an artsy day

first, an anecdote: on monday, wednesday and friday afternoons, i have my rowdiest and generally most terrible class. they’ve been getting better lately, thanks to a talk from my boss about how i have to act like i actually like these kids to get them to want to listen to me. after friday, i think i might be able to stop pretending.

the topic of discussion this month is “express yourself.” so i asked the kids, ‘how do you like to express yourselves?” linda raised her hand.
linda: i study
me: umm… good try, linda, but that’s not exactly a way to express yourself. does anyone else have any ideas?
edward: i play computer games!
me: that’s a little closer, but still not quite. think about an art activity that you like to do.
linda: i clean my room!
me: uhhh… let’s listen to some songs, and how about you tell me what the person who wrote it was trying to express about himself.
*adagio for strings*
entire class: SOMEONE DIED!
me: awesome! yes, totally! they play this song at funerals all the time! let’s try another one.
*rock lobster*
edward: he is amused!
me: *bursts with joy*

so anyway, spent the weekend doing and viewing a bunch of the stuff i gave my kids as examples of how they can express themselves. first up, the international food festival!

that guys carved those roses from radishes! my friend jin and i made chicken and dumplings for the U.S. foods booth and watched koreans make disgusted faces at us one after another, even after a brilliant girl in our group came up with the genius marketing tag “migook mandu.” there were too many cooks in the kitchen, so i left early and saw my friend da-in’s lovely art at an opening.

and took some sneaky pictures of the friends.

britt kee irvin: too cute.

then it was off to another opening by our friend kay2, who does graffiti. it was fragrant! and participatory!

believe me when i say that kay2 is a much better graffiti artist than 20 of his friends sharing one wall.

we scooted outside to escape the fumes in time to watch the cops circle the block, rubbernecking us over and over again. aren’t we foreigners so weird!

the next day, i cook cook cooked, and we took a motorcycle ride and found some of the prettiest photos i’ve ever had the opportunity to take here in korea. and of course, i didn’t bring my camera. that’s all i’ll say about the lovely things i saw, as mark johnson once told me that it’s lame to talk about pictures you didn’t actually take. i’ll go back someday…