The End

I am officially going to end the blog with this last update. I have been keeping busy with my project, independent study, and exploring Seoul so have not taken the time to properly maintain this with updates from my Korean experiences. As far as I am aware the only people reading this are family, friends, and a maybe a handful of W&J administrators all of whom I will be seeing before too long so my pictures and stories can be shared then.

Today I participated in the best and most insightful part of my project. I was able to visit the Sharing House where some of the former "comfort women" (whom are more respectfully referred to as halmoni (grandmother)) currently live with the help of volunteers. Some volunteers help with guided tours in English about once a month. We were shown a video, got to see the museum, and then interacted with the women themselves. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.

I'll show a picture of the group of visitors and our tour guides with one of the women.

She was happy to have visitors and really enjoys singing. So she sang to us in Korean and Chinese and got some of the visitors to sing with her. We were able to ask her questions and she told us a bit about herself and her world views. Most of the other women were resting at the tim

We so we mostly interacted with the halmoni pictured above. Eight of the women currently live in the house right now and every week volunteers at the house will transport whichever ones are feeling up to it to the weekly protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

Inside the museum was a lot of good information and paintings the women did to help express their experiences. They were taught to paint after gathering in the first House of Sharing that was originally located in Seoul. There is a lot to say that I will expand upon in my report for this project.

I have a week and a half left in Seoul until I finally venture back home after my half year of travel. There is one more museum to visit that is beneficial to my project and I just learned about a few more print and electronic resources that I can use. I should also be able to attend one last protest before I go.

I have mixed emotions about going back home but overall I think I am ready to get back for a while. There are people I want to see and I will have been living out of my suitcase at this guesthouse for a month in a room that I share with 7 other people on some days. Privacy is something I require to function and is in short supply here. Everything I have done and the places I have been make everything very worthwhile, overshadowing any very minor inconveniences.

Well this is the end of the blog, hope you enjoyed reading even though many parts were lacking very much in writing and grammar quality. Hopefully this helped to give a little bit of insight into my experiences in China and a bit in Korea.

Dearest readers I will be seeing you in due time.

Your incessantly charming blogger,
Michael Nemchick.