Parties and Paintings

My social calendar was pretty booked up this weekend, which was exactly what I needed after what felt like the longest week I'd spent in Korea. Despite taking a sick day on Monday, going to a demo class at a nearby middle school on Tuesday, and sitting at my desk with no classes all day during the SATs on Thursday, I thought my head was going to explode by the time Friday evening rolled around. The second school let out, I got my crap together and headed to Seoul. I have two girl friends, Kasia and Rian, who had never been to Homo Hill and had made me promise to take them before they go home in December, so Friday night that's exactly what we did. I just spent four hours dancing all my stress out, which was perfect except for the raging headache I had to bear the brunt of the entire next day. Stupid cheap gin.

On Saturday, after an extremely late brunch with friends I hadn't seen in weeks, Amanda and I headed to the National Museum of Contemporary Art at Deoksugung Palace to scope out the Picasso and Chagall exhibition.  Picasso and Dali have been my two favorite artists since my time studying in Spain so I was excited to see more of Picasso's work and "get some culture," as it were. The only painting that was famous enough for me to recognize was Picasso's "Woman in a Green Hat." The museum also showed some of Picasso's earlier works, like "The Frugal Repast," which really brought me back to those days in Madrid and Barcelona, when I remember being shocked to learn that Picasso could actually draw in a realistic fashion.

A lot of my peers at the time slammed Picasso and other modern artists for doing something "a 5-year-old could do" and had to eat crow once they realized that he spent decades creating "legitimate" art before he branched off and really developed his own distinct style. I will never understand the disdain some people have for modern art; I far prefer the contemporary stuff to the Renaissance or Baroque artworks. My favorite piece of the whole exhibition wasn't even a Picasso at all, it was something called "The High Shore" by Lyonel Feininger, who I'd never heard of before but man did I love the painting.

One of the Japanese lanterns.

After leaving the museum, Amanda and I strolled along the road next to Cheonggye Stream to get a look at the Seoul Lantern Festival, which was timed and themed this year to coincide with the G20 Summit that took place in Seoul 2 weeks ago.  The stream was littered with giant lanterns in the shape of various landmarks from the G20 participant countries, like the Eiffel Tower for France, Big Ben for the UK, and the Statue of Liberty for the US. There were also, of course, whole areas of lanterns dedicated to Korean culture and history, as well as a water and light show. It was really beautiful, even if not at all peaceful. In fact, I was a little bit taken aback by how busy both the art exhibit and the lantern festival were; for some reason, I always forget how popular these types of things are in Korea. When Jen and I went to see the awesome Steve McCurry photography exhibit last summer, it was the same kind of deal. Soooo many people crowded into a small space to catch a glimpse of the photos. In order to ease the congestion and facilitate crowd flow, the museums typically have arrows on the walls and floors to direct you from one room to another, all but forcing you to see the exhibit in a certain manner or order, very unlike art museums in Europe which are so much larger and free-flowing. Amanda mused that it should be a curating sin but I understand the need for it when the exhibits are just so busy.

Saturday night I joined the party to celebrate Kasia's birthday, which was my first time in my entire 7 months in Korea going out in the trendy, wealthy Gangnam neighborhood. We started out at Rainbow Hookah Lounge, which was actually pretty awesome and definitely somewhere I would like to go back to, although it was crazy to me to see so many foreigners in one place outside of Itaewon. Later on, we were supposed to be on a guest list to get into Eden, the most famous club in Korea, but some kind of miscommunication snafu left half the party unable to get in and the birthday girl in tears, so we moved on. Still had a fun night in the end though.

Sunday was spent eating fish and chips for lunch, running into random friends at my favorite coffee shop in Seoul and watching YouTube videos on their laptop, and finally heading to a housewarming party for an acquaintance of mine, during which I engaged in some long-simmering political discussions and met a few really interesting people who I will probably never talk to again. It was, all told, a great capper to a nicely packed weekend, which I also got to enjoy as being the last relatively mild weekend before the total onset of winter being forecasted this week. Next weekend marks the first of my "five milestones," which are, in order, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, winter vacation, and then April April April, when I can finally go home. Not that I'm counting down or anything. Looking forward to the holidays!