Back to the USA

The trip is finally over. I flew into LAX today at 10:30am. I had a wonderful time in the city, and I plan on returning in the near future.

Now I have a week to rest, and then I begin preparing for the baltimore exhibition. If anyone is in the area, please come! This is your personal invitation, bring friends and patrons.

I'll post the photos of the Seoul exhibition in the next entry, and an official invitation card in the near future. So still check the blog until after the baltimore exhibition for full coverage and event photos.

W3: Exhibition White (Wedding, Women, White Day)
( i'll post exact dates later)
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
Brown Center
1300 Mount Royal Ave
Baltimore MD 21217

alive.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and ok. I've spent the last 4 days and nights at the Gallery where we were working to set up the show, and finally last night was the opening. It went well, i'll post the photos in a few hours.

LOCO in el studio.

I forgot to mention that the gallery opening is on Wednesday of this upcoming week, and we hang the show on Monday morning.. which is TOMORROW for me. That means that we are expected to have finished all of our individual and group projects by tonight, 10pm. My schedule for this past week was something like : 9:00am- meeting with directors and group, 1pm- cheonggyecheon for supplies, 6-7p - finally make it back to school, 7p- work in the studio until 5-7am. 7am- nap, 9 am- back to the studio.... Not to mention that we are all exhausted and burnt out, and miserable, and annoyed with each other and our work and the whole ordeal. But once we accomplish things we are in better moods. (aside from the swarms of mosquitos). Be for-warned that these are extremely unflattering images of our time in the studio. YES i pretty much looked like this all week. horrible.





Claire has seriously cracked. She hasn't had a real sleep (more than 5 hours) all week.

clearly so have I. I look like an old lady and a psycho mosquito killer.

killing action.

our tough-critic directors.





doesnt this remind you of the illegal migrant labour?



my unfinished project... see where your money has been spent mum and dad? Wait until u see it in action.....i built a working fountain.

by 4am a few people couldn't take anymore. They past out, one by one, on the floor.

More Random moments via Seoul.

This man is the most awesome person I've seen here so far.

A cafe in the theatre district.

THE FIRST TIME I'VE SEEN THE SUN SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE. It was beautiful to see the sun again.


This stream was once under a highway. Apparently the people voted to lose the highway to restore the stream. It extends pretty far, and is nestled in the center of the parts and supplies district aka Cheonggyecheon. (where i've spent almost everyday getting supplies).

I finally escaped to dongdemun (twice i might add). It was great to get away from the school and the group for a while.

Dongdemun is known for being a great shopping district. Its pretty lively. The co-op where we first stayed was located right down the street from here. Now we're staying about 20-40mins by bus or train away.

I eat alot of good food. I especially enjoy spicy dishes. Food is also relatively affordable, especially for the amount we get. Western food is really expensive though, pizza costs around 14$ for a small.

Yena is also in the program, and she goes to the school we're staying at KNUA (korean national university for the Arts). We had to get away from the stress of the studio.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this baby.

Robot Museum

This was a pretty cool place. Its kind of famous, I'd actually heard about it before going. The museum was mostly a toy collection themed around robots and old sci-fi cartoons/tv-shows. we also watched a short 3-d movie that was cute.

dodging mosquitos

So entries are becoming few and far apart, thanks to the tight schedule that I'm on of no sleep, trips to buy supplies, working on structures, chugging down coffee and dodging mosquitos. YES MOSQUITOS. Those SOB mosquitos are everywhere. I've been in the computer lab by myself less than 30 mins, and already i've had to kill 7. I bought an electric racquet to kill them, and its been full on war since then. I'm almost positive that eating kimchi lowers your chances of being bit. Also, less sugar( sadly that's all i've been eating thanks to our schedule) helps to keep them at bay. The attacks have been so bad, that either i've had an allergic reaction to some food, or, i have 3 bites on my face around my eye. Talk about painful. And horribly unattractive. I took a photo of it but after a second thought I dont think you all want to see that. Soooo i'll reserve the visual. The exhibition is on Wednesday. I'm completely broke, and everyone is really stress out and tired. We aren't even close to being ready, but we keep pushing on with hopes that the show will be decent. The signs of fatigue are beginning to show, and to be honest the only thing that is really keeping me happy is the prospect of SHOPPING. Yes, shopping. If i feel horrible, i just think of the 10$ shoes that I can buy. Anyway, I'm being double teamed by mosquitos as I'm typing, so I'll post some random photos and get out of here.

UPDATE

I updated the image links so that everyone can view the videos and the photos! Let me know if any images aren't showing.
I dont think that there will be many photos from this week, because we're officially beginning project construction.

Buddist temple, palace, and hiking

This day was the most tiring but really interesting. First we visited the center buddhist temple in the city of Seoul. Then we continued to what remains of the Palace structure. The next field trip was to do a SMALL hike to the buddhist temple/community in the mountains beside Seoul. All that I can say, even being somewhat athletic, that was no small hike. But every viewpoint made it worth the climb.

beautiful.

the prayer song was so enchanting.


this view embodies the culture and city of Seoul: tradition with modernity, historical preservation v. progress
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Alright so, the best idea of the day was to take the costume photos. We had so much fun with it. It was hilarious that these chinese tourists began to take photos with us.



get your laughs.





please notice the random chinese guy on the right!

The Hike

the mountain buddha was a natural rock formation. incredible.

this water was also delicious! and look at the clarity.

the view from the top.

it was hot.

ending with this house we saw. It looks like brick in the front, and then notice the reflective side! It was a vinyl type cover!!! NOT REAL BRICK!!! blew my mind.