The End.

So we kind of did a sucky job keeping up with the blog towards the end of the semester but I think that shows how much fun we were having in Korea. This has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I can't begin to describe the amazing people I was able to meet here. This exchange was definitely more than I thought it would be. I was hesitant at first to come because I thought I knew everything about Korea--it wasn't a "foreign" country to me. I also thought that everyone here was going to be Korean-American. I was wrong on both accounts. This exchange has really opened my eyes to Korean culture. I now wish I had immersed myself in it more. And the people here... What coincidence it is that we were all brought here together for these few months. It was inspiring to see people who had no Korean heritage try so hard to learn more about Korea and learn the language. It was amazing how fast friendships formed and I hope I have made life long friends during my stay here...

The House of Sharing.

The past weekend Amy and I visited the House of Sharing with a group of international people. The House of Sharing is two things. It is first a home for ten "halmoni"s (grandmothers) who were forced to be "comfort women" or sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers. Second, it holds a museum that serves to spread word of what these women went through before, during, and most importantly after the enslavement. It was such an eye opening experience and a daunting task to write about. I've known for a while about the Japanese enslavement of Korean women and that this was why Korea-Japan relations are still rocky. But I never understood to what extent these women were abused and how appalling it is that the Japanese government to this day denies any involvement. I learned that the biggest thing I can do to support their cause is to spread the word of their experiences, and I'll try to do that here.

From 1932 until the end of the war, an estimated 50,000-200,000 women from all over Asia were captured by the Japanese military through kidnapping and deception; about 80% of these women were Korean and most of them under the age of 18. They were sent all over Eastern Asia, from China and Japan to Thailand and the Philippines. Japanese government acknowledges the existence of these brothels but denies any governmental involvement. They say that the women voluntarily entered these brothels, which proves impossible since most of the women were poor and would never have the means to individually go to such far away countries. They deny involvement even though all of the brothels had the same rules written in Japanese, same structures inside, and Japanese government stamps on all the documents.

In these "comfort stations," the women were raped, severely physically abused, and sometimes killed. They had to serve over 40 men every day who often ignored the rules and stabbed the women and often did not use condoms. The women were only given one condom to wash and reuse, but if they got pregnant, they were blamed and often fed mercury or even killed to serve as an example to others.

After the Allied forced took over, the women were technically free. However, most were stranded in foreign countries with no means of returning home and no means of survival. US soldiers attempted to help them, but found that since most of these women were taken at such a young age, surrounded by Japanese soldiers, and living in a foreign country, they had not developed efficiency in any one particular language. To this day, there are pockets of Korean communities in East Asian countries that formed after the liberation by korean women who could not return to their home country.

Since 1991, 220 former "comfort women" have formally come forward to demand an apology from the Japanese government. Many of these halmonis have become outcasts in Korean society by doing so, but still stand by their decision. Of those 220 women, only 97 are alive, most over the age of 90. They have been participating in a weekly protest in front of the Japanese embassy since 1992, but it is hard to deny that the halmonis are approaching their last years. It is the responsibility of their descendants and people of our generation world wide to support their cause until the Japanese government finally formally address the issue and apologize.

"We must record these things that were forced upon us" -Kim Hak-Sun

Taken away and abused by Japanese soldiers at a blooming age, it took fifty years to rediscover a lost life. Now I am an old grandmother covered with wrinkles, but with the strength of the powerful evidence we know the truth. The worlds of those affected that were filled with fear of the dark shadows are now shining with bright light. Although we have become grandmothers we put on our bright clothes and spread our wings here, where we can again reach for the lives we wanted. Let the sad spirits that floated in the heavens now disappear...

For more information about this issue and the halmonis visit www.houseofsharing.org

Halloween!

Koreans don't actually celebrate Halloween, so we had to improvise. One of my native friends had never made a jack-o-lantern, so we hunted down some pumpkins from Homeplus and helped her--I think she really enjoyed it! (and her carving probably turned out better than mine...)

jejudo - korean utopia

abundance of rocks, women, and wind

and no thieves, beggars, or gates...

(photo credit: stolen from jenny finitzer since i slept through the sunrise!)

i didn't think korea could be this pretty. it was great to get out of dingy, flashy seoul.

anyways, yonsei planned the weekend trip for a group of international students.

Here are some highlights of that weekend's good times:


took a plane to jejudo - less than an hour from seoul!

PARTY BUS equipped with flatscreen TV - watched a lot of KPOP MUSIC VIDEOS ON REPEAT: 2ne1, 2 pm, 4 minute, girls generation... etc. & KARAOKE - sang some dancing queen and let it beeee

korean traditional village: drank some omijacha (tea), learned about the history of jejudo, for example, how the women worked mostly because the men hid from the draft. the women even took their babies with them to work in the fields.

our tour guide: explained to us how the jeju natives used to use outdoor bathrooms that fed (literally) directly to the pigpens.

maze!

big rock.

ATV's / hanul looking mad-fly

international peace museum of jejudo

one of the manmade caves in the side of a cliff where Japanese hid their weapons during World War II (i think) - apparently the Japanese forced the Jeju people to dig these caves themselves, just another example of Japanese oppression (just sayin)

Green Tea Farm

DINNER: JEJU PORK!

Family time...and lots of it...

This is also kind of about Chuseok, but more about some personal experiences with my family, so if this already bores you, go ahead and skip this entry :)

So my mom just visited for about 2 weeks because she is from Seoul but hasn't really been back here in about 10 years or so. She came for Chuseok and we went to see her family, who live in Uijeongbu.

This might get a little wordy, but basically it was just such an amazing experience.

Pretty much none of my family can speak English, and I do not know much Korean at all, so most of the time I was sitting and smiling and trying desperately to follow the conversation. Bits of the conversation that I picked up on were things like "Bad mom" for not teaching me Korean and "Eat a lot." I'm obviously learning Korean at a voracious speed...

Regardless of the ease (or lack thereof) of our communication, it was still a great experience. I met 3 of my mom's brothers and 2 of her sisters, and realized that almost all of my cousins are married and have children, some of them my age. So basically I have several relatives ages 16-18 that have to call me 이모. It makes me feel so old! haha

My cousins are also learning English in school, and are supposedly pretty good at it, but whenever my aunt told them to speak to me, they got really shy and refused. My 7- and 8-year old cousins were the only ones who tried, but basically they just kept shouting "Hello!" and "Good morning!" at me (even though it was late at night) and then running away laughing and embarassed. Probably a highlight of my night.

But on the day of Chuseok we did all the traditional things-we set up a large table with tons of great food for my grandparents and all did the traditional bows and drink pouring. There was also a smaller set up for my eldest uncle, who also passed away several years ago. This is going to sound really cheesy, but being there with my family and participating in this sacred tradition was just really emotionally taxing.

I was just standing there, thinking about this entire part of my life that I've missed for 19 years. Before I came to Dartmouth, I was so, SO removed from my Korean heritage. I didn't even think about ever learning the language and I would have NEVER thought to visit and meet my family here. But my Korean relatives were SO nice to me and want me to keep visiting while I'm here. And I love them but it just makes me so frustrated that we can't communicate well. And then I thought about my sisters and brother who still don't know about this part of our life. And then when we sat down to eat, my mother gave me my grandmother's rice bowl, and yeah...it was just too much.

I used to think that since we lived in America, we were supposed to be "white" and speak English and do American things. And I am half white and I grew up in a primarily white area and went to white schools so it was very easy to forget about the other half of my heritage. But it has become so important to me to have this Korean part of my life and continue to pass it on. Korean people are just so proud of their country and their culture and it makes me really sad that I ignored it for so long. And makes me wonder what it will be like when I go back home, and try to explain and share this with my other 3 siblings, who are still very removed from the culture.

It also made me respect and admire my mom a lot more. I realized how hard it must be for her to have lived in the U.S. for all these years, never really visiting her family or friends in the place she grew up in, never being able to speak her native language with her own children, knowing a very different set of values and traditions, and putting all of these things aside so that her children can grow up fully "Americanized."

Whether or not it was a good thing that she didn't push her culture upon us, it's definitely a part of me that I don't want to ignore anymore.

SORRY for the long post, but I just had to get this out. It's probably only interesting to other white-washed halfies...or maybe not even them...hm awkward...

ALSO
Last weekend all 5 of us Dartmouth kids went on a Jeju-do trip with a bunch of other international students. Epic post/pictures to be updated soon...

추석 [choosuk: korean thanksgiving]

So for choosuk I first went to my mom's side of the family.. It was slightly awkward because I haven't seen them in forever and my cousins were slightly scared of me.. its fine.. haha but my grandmother grows lots of plants on the roof of her house..

Spinach!

Radish!

Sesame Seeds!

she also had these cool old urns that she used to use to store kimchi and other cooking things (soy sauce, red chili pepper paste..)

Then the next day I went to the mountains to visit my great grandparents' grave with my dad's side of the family. We had to hike a bit and we were

carrying a lot of food so it was a little tough... But as soon as we got there the first task was to clean around the grave

and putting (fake) flowers around the grave...

and food!! This is basically a setup so my great grandparents can have a meal. note the two rice bowls and two sets of utensils set up for them

so the spoon is set in the rice bowl and the chopsticks are placed on various dishes so the spirits can eat.. then we do the traditional korean bow.

at the very end we all kneel and pray for various things we're wishing for...

then we eat and drink!!

and an awesome picture of my twin cousins demonstrating typical asian poses (but for real)

i had an awesome weekend

almost forgot

to mention i witnessed someone actually using a pickup line. delivery was amazing enough to make up for the absolute lack of content and relevancy.

korean 아가씨 1: my name is 이 신혜.
me: oh hey. im 하늘, 만나서 반가워요.
bro 1: oh ahh, 신혜. sounds like 식혜.
korean 아가씨 1 who thinks that bro 1 has misheard: ah no, it's 신혜.
bro 1: oh i know. but it should be 식혜. 식혜 is sweet. sweet like you.

an extremely awkward two seconds pass before she laughs and blushes. amazing.

did i forget to mention this was during a small group meeting consisting of 7 people who didnt know each other at all? well played sir. he did get her phone number.

but so did everyone else with everyone else.

-hanul