Korea Again and Again (Part 3): 25th International Forum Part 2 - Back in Seoul, Youth Declaration, and Sleepy Children

- August 25-27, 2014, Monday to Wednesday.

- The majority of Monday was probably the biggest event within the forum. We had a general assembly to vote and discuss each charter made by all departments. All charters were compiled in the draft of the youth declaration. The plan was to submit the youth declaration (the link to the edited declaration is somewhere in this blog entry) to the United Nations in hopes that the world's leaders will consider our declaration as one of the steps to attain world peace.

General assembly.

Our department.

Almost final draft.

Philippines represent.

Even the president needs to take a rest during the break.

- Most of the original charters were approved, despite some needing some editing and some clarification, and so we got to finish around half an hour earlier than scheduled. While the function hall was being cleared, we were able to get some rest, have dinner, and change to our "party clothes" for the friendship night.

- The friendship night was a night of dancing around and having fun with some song and dance numbers, and no alcohol of course (we only had water to drink but that's fine with me.) We also got to vote for people for some fun/funny awards. Both the results of the voting and the edited youth declaration were to be presented the following night during the farewell dinner. After the friendship night, some of the delegates still had the energy to go clubbing. In my case, I wasn't too tired that day, so I also went out with some delegates for a quiet stroll within the vicinity of the youth center.

Friendship night!!

I am the orange-and-blue one. Haha.

Our emcees for the night.

Korean delegates dancing. Look at Jeonghu go!!

It was difficult to take a photo of Faj.

I just discovered that Marine from France was a great dancer.

Ummul, Taka, and Somwang.

Cansu, Bora, Ummul, and me.

Let's go crazy crazy crazy 'til we see the sun??

Ummul as the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Everyone just got crazier.

Wearing my casual Maranao outfit.

Gymnastics??

With Mouna.

And now with Marcos.

- On our last full day in the forum, we began the morning by visiting the kindergarten students at the ground floor of the youth center (near the function hall.) We were divided into groups, and each group was to visit a classroom. In each classroom, two students were assigned to each delegate. We were tasked to introduce ourselves, and tell the children the names of our countries and where they were located on the world map. Afterwards, all of us had to assist the children in drawing the Korean flag and our flags (depending on the delegate assigned to the children) on blank traditional fans. Because I like children so much, I tried to act as bubbly as I could and spoke in Korean, although most of the children were probably confused as to why I was speaking in Korean.

Tiny Korean people and a giant world map.

Teacher mode on.

Andre couldn't reach the Netherlands so he had to borrow a stick with a pointing hand hahahaha.

My kids.

You can tell that the boy on the right (Gi Myeong) was sleepy.

Now they're both coloring!!

Sleepy boy.

Here's the finished product.

- 7-year-old Hong Seo Yun, and 5-year-old Kim Gi Myeong were the ones assigned to me. Seo Yun, being older, dominated in drawing on the fan, while Gi Myeong was battling with his urges to sleep. I tried to interact with Gi Myeong as much as I could, until he opened up a bit and spoke to me in whispers. The classroom teacher and I encouraged Gi Myeong to draw on the fan too, which he did, and because they both did such a nice job I gave them each a toy jeepney. Seo Yun told me that she didn't like the jeepney, possibly because she was a girl; sleepy Gi Myeong thought otherwise though. Before we left, the teacher asked both my kids to write their names on the fan. Gi Myeong spelled his name with a minor error, so the non-Korean me had to tell him how to properly spell "Gi Myeong," not "Gi Ming." I found that situation ironic and amusing at the same time.

With the classroom teacher.

You can see the look on that boy's face that he likes the jeepney. Haha.

So red their cheeeeks.

The look like minions from Despicable Me.

- We spent the next 6 hours to ourselves, and we were free to explore Seoul with whomever we wanted to be with (or had to be with.) My group and I went to Myeongdong and Insadong, mainly to shop for souvenirs.

In Myeongdong.

Kavitha haggling with the souvenir storeowner in Insadong. (This storeowner knows me since I've always bought stuff from her; she gives me great discounts too.)

Ssanziegil!!

Hello Oktay!!

Oktay seems too tired. Hahahaha. Jeoing In just smiles in awkwardness.

- Everyone had to be back at the youth center by 6pm, we could wear our traditional (for formal) clothes for the farewell dinner. This time, I decided not to wear the barong tagalog this time, since I wanted to have a more colorful yet still very Filipino ensemble. Instead, I brought a Maranao outfit to Korea, because I am proud of the rich pre-colonial heritage and civilization of the Philippines, and because the Maranao people are fond of colorful and shiny textiles. (My Filipino co-delegate Roy took care of wearing the barong tagalog, so nothing was lost. Haha.)

Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao!!!!

Thanks to my national costume committee.

- Andre and Faj presented the youth declaration (read the declaration here in Faj's blog,) and was followed by the closing speech of NCYOK President Dr. Hahm Jong Han. Other speeches were presented by American delegate Andrew Thompson, and Korean delegate Lee On New. Finally, just before dinner and all the photo sessions with all the nice traditional costumes, the staff showed us the video they came up with that showed bits and pieces of our week-long forum (watch here.) Apart from that, the team also distributed our very sophisticated certificates, together with our group photo from the opening dinner. Also, we also needed to reveal ourselves to our manito partner during the dinner. Manito is a game like secret santa that we had been playing all week. During the first day, we had to pick a name from a box, and be that person's "angel" for the week; we also had to accomplish some missions like being Facebook friends with the person picked, or have a photo together, and the most important, give that person a gift secretly. I picked Jeonghu, while Soyoung picked my name.

I wonder where Meriam went.

NCYOK President.

With Azeri Oktay.

ASEAN!!

ASEAN + Nepal.

With Ji Hyeong.

With Su Min.

Sash: who wore it better??

With Jeonghu.

With Ithara from Sri Lanka, and Sanskruti from India.

With Ha Young and her lovely hanbok.

With David.

With Zuzu.

With my roommate Dilshod, from Uzbekistan.

With Elvira from Sweden.

With Yulia from Ukraine.

With Taka and a very happy Theany at the back.

With Yeon Soo.

With my ASEAN princesses.

Pea from Thailand is really REALLY tall.

With my South Asian lovelies: Indian, Sr Lankan, Fake Indian, Nepalese.

With my other princesses.

With Japanese brothers.

Here's Mateja from Serbia again.

With Kamila from Poland.

With Andrey from Russia; he looks like the chef from Ratatouille.

With Georgia Drinkwater from the Isle of Man.

Bora and Ummul.

With Jae Woo.

With my other roommate in Seoul, Athir from Tunisia.

The photo given to us during the final dinner.

- To celebrate, I decided to once again go out with some of the co-delegates for an two-hour noraebang (karaoke) session in one of the nearby noraebang places. I think that was where some of my companions witnessed my craziness and hyperness, in which they found out that whenever I sing a song, it will always have choreography or some acting/drama involved (I'd like to think of myself as a total performer, not forgetting my theater background.)

Celebratory noraebang.

LET IT GOOOO LET IT GOOOOOOOOOOOOO I AM ONE WITH THE WIND AND SKYYYY.

Achievement of the night. Haha.

- The next morning, everyone started to leave for the airport in batches. I stayed behind a bit, since I couldn't bring myself to leave the youth center at once. Later on I accompanied Kavitha and Arati to have brunch in one of the restaurants around the area, and after that, I finally decided to leave the youth center. I was alone again, and had an hour-long train ride back to the heart of downtown Seoul. Despite feeling very sad to leave, I just looked forward to the other adventures in store for me later that day and the day after.  

Before leaving.