The Closing Ceremony

The 8th iGeo Olympiad came to a close this morning with another interesting and entertaining ceremony. We started it off by watching a very well-made film about the olympiad this year, made by one of the Taiwanese volunteers. As a testament to the dedication of the volunteers, she was up until 6.30 this morning working on the video! It was great to see a reflection of all that we've experienced the last week, becuase it's sometime a little hard to take everything in at once.
We then had some closing remarks from the President of the Chinese Geographical Society Located in Taipei. Then the founder of the Sacred Heart High School spoke to us. When she was the first principal of the school 50 years ago, there was nothing but a small fishing village with a tiny well and a dirt road. Since then, the city has grown so much around her, and she had a great sense of humour and excellent English.
Then came the medal presentation. As Anna already said, this year New Zealand performed the best they ever have, with 2 silver medals, a bronze, and a certificate. This just shows how much work Anna, Annete and Lex have put into the team, and how important geography is in New Zealand.
The final activity of the official olympiad was a Chinese buffet-style lunch about half an hour away from the school. We spent the meal sitting with our volunteer Fiona, and out new friends from the United Kingdom who we spent a bit of time with this week, and most of the meals. Unfortunately, they won't be joining us for the post-iGeo trip and headed back to Britain this afternoon. It was a nice way to say goodbye to them, promising to keep in touch on Facebook, along with all the other people we've met this week from all over the globe, united by our passion for understanding the world we live in, and how we interact with it.