Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

A strange title for a blog but it is actually the name of the final episode of MASH. It seems fitting to me because before I came here really most of my exposure to Korea came from that television show.

Tomorrow at this time I will have arrived in Beijing and will be starting the next leg of my trip. I look forward to this next step in my summer adventure and can't wait to meet up with Becca on Monday night. I will do my best to keep updating my blogs but am unsure what kind of Internet access I will have while traveling so nothing may get posted until I am back in Canada or maybe my schedule will be very busy, in which case the updates may be sparse.

Yesterday afternoon was our graduation ceremony. We were welcomed by the dean of the international program. We watched a great slideshow that the staff had put together (which we received a copy of as well) and they then handed out awards for the friendliest, most enthusiastic and most photogenic students. Much to my surprise, I (along with 2 other students) got an award for most enthusiastic. I want to thank Sean and the student/staff for picking me for this award, I'm not sure if I would consider myself most enthusiastic but it is nice to receive anyways.

We were then presented with our diplomas which came in a very nice folder and a gift from the university which was a cell phone trinket with the schools name and logo. The group from each school was called up to individually recall their thoughts on the program. We all took the opportunity to thank the organizers for their wonderful work in making this program the huge success that it was. We were the last school to go and I was the last person to speak so everything had pretty much been said but I made my little speech thanking everyone who was involved and saying goodbye to all my new friends.

After some closing remarks we made the 15 minute walk to a beautifully decorated restaurant that had an amazing buffet including someone making fresh sushimi. After the supper we spent over an hour taking photos together and saying goodbye to some of the people who were leaving Friday night or first thing Saturday.

We had a room check at 10 PM and then the majority of the class went to a local bar for a celebration party. There were several people who had never been to a bar and had never really ever danced before so I think it was fun for pretty much everyone involved. The bar we were at only had one bathroom with several stalls and then some urinals behind a partition (well one of them was, the other was out in the open), it was a really strange set-up. One thing I have found here is that there is not alot of privacy in the bathrooms, it seems the urinals are always in full view of the door, which seems to always be open. Or there are numerous large windows into the bathroom.

Anyways, the fact that we seem to always leave late when we head out combined with the fact that the bars are open until 6 or 7 in the morning (the shops are only open until 11 or 12, slackers) it is hard to know what time it is when you are out having a good time. So we didn't get back until closer to 5, kind of late but considering it was out last night together and I had nothing important to do today, it was not really a big deal.

So this is it, my 4 weeks in Korea is done and it has been an amazing time. Tonight I will get my things ready to go, and maybe head out for one last walk around the business district. I will catch a bus to Busan in the morning at 7:40 and then fly out at 1.

If any of my fellow UIP students are reading this I will miss you all, have a safe flight and best wishes in all your future endeavours. If I am ever in your corner of the world, you will be hearing from me and if you are ever in mine, my door is open.

I want to thank Sean Park for his countless hours of effort in making this program the great success that it was. He would spend all day with us and then have to go to his office and do his normal job at night. This is in addition to having to direct the students to the places they want to go and get dragged out all over the place. In addition, his staff did an awesome job helping us out with all of our requests, including chaperoning us to Busan and coming to supper with us to help us order. They have been awesome and I think them from the bottom of my heart. This goes for all of the Korean students who have been so incredibly helpful from the moment I stepped off the plane. My roommate SungTae has been the best roommate I could ask for and I look forward to keeping in touch with him and wish him all the best on his trip to Thailand this summer. To my new friends from Regina, I want to thank you for letting an old man like me tag along with you on your travels, on nights out and at meal times, I value your friendships and hope to see alot more of the 9 of you once we are back in Regina and hope you all enjoy the travels you have planned for the rest of the summer.

Goodbye to the Republic of Korea.