Epilogue

Yes, we arrived back all safe and sound. It was a great trip.

All photos have been uploaded. See the links below.

By the way, all of the photos are available for download in original resolution. There is a BUY PHOTOS button on the linked pages but those are only for purchasing photo PRINTS through SmugMug; use the download button instead if you just want the photo files. (I leave the BUY PHOTOS in case you actually want to buy prints. I do not make any money on the prints)

For example, if you click on the Day 1 link, you will see this image at the top of the screen. One click on the download button will download all of the photos in the set for that day.

• Day 1
• upload completed here
• Day 2
• upload completed here
• Day 3
• upload completed here
• Day 4
• upload completed here
• Day 5
• upload completed here
• Day 6
• upload completed here
• Day 7
• upload completed here
• Day 8
• upload completed here
• Day 9
• upload completed here
• Day 10
• upload completed here

If you have any questions on the photos or have difficulty downloading them, feel free to contact me at jamesklee@alum.mit.edu and I'll help you out.

NOTE: I'm also uploading these photos to Facebook. You should not dowload the photos from Facebook for two reasons

• takes a lot longer since there's no download all button
• image quality will not be nearly as good

D10 -- Last Day in Korea

This is our last day in Korea (for most of us)

Note: Day 4 pictures uploaded now

Basically just a travel day. But Incheon Airport does provide areas for learning about Korean culture and hosts performances of traditional music and dance so we're hoping the kids will have a chance to see some of that before getting on the plane back to the States.

We're all at the Incheon airport. Everyone getting lunch now.

At Incheon airport. Everyone off to lunch except for the keeper of the bags. "Where did everyone go?"

D9 -- Performance with the AnYang City Children's Choir

D9 schedule

• breakfast at Seoul Youth Hostel
• rehearsal in the 7th floor kitchen area (pretty spacious)
• lunch at Seoul Youth Hostel
• bus ride to AnYang
• stage rehearsal
• dinner
• combined rehearsal with AnYang Civic Children's Choir (and two other invited choirs)
• 7:30 pm concert at Pyeongchon Art Hall

Photos updated

• Day 1 photos (few additions)
• Day 2 photos (few additions)
• Day 3 photos (new!)

Also posting to Facebook if you're there...

D8 -- Rest/Play Day

D8 was reserved for visiting the Lotte World Tower (tallest building in Korea) and for play time at Lotte World (indoor/outdoor amusement park)

Until I have a chance to edit, the short version here

• the Tower was impressive but just a bit disappointing because of the haze (rainy weather not quite cleared up) Otherwise, it would have been some great views of the city
• Lotte World was like most amusement parks; hot and noisy but fun for those patient enough to wait on the lines

Will post some photos soon. I think it was a good day of rest and fun for everyone.

D7 -- Rest, Sightseeing and Church Performance

Just a quick post to let you know today's plans...

We're going to try to rest as much as possible today so the team can recover physically from all of this past week. Want to make sure we perform well at the Church tonight and at AnYang on Tuesday. (we have to live up to our Grand Prix wining status...)

• Breakfast (everyone gathering now as I type this)
• Sightseeing
• hour or two at Insa-Dong (very touristy area but generally enjoyable for those visiting Korea for the first time)
• Lunch
• we had pizza from Domino's Korea (with some alternate items available for non-pizza folks)
• one of the alternates was a burger from McDonald's called 1955 burger: apparently, this is a recreation of the original McDonald's burger from 1955
• we ordered it without cheese and ended up with one extra burger so I ate it; I think it's the best thing I've ever had from a McDonald's. 
• only available in Korea and for limited time in Europe
• and we had a little birthday celebration...
• Rest
• Rehearsal
• Church Performance

Another quick note on the well being of the Cantabella singers

• while there are quite a few of us who are traveling with allergies of varying degrees and other medical concerns, they have been doing a remarkable job taking care of themselves; very impressed with all of them
• some scrapes, slips on wet floor, bit of a cold but that's been about it
• one of our chaperones, Dominic, is a registered nurse and Valerie is a traveling pharmacy; feeling quite secure with the two of them traveling with us

That's it for now.

Obligatory photo at Insa-Dong

At KyoungBok Palace

And we celebrated Janice's birthday!

Few more Day 7 photos uploaded here

D6 -- Rest and Travel Day

D6 was a rest and travel day. But it really ended up mainly being a travel day. A long travel day.

• Checked out of the Jeju Days Hotel. Want to acknowledge the staff of Jeju Days Hotel here. They really took care to meet the needs of the staff and the children
• pretty nice faciliites (for reference, much nicer that the Day's Inn in US)
• killer showers and comfortable beds
•  good food in the Hotel dining hall and courteous staff
• chef took care to remover allergenics wherever possible
• good variety of revolving menu items
• some Korean food modified in spiciness and taste to make it easier for non-Korean visitors
• microwaved things for us when needed
• great Korean style noodles (tiny servings; some of the kids regularly had 5 or 6 servings to make a meal because the noodles were so good!)
• simple but very good choice of items for the salad option
•  Sightseeing
•  all planned sightseeing options were cancelled because of the Typhoon in Jeju (heavy rain, some flooding) so our guide and Joy came up with some good alternates
• Play K-POP
• a building where you can take AR like pictures and videos with some of the better known K-POP stars
• varying degree of fun with this; you have to be a bit fanatical to really enjoy this but it was reasonably good fun
• <name to be recalled later> gardens; this is a combination of outdoor gardens and a large indoor area for mixed forms of entertainment. It was raining so we just used the indoor option.
• ice land; you basically step into a very, very large decorated freezer (they give you a blanket at the entrance to wrap around yourself so you can stay warm)
• lots of ice sculptures
• life-sized igloo
• ice slide
• like going tubing in a waterpark ride except on ICE!
• not too long a ride but extremely fast and lot of fun (judging by the number of times the kids rode this)
•  3D picture area
• a gallery-like setup with a large number of walls that have 3D-effect paintings or decorative setup. You insert yourself into the scenes to get photos that are sometimes very cool but often comical (you can judge when you see the photos later)
• VR area
• lot of options for Virtual Reality games and rides (at additional cost for each item) All involve wearing VR goggles
• roller coaster ride
• auto racing
• survival game
•  Lunch
• Korean style buffet
• Most ate well here but the food wasn't memorable
• bunch of soccer players showed up after us (there is a large soccer tournament being hosted nearby at the Jeju World Cup soccer stadium) 
• these guys (all in black Adidas outfits) attacked the food in top buffet form
•  Jeju Airport
• Our final bus ride in Jeju to the airport
• we always maxed out the luggage cargo capacity of these very large touring buses; may want to think about standardizing the luggage size like some larger choirs do. Some of our bags were pretty large
• Farewell to our Guide
• our guide Siyeon was a part of our team during the duration of WYCF; she took care of whatever we needed and really, really cared about us. She was as happy as any of us for our success at WYCF and made sure all went well for us until she got us to the airport and got us checked-in for our flight to Seoul
• we sang the Thank You song for her and Joy presented her with some gifts from Cantabella. Siyeon promises to visit us when she is in the San Francisco area
• Dinner at the airport
• kids got to select their choice of the meal (with some supervision)
• Flight to Seoul
• all morning flights had been cancelled because of the weather [typhoon or hurricane, not sure which]
• our flight was at about 7:30 pm and was delayed like most of the afternoon flights
• but we got on after only a 30 minute delay 
• want to note here the incredible difference between airport staff in Korea and the US: staff in Korea (whether security, information, or airline staff) are exceptionally courteous to a point of wonder
• about a 50 minute flight with no memorable events (which is good) other than two small kids who quickly became friends with Audrey, Janice and Liana
• Gimpo Airport
• arrived around 10 pm local time (not exactly sure; brain started fading around this time)
• bus met us at the airport; quickly loaded up for a 40 minute ride to our lodging
• Seoul Youth Hostel
• located in central Seoul, in Namsan Park, near Myung Dong
• as hostels go, this would have to be on the very top end
• nice facilities
• air conditioning
• solid wifi
• communal kitchen 
• laundry area
• small library
• food TBD (about to find out in a few minues)
• turns out food is pretty good here
• everyone got settled in around midnight; cell phones collected and everyone to bed

 Fast wifi here but not sure how much "free" time we'll have today. Will upload pics when possible.

D5 -- Workshops and Grand Prix Competition

Just a few minutes away from starting D5. Some workshops today (including one by Eileen) and the competition among the 4 first-place choirs for the Grand Prix.

Apologies for the delays in getting the photos uploaded. Should be able to get caught up a bit today so please be patient...

I'm sure most of you have already heard by now but here are our results from the competition...

• Sacred Category [Youth]
• First Place, Gold
•  Secular Category [Youth]
• Tied for first place, Gold
• Grand Prix winner
• Cantabella!

Here are a few of the photos from the day...

Final elevator rehearsal and words of Encouragement from Eileen

Joy reminding everyone about the day's schedule

End of the final warm-up just minutes before the Gran Prix competition. Everyone singing the Thank You song for each other and sharing the love.

Gold Prize for one of the categories

Gold Prize for the other category that we competed in

Cantabella just announced as the Grand Prix winner. Everyone ran up on to the stage

Cole with the trophy

Crowd cheering us on

Joy receiving cogratulations from the WYCF competition manager

Cantabella giving thanks to Director Kim of WYCF

Liana did a wonderful job singing the solo for the commissioned work. All pressure gone and smiling with the composer.