Early morning is relative but this one felt like it. Got up at 7 to pack the last stuff and then breakfast. Still not used to the Korean breakfast. Said thanks and goodbye to our IST support Henrik and Jacob who, with colleagues, have helped us through this historical Jamboree. They have been amazing, and I wanted them to know that.
Our plan was to order a taxi in the morning since we couldn’t pre-book one. However, we weren’t alone. After a couple of chaotic minutes, our hosts said they fixed a bus that was going to take us to the train station.
We arrived within about 15-minute margin, so much so that we managed to buy some drinks for the ride.
The train had about the same standard as old Swedish SJ trains. I sat beside a Korean soldier and we had a conversation via Google Translate. He was discharged from the military this day and on his way home, so he was happy. He helped us keep track of the arrival time since we were late from Cheonan.
Upon arrival, we headed for our different hotels and AirBnb. Me and Jonas ks staying at Boutique Hotel XYM, which had an interesting price at the front desk. We couldn’t check in until 20, so we dropped our bags there and headed out. While we were repacking our backpacks for the evening adventures, two people checked in, and both paid in cash. Probably not as suspicious here as it would be in Sweden 🙂
We headed over to the others Airbnb, a really cozy apartment, but with a strange floor plan. We went out to find some late lunch and ended up in the basement of s Hyundai building with some sort of food court. Me and Harald found some nice sandwiches while the others got sushi.
We realized that we were in a bit of a hurry because rumors and different official information gave the impression that security would be tight and messy.
After another hour on the subway, we arrived at Seoul World Cup Stadium and went to exit 1 as instructed. They just checked our Jamboree ID badge against our passport and then we could pass. We then entered the arena itself which contained a security checkpoint, but we just walked through the metal detectors and they didn’t even look into our bags. Looked to be more for show than anything else.
We looked around a bit and found Swedes in the stands. I tried to find my British colleagues who were sitting in section M. Couldn’t find them, which had a simple explanation. There are multiple sections named M, but with different colors… I guess someone at one point was thinking and thought this would be a good idea. I don’t agree.
We took some seats and started to watch the quarter-final between Japan and Sweden on my phone. At half-time the closing ceremony began, so we had to divide our attention between the phone and the stage. What felt like a safe 0-2 lead got nerve-wracking in the end when Japan score 1-2 with five minutes left. The ceremony consisted of some speeches, the scout promise, and the handover of the WOSM flag to the next host Poland 2027.
Just after the Japan goal, I saw Johan in the stands so I went over to talk to him, haven’t seen him in a while even though I knew that he was a unit leader. His unit seemed to have had the best of time and they still have their roundtrip left!
Before the K-pop concert started at 19, they kept repeating that to start, everyone needed to be seated. We couldn’t begin if anyone was standing.
I guess this is one of the few crowds that you can get to sit for a whole concert :p When everyone was sitting, a bunch of different bands I’d never heard of took turns performing a couple of their songs. Based on the reactions from the crowd, and especially a few kids around me, this was a perfect match. Not my kind of music but quite nice to just sit back, listen, see the show and watch the reactions of younger people around me, and how excited they were.
I also managed to catch one of the Swedish Head of Contingents, Erik Sillén, and thanked him (and his fellow HoC) for their work. He had a saying, “There is no greater time than now to gather youth from all over the world.” I think it’s so striking, and at the same time so sad. With all the bad things that are happening on the globe, we need to make friends in every country so we can make the world a better place.
It’s a testimony to what powers are behind this when they can book one of the largest arenas in Seoul with just a few days’ advance notice. And then move the whole stage from the campsite here. Unfortunately, the stage and its speakers aren’t dimensioned for this arena, so the sound wasn’t great, especially when it comes to speaking, often hard to hear what was said.
After the concert, they tried to do an organized exit. At the same time, you had a lot of unit leaders trying to get their kids onto the bus as soon as possible. “Please sit down” was said from the stage, probably hundreds of times while fireworks were shooting outside, where half of the audience couldn’t see it because of the roof and walls.
In the end, we got out and headed for the subway. The others were going out, I went to the hotel to get some sleep. Didn’t find any food on the way so I bought two sandwiches from 7elevven. Glorious dinner!
