August 2010
16 posts
goodbye.. sort of
sorry i haven’t written lately. its a mixture of having been busy with my mom here and the fact that mike took the usb so my pictures have been piling up on my camera
so while i’m leaving seoul today, you’ll see the last couple bits over the next few weeks.
see you soon la (and boston!)
xo,
s
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f'ed up phone etiquette
seriously korea. what’s up with:
the fact the phone etiquette here requires that when you call someone, you should always ask if its a convenient time to speak.
BUT………..
you are calling someone you don’t know very well. and you call the FOUR times in a row within the span of FIVE minutes. so i FINALLY pick up the fourth time and you ask if its a convenient...
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Watcha day in the life of open house. a project that i am participating in here in korea!
raumlaborkorea:
friday, 13th august
the workshop began with a group of teenagers (volunteers). they finally built a “chaise bordelaise” and painted the sign for the rabbit house and the view point.
also the neighbor who is coming almost every day finished the shelf he is working on since a while. (and by...
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ladies and gentleman. michael has officially left the country.
boo.
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jeju: udo island
just 20 minutes off the eastern coast of jeju island is another delightful one called udo island. it’s about 18km in circumference. mike and i packed up our tent from our first night it jeju and took a taxi to the port.
we had briefly comtemplated what we should do with our bags while visiting the island. this was actually something we dealt with the most of the trip. when you are traveling...
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jeju beaches + camping
jeju had some amazing beaches. the first night we arrived, we decided to camp on a small beach on the east coast of jeju, sinyang beach we had been worried about not being able to find a place to camp as we were in jeju at the peak of korean vacation traveling. however, we find this beach magically deserted with only one other family camping there. it was a delightfully peaceful and tranquil way...
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The Wire Guide to South Korean Experimental... →
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WatchVisual artist based in Seoul. Creators Project interview.
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my 'hood
photos from around hongdae:
on the weekends in hongdae there are live concerts/performances in this little park plaza near the main gate of hongik university. its always packed with students and others watching…
sleeping man at this stand of trinkets
fun architecture
a doorway that caught my eye
a nice quaint cafe with yummy cappucinos near sangsu station
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July 2010
22 posts
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urban detectives - raumlabor + apap
so this past weekend was the urban detectives workshop for local teenagers in anyang. this was a two day workshop help in and around open school in hakwon park. the students were participatory and engaged. they made interesting observations and created unique user experience maps that showed the city of anyang as seen through their lives.
On the first day the students were split up into three...
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off to jeju!
mikey and i are off to jeju-do, the “hawaii” of korea for 5 days starting today! this photo is of the top of mt halla on jeju. it sits at the center of jeju island and is not only an inactive volcano but also the tallest mountain in korea.
we might attempt to climb it (8-9 hours roundtrip) but have not made a final decision yet.
we did however by a $16 tent at homeplus yesterday to...
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hongdae 500 market
the last sunday of every month, the 500 club in hongdae turns into a flea market…. at least that’s what i read when searching for flea markets in seoul. it described an event w/ handmade and used goods, people selling food, drinks and live performances.
it sounded amazing so mikey and i went to check it out. the venue was pretty unexpected: you walk down into the basement, take off...
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Nausea, Routine, and Unboundedness
In Sartre’s book The Nausea the protagonist, a sad Antoine Roquentin, experiences an unsettling nausea at the moments when he sees the world, and the things within it, as they really are; undefined, otherworldly, maddeningly beyond. I’m not Sartre, and hardly think life is so sad. But, I do think that traveling to a foreign world shares some of the wild excitement with the nomanilism that Sartre...
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plannerd things i like about seoul: street...
safe bike stations near subway stops:
free internet stations + proximnate wifi
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some more street art...
hongdae:
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plannerd things i like about seoul: transit system
transit card: easy to use, easy to upload. also have little keychains you can attach to your phone that are shaped like little animals or whatnot that also serve as a transit car. can also have it read your credit card. free bus rides for seniors. can also use the money loaded on your transit card to pay for taxis and at convenience stores.
transit system: clean and easy to use. goes all the way...
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mobile planting station
i haven’t really mentioned it on the blog but i am also working part-time while i’m in korea this summer. i am working with the Anyang Public Art Festival (APAP) which is hosted by the City of Anyang about an hour south of Seoul by subway.
Basically, I’ve been doing two things; First, I was helping organize the programming that is being created for the Open Community Center...
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noryangjin photos
see below for description by mikey.
xx, s
from the bridge. to the left is the railway station and to the right is the fish market. just to the right of that is the han river.
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Crab at Noyrangin
I stumbled out of the subway station, my clothes sticking to my skin in the moist hot air, and traversed up concrete stairs to a raised pedestrian bridge. Shelma and Alex walked near behind. We were going to the Noryangin fish market after a long day admiring old Buddhist temples and a huge hyper-commercial mall and the plastic surgery district in Gangnam. All in close proximity. Jia dropped off...
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gwanju, last part!
Wonhyosa Temple, Gwanju
Hwanbyeokdang, Gwanju. Built by poet Sachon.
(this are jeongas. which are sort of pavilion like spaces that were built by poets in the mountains to read, write poetry and drink makgolli with their friends. these covered platform seating areas are still really popular with koreans in public spaces and you can seem them in parks, near rivers or in cities...
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naju + gwanju pt. 2
after our tour around naju, we went up into the adjacent mountains and warren took us to his secret spot where a cool stream flows down the hillside and its surrounded by tea leaves and bamboo.
afterwards, warren’s martial arts teacher and his family came over and we had delicious dinner. we had marinated duck, filet and mashed potatoes. oh the sweet food of home… sorta since at my...
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naju + gwanju = jeollam-do adventures part 1
a couple weeks ago, mikey and i traveled down to the southwestern part of korea. i’ve been putting off posting this because we did so many things that it is pretty massive. so to make it more manageable, i am just splitting it up.
we took the ktx train which is the high speed rail train here in korea. it was very fast and comfortable.
yongsan (dragon mountain) train station.
we...
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Going to Nami
On a class trip we went to Nami Island, an artificial piece of land thrown into the middle of the Han River in Gangwon, a small rural province northeast of Seoul. It was for our culture field trip. The advanced Korean language group went to a temple and the intermediate level went to a ceramics museum. We went to Nami. The university’s cameraman, an expert voyeur and crafty...
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Bulgwan Stream (불관천)
a couple weekend ago, mike and i went down to this stream that flows into the han river. it starts at the eungam stop off line number 6. you can rent bikes there for 1000 won (about $.80) for an hour. so we rented some bikes and went off on our way. it was warm and i had picked out probably the worst bike off the lot (wobbly front wheel, sorta flat tires, low seat etc) but mike was nice enough to...
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street art in sinchon + hongdae
here are some pieces near my school. there is a pedestrian tunnel but the pictures aren’t great because of the overwhelmingly strong smell of sewage that made me faint.
jeremy came to visit seoul for 8 hours on his way to mumbai. we got to hang out for a couple hours and we walked around hongdae.
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June 2010
32 posts
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More on Sanulim (Hydra) →
Jose tells the Sanulim story:
“
1977 was the year the Sex Pistols released their first and only studio album “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols”, and the same year The Clash released their self-titled debut (just a year after The Ramones had released their own self-titled debut). 1977 was also the year Elvis Presley died, when disco was at its peak, and hip hop was...
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leftlings
major lazer show, seoul
dj’ing game. couldn’ even figure out how to play it.
they were strangers:
itaewon, seoul
new current trend in seoul: chicken and beer. it’s EVERYWHERE
subway police vs godfearing ajummas.
itaewon, seoul.
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HE6: From Seoul and Back
Fellow music obsessor Oscar put me up on a DJ Shadow mix with strictly Korean breaks, “Seoul Know how to Make Music”, featuring the nasty funk and fuzzed out psych of Cherry Parade, The Last Chance, and uh, other highly recognizable outfits from 1970s Seoul. Anyone able to compile a track list of this? Or at least the hangeul letters for said groups listed above; Google searches in...
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old skool korea steez.
last weekend we went to the korean war memorial museum. it wasn’t quite what i expected. i went wanting to learn more about the impact on the culture and communities of south korea that the war had…. and i encountered mostly a flurry of ammunition, tanks and battle statistics.
however, there was one section on the historical wars of ancient korea. here i got to learn a little more...
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아름다운 곳 (beautiful place), magma, magma 1981....
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namsan tower
last weekend, mike and i went to check out the namsan tower.
while officially named the “n seoul tower” its referred to as namsan tower as most. it sits on top of nam mountain (hill) near the center of seoul. it is a communication and observation tower.
allegedly, i’ve been there with my dad when i was a kid. but the first that i can remember of hearing about this tower is from...
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Constipated: An Ode to Kogi
A steady diet of indulging in pounds of barbecued meat, that ubiquitous kogi filling the air with its sweet delight, has rendered me seriously handicapped. I forgot to eat vegetables for a few days besides the kimchi side dishes and the pieces of lettuce offered at meals to wrap loads of meat and garlic in little sandwiches. Some spicy noodles helped solidify the contents in my stomach and...
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a walk around itaewon
we checked out itaewon last weekend in mike’s avid search for deodorant mentioned below. the main strips were as described to us: lots of international stores, restaurants and people. we got to eat thai food (the first non-korean food we had since we’ve been here). i especially thought it was funny how blatant the clubs are in itaewon about who they are trying to attract… not...
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