COLBAYOSITY

Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...
Paris
France · 6 days
Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style.
She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le...

Paris
France · 6 days

Celebrating my mother’s birthday in style. 

She took to it like a second life. We packed in a surprising number of restaurants, quarters, and sight-seeing into six days: three hotels, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Le Louvre, Le Tour Eiffel, Le Quartier Latin, Deux Magots, Les Philosophes, Kunitoraya Udon, Le Gabriel, Spring, Frenchie, Palais Garnier. 

It was wonderful.

Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...
Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days
A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass,...

Bourne End & London
United Kingdom · 10 days

A year ago I would not have believed I’d be celebrating Christmas in the English countryside. 2016 has been full of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. There was a home-cooked turkey, frost on grass, running along the Thames in mud-mucked sneakers, the Millenium bridge, marvelous graphic novels near a London ramen house, surreal art at the Tate Modern. A fire in a fire place, champagne, family, gifts of all kinds.

I’m happy.

National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...
National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17
My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.
Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent...

National Museum of Korea, Gangnam, Apgujeong Rodeo
Seoul, Korea · Days 15, 16, & 17

My time here is winding down and I’ve been playing cuz all work, dull, etc.

Some shopping, gift-getting, beautifying, museuming. I was fascinated with the permanent exhibit at the grand, imposing National Museum of Korea (by the way, I love how subways are so conveniently linked to malls, grocery stores, food courts, museums…pretty much everything, here). Entry to the Museum is free and you get to see the history of the nation from the emergence of the Korean race in 2333 BCE to the present day. I was especially enamored with the display of Korean calligraphy and the rise of Hangul, the Korean alphabet (developed in the 15th century). I rarely feel an affinity for modern Korean typography and lettering; I think they’re unappealingly boxy, inelegant. I found myself wishing that they took more after the elegant forms I saw in manuscripts at the Museum.

My trip in Seoul would not be complete without a mention of the insane amount of plastic surgery on the street and in ads. More power to those who seek a little enhancement or nip-tuck if it makes them feel better, but it’s disturbing to see the extent to which mainstream Koreans idealize and pine after Western features and white skin, finding their too-ethnic features problematic.

For instance, these ads are typical of those you see in the streets of Sinsa-dong and Gangnam:

image
image

Two perfectly attractive people whose features needed to be—understandably in the minds of the general public here— “corrected.”

I hope Korea grows out of  this form of self-erasure.

Sinsa-dong, Ojang-dong, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Days 13 & 14
My mother is a skilled storyteller.
As kids we used to sidle up to her in the late afternoons when she was about to nap, and beg her to tell us tales from her childhood. In her low, ample...
Sinsa-dong, Ojang-dong, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Days 13 & 14
My mother is a skilled storyteller.
As kids we used to sidle up to her in the late afternoons when she was about to nap, and beg her to tell us tales from her childhood. In her low, ample...
Sinsa-dong, Ojang-dong, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Days 13 & 14
My mother is a skilled storyteller.
As kids we used to sidle up to her in the late afternoons when she was about to nap, and beg her to tell us tales from her childhood. In her low, ample...
Sinsa-dong, Ojang-dong, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Days 13 & 14
My mother is a skilled storyteller.
As kids we used to sidle up to her in the late afternoons when she was about to nap, and beg her to tell us tales from her childhood. In her low, ample...

Sinsa-dong, Ojang-dong, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Days 13 & 14

My mother is a skilled storyteller. 

As kids we used to sidle up to her in the late afternoons when she was about to nap, and beg her to tell us tales from her childhood. In her low, ample voice, she’s remember out loud: what it was like to cajole her older sisters into accompanying her to the outhouse in the far away dark late at night, how she accidentally ate all the cream off a cake that had been saved for company and get punished, how the older kids got bars of coveted Hershey’s milk chocolate that they’d carefully nibble through as they studied for exams into the wee hours. 

One of the stories she told was about the exclusive treks to eateries with her reserved, terse father, with whom she was a favorite. One of the places he’d take her to was a cold noodle joint in the Ojang-dong part of Seoul where they specialized in hamheung naengmyeon (spicy with raw skate). Her face would be rosy by the end of the meal from the spiciness, glowing from the deliciousness. 

Last night my sister and I hauled ourselves out there to honor that memory. There was a line out the door which went quickly. It was full of just locals. The price was still low at $9 per bowl, tiny menu. It was a no-nonsense kind of place, and people were enthusiastically enjoying their meals. For my sister and me, it wasn’t as good as my mother had remembered (we prefer the place we discovered in Hongdae), but how could it be? Memory is always more saturated, more savory. So we ate, dutifully and with a level of reverence, then we left.

Otherwise time has been spent meeting up with friends, doing a little shopping for birthday girls, studying, trying to work and half-heartedly failing. A lot of sister bonding and conversations with family back home. 

Time is zipping by. It’s almost time to leave.

On the way back to our flat, we observe some folks playfully engaging with each other on the subway train. A particularly inquisitive woman makes a show of peeking at her neighbors when they sit down, cracking up the old woman sitting across the way. They’re strangers to each other, but eventually begin to converse. It’s fascinating to watch the language loosen and dip occasionally into the semi-formal honorific. 

Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...
Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12
The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove...

Cheorwon
Korea · Days 11 & 12

The morning after we returned from Hong Kong, we got up early to trek over to Art Sonje on the other side of town. An interpreter and project coordinator at The Real DMZ project picked us up in their minivan and we drove for two hours or so up to Cheorwon, a county that borders North Korea. There, we met up with an historian who is a native and resident. He guided us on an intimate tour through the long of the day.

It’s a sobering experience to stand at the line, literally, between two halves of a body—your body—at war. 

Under the pristine and verdant canopy, the loam cradles an abundance of mines; thousands of deadly seeds lying dormant. The contrast between the at-face-beauty of the demilitarized zone (an ironic name for the most heavily militarized place on earth) and what lies beneath, as well as its purpose and its function, is jarring and creepy.

I stood at the top of the peace observatory, gazing at North Korea: inaccessible, closed, and within walking distance. My eyes felt hot, and I felt very old, tired, and heavy.

There is an abandoned granary in the town. Inside, time has stopped. There’s an otherworldly feel to the place, with light filtering in around rusted doors, falling on strange artifacts and objects of ruin. It’s an emotional response in the form of a physical structure. There’s magic there, and I didn’t want to leave.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day, with the relentless heat and humidity hounding us. A word that our historian uttered often in conversation: 아픔. It means “pain,” and it means “sadness.”

The pain of this house. The pain of these trees. The pain of this memory.

Everyone was quiet on the long drive back to Seoul, where we arrived late in the evening.

Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10
Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come...

Sheung Wan
Hong Kong · Days 8, 9, & 10

Three days here have passed quickly. The stifling heat and humidity provide a strangely comforting continuity as my sister and I shift in transit, burdened with the usual anxiety that invariably seems to come with crossing borders.

We’re in a very central, apparently “hip” part of Hong Kong, which means everything of interest—the Asia Art Archive, shops, eateries—are accessible within at most a 20 minute walk. Often, it’s something more like 5, and I’m suddenly grateful for all the time I’m able to save from short commutes.

The sister is heads down on gathering research material, furiously photocopying page after page of obscure publications at the Archive. Meanwhile, I wander into holes in the wall, plopping myself down among surprised locals in the middle of slurping their bowls of noodles. I point at what a tiny old woman is eating across the communal table—I want that—and she looks up, breaking into a wide toothless smile mid chopstick-lift. Her eyes crinkle into nothing, two more long lines in a face of deep crevices. I look sidelong at what others are doing with the mystery sauces on the table, mimic, partake. I brazenly dump a healthy dose of chili sauce into the broth and realize my mistake, belatedly. I finish, mouth and face on fire, out of pride. The cook looks on with pity. 

The next day I return to order a different bowl of noodles like an old hand, and do it right with only a parsimonious bit of chili this time. I enjoy four toothsome shrimp and pork wontons which come resting on a pillow of yellow noodles in steaming broth. That and a side of sautéed seasonal greens comes to $3 USD.

Today began with a thunderstorm, and I spent the morning trying to catch some Olympics after working out at the hotel. The rest of the day goes to finishing a book at a tranquil tea house up the hill.

I must admit that I’m exhausted. I woke up with a sore throat, so the body is feeling it as much as the mind. 

I’ve been pushing myself hard with personal projects, because momentum is so difficult to come by and I always end up riding it mercilessly before it peters out and I crash. Small price to pay, really, for all the work that gets done, but then I’m fallow for days.

I bowed out of a relationship only a few months ago, too, which is both exciting and scary. This is the mourning period, and it’s deep, and it’s low.

All I can do is look to myself, and pull on the plumb line until I’m above ground, revel as I can in the black. Because there’s always something I can take, and use, when I suffer.

Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...
Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7
It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit.
It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid,...

Sinsa-dong, Hongdae, Gangnam, Dongjak-gu
Seoul, Korea · Days 6 & 7

It’s been about a week since arrival and I feel a bit burnt out. Began organizing exhibit pieces for 2017 in preparation for a gallery kit. 

It’s been excruciatingly hot and humid, even for me, a lover of jungles. Went to Gangnam in search of a study cafe only to discover that the Internets had lied and it had relocated two years ago. Stumbled, exhausted, on a minimalistic European-style cafe called “Relieve” and settled. Quaffed an Americano while working on the top floor, feeling satisfyingly out of place in my flip flops among the young and well-heeled. 

Then dinner at a place specializing in boiling hot samgyetang (chicken stuffed with rice and ginger and herbs) back near the university. Koreans have a thing about eating hot or spicy when it’s hot out. It’s meant to invigorate and heal. I need that now. 

Lastly: a walk through the heavy night air under cover of cicada song. 

Tomorrow: Hong Kong.

Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...
Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5
Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.
We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot...

Jung-gu, Gyeongbokkung
Seoul, Korea · Days 4 & 5

Record temperature and humidity is leading the government to issue mobile almost daily. It’s only in the 90s but feels much, much hotter.

We’ve been finding solace in naengmyun, (buckwheat or arrowroot noodles in ice-cold broth), beer, and iced coffee.

Highlights from the past few days:

  • Interview with an artist who is currently an expat in France, quietly in Seoul for a spell. 
  • Dizzying walk through the flagship Kyobo bookstore at Gwanghwamun Station. There’s a food court in there.
  • Visit to the Book Society, a tiny independent space where you can find obscure publications on design, culture, politics, art.

I spent some time trying to do a graphic design exercise without a monitor or ergonomic set up, and it killed my wrist. Time to switch to different kinds of creative projects while abroad.

You can see the design in the next installment of Vitamin C!, my newsletter, which is going out later today.

Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...
Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3
It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:
• Wake up between 5 and 6am.
• Caffeinate.
• Work until noon.
• Gym.
• Lunch.
•...

Itaewon, Myeongdong
Seoul, Korea · Day 3

It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here three days. They’ve been long and full. The schedule has basically been like this:

  • Wake up between 5 and 6am. 
  • Caffeinate. 
  • Work until noon. 
  • Gym. 
  • Lunch. 
  • Shower. 
  • Hit the streets of Seoul taking photographs, tagging along with my sister as she does research for her book, eat as much as I can. 
  • Come home around 11pm, feet on fire, belly full.

We went to the Leeum Museum of Art in Itaewon to check out our friend Jane’s exhibits as a part of the Art Spectrum special program. I recognized photographs from our time together in North Korea last year in “Seeing Shades of Red,” and found myself thinking a lot about memory and bias and war. Other artists I found myself drawn to:

  • Haeri Choi, with her surreal moving imagery, which reminded me of the Quay Brothers’ aesthetic in some ways
  • Kelvin Park, with “ARMY: 600,000 Portraits,” a powerful large-scale video and sound montage that I couldn’t tear myself away from.

In addition to modern works the museum houses a number of special collections that include celadon pottery, calligraphy, and paintings from the Joseon and Goryeo Dynasties (918 to 1897). I marveled at how well some of the pieces were preserved. In fact, at times, to the point of doubt.

We exited the museum after it closed to a torrential downpour. We tried to wait it out but ultimately ended up trudging through it to get to the subway. Thence to Myeongdong, the center of street food and shopping. We ate at Baekjeong to the tune of about $20 each for two orders of beef barbequed at our table, a bottle of soju, and kimchi stew. It was marvelous. Food here is so cheap (as long as you keep it Korean) that you really have to strategize.

We walked around for a while afterward until we could no more, and vowed to return and make a meal of street food next time. 

Back at Chung Ang University, where we are staying in faculty housing, we fell into the bed and each slept our long and dreamless nights.