A California hallucination. Jeju-do, Korea!
Ideas, bags, and misc.
1. I have a new idea. It’s kind of a big idea for me, and I thought of it in the middle of the night with some friends. It sounded so simple and so brilliant; now as I’m trying to put the wheels in motion, the whole thing sounds implausible and big and “is it even necessary? is it even interesting?”. Self-doubt, go away!
2. I love this bag. Coach circa mid to late 90s. I found it last summer in a box in my parents’ garage and have been attached to it pretty much ever since.
3. I really cannot wait to go back to KL. Already started looking at flights in May or June, though I cannot possibly afford any more time off in the foreseeable future. I really just loved everything about it in my short 3-day stay there and want to explore moremoremore.
4. I started watching Boardwalk Empire at my neighbor’s last night and am hoooooked. It’s a really very good thing that I’ve disconnected my TV….
I took over 1200 photos on my trip to KL and Bali. A lot of them were not great shots after I saw them on my computer, but occasionally I would see one that I didn’t particularly think was going to be a nice photo when I took it but turned out to be the perfect photo. Take this one, for example.
Looking at it instantly takes me back to that afternoon in East Bali, to that secret, locals-only bluff my friend and I found ourselves on after we looked at each other, shrugged, and climbed on the backs of two boys’ scooters. We zoom zoomed our way along the coast, passing villages and avoiding chickens. The boys honked at everyone they knew, which turned out to be everyone we passed.
That island in the distance is Gili Selang. Gili means island and Selang is the name of the beach, and it’s a hotspot for snorkeling. We stayed up there overlooking Gili Selang for a few minutes discussing our families, making dinner plans, and teaching each other English and Indonesian.
Photos that recall carefree afternoons are the best, aren’t they?
From Germany with Love
A Korean friend who lives in Deutschland sent me a photo yesterday. “This is how Germany looks like at the moment,” he wrote.
I really couldn’t tell if he was trying to tell me how cold it was, or just bragging.
Always a good conversation starter
Another Fulbrighter here is working on a documentary about love motels around Seoul, and when a group of us got together last night, we started talking about the different kinds of love motels, what amenities they offer (dildo vending machines!), and their prolific existence in this great city.
Which leads me this morning to share this gigantic statue of a woman touching herself. I saw it at Loveland park in Jeju-do and thought it was hilarious and scandalous at the same time.
Chagall in Korea
Seoulians, have you all been to the Chagall exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art? CD and I visited the Chagall museum in Nice, France, several years ago, and I was thrilled that CD was in Seoul to check out this exhibit with me in December.
So, unless you live under a rock, chances are that if you live in or near Seoul, you’ve seen this painting on ads all over the city:
Beautiful work, right? We thought so, and in fact, we loved the whole fabulous exhibit. You know what else we loved a week later?
Going to the teddy bear museum in Jeju Island (really not as horrible as it sounds) and coming across this gem:
No line for the cotton candy
Because it’s so damn cold on the beach! Busan, Korea.
Where not to go without a boyfriend
Namsan Tower, Seoul.
In Busan we went to Taejongdae, where at the entrance we played darts! How long has it been since you played a game like this? It made me wish I could go to the fair, chip away at a frozen lemonade, eat more fried foods than sanely possible, and come home with that sweet, sticky, gross feeling.
Busan
Just got back from a quick 2-day, 1-night jaunt to Busan with friends. I’m too lazy to upload my photos tonight, but here is one that I took the last time I was in Busan, a little more than a month ago on Christmas day. Clearly, Jagalchi Market was not taking the day off.
In other news, I’m in the market for a Leica and/or Panasonic/Lumix and know very little about them other than they are worth it. Any advice or recs?
