavani 이머님 were supposed to go to namsan tower and dongdaemun but it was getting late so we headed to dongdaemun instead. The neighbourhood was massive and as it was the time to get off work, it was very crowded, we didn't get to do much there, bought a few more things and headed home. Interesting things happened on our journey home, but I shall leave that for a new segment I am starting on my youtube page titled 'Story Time'. So be sure to be subscribed so you don't miss out. 

Now that this has come to an end, have you guys enjoyed following along? What was your fave moments? Also if yu have any questions, leave it to me in the comments below and I will answer it and if it needs a long explanation, I shall make a video replying it on my youtube channel :)

Search for me around the web by clicking the following links:
  On KOREAN TWITTER disseminating real time views on dramas & music etc

 On FACEBOOK sharing  interesting links

On INSTAGRAM sharing pictures

and on TUMBLR just doing what people do on there

안녕,

meera