The time was running so fast! On February 14 at 6:30 in the evening, we have had our Farewell Ceremony at the Graha Cendekia of UNIPMA.
It was so hard to think that soon we are going home, although we have spent a very short time together, I was so thankful that we got to know each other, learned so much from my fellow international students, from our buddies, and from our coordinators, and also, I was able to build friendship with them.
The ceremony started with the delivery of messages. Then after, a video was shown displaying all the memories that we had and made together.
And because of this, some of us felt emotional and even cried as we are going to say goodbye to everyone already. It broke my heart as I am reminded that we are not going to see each other for a long time! This surprise gift of UNIPMA family to us, SEA teachers and SEA TVET students, was indeed beautiful!
Moreover, the ceremony highlights the receiving and giving of tokens.
Also, the performances of different countries involved in the project, we, from Philippines, sang Piliin mo ang Pilipinas, as we also wanted to persuade our friends from Indonesia and Thailand to come and choose Philippines when they want to visit a place outside of their country. For our friends from Thailand, they have shown us one of their dances.
After, a group of students performed Srimbek, and also the very famous traditional dance of Reog. As it was promised to us back when we had our Cultural Immersion Day that they will let us see the dance personally, indeed we have witnessed this night the Singa Barong, a king of jungle, Dhadhak Merak, the combinatination of tiger and peacock, jathilak, gemblak, and others from the dance.
We had so much fun then as we were also invited to go at the stage to dance with everyone and just danced without thinking so much. But to be honest, I was not able to stop my tears as I looked in everyone’s eyes. We were smiling to each other yet tears were continuously dropping despite of the fun music being played.
We cannot help it but to just enjoy this wonderful evening and thus, I am so much willing to include this moment again in my memories. And the ceremony ended at around 10:30. We could have danced all night and spend our time together if we could!
The night did not end just like that, as we still have our Farewell Ceremony as well in the school, SMAN 2 Madiun, Lynton and I have practiced again and prepared our performance for tomorrow.