Semi-Finals/Last Day

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Today was a busy and emotional day for the students and the teachers; it was our last day at the summer camp. The competition that everybody has been anticipating finally arrived. All our contestants prepared extremely hard for the semi finals and their effort was paid off. In the morning, we went to the live studio of Qing Dao Television in preparation for the competition in the afternoon. We walked through the stage and received instructions on what we had to do. It was a busy morning filled with endless rehearsals.
After lunch, the moment that everyone has been waiting for finally arrived. We first enjoyed an amazing performance by a band that played ancient Chinese music, which eventually led to the competition. There were four Canadian teams which consisted of the students from the camp and one local team. As for the other students, we were given the task of cheering for the contestants. Once the competition has started, it was intense! The questions covered all the aspect of the Chinese culture, the students really had to be knowledgeable in order to get the right answers. All the competitors were well-trained as each of them was eager to press the button because they knew exactly what to say. It was funny how some teams got so eager that they pressed the button before the host said start, which led to an unfortunate result of losing the privilege of answering the questions.  The scoring between the teams was very close, but a winning had to be chosen. During the Jeopardy round, team Blue Sky led themselves to victory by just ten points! Congratulations!!!!!!
After the nerve wrecking competition, it was time for some happy news. The awards ceremony awarded students based on attitude, initiative and overall performance. Each student got an award and that brought smiles onto everyone’s face. To end it all off, we sang a beautiful Chinese song called “Ge Sheng & Wei Xiao” to express our delightful experience at the camp. What a nice way to end our wonderful two weeks at this beautiful city of Qing Dao! 
By Lucy Liu

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