I went early and hung out in a cafe for a while so I could write cards for my host family and our supporter. The reason I got there so early was because I felt ambitious and wanted to write a long letter to my host family in Korean (also they don't speak any English so it was the only option I had). But I knew that leaving them would be really emotional and I can't express myself in Korean very well yet so I wanted to give them a little note they could read after I left. It was also my last cafe visit in Korea, and since close to 1/4 of my time here was spent in some sort of cafe, I figured it was fitting to visit one on the last day. I already miss cafe culture in Korea.
After attempting to write a coherent card, I finished with a rough draft and headed off with a group of people to the meeting spot for the ceremony. We had sandwiches on the floor of the ceremony hall's lobby (lol) and then ran through the ceremony quickly so it would be organized. All of the YES center staff, host family's, teachers, and of course the supporters were going to be there so they wanted it to be really nice. The first part was our actual graduation ceremony where there were a couple speeches by the YES Center, the Sogang Korean language program, and then a couple of nsliy students themselves. We received our certificate and also our transcripts (scary) on stage. I passed the class, woo! We had awesome teachers though, so I wasn't too worried about it! We took some pictures and then took a break for intermission. My supporter group and a couple of other groups wore hanboks during the ceremony because our supporters were awesome and borrowed them from someplace so that we could use them for the day. They were beautiful and I'm really glad that we got to wear them one last time before we had to leave.
Us and 선생님 (teacher) during intermission!
After intermission we had the nsliy talent show where all of the supporter groups had organized a dance, a song, video, etc. to showcase during the ceremony.
It was a lot of fun- there were a lot of kpop dances, some traditional instruments, some ridiculous videos (ours included), and various other creative, adorable performances. It was so nice to see everyone with their supporter groups too. We spent so much time in this small group of people this summer it's ridiculous, and the little talent show kind of showed how close we had all gotten. Then they showed the nsliy video, which is when the waterworks came. I'm going to miss everyone so much, but I'll save the emotional post for later.
My supporter group <3
After the ceremony we took one last look around Sogangs campus. The weather was beautiful and I'm so glad that we got to see a blue sky on our last day in Seoul.
Our eyes all puffy from crying ugh
My trusty T money card, it got me everywhere in Seoul haha
I rode the subway home for the last time that night, taking in the beautiful scenery on my subway ride and then had a sad last walk home. After arriving home I only had a couple hours to shower, eat, finish packing, and get to the hostel. My host sister had taekwondoe so she couldn't make it home in time for us to have dinner out, so instead me and my host mom went out for dinner, just the two of us. She ordered both of us the rib spicy soup thing that we had had before and that I had really liked ^_^. We had never had any quiet time alone together before so it was really nice to spend some time with her alone before I left. We talked about the television show playing in the restaurant, spicy food (haha- she loves spicy food, she dips the peppers that come with the food into pepper paste), and then America and how I don't want to go back. We really bonded that night, for one if the first times, mainly because we were alone and my Korean ability had improved. Not that we hadn't bonded before, it was just that this time I was actually able to hold a conversation with her. It was really nice, but bittersweet because I really wish that we had been able to talk like that before. After dinner I came home and took a quick shower, packed my bags, and then dragged them out into the living room so we could call a taxi. However, right as we were bringing my bags down the stairs, another person who lived in the apartment got out of a taxi and so we just grabbed that one before he left. That means that we didn't have a lot of time to say goodbye though (this will be a theme with nsliy goodbyes). I just hugged thm and gave them the note I had written. Then I got in the taxi and talked to my host sister through the window (this is when I started crying) and then we held hands through the window until the taxi driver started to pull away. She was yelling goodbyes after the taxi all the way down the street :(. I cried the entire way to the hostel, and the taxi driver probably thought I was a really strange foreigner haha. It was also night and he took the highway right by the Han river so I got a beautiful last view if Seoul before I left. Korea was so good to me and I miss it so much- the people, the scenery, the lifestyle. But this goodbye was so much easier compared to the nsliy goodbyes that were to come- Korea will always be here but our group of nsliy people will never be together again, and it will never be the same. Honestly this was the most fun I had ever had in my entire life, and it was the best thing I could have ever done at this point in my life. This blog post was half finished for a really long time because I didn't have the heart to give closure to my study abroad. Right now I'm coming home from school and I still miss Korea and nsliy so bad. It felt like the best dream. It was hard, but I hardly worried about anything and I enjoyed every second of my time there. I'll save my post about the hostel for another post because that was like a day in itself haha. We stayed up all night and packed in as much socializing as possible during that one night. None of us were looking forward to the plane ride and goodbyes, I'm glad we got to spend that one last night together.
~EDIT~ here are more photos from the closing ceremony taken by our wonderful photographer
My class!
