Christmas in Seoul, Take 2.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! All I want for Christmas is Gaspard Uliel. Is that really too much to ask? A hunky man angel who will come down from the sky and treat me like a princess... yeah, ok, I know. Not going to happen, so instead, I settled for the next best thing, dinner and celebration with good friends. Here is a summative chronicle of my Christmas 2010. For some odd reason I can never load the pictures in order, so it may at this time be sligtly sloppy. Helen my dear came over the night before for Christmas eve dinner and a chat. She was off to Thailand the next day on a whilr wind adventure, so we decided to take it easy and stay in. Christmas was on a Saturday this year and thanks to my brilliant friends Dara and Jess, a bunch of us had reservations for Christmas dinner at the 'Wolfhound Irish Pub' in Itaewon.

So we shall skip right to the near end of the night. We got to the Wolfhound near 2pm and Christmas dinner was served at 3pm. It was a packed venue and we squeezed ourselves into the pub to enjoy turkey, mashed potatos and gravy with cranberry sauce. It was sooooooo worth it! There was also beer. A looooootttttt of beer. lol!

Jess and I getting our pose on in the bar. Red was a popular wardrobe choice it being very merry and festive and all.

Jess, Alec, myself and this lovely Phillipina (whose name I can't recall, oops!) As you can see, people were making merry behind us. Sometimes the people watching in bars like the Wolfhoud makes the trip woth while in it of itself. By 8pm there was chair dancing. By 9pm a girl actually flashed the entire bar.... by 10pm there were couple making out in public... yup, it was a verry merry evening.

Later on we moved the party on to Woodstock bar. Alec plays the guitar base in a really good rock band. (not pictured here, these guys do Zeppelin covers). We proceeded to drink more beer, not get into fights and listen to some pretty good live rock music.

Me, Alex, Phillipina, Jess, Dara, Gavin and Adira. and our food :) yum.

Me, Keelan and Alec. Keelan was a friend of Jess and Dara's who was visiting from Ireland for a couple of weeks. It was funny but somehow I ended up having Christmas with a table full of Irish friends... I call that a good time :)

Jess being the sweet heart that she is.

Dara and Jess might just be the most selfless, funloving couple I've met in a while.

Gavin and Adira follow that status up closely though. Unfortunately, they are soon leaving Seoul to go and get married in the US. Ah, c'est la vie! Well that is it. That was my Christmas day and I am thankful to have spent it with some great people and eating some good food :) Now it's time to get ready and look forward to the New Year! Can't wait!!!

Running for a Good Cause

www.santafestival.com

On December 11th, I participated in the annual Santa Festival Running Race at Olympic park with a bunch of teacher friends from all over South Korea. We were team "Santa's Sprinters" and together we participated in the 5 and 10km runs to raise money for charity.

It was possibly the colllllllddddddeeeeessssssstttttttttttt day of the year so far in Seoul -10oC!!!! with the windshield and gearing up for the race was rather painfully cold. However the Korean chearleaders were fearless in their mini-shirts as they led the crowd through a choreographed warm up. Nothing like watching 100 people do scissor kicks in unison.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDD stretch!!!!!

It was cool! I have never participated in an event where I needed a number pinned to me. I was always in sports that were organized in pre-seated heats. It was freazing though! Our fingers kept going numb before we could manage all 4 pins! lol

Braving the cold to help each other get ready for the race.

Thankfully the race fee included a complimentary scarf and santa hat which I took advantage of immediately! Red, warm and fuzzy. This race was especially great for me for two reasons. First, it gave me a bit of motivation to get out of the house and get active and secondly, it was super convenient being held at Mongchontoseong stn. at the peace gates right accross the street from my house!!

In true Korean fashion it was increadibly confusing and difficult to find our check in station, but in the end we got there.

They also seemed to have the running event sponsored by choco-pie and cookie companies that were giving out copious amounts of their product with coffee. HAHAHAHA! Come and run and then have a cookie, oh the rationalism of this country never fails to amuse me.

I met some really great people during this event including Stacy Kirk (on the right) and Mayra Vargas (pictured with me at top).

A view of the Peace Gates at Olympic park. This was an extremely good day and a very worthwhile event. I have to thank Dominic Luther who organized this entire event and got everyone involved in this race. It was my first running race, and after this experice I know that a) I am dreadfully out of shape, but b) i would totally do it again. My competitive nature got the best of me. As soon as the gun went off, so did i at a run and I managed to run the ENTIRE THING!!!!!!!!!! 5km in 0:34:00 minutes!!! I was really surprised and quite pleased with myself. Large credit is due to Stacy who matched my pace exactly and chatted with me thw entire way. Thanks Stacy! After wards we celebrated with italian food and beer for lunch. Then it was off home for a shower and a nap! Good times and something new. Yay and MERRY CHRISTMAS! HOHOHO!!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

As a public school teacher in South Korea, Winter camp is a yearly event that allows us to spread our wings and take a stab at teaching projects in our specialized fields. Oh yeah, i did go to college for 'something in particular'.

In this case, I am doing the arts & Crafts unit. I have been reserching the traditional art of Korean quilting. It's called Bojagi. It is a culturally relevant art form as these cloths were used for storing household items, as part of a brides hope chest and also as carrying cloths in which people carried all their possessions during harder times. They are also connected to both common people, the royal families and also the Buddhist monks for ceremonial rites. cool

I recently took part in the DRIPAN Art Walk Event in Haebonchong, Seoul. There is my work on the wall of RUFXXX surrounded by some very cool paintings.

The event had artists walking from one venue to another in the style of a bar hop, only in this case, it was an art hop.

There were spoken word artists such as karis and lauren pictured above.

There was also soooooooooome drinking involved. Here we are in a tiny irish pub surrounded by good art and people. These were two Persian brothers we met.

At one point there was a music performance/ live graffitti performance going on in the underpass near Noksapyong Stn. The fumes of the spray paint added to the joy of the event

There was also a rap battle at this tiny undergound bar. The guys would take a theme suggestion from the crowd and make a rhyme based on it with impovised music and so on...

The evening had begun at the Laughing Tree Gallery. It has become kind of a hub for coolness in that neighbourhood. I love being part of something relevant and meaningful. A BIG thanks to Dann and Rippley for putting this all together. I hope this weill be the fist of many such events. :) dripan.blogspot.com

I also participated in The 'Art for Love' charity art auction again this year. I donated my two photographs from the Yongsan exhibition. Both of which sold. I also won a couple door prizes including this amazingly beautiful rose necklace!

Because it is Korea, the auction was taking a veryyyy long time and so, my friend Anjee and I stepped out for some corned beef sandwiches on rye bread at the wonderful 'Suji's Diner'.

Real bread! Real meat! Really cute tea pots! Amazing!

The quality of the work presented at the auction was actually much better than I had expected. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that this was a more contemporary philanthropic event that tended to attract a younger more socially conscious artist rather than the old entrenched korean men who do flower paintings and like predictable work.... Just saying.

I was surprised that the quality of the hanging was so shitty. no lables, things were crooked, unstable and soooooooooooooooo many works were damaged. Only in Korea. My frame was damaged as well which i am sure depreciated the sale. Fuckkers.

Buttttttttttt, on the whole, it's been rather a succesful month. I am patiently waiting for the end of the school year which is fast approaching. Then it is two weeks of camp, and to be honest i like my camp. the it is off home for almost a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeehoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now to make sure i have my holiday plans all wrapped up. Another Christmas in Korea, let's see what this one brings.

Trying not to Fall behind

On the first weekend of November, I set out with Jeremy and a group of Incheon friends on a tour and hike of South koreas famous seoraksan Mountain in Gangwon province. It was a challenging but rewarding and beautiful weekend full of suprises, new friends and some amazing scenery.

Jeremy and I on the bus. Can't you just see the excitment radiating out of us?! Come on mountains, we'll take you! On the way we actually got into a bus accident as our driver went over the guard rail and nearly drove us into the ditch... haha, all part of the adventure... eugh... right?

It was a sunny, misty, windy day; all of which produced some pretty dramatic lighting for photographs. This trip confirmed my decision to get a better camera when i go back home in January. Sorry Powershot, I love you but you are old and grainey now TT (sad tears)

from left to right: hannah, Lauren, Derek, Mel, MOI and Jeremy. Right before the train became fairly vertical. I was certainly not the best climber of the group... oh who am I kidding, I'm in horrible shape right now, *sigh.

I was so coordinated with my hiking outfit. You can call it a side effect of living in this country for too long. See red, red, navy with red trim... etc. It was a really fun day and it was good to get out and have a new korean adventure. I am becoming too complacent in my situation here for my liking. Gotta get out and keep exploring new territories :)

There were also cable cars that you could buy a ticket for that would take you to an observatory several hundred meters up the mountain. Pretty cool. I didn't do it, but maybe next time, especially now that I know what it means to try and climb to the top by yourself, lol.

Picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, hike, picture...

There is a beautiful temple and Buddha statue at the base of the mountain. It does feel like a very energetic place. i went and did my 3 prostrations infront of the Buddha and inside the Song-bong. It feels realy cool to be able to participate in these environments in a meaningful way.

Lauren, Jeremy, Ferg and I infront of the big Buddha! Kimchi!

Old Stompers in Itaewon has been holding a battle of the bands throughout November. The Tremmors played in drag and zombie costumes on Halloween. They are a great punk band based out of seoul. james and I hung out with them when we participated in a Zombie crawl together. I guess you could say scarring Koreans together makes you fast friends.

James, Dara and I on Halloween night in out Zombie get up. I was the first time that I dressed up as anything scarry, EVER. And it was great!!! We were like celebrities all night! Haha, i am converted to the goary Halloween costume from now on. Plus, the makeup was super fun!

ZOMBYRIFFIC!!!!!!!

This is one of the pieces that I did for the live drum session in the park that i sketched near the end of October. Like with the drum festival, my painting and drawing really changes in style and fluidity when I draw on the spot rather than from photographs... cool

I have been reading a lot of vampire novels recently (eugh *cough Twilight *cough!! and I think it has been influencing my aesthetic. Not that I am ready to go goth or anything, but I am trying to embrace my dark hair and too pale skin :)

So that in a nut shell is what has been going on this past month. I have made some new friends and said goodbey to some others. I am continuing to find a rhythm and dealing with the daily struggles of being a foreinger in South Korea where rationality, wit and sarcasm are often completely lost in translation. I bought my plane ticket home from January 8th - Feb 4th. I will be happy to see everyone in canada after such a long time away. No new news romantically although time is healing the hurt of my last breakup. School is trecking on with less than 2 months of lessons roughly left in the curriculum, and I have a couple art shows lined up as well as a charity 10km race on the agenda for December. So I guess I am keeping myself relatively buisy, but there is alway room for improvement.

Fall

Having a galbi dinner with some of the members of the International Artist Collective after a critique at the Myeongdong Gallery. It has been really great to find friends who are also interested in advancing their artistic careers.

This is the painting that i produced for "the Seoul Drum Festival", featuring the Uni-fi drum group and Affrican drummers. I painted live on stage with other artists while the musicians performed. It was pretty great. I also participated in another live sketch this past weekend in Hongdae park. It was a bit less formal, but way more fun. I think that getting out into the open and really just going for it is the best way for me to push forward my intuition as an artists and painter. It's something I'm going to try and continue to work on.

This is a view of the Olympic park lake with the changing leaves reflected in the water. i really do love my new neighbourhood. It's nice to have a bit of nature near by in this big city. The park itself is a little bit of peace from the hecktic pace and grey of the city scape.

I recently participated in the 'Yongsan International Art Exhibition' in Noksapyeong along with several other members of the I.A.C. This was the opening reception dinner. It was a real nod to all the pomp that Korea loves to give events without any real cause or meaning behind it. Angie and I, along with most of the other foreign artists were slightly bewildered by the entire event. But the food was great and i won a door prize of a new watercolour set :)

Me posing beside my two photographs "Art in the Street", 2010. The work done by the collective was generally WAY stronger in terms of conceptual and contemporary relevance campared with most of the work produced by the Korean artists. It was hard to believe that there could be so many flower paintings and landscapes done in a classical style.... too many.

* * *

October has come and nearly gone. Time seems to have spead up even more since school began and I can hardly believ that next week is Halloween and midterm already!!! My time in seoul has been undergoing some changes in the past weeks. It's only natural that after being here for a year, my perspective on the city as well as my understanding of Korea and it's culture should reflect that time spent. sometimes I often feel that i should know a LOT more than i do, but however i can't feel totally amiss because i have acheived a lot since being here and I do feel that I have come to find a degree of balance and acceptance with living in this strange strange country. Life as a public school teacher in this country certainly comes with it's challenges, but I have also been enjoying all of the conveniences that living in such a large metropolitain city affords more and more. Especially since the quality of help from my co-teachers has improved so dramatically. I have to make sure not to fall into a rut at school. I need to challenge myself to be a better more focused teacher. I also need to challenge myself to look for a better job that will bring my career forward. Because there aint no way I am doing a year 3 at Garak elementary school.

While school has generally improved, my social life has been a bit more difficult recently. maybe it's just homesickness, but it's been a bit lonely here recently. My break up with James in September forced me to re-visit not only my goals and expectations about being here but also the necessity of making new aquaintances and not relying on this to remain too stable here. I sometime forget that we are all nomads here, drawn by the security of a steady paycheck and the oportunity of constant adventure, yet we are all essentially alone and unrooted from our known surroundings. People will come and go and come and go and leave to different places, at different times, for different purposes. So change is inevitable and yet it is also really important not to let myself fall into habit, routine and bordome which doesn't take advantage of living in Korea and the possibility of meeting new interesting friends.

I think it was Sunim who told me that we are essentially the same person with the same problems no mater where we go. Place is an illusion, only ones present situation is real. It's still hard not to get caught up in the routine of a 9-5 exhistance and forget to sit up look around and think "HEY! I'm in Korea!". And so, my greatest ambition in my second year in Korea is and will continue to be to sit up every day and take advantage of my situation here and to be more involved in being in Korea. Now I feel like a broken record, because I know I've said this before so maybe what I'm looking for is more the strength to do what I know is right and best for myself and my life in Korea.

Well as you can tell, I have been trying to bring a certain amount of focus back to my artwork in the past little while and not forget my reasons for having come to Seoul in the first place.

And in that respect I feel as though I have been making a concentrated effort and gaining momentum. My hope now is to keep the ball rolling so to speak and to try and have fun in the process of doing so.