Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas in Seoul... like no other I've ever had.
Well, Christmas 2009 is over and done with and to be honest, it all feels just a wee bit strange. This past week was certainly a departure from my regular schedule. Last Monday was the first day of winter holidays for the kids at school. It was also the day that we left on a two day teachers trip, for the teachers association at my school. In all respects it was a riot. Most of all because it was anything but what I was expecting. One way of describing it would have been "hurry up and wait!" When I asked exactly where we were going and what we were doing no one seemed to know. You just have to trust sometimes that it`ll all work out alright somehow.
We began our trip by running (litterally) in a herd through the neighbourhood, to wait for the bus. Now, not quite knowing what the hell was going on I assumed we were running because our bus was leaving and we needed to get on it, but after about 25 minutes of standing there i realized that the bus was no where in sight and we were just vying for a seat we wanted. Instead I was treated to a berrage of well meaning questions from other teachers which were meant to show affection I`m sure but left me with the keen realization that well yes I do have terrible skin right now, and thank you for pointing out that i`ve put on some weight since beeing here and again no I still don`t have a boyfriend. Oh Jeese!
A further 20 minutes of standing in the cold led us to believe that there was a problem with the bus, so the administration told us to back to the school and wait. Which we did. For a coupple minutes before they told us to go and wait for the bus again at a different location. so off they ran again (this time I was expecting it) and when we came to the bus it occured to me that it would have made a lot more sense for the bus to have come to us. Trivial matters like these are wheat makes it all worth while though. So we had our goodie bags distributed and our itinerary loud speakered and our itinnerary changed seeing as we were now 2 hours behind schedule and whatnot. This was all done very quickly and we rushed on to our first destination.
It`s all a muddle of loading on and off and on and off and on and off the bus and shouts of `HURRY UP!` And Alex we must go now ou can`t look so long and again you must hurry now. And it occured to me that this was my first tour bus travelling experience and that I would never choose to travel and sight see like this EVERRRRRR! In the end though it ended up being a very jam packed day full of Korean country side, a coupple temples and some rather amusing cultural museums. Dinner was less amusing as they had made reservations at a seafood restaurant and i`m allergic to seafood. So I couldn`t eat much, the smell was making me nauseous, and I had tons of people asking me why I wasn`t eating something that would kill me or drink Soju which on an empty stomach is never a particularly good decision.
After dinner we headed to the hotel which we were staying at which ended up being quite nice. We were put into small appartments with 6 teachers 2 bedrooms. There were no beds or towels though. apparently you have to pay quite a bit of money to sleep on the floor and have a shower wedged into the toilet. I love it. The best part of the trip was the Karaeoke bar and pool hall they had in the basement of the hotel. Not a pool, but still a good time. I got to sing along with a coupple songs I didn`t and stare in disbeliefe at all the wild actions to the Korean songs that I didn`t know. It was hilarious although it was strange to remember that these were constantly your fellow staff members and all the appearances of rank and power still had to be preserved. No question. Seniority is no joke here. All of your actions have to be dictated by where exactly you sit on that totem pole of power within the school. The newbies always loose out. It was excellent to be able to meet many staff that i had never really spoken with before, and i think that my participation on this trip will only be a good thing for me in the end.
The next day was very much like the first. file on and off and on and off... hurry up and wait, etc... The very last thing we did was to go to this byob restaurant. Only it wasn`t booze it was beef!!!!!! HAHAHAHA! We were all given 15,000 W to go and buy our beef with and then we went to this restaurant and ate our fried beef. It was really delicious! But i haven`t had that much meet in a LONG time and I don`t think I necessarily want to in the near future. The most ourangeous thing was seeing how drunk everyone was getting at every meal!!!! All of the administration has a habit of being offered a shot and when you give a shot you have to take a shot and vice versa. So by the end of the meal, the senior staff are all blitzed!!! Then on the way back to Seoul, we sang karaeoke and passed around home made liquor. I felt like i was on my senior high school trip where the cool people sat at the back of the bus and got shit hammered and made a lot of noise. Soooooooooooooo funny!
What struck me on a cultural note was that outside of Seoul, Korean is like a giant farm... and a poor giant farm where a lot of people live in improvised shacks with limited heating and electricity. I really felt like I had made the right decision to move to the city, because i don`t know if I could handle a country existance here. Very intense.
The next day was when Chritsmas really began because I had the opportunity to go and meet up with Seul-Ki and her familly. She is the Korean girl who is billiting with my parents in Barrie while she attends high school there. Her parents work and live in South West seoul. She had come home for Christmas vacation and she was going to introduce me to her familly and give me my Christmas presents from mine. I was super excited to meet up with her because i felt like she was my little connexion to home. Rather unfortunately, her familly lives on quite the opposite side of town, so it wasn`t that easy for me to get there. And also, she was not feeling the best, so she wasn`t the happiest creature that night. Her family is great, and they ended up taking me to this super ritzy Italian restaurant, on the 48th floor of a building!!!! What was ever better was when they invited me afterwards to their appartment accross the street on the 59th floor of the largest appartment complex I`d ever seen!!!!!!!!!! It had airplane tower lights it was so high. Absolutely increadible! Her parents invited my to stay the night adn really who wouldn`t have!? the next day we had a 5 course breakfast prepared by Seul-kis mom and i could understand why she was homesick for korea because breakfast at my house comes without a spectacular view or hand made seawead wraps and miso soup served in porcelain dishes. Too bad. But you know, toast and coffee is good too.
They happened to live directly accross the street from a very large department store and seeing as I had just gotten paid and it was Chritmas eve, i took myself out Christmas shopping. then I managed to make it to a Chritmas service with my friend Silvia where we drank mulled wine and got rosey cheekes and had a good feeling of holiday bliss. Yeehaw! Gift ladden, I made my way accross town and then had a wonderful evening talking to friends on skype and feeling as though I'd seen my family or at least had the opportunity to spend some time within a family dynamic. On Chritmas day I had a real good chat with my family on skype. The bums have refused to use it till now and so this was the first time I've seen them in 4 months!!!!!!!!!!! Longer for my dad, brother and sister. It felt really great. Now they believe me that it's different from the phone and i think we'll speak more often.
Then i headed off to my friend Sarah's for Christmas dinner. She too lives completely on the other side of town, so I know i wouldn't be getting home that night. We decided to do a Christmas Stir-Fry! With mashed potatos and good red wine to drink. It was pretty hilarious! But comfort food is good no matter when and where. Afterwards we went out to walk around her neighborhood in Hongdae and then settled on going to "Obeg" club for the night. There was a really good drum and base and dancy music DJ playing and with the help of some yummy coktails, we danced the night away! Boxing day was a total waste of a day spent recovering from Christmas in a big way, but it had it's charms. Sarah and I basically spent the day munching on goodies and watching movies on her laptop computer and drinking lots of tea and water. Rough day, but still good. And tomorrow is the beginning of amonth of winter camp. I really have no idea what to expect, but I think it's safe to say that maybe that's a good thing. Because life here seems to be a lot better when you just take it as it comes.
We began our trip by running (litterally) in a herd through the neighbourhood, to wait for the bus. Now, not quite knowing what the hell was going on I assumed we were running because our bus was leaving and we needed to get on it, but after about 25 minutes of standing there i realized that the bus was no where in sight and we were just vying for a seat we wanted. Instead I was treated to a berrage of well meaning questions from other teachers which were meant to show affection I`m sure but left me with the keen realization that well yes I do have terrible skin right now, and thank you for pointing out that i`ve put on some weight since beeing here and again no I still don`t have a boyfriend. Oh Jeese!
A further 20 minutes of standing in the cold led us to believe that there was a problem with the bus, so the administration told us to back to the school and wait. Which we did. For a coupple minutes before they told us to go and wait for the bus again at a different location. so off they ran again (this time I was expecting it) and when we came to the bus it occured to me that it would have made a lot more sense for the bus to have come to us. Trivial matters like these are wheat makes it all worth while though. So we had our goodie bags distributed and our itinerary loud speakered and our itinnerary changed seeing as we were now 2 hours behind schedule and whatnot. This was all done very quickly and we rushed on to our first destination.
It`s all a muddle of loading on and off and on and off and on and off the bus and shouts of `HURRY UP!` And Alex we must go now ou can`t look so long and again you must hurry now. And it occured to me that this was my first tour bus travelling experience and that I would never choose to travel and sight see like this EVERRRRRR! In the end though it ended up being a very jam packed day full of Korean country side, a coupple temples and some rather amusing cultural museums. Dinner was less amusing as they had made reservations at a seafood restaurant and i`m allergic to seafood. So I couldn`t eat much, the smell was making me nauseous, and I had tons of people asking me why I wasn`t eating something that would kill me or drink Soju which on an empty stomach is never a particularly good decision.
After dinner we headed to the hotel which we were staying at which ended up being quite nice. We were put into small appartments with 6 teachers 2 bedrooms. There were no beds or towels though. apparently you have to pay quite a bit of money to sleep on the floor and have a shower wedged into the toilet. I love it. The best part of the trip was the Karaeoke bar and pool hall they had in the basement of the hotel. Not a pool, but still a good time. I got to sing along with a coupple songs I didn`t and stare in disbeliefe at all the wild actions to the Korean songs that I didn`t know. It was hilarious although it was strange to remember that these were constantly your fellow staff members and all the appearances of rank and power still had to be preserved. No question. Seniority is no joke here. All of your actions have to be dictated by where exactly you sit on that totem pole of power within the school. The newbies always loose out. It was excellent to be able to meet many staff that i had never really spoken with before, and i think that my participation on this trip will only be a good thing for me in the end.
The next day was very much like the first. file on and off and on and off... hurry up and wait, etc... The very last thing we did was to go to this byob restaurant. Only it wasn`t booze it was beef!!!!!! HAHAHAHA! We were all given 15,000 W to go and buy our beef with and then we went to this restaurant and ate our fried beef. It was really delicious! But i haven`t had that much meet in a LONG time and I don`t think I necessarily want to in the near future. The most ourangeous thing was seeing how drunk everyone was getting at every meal!!!! All of the administration has a habit of being offered a shot and when you give a shot you have to take a shot and vice versa. So by the end of the meal, the senior staff are all blitzed!!! Then on the way back to Seoul, we sang karaeoke and passed around home made liquor. I felt like i was on my senior high school trip where the cool people sat at the back of the bus and got shit hammered and made a lot of noise. Soooooooooooooo funny!
What struck me on a cultural note was that outside of Seoul, Korean is like a giant farm... and a poor giant farm where a lot of people live in improvised shacks with limited heating and electricity. I really felt like I had made the right decision to move to the city, because i don`t know if I could handle a country existance here. Very intense.
The next day was when Chritsmas really began because I had the opportunity to go and meet up with Seul-Ki and her familly. She is the Korean girl who is billiting with my parents in Barrie while she attends high school there. Her parents work and live in South West seoul. She had come home for Christmas vacation and she was going to introduce me to her familly and give me my Christmas presents from mine. I was super excited to meet up with her because i felt like she was my little connexion to home. Rather unfortunately, her familly lives on quite the opposite side of town, so it wasn`t that easy for me to get there. And also, she was not feeling the best, so she wasn`t the happiest creature that night. Her family is great, and they ended up taking me to this super ritzy Italian restaurant, on the 48th floor of a building!!!! What was ever better was when they invited me afterwards to their appartment accross the street on the 59th floor of the largest appartment complex I`d ever seen!!!!!!!!!! It had airplane tower lights it was so high. Absolutely increadible! Her parents invited my to stay the night adn really who wouldn`t have!? the next day we had a 5 course breakfast prepared by Seul-kis mom and i could understand why she was homesick for korea because breakfast at my house comes without a spectacular view or hand made seawead wraps and miso soup served in porcelain dishes. Too bad. But you know, toast and coffee is good too.
They happened to live directly accross the street from a very large department store and seeing as I had just gotten paid and it was Chritmas eve, i took myself out Christmas shopping. then I managed to make it to a Chritmas service with my friend Silvia where we drank mulled wine and got rosey cheekes and had a good feeling of holiday bliss. Yeehaw! Gift ladden, I made my way accross town and then had a wonderful evening talking to friends on skype and feeling as though I'd seen my family or at least had the opportunity to spend some time within a family dynamic. On Chritmas day I had a real good chat with my family on skype. The bums have refused to use it till now and so this was the first time I've seen them in 4 months!!!!!!!!!!! Longer for my dad, brother and sister. It felt really great. Now they believe me that it's different from the phone and i think we'll speak more often.
Then i headed off to my friend Sarah's for Christmas dinner. She too lives completely on the other side of town, so I know i wouldn't be getting home that night. We decided to do a Christmas Stir-Fry! With mashed potatos and good red wine to drink. It was pretty hilarious! But comfort food is good no matter when and where. Afterwards we went out to walk around her neighborhood in Hongdae and then settled on going to "Obeg" club for the night. There was a really good drum and base and dancy music DJ playing and with the help of some yummy coktails, we danced the night away! Boxing day was a total waste of a day spent recovering from Christmas in a big way, but it had it's charms. Sarah and I basically spent the day munching on goodies and watching movies on her laptop computer and drinking lots of tea and water. Rough day, but still good. And tomorrow is the beginning of amonth of winter camp. I really have no idea what to expect, but I think it's safe to say that maybe that's a good thing. Because life here seems to be a lot better when you just take it as it comes.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
pre-Chritmas run up
..."Have yourself a merry little Christmas" lalalalalalalalalala
We're gearing up for the Christmas season here and uletide cheer is all around.... er... maybe? To be honest, with no snow on the ground and my familly a 15 hour flight away, I kinda feel like chritmas spirit is also a little thin on the ground.
This week will be the last week of classes, thaqt god! And instead of hammering through the rest of the curriculum Hey-In and I have decided to teach christmas carolls!! I have decided that it is of vital cultural importance to introduce Mr. Frank Sinatra and Mr. Bing Crosbey to Korean children. And I'm hoping that it will help get me into the spirit at the same time...
Last week, Hey-In, Arion and I had t oattend a district office conference on co-teaching. it was actually kind of fun in a lame campy sort of way. There we saw a coupple presentations on co-teaching and then we were divided into a numer of teams. It was like an old school gym competition where we ran around from station to station playing a traditional Korean kids game with another team, collecting points and having a laugh along the way. It was pretty funny. Our team won about half lost half... either way it was a laugh and that was important. I also had the opportunity to meet a couple of new teachers in my neighbourhood, so that was good. I also spoke to the coordinatior Angela Lalonde, about the possibility of maybe taking over someones' appartment if they break their contracts and leave the country in the near future. Anywhere closer to Jamsil and nearer to downtown. We'll see. I may have to still pay, but it may be a way to do it. We'll see. It's something to look forward to.
This week has been rough, because I've been trying do deal with this rotten cold that has left me tired and grosssssssssssss! But yesterday I managed to get out for a girls day out. It was great, Jeannie, Grace, Alice, Silvia and i went shopping in Edae (at Ewah Women's University.) It's super far, so i haven't been before now, but it was really great! I really love this area. It was very vibrant and super cool. We went for a nice lunch and then walked around the area checking out shops and having a laugh. I bought an awsome new purse and dome good winter gloves. tres chick! Then afterwards we headed over to Gwangwhamun Plaza for this amazing outdoor live snowboarding competition. They had built this increadible structure and ramp for the snowboarders to jump off of. It was crazy! And there were sooooooooooooo many people there! Afterwards, the girls were ehading out to Hongdae to club, but my cold was pretty much destroying me at that point, so I had to head home.
This upcoming week should be pretty great because we're nearly at vacation time..... ok so camp lessons need to get finished, presents need to get bought, cards need to be made and plans too.
That's all for now folks!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
I am now an internationally exhibited artist!
Wow! and Yay! I feel like I've come to the real pinacle of all of my years of school. A real to goodness exhibition in a bonnified gallery! And an international tick on my artist CV that I can be proud of. Joining the Seoul Artists collective was a really good move on my part because it's provided a solid opportunity for me to get involved in the art community here and given me a chance to exhibit my work in the REAL WORLD so to speek.
I worked like a deamon last weekend to get it all finished in time for the installation Tuesday, Dec 1st. But in the end i got it done. I wasn't sure how it was going to come together in the end, but in some ways I think that's what make site specific installation so precious and interesting. It is really a piece produced for that space! I took my time when I got there to find the right spece. I chose a wall finally in the NA Gallery and after playing around with it for a bit I decide no to have the memory boxes on the floor but rather to have them wrapped and caught and suspended within the red ropes/veins. I think the effect was really interesting. It gives this raw visceral quality to the piece that helps connect the concept of physical memory being intertwined with psychological memory. Once it was all installed I couldn't help but wish that there were more of everything! More boxes, more strings, more paint bigger canvas. More more more more! Like any good obsession, you want more. i think it would also have been a better visual bang for you buck so to speek. Once the lighting was up and everything was in place I was actually quite pleased with the effect.
I think moving away from academic art has really given me the more liberty to play and experiment with materials and modes of expression. And I'm really pleased and loving photocoppy and gel medium transfers! it's like the best of both worlds! I get to work on my photography and then I also get to work on my painting and drawing. People were always telling my that my work was strongly tied to the photograph so might as well start going directly to the reproduction and working away from there!!
The opening vernissage was great! Silvia and Grace came to support and I ended up talking with several other artists that I hadn't had a chance to talk to before! I had a coupple people come to me and say that it was their favorite piece in the whole show!! Wow! Awsome!. I also had another curator come up to me and say that she loved my painting that was in the brochure; (Chris and Alex Sweeping, 2009) and she told me to get a flicker or myspace site going and send her the link. She said when i had more paintings ready to give her a call...... YEEHOOOO!!! It's always nice to have fans and supporters of your work. I think my work has been really well received outside of school. Which leads me to beieve what I had previously concluded; that my work is more accessible to people who are NOT looking for references and pushing the envalope but just looking for a story. I guess I'm not trendy enough for some. The subjects I choose to portray are not edgy enough.
I think when you're in art school a lot of times the people that get their work shown are a measure of who is the most popular person in the department and who has the best contacts. And maybe that's how the world functions in general? But one thing that I've discovered outside of art school is that generally speaking, outside of this very exclusive group of people, the general population doesn't have a clue what's going on, (NOR DO THEY CARE!!) what's trendy and really give a shit about what's happening in the contemporary art scene. We are a product of our education, so those that are educated in Fine Art can afford to have pretensions and a giant stick up their butt and think themselves above those who can't talk the talk. But I really get a kick when people tell me straight up that they like my work because it's pretty, beautiful or makes them feel good or think of similar situations in their own lives. That's perfectly ok to me. In fact I'd rather have people identify with my work aesthetically and on a personal level than like it because it fits the mold of a certain scene.
So now what? Well the show will be up until mid december and then, I'm in no rush to get into another show immediately, but having the prospect of future exhibitions with these people is a big push to keep plugging away at it and keep working steadily. This is great! It's the best i could have hoped for.... well appart from a solo show, but you know I have only been here 3 months, there's time.
here are some links to the posters and info about the exhibition:
So now what? Well the show will be up until mid december and then, I'm in no rush to get into another show immediately, but having the prospect of future exhibitions with these people is a big push to keep plugging away at it and keep working steadily. This is great! It's the best i could have hoped for.... well appart from a solo show, but you know I have only been here 3 months, there's time.
here are some links to the posters and info about the exhibition:
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Novembers
My Lovely boudoire
View of my newly arranged bachelor pad; living, dining, bedding, dressing... lovely
Living & Dinning for one
Desk and artmaking station (plus workout area thus the yoga mat)
Me receiving my very fancy certificate of participation :D
I feel Royal, oh so Royal, I feel royal, and spoiled, and gay!!!! And I pitty, any one who isn't noble today!
I feel so noble, with my own dressers and all...
I went as a Self Portarit for Halloween. It was actually a really successful costume! LOL!
Me and Silvia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)