I was sitting in a coffee shop Sunday morning flipping through an art and design magazine. This is the sort of neighborhood that has coffee shops, and they are open on Sunday mornings. The coffee shop I went to is the sort of coffee shop that provides you with high-brow magazines. The magazine I picked was mostly about objects. Cars, daily planners, cellphones, furniture, anything that is ever used, even if it is only to decorate, was discussed in this periodical. There was a paragraph about the milk ajuma hand carts. It compared phones by Prada and Giorgio Armani. The magazine seemed to focus on the ideal of, "Form follows function" and added the clause, "and an important function is to look pretty". It was simply entitled Design. It is that sort of magazine.
There was a particular shop that the magazine discussed. The photo spread showed a shop full of merchandise that looked a bit more low-brow. The items were of a modern pop-art theme. Toys, posters, and random odds and ends were the norm. The photos reminded me of "Juxtapoz" . The main item that I remembered from the write-up was a trophy mounted polar bear head that was wearing a pirate hat. It was that sort of shop. I remembered it specifically because it did not seem to fit the clean cut image of the magazine. It was that sort of photo spread.
Yesterday, I was wandering around the less clean, more graffitied part of my new neighborhood. I was looking for an old furniture store that I had noticed a few nights before. I was heading in a general southwesterly direction when I saw a polar bear's head mounted on a wall inside of a shop. I stopped to gape for a moment because I began to notice other items from the magazine spread. It is that sort of neighborhood.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Transitions...
I am in a state of transition. It is a bit like being a minnow in tapioca pudding. Friday was my last day at Sungdong POLY, and I am now finishing up the last hurdles of the new visa process, and should hopefully begin teaching at PlusOne by the beginning of March.
Why the change? Well, I'm still searching for a school with integrity. POLY quickly proved itself to not be such a school. I am not going to get into details here, but from the moment I turned in my notice (over a month ago) I have felt a weight off of my shoulders.
On the other hand, PlusOne is proving itself to be an awesome school. Everything that I have seen shows a relaxed atmosphere with more devotion to teaching the children rather than making a quick buck from the parents.
I am not putting up any PlusOne pictures just yet. I have another week and a half of down time, so I should be able to catch up on my back log of blogs. Instead enjoy my farewell photo essay of POLY.
**I apologize in advance if I have misspelled anyone's name**
ByBye POLY
Why the change? Well, I'm still searching for a school with integrity. POLY quickly proved itself to not be such a school. I am not going to get into details here, but from the moment I turned in my notice (over a month ago) I have felt a weight off of my shoulders.
On the other hand, PlusOne is proving itself to be an awesome school. Everything that I have seen shows a relaxed atmosphere with more devotion to teaching the children rather than making a quick buck from the parents.
I am not putting up any PlusOne pictures just yet. I have another week and a half of down time, so I should be able to catch up on my back log of blogs. Instead enjoy my farewell photo essay of POLY.
**I apologize in advance if I have misspelled anyone's name**
ByBye POLY
Monday, February 11, 2008
Namdaemun:RIP
It's amazing how the destruction of a site that I barely visited can affect me so strongly. The people around me today (namely at the hakwon) have expressed little emotion towards the event, but just hearing about it, and later seeing the pictures that accompanied the Associated Press Article has left me feeling a bit hollow. I can only assume that this is because I consider Korea as my home, and Namdaemun (남대문) was an important cultural treasure.
Unfortunatly the only pictures I ever took of the gate was on a cell phone, before I purchased my digital camera. Even more unfortanatly I was never able to transfer the pictures from the phone onto my computer, and are now gone for good. This has just given me the conviction to always carry my charged camera, and to take pictures of everywhere that I go.
Unfortunatly the only pictures I ever took of the gate was on a cell phone, before I purchased my digital camera. Even more unfortanatly I was never able to transfer the pictures from the phone onto my computer, and are now gone for good. This has just given me the conviction to always carry my charged camera, and to take pictures of everywhere that I go.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Ringing in the New Year
Happy 2008, everyone! The end of 2007 was fairly eventful for me. On the 15th Jungwon and I had an action packed day. It started off with ring shopping at Insadong and Chungro 3Ga. This was followed up by some coffee at the Insadong Starbucks, and then meeting Sarah and Michael. The four of us then went to a ceramics party that Jungwon's friend was catering, and then on to some fancy building back on Chungro 3Ga that had a fancy sky lounge.
During the ring shopping Jungwon and I started at an artsy jewelry shop in Insadong. They had some lovely rings, but Jungwon wanted to check out the well known jewelry shops along Chungro 3Ga. So we walked there and I immediately didn't like the shops. Imagine a room full of greasy men that could very well be used car salesmen only instead of trying to sell fenderless Pintos, they're tying to pass along cheaply stamped out gold foil rings. It was obvious we weren't going to find anything there.
So Jungwon and I meandered around, and we broached some cultural differences that we hadn't fully noticed before. I had to explain that engagement rings are for the woman, and that they are typically worn on the finger along with the marriage band. Jungwon explained that I should have a ring too (I'm not sure if this is a Korean thing, or a Jungwon thing), and with her bashfulness of her hands, they may very well be the only rings we buy.
We also decided that we both really liked one of the specific designs back at the first shop in Insadong. We soon found ourselves back in the shop being measured and jittery with excitement.
The rings are two tone, white and pink gold. There are four stones set along either edge (see the pictures) of each ring. The gold is unfortunately rather soft (as gold should be), and Jungwon insisted on cubic instead of real diamonds. "Can you tell the difference?" She asked. I, of course, had to admit that I couldn't. The delivery from the workshop was delayed due to the Christmas orders, but we finally picked them up on the 29th. Unfortunatly my ring was a bit larger than I was confortable with. I could just imagine it slipping off if I was to ever go swimming. So Monday I returned to the shop to get it resized, and I'm hoping it will be ready sometime in the next few days.
Still, Jungwon and I consider ourselves officially engaged. There aren't any dates set, and I'm not sure anything will happen anytime in the next year. Just rest assured that when the weddings bells do ring, they will probably ring twice, once for each homeland so don't be afraid that you'll be missing anything.
During the ring shopping Jungwon and I started at an artsy jewelry shop in Insadong. They had some lovely rings, but Jungwon wanted to check out the well known jewelry shops along Chungro 3Ga. So we walked there and I immediately didn't like the shops. Imagine a room full of greasy men that could very well be used car salesmen only instead of trying to sell fenderless Pintos, they're tying to pass along cheaply stamped out gold foil rings. It was obvious we weren't going to find anything there.
So Jungwon and I meandered around, and we broached some cultural differences that we hadn't fully noticed before. I had to explain that engagement rings are for the woman, and that they are typically worn on the finger along with the marriage band. Jungwon explained that I should have a ring too (I'm not sure if this is a Korean thing, or a Jungwon thing), and with her bashfulness of her hands, they may very well be the only rings we buy.
We also decided that we both really liked one of the specific designs back at the first shop in Insadong. We soon found ourselves back in the shop being measured and jittery with excitement.
The rings are two tone, white and pink gold. There are four stones set along either edge (see the pictures) of each ring. The gold is unfortunately rather soft (as gold should be), and Jungwon insisted on cubic instead of real diamonds. "Can you tell the difference?" She asked. I, of course, had to admit that I couldn't. The delivery from the workshop was delayed due to the Christmas orders, but we finally picked them up on the 29th. Unfortunatly my ring was a bit larger than I was confortable with. I could just imagine it slipping off if I was to ever go swimming. So Monday I returned to the shop to get it resized, and I'm hoping it will be ready sometime in the next few days.
Still, Jungwon and I consider ourselves officially engaged. There aren't any dates set, and I'm not sure anything will happen anytime in the next year. Just rest assured that when the weddings bells do ring, they will probably ring twice, once for each homeland so don't be afraid that you'll be missing anything.
|
|
|
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Where to begin?
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Really Country
I have finally, officially met Jungwon's mom, twice. In case I haven't mentioned it the first meeting was accidental at a coffee shop just after we started dating.
For the first official meeting we decided to have lunch in Seolae Maeul, which is a small neighborhood in Seoul that was apparently, at one time, home to a clump of French people. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had some pasta followed by a cup of coffee. Jungwon's mom seemed to accept me, but she admonished me repeatedly for my lack of Korean.
For the second meeting, Jungwon invited me to accompany them to a temple/African art center outside of Seoul. We had a good time and after walking around for several hours we had some Manduguk (dumpling soup) at a famous restaurant. Unfortunately I didn't memorize the name of the temple, or the restaurant. If I remember correctly you head south, take a left, and it's on the left. However, I did take a few pictures around the temple, not too many because I didn't want to offend anyone. Then at the African art center we got a lot more pictures of everyone.
For the first official meeting we decided to have lunch in Seolae Maeul, which is a small neighborhood in Seoul that was apparently, at one time, home to a clump of French people. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had some pasta followed by a cup of coffee. Jungwon's mom seemed to accept me, but she admonished me repeatedly for my lack of Korean.
For the second meeting, Jungwon invited me to accompany them to a temple/African art center outside of Seoul. We had a good time and after walking around for several hours we had some Manduguk (dumpling soup) at a famous restaurant. Unfortunately I didn't memorize the name of the temple, or the restaurant. If I remember correctly you head south, take a left, and it's on the left. However, I did take a few pictures around the temple, not too many because I didn't want to offend anyone. Then at the African art center we got a lot more pictures of everyone.
 |
| Really Country |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)