Nylon in Korea

I didn't realize that Nylon had a site in Korean for Koreans. More motivation to learn more Korean --- so that I can start reading their fashion and art magazines!!! Eeee!!! I really want to know what their perspective is.... 

Their website can be found here. ^_^

Kids Here Can Really Draw Well!

Last night I attended homework time for Camp Fulbright, in case the Korean kiddies (and that is anyone from elementary school up through high school) needed any English assistance. I happened to see one high school girl's drawing and omg it was amazing!!! I've been told by past teachers that the kids here have really advanced drawing skills, but I didn't really believe it until yesterday. This girl's line quality was really sensitive and even some of her random doodles had compositions as interesting as some of the illustrations I've seen in fashion periodicals. I told her that I had studied painting in college, and she responded with a "Wooooahhh. You are very lucky!" She went on to explain that art education isn't something that is really emphasized here at all, and that despite her interest she plans on studying something that will make money in the future. So it's interesting that despite the lack of art education, it seems that there is a trend of ability. I'd like to get to the heart of the reasoning for this, and hopefully I will once I start at my actual school. 

Though interestingly enough, even though more "serious" and "practical" academics are stressed, when you look around on the college campus, young people here dress way more creatively, more artsy even, than their American counterparts. And it's not just a few people, but everyone! Joking around in my Korean class, I expressed my definite liking of the way men dress here. It's generally skinny jeans and some type of fitted colorful or "design-y" printed T/polo. So is this trend towards creative expression stronger simply because it's one of the few outlets of escapism, or is it coming from somewhere completely different? We shall see....

Songnisan Pics

I'm tired and I have more korean to study, so I'll just post some pics from a week ago. Songnisan was absolutely gorgeous!!! 

Quote of the Day: "Korea is where irony comes to die."

So this statement sort of reminded me of a quote from Twin Peaks (the television series by David Lynch that aired in the 90s), when Dale Cooper says of the Great Northern, "This must be where pies go when they die." So I guess for the concept of irony, they all die in Korea and then go to the Northeast of the USA.

But it is true, things are not done out of ironic intention. Last week I went to a bar near the back gate of Kangwon University (KNU) called the "Milwaukee Bucks." There's a picture of a buck on the street awning. However inside, the bar isn't decorated with anything related to its name. It just looks like a normal, un-themed bar. And this isn't funny, at least to Koreans. To Americans this is completely not the case of course.

At first I thought that this would lead to some definite issues with my personality, being of an incredible sarcastic nature. However on the other hand, I've noticed that Koreans seem more sincere. And it also leads to unfettered wackiness. Instead of getting hung up on things, they just do it. And so this leads to an amazing amalgam of contrasting visuals and the whatnot. An example of this being in the noraebangs (where you sing karaoke), where they show clips from random movies while you sing. So you could be singing a sappy love song and on the screen could be some guy getting bloodied from a dramatic fight. It really is amazing. 

Broadie Meeting!!! And Learning How Outside Impression and Truth Can Differ!!

So today I got to meet up with Han-je, my Korean post-doc friend from the now independent Broad Institute. I called his wife on Friday, without having chatted with Han-Je since my departure. As luck would have it, without my even knowing, Han-Je happened to be in Korea this weekend. His wife and two adorable kids live in Chuncheon, where I am. It felt so nice to see a familiar face again. Even though everyone in the program is wonderful, it still is nice to be reminded of who you are through a person of familiarity. His wife, Eun Hee, is sooo nice, and his two children, both boys, are absolutely adorable. We ate dinner and I told him what my initial impression of Korea is. And as luck would have it, he brought along a friend who just received his PhD in chemistry from KNU (the school where I'm staying). Such a small world!

So far Korea has been amazing. People have been really friendly, the food (outside of the cafeteria that is) has been sooo delicious (as you know, that seems to be all I take photos of), and visually things have been quite interesting.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a guest speaker, Michael Hurt, a former ETA from the 90s. He discussed social issues differences between that of Korea and the US, in order to give us a bigger picture in order to understand where certain behavior comes from. Basically, giving us a better key to the code of social constructs. It was very helpful. But what was even more interesting to me is that he does street photography and actually just published an awesome book on Seoul fashion. It was interesting b/c he said that Korea wants to be a top fashion competitor world. However the nature of the conservative Korean government won't allow imagery that could compromise Korea's "pure" image, in other words, allowing any imagery out of the country that could be seen as riske or too edgy. This is a shame, b/c there is a lot of interesting fashion here. Even just walking the streets of Chuncheon, college age kids (men and women alike) dress way more interestingly than their American counterparts. I can only imagine how things are in Seoul! But because of the conservative nature of the control of imagery, the outside world just thinks that Korea is conservative and has no young edgy fashion scene. You really have to come here to observe it for yourself. I think the same problem exists in the fine arts. Most of the imagery that Korea sends out to the Western world is more in reference to traditional ink painting, and not the younger contemporary art scene that exists. Hence the West gets a skewed idea of what is being made in Korea, which is that their arts are safe, traditional, and boring. I was happy to see that someone else saw this disjoint in disseminated imagery with that of what is really happening and is trying to get the word out that Korea does indeed have a bustling young creative circle. This made me feel even more confident in my reason to come here and investigate their gallery scene, and if I was only to be lucky enough, to participate in it as well. Oh, and I bought his book in the end, it's really cool, so I can show you all when I get back to the States!

Patbingsu (팥빙수)

The other day I twice had an amazing Korean dessert, 팥빙수. It is a delicious dessert that relieves you from the oppressive humidity in Chuncheon's summer. Ice shavings are covered with fresh fruit, red beans, rice cake (like mochi), sugar, and frozen yogurt. Because of the shavings, it gives the dessert a crunchy fresh texture, sort of like ice cones. It is also really light b/c of the ice cream to ice ratio. See the picture below and be jealous. It's amazing!!

Cafeteria food

The First Day

The trek over to Korea was quite looong. Our flight from Logan was delayed and so by the time we got to JFK we didn't have time to eat dinner. Though on the way to New York, we were lucky enough to see some fireworks, so the 4th's celebration wasn't totally lost! We flew out of JFK at 12:30am Saturday (standard eastern time) and at that point I hadn't eaten anything since the afternoon. Luckily they served food on the flight, as seen above. Yay bibimbap!

The rest of the day was a whirl wind of orientation activities and paperwork. We also got a tour of Kangwon National University (where we're staying), which is quite large. After dinner a few of us decided to stay awake by walking around the downtown area and drinking beer. The bars in Korea are awesome because they serve a lot of complimentary snack food while you drink. I ate a lot of dried squid, mmmm.

So far I'm liking everything but the fact that you can't flush toilet paper down toilets...