WINNER OF BEST PHOTO

overall in the SISS photo contest is: Professor Peter Harris!

The prize is a Samsung digital photo frame--something Peter has been longing for. Could he be happier? Not likely!

And here's the winning photo: "Up Against the Wall" -- story about it to follow in another post.

MISHAP … JULY 5, 2010

What was that crash from the bathroom? Peter goes to see and I hear “Aaaaaaaargh!” He’s down on his knees swabbing when I go to see what’s up. The deodorant, in a glass tube, has rolled off the slight curve of the toilet back and shattered on the tile floor …

What is it about deodorant on this trip? The one important thing we managed to leave behind when we left Toronto was Peter’s kit. Luckily, he hadn’t packed his eye drops and ear meds in it! And I had toothpaste in my kit. But we were without my glasses cleaner (is that why so many of the photos I take are blurred?) and deodorant. But I wasn't worried—deodorant couldn’t be that hard to find.

Well, maybe not … When I looked in the Family Mart on Hyochangwon-gil the day after we arrived nothing resembled it. And the woman who asked in broken English if she could help clearly didn’t know the word “deodorant”. When I pantomimed rubbing something in my armpits she recoiled slightly and shook her head firmly. Hmmm—had I just presented myself as uncouth foreigner?

The racks of cosmetics and toiletries at Lotte Mart were dizzying, and everything labeled in Korean characters without English. I couldn’t sort shampoo from skin cream and shower gel and nothing looked like deodorant. We gave up on the first trip and came home to shower. Back at Lotte the next day we passed a young woman demonstrating Nivea products who spoke some English. She also didn’t recognize the word, but the pantomime worked.

It’s that bottle of Nivea deodorant that lies in shards on the bathroom floor. The monsoon is here (though so far only one day of pelting rain) with temperatures around 30 degrees and humidity to match. Even a slow walk glues a shirt to you with great patches of perspiration. We have to head out into that heat later for the Sookmyung Farewell Party …

Later the same day: Thankfully the deodorant proved easy to find this time. We scanned the shelves in the small grocery store where we buy yoghurt, coffee, spoons, laundry soap (or is that fabric softener I’ve been using?), toilet paper, cookies, cream cheese, tuna, beer … and though my eyes glazed Peter found deodorant. Nivea again, even labeled deodorant in English. It’s also labeled men, so I now remind myself of the young men in the Toronto subway. But perhaps the scent will evaporate before we arrive at Centennial Hall for the party.

SLIGHTLY FRANTIC

It’s 7:30 a.m. Monday, July 5, here in Seoul and we fly to Japan on Thursday. Some of our colleagues have left already. Time is running out and my head’s a whirl of blurry lists—all the things we’ve thought we might do plus those niggling jabs of necessities like distributing gifts, buying souvenirs, exchanging contact into, cleaning the apartment, laundry, packing … Ugh! Then there’s the list I made on Friday in my little yellow notebook: what I could write about in this blog—12 possibilities lined up immediately, and another 4 have presented themselves since.

This morning … this morning I must go to the post office, which I’ve finally located. Well, Nancy located it for me. I have a fistful of cards and a couple of letters to mail. If they go today I hope they’ll arrive before we’re back in Canada. I want to go to the Sookmyung campus and revisit the display about its history, this time making some notes. We’ve sworn to try and find a waffle café for lunch—or to go to A Twosome Place and order their scrambled egg set. I must buy some paper to wrap presents in. At 5:00 the university is hosting a farewell party for faculty and students. Afterwards I think some of us will drop into So Ho for a last chat and drink.

Oh, and some time today Peter has essays to mark and forms to fill in for the university. Perhaps I should wake him and start breakfast… but I think first I’ll browse our recent pictures for one that’s calming …

One of the outdoor exhibitions at the National Museum of Korea, two stone Buddhas from the Goryeo Period, 10th-11th centuries. (photo: Peter Harris)

MORNING COFFEE

A small sample of the take-out tins/boxes/cups of coffee we can buy in the convenience and grocery stores here.

HIDDEN SPACE – OUTER AND INNER CIRCLES

Hidden Space Gallery and Café is indeed hidden. In Samcheong-dong, its entrance is down a laneway and around the back of a small wooden building. It’s modeled on, or perhaps is, a traditional Korean house with an open space in the centre. In that space is a small stand of bamboo with a tiny fish pond (merely a bowl) in front of it. On a branch of bamboo hangs a tiny (wooden?) trapeze with two birds perched on it—a work by the gallery owner, artist Jae Young, Kim, who is clearly fond of birds. (Look and listen at www.jaeyoungkim.com). On one side of the space is the gallery, a lovely and well-lighted room; across from it there’s a small café, entered from the smaller shop at one end.

To see some lovely pictures of the Gallery go to: http://blog.naver.com/ahnsk730/140106638543

We visited Hidden Space last Wednesday evening, transported there in a coach laid on by the International Office at Sookmyung. The occasion was the opening of Outer Circles Inner Circles, an exhibition of work by Stephen Bottomley, also teaching here this summer. Stephen is Head of the Department of Jewellery & Silversmithing at the Edinburgh College of Art, and the owner of that camera we envy.

One of Stephen's pieces displayed at Hidden Space Gallery (my photo)

Stephen's work is complex and beautiful, modeled on patterns taken from the textiles of Venetian, Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949). I love the way the patterns in his pieces shift, catching and distributing light. In his catalogue Tech-tile Stephen mentions the connections among jewellery, fashion, and the body. Looking at the pieces, particularly his “Star Necklace” and its shadows, I found myself imagining the shimmer and movement of fabric and necklace reflecting and enhancing the walking body, and imagining too the pleasure of wearing such fabrics and jewellery.

Stephen's "Star Necklace" displayed at Hidden Space (my photos)

CANADA DAY IN SEOUL

Peter handed out pencils decorated with maple leaves at the end of the third Research Forum. Peter, Nancy, and I, Canadians all, went to California Roll for supper then decided a drink was in order. The real celebration unrolled at So Ho, a small perfect bar upstairs on the neighbourhood’s main street. (More about the perfect bar in another posting.)

We climbed the steep and somewhat dingy stairs to find it empty except for the barman. At our request Nancy presented a maple leaf pencil to him, eplaining it was Canada Day. We settled at our usual table with a small bottle of his homemade lemon soju, and before we could raise our shot glasses Joni Mitchell’s young voice spilled from the speakers, followed by Neil Young covering “Four Strong Winds”. For the next hour or so the barman spun Canadian music: more Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Ann Murray, Bryan Adams, eventually Ian & Sylvia with the original “Four Strong Winds”. Our talk roamed over rock and roll and the music of the 1960s, names falling from lips: Grace Slick, The Grateful Dead, Dylan, Janice Joplin, Jimmy Jendrix, Country Joe and the Fish—and suddenly it was Janice singing “Me and Bobby McGee”. Then, who is that singing “Tom Thumb Blues”—Joan Baez? “Judy Collins” called the barman. Peter went to see if he had her version of “Pirate Jenny’s Song”— No go, but he did have Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”.

Goldsmith Stephen Bottomley arrived as Dylan’s voice died away and just as we emptied the soju. He bought a round of beer and showed us his fabulous photos from the metal markets he’d been exploring earlier in the day. (Note here: deep camera envy…) We handed him a Canadian pencil and he said he’d make a brooch out of it. Much laughter, more talk, more music, another bottle of soju, and Carrie and Jeremy came up the stairs. More beer, yet more music and talk, glances at watches—Stephen wanting to Skype home--drinks finally gone, we declared the celebrations over some time after 10 p.m. and went back down the stairs to the still-busy street and along the lane to "home".

Stephen Bottomley with splendid camera at So Ho; note album covers on wall. (my photo)

BECAUSE OF THE MONSOON ...

Friday, 2 July 2010 --

sign posted on the elevator doors at International House 1 --

(my photo)