Steliana Ilieva : 불가리아(Bulgaria)

First runner-up

This is a photo that I took of my younger sister and our grandfather on his 79th birthday in my grandparents’ garden. My granddad has been interested in the culture of Korea ever since he met his Korean friend in Russia in the early 1990s, from whom he learnt everything he now knows about South Korea. Sadly, my grandfather never went to Korea even if he really wanted to do so, which is why we brought it to him through 한글 to make his birthday special. We wrote on the paper lanterns all the good wishes we have for him, and we gave him a card with the most significant word writte at the front: 사랑해요사랑해요. This picture shows love at its purest form and that a person is never too old or too far away to be interested in something just like my grandfather has been in 한국 and 한글 most of his life.

Steliana Ilieva