Under the Global Festival held by the Office of Global Affairs at EWHA in May I represented Norway in the European Booth together with Finland and Great Britain. The global festival lasted for two days and was an opportunity for foreign students at EWHA to present their own country to other people. On the first day, in addition to the opening ceremony of the booths, there were opportunities for anyone to make a performance to present their country. On the second day the office of Global Affairs planned a Mini Olympics where all the international students could participate. The activities included a football game and jumping rope. The Food Fiesta where the students presented food from their home country for other students to taste was also on the second day.
When I decided to represent Norway I wanted to do it properly, and we were also encouraged to get in touch with our embassies to get some materials for the presentations. As I met some of the staff from the embassy just one week before during the 17th of May celebration in Busan and in Seoul I used the occasion to ask if they had anything they could give me. They were very pleased to hear about the festival and said that they would give me posters, brochures and if possible some traditional Norwegian food. The following week we kept in touch, and I got some Norwegian brown cheese and Norwegian salmon in addition to all of the promotion materials. From the office of global affairs at EWHA we were told that we could spend 30.000 won to cover our costs; however this was not necessary for me as everything was given to me for free from the embassy!
The Feedback from the audience was amazing. The delicious salmon was extremely popular and everyone wanted to take photos with the Viking hats I got to borrow from the embassy. What I found most interesting was how genuinely interested everyone seemed to be with Norway and that almost everyone who visited our booth always took some of the brochures with them. Actually I met a girl who is going to study at my university in Norway from EWHA and I gave her my number and my email address so she can contact me if she wants when she comes here. The fact that we had something else to offer at our booth, not just reading materials, but also food and promotion video running on a computer made everyone get to know a little bit more about Norway and made it a lot more appealing for people to find out a little bit more about Norway by themselves.
As one of the participants I was not just given the possibility to tell people about my country, but I also learned a lot about other countries through the other international booths. Every booth had done a lot of work to present their country in the best possible way. Some countries also had some very nice performances on the stage.
The booths were located on the basement floor of the ECC (EWHA campus complex) together with more than 13 others. On the first day there were many people and the audience seemed generally satisfied with what they met. I think it was very helpful for many EWHA students to have a possibility to ask some questions about a country they are planning to visit, to study and to live in. To make as many people as possible to present their country, a price would be given to the one which the visitors though was the best. Ours did not win, but we got a good fourth place. I still learned so much these two days that it was definitely worth it and I would recommend everyone to grab a similar opportunity if it arrives.