Hey y’all,
Two days ago, Middlebury officially ended for the Summer and gosh what an end it was. Starting off with our finals, we had to turn in our finalized 5 page research paper, and do a 10 minute memorized presentation to our class on Monday. My research paper discussed Japan’s tourism industry and how it sometimes works against the actual citizens of Japan regardless of its amazing economic benefits. My paper focused on Naoshima and Kusama Yayoi’s museum there. In the end, I argued that to circumvent all of the valid issues brought up by the citizens of the island of Naoshima in their anger against the rowdy tourists that would have little to no respect to the traditional aspect of the island itself, that the museums in Naoshima should have exhibitions that display artwork discussing the fishing and smelting industries that brought Naoshima to the modern age. Thus, as the tourists take in art, they are able to also come to understand that Naoshima should not be looked at solely as an art paradise but also a traditional space with tons of history as well.
Then on Wednesday, we had to take our final and let me say, it was certainly not easy. A year’s worth of material on one exam? Unheard of. Yet, I survived. I don’t think I’ve still processed how much I’ve learned throughout the programme but being able to do that test, I’m slowly realizing how much I grew as a Japanese student in the programme.
On Thursday and Friday, the language pledge ended and we focused on packing and saying goodbye to our teachers and classmates. All classes wrote speeches (in Japanese) and gave them to the entire programme in an auditorium. Needless to say, they were all very emotional where honestly, I don’t know if more students or teachers cried hearing them. Anyways, I think these days were where the bitter truth of the programme and its function set in where during weeks 6-8 I really felt both the students and professors becoming more comfortable with each other, thus the further ability to develop almost a camaraderie that was of a similar mien to Williams’ student-professor relationships in my opinion. However, right as we were able to speak in a language we were more comfortable in and we could make more developed jokes to our professors and have the ability to express ourselves fully, the program ended. It definitely was a bittersweet feeling driving away that Friday where although my mind was so exhausted from the semester, I really wanted to have more time to get to know my professors and classmates.
This marks the end of my 8 week journey through blog posts. Thank you for sticking around for all of them!
Yours truly,
Will McC