奥の細道：The Narrow Road to the Deep West

179/365: Once in a red moon...

Wow, I've been blogging way more than usual lately.  Tonight I took a nap, which explains why I'm awake at 1 am with no plans to get to bed anytime soon.  I was eating some cereal for dinner and decided to open my picture files and see what I could edit - I'm trying to get more in the habit of doing that, and next month I think I will finally plunk down the money for a Flickr subscription, because it would be awesome to have a place to share/backup my photos, which I don't really have now.  Sure, I upload them here, but it's not the same - Vox significantly reduces their size and they are annoying to re-download if I need to (a problem I'm currently having...).  But, in order to actually justify paying money for Flickr, I'm going to set myself a goal of editing at least 1 photo a week. Hopefully more, but I'm also trying to add other things to my life at the moment (like Japanese/Korean study) so we'll see how it goes. 

I foresee a lot less time spent trolling the internet in my future, and honestly, I'm okay with that.  I've become annoyed with myself lately about how frequently I check Ravelry and my email - I end up reading ridiculousness just for something to do, or opening a thread that has only one new post - silly.  And I was reading an article today in the NYTimes about the effects of technology on your brain - this one talks about how your brain needs downtime from technology devices, and this one about how our technology-driven lifestyle makes us more impatient and forgetful.  Since impatience and forgetfulness are already two of the things that I dislike about myself, and I am trying to work on improving them, I think less time on my computer is probably a good thing (she says as she blogs about this). In addition to that incentive, my hard drive is dying, slowly but surely, and I'd like to prolong it as long as I can - plus I have tons of notebooks I can write in, books to read, knitting to do, watercolors I'd like to do again, and of course the aforementioned studying of languages... plenty to keep me busy that is not electronic.  And yet, somehow I always end up feeling like I waste time on the internet and considering how often I think to myself that I don't have enough time... well, something needs to change.  I know that there are a few of my flaws I'm not willing to work on yet, but I'm going to try this one and we will see how it goes!

So, on to the real point of this post - photos! Once in a blue moon I decide to edit some photos, but red moons seem slightly more common, and felt more appropriate considering the content of these.  In March I took some shots of Pluto class and I pulled one tonight of Stella to work on.  I noticed a theme in some of my work - when I'm doing shots of kids, (which is often) I tend to make them pretty high contrast/saturated.  To me they 'pop' more, (that's my amateur showing) but they also give more of a feeling of 'little kid', which, let's face it, I'm not lacking in.   I think I see the world as more brightly colored than a lot of other people I've met, my eyesight notwithstanding.

Here we go:

Pluto - Stella_orig

 

 

Picture Taken 3-8-2010

Started with this shot of Stella, adjusted the brightness a bit. 

I really liked the lines in this picture, but I cropped out JaeHyun and Lisa/far end of the table to make it more focused on Stella. 

Took me some fiddling to figure out how to get the look I wanted, but I think I got it…

Edited In Office Picture Manager, as all my photos are. (Should really get something better, but it will suffice.

 

 

Pluto - Stella_pinkdesat

 

I did this desaturated shot from that as my base.

 

I thought the amount of red in this shot was interesting, so I started playing around with the amount, saturating it more and more to see how it looked…

 

 

 

 

 

After looking at the shot a bit more,  I decided to try a tighter cropping.  The other lines and shapes were interesting, but mostly distracting. 

 

I tried me other crops too, just to experiment. 

Pluto - Stella_red_crop3

Pluto - Stella_red_crop2

 

As usually happens, I like these crops better than the first one  I did - mostly because you can see her hands.  I don't know what that's important to me, but I realized it was.  The second one is essentially the same as the first, while the third one preserves some of the (probably extraneous) lines that I had originally cropped.

 

 

As a side note, even though I didn't intend it I can totally see the use of red /female child in these shots evoking images of Little Red Riding Hood, and probably if you really stretched it, some comment on loli/child sexuality.

 

I'm interested in your thoughts, people - do you think the background lines are interesting, or do you prefer a more tightly cropped shot? At first I thought the latter, but now I'm leaning towards the 'interesting' side.  I guess it depends on the purpose of the picture - as a portrait, the more closely-cropped might be more effective, but from a more artistic point of view, the other lines add something to the photo in terms of giving your eye room and reason to travel.

Diamonds and underestimation

You wouldn't normally think the two go together, I suppose, but when you're dealing with kids, anything goes.

I was teaching my 7-year-olds the word 'rare' yesterday, and I was trying to get them to come up with sentences for the word, so I said, "Well, what about diamonds? Those are rare."

My students disagreed. "No, Ms. Rivera.  I have lots of diamonds in my house," Raina informed me.  The rest of them chorused their agreement.  I shook my head.  "No, Raina.  Diamonds are expensive. People don't have lots of them."

"Really, Ms. Rivera! I have shoes with diamonds on them. My mom bought them for me."
"Raina, they don't put diamonds on shoes.  And diamonds are too expensive - I bet if you ask your mom she will tell you they aren't real diamonds, they just look similar."
"No, my mom is rich. She bought the shoes for me!" 

We just learned the word 'rich' recently too, so they have been using that.  Now, granted, my children come from very well-off families; they live in one of the nicest areas of Seoul, most of them have housekeepers (who they refer to as their aunts. bewilders me when they talk about their Chinese aunt....), and their parents pay somewhere around a grand a month to go to our school.  But, they are in no way sending their children to school in diamond-encrusted shoes.

I was just shaking my head at all this in bewilderment - there are some arguments you just can't win, especially when you're up against 5 young children, so I was going to just move on when Julius spoke up. 

"But, Ms. Rivera, those shoes are expensive.  They cost like... $14 or something-"  He cut off here because I had started laughing.  I try not to laugh at my kids, because they can be really sensitive sometimes, but this giggle just bubbled up and I couldn't help myself, I just laughed for about a minute straight, with them wondering why for the entire time.  And really, can you blame me?

Speaking of Julius -he comes up with pretty funny stuff a lot of the time, mostly without meaning too. He's super-smart, though he has a complex about it sometimes and I have to remind him who is the teacher.  He was absent a week or so ago, and Eva, who works the desk downstairs, told me he was sick.  When he came back a few days later I asked him what was wrong. 

"Julius, were you sick? Did you go to the hospital?" (Kriss, my coteacher, told me his mom had said they were at the hospital when Kriss called to check)
"No, I wasn't sick. My sister was sick so we went to the hospital." (She's 11 or so.)
"Oh, wow. Is she okay? What was wrong?"
"Umm, yeah she's okay. I don't know what was wrong, but she had to get a shot because she's short...but, I'm shorter than she is, so... ah..I don't know."

It's always amazing to me the things that kids will accept as logical, and the things they will not.  For example, the girls in Mars Class like to tell me I'm pregnant.  I'm pretty sure they know I'm not, but they like to tease me.  JiHoo started talking about it the other day, and I attempted to cut her off. But it didn't go exactly how I planned.

"JiHoo, I can't be pregnant.  If I was, I couldn't teach at EWAS anymore because I would have to take care of the baby."
"No, Ms. Rivera. You could take the baby to your sister."
"No, my sister is too young to take care of a baby. She's only 18."
"Well, take it to your mom's house. She will take care of it."
"I can't take it to my mom's house. She lives in America. And she doesn't have a house."
JiHoo looked surprised at this.  I'm fairly certain she doesn't have much experience with homelessness - there doesn't seem to be much of it in our area of Seoul - not that she would be exposed to anyway.
"Really, why not?"
"She's poor."
"Oh."

See? Why in the world can children just accept things like someone not having a house, but not the fact that there are not real diamonds on a pair of $14 dollar shoes??? -sigh- I am confused.

But the second part of my story - the underestimation.  My 5 year-olds continually surprise me with how quickly they learn things, and how fast they put things together.  Sometimes I'm so frustrated with them, and then they will respond perfectly to a bit of English they've never heard before, or will explain why they did something in a very clear way, instead of shrugging it off (which my Mars Class are more apt to do).

Eugene surprises me a lot in this way, which probably says more about me than it does about him.   He's a sweet kid, but kinda flighty - he's one of those children about whom my mom would say, "I swear you'd lose your head if it wasn't attached."  Eugene frequently lines up to go home with everyone else - without his backpack, wearing his slippers.  And patience is something that I need to work on, which I hope is slowly but surely happening.  Not that I don't occasionally lose it - but I'm trying.  Now that I think about it... I'm very flightly myself at times, even though I am very intelligent, so I should keep that in mind when I want to scold him and just be patient. If he's anything like me, there's a lot of things going on in his head that are not always apparent from the outside. 

(Reminds me, actually, of the first day of second grade.  Mom and I were waiting for the bus in front of the house, and I was very unimpressed by the idea of 2nd grade. "I wonder what 4th grade will be like?" I asked my mom ,and I'm sure she thought I was ridiculous, because she responded, "Siobhain, I'm trying to get you ready for *2nd* grade. We'll worry about that later!"  I always did like to think ahead...)

So, anyway, back to Eugene.  We're reading a book currently called Me! Me! ABC (which has these really creepy little puppet characters. They give me the shivers.) and the letter K is "Kiss Me" with L being "Love Me."  The K page has two of the characters standing next to each other, a freak-panda trying to get a freak-turtle to kiss her.  There's another of the little guys, named Marty, up in the corner of the page and he's crying.    The first time we read the book, I got to that page and the kids got distracted by something (probably JaeHyun) and got up from the mat and came to where I was sitting and looked at the book. 
Eugene pointed at the Marty picture, and said, "Ms. 'Bera, he's sad."
"Yes... why? I don't know."  (which was true, I hadn't really thought about it, though I suppose I could have come to the same conclusion he reached if I had.)
"Uhh... (he switches to Korean) well, this friend (points at Marty) likes this friend (points at freak-panda), but she doesn't like him, (freak-panda) likes this friend (freak-turtle). So he's sad."
"Oh! That's very good, Eugene!" -I am kinda flabbergasted by the complexity of his analysis-

Just goes to show you - don't underestimate anyone, even when they are 5.

And now, I have to get to bed. Tomorrow's a big day - a new friend in Pluto class!! We're very excited.  Kriss told the kids and they were all jumping up and down.  Clara even did some projectional counting, which I thought was pretty cool for someone her age, even if she is really smart.  "Ms. 'Bera, today Pluto class is 1, 2, 3, boys but tomorrow Pluto class is 1, 2, 3, 4 boys!"

 

 

Skittles and sparkles

You guys know I love sparkly things.  They just make me happy, so I love making things that sparkle.  Today there was no SnB, so Cait and I went to Caroline's place and had crafty day with just the 3 of us.  They were working on some felt wallets, but I did a few projects I'd been planning for a while. 

Firstly, there was these gloves. They took me less than a week, and I'm mostly happy with them.  I made them out of some handspun my friend Ang sent me from Australia.  The yarn was already so busy that I thought a simple pattern was best. I think they'll be good for fall with t-shirts.

August 2010 - Handspun Toasty

Second was an anklet I'd been planning for a while.  I like anklets- they somehow do a good job of hiding the fact that I don't *have* ankles (-sad-).  This was made up of random beads I had around, some paua shells and leftovers from other projects, as well as charms I bought specifically for this.  I'd started it a few weeks ago, but then realized the chain I had gotten was not a good match, so I had to get some new.   It's a bit long, but I can wear it doubled around my ankle or as a necklace.  I still have some of the chain and more shells, so I bet there will be more jewelry on the way.

August 2010 - charm anklet

When we went to Dongdaemun on my birthday and I was at the stall that sells the chain (which I love - their stuff is gorgeous) I saw some cute stone beads that look like skittles... they were adorable and I immediately thought they would make cute stitch markers. 

August 2010 - skittles stitchmarkers

That's all for tonight - have to get ready for work tomorrow! I'll finish the stationery post later...

Stationery, not stationary, part 1

I remember when I was in middle school or so, notebooks would have helpful things in the covers - the multiplication tables, measurement equivalencies, and occasionally, the list of 'commonly misspelled words.'  I used to scan the list to see what it contained and then, confident at age 12 that I didn't misspell any common words, continue on my merry academic way.  'Stationery' and 'stationary' were usually there.  I always figured it was because 'stationery' isn't a commonly used word anymore, so people forgot the difference between the two.

Here in Korea, however, stationery is alive and well, and with some convincing from my friends I have become one of those fiends who prowls the neighborhood mungujeom (stationery store)looking for cute things to write on.  Korea has just as much a culture of cute as does Japan, so it's not hard to get your fix.  I thought I'd share my collection - it's not very big, but then, I don't write that many letters.  (Hey, wanna be penpals?)

Gods Heroes and Mortals

I picked up my most recent acquisition today, actually. Cait and I went to the National Museum to see the exhibit they're showing on Greek art.  Usually when I go to art exhibits, I am a postcard fiend, but unfortunately the postcards today were... shall we say lacking. Some boring shots of a helmet, an amphora, and the Elgin marbles - which weren't even IN the exhibit (Cait says the British Museum doesn't lend those, for fear Greece might somehow get them back.  This brought up an interesting discussion of cultural properties that I won't repeat here, cause it was mostly snarky).  There was, however, this cool notebook.  And since Athena Niike is one of my favorite images in Greek Art, I grabbed it (it was on sale too...).

When I was in high school I used to make it a point to buy books when I went on trips, since it was really the only time I had money to do whatever I liked with.    I haven't allowed myself to buy books since the summer before I came to Korea, because let's face it, books are heavy.  But I still do like to buy souvenirs of my travels, so whenever I've gone somewhere in Korea, I've usually come back with some sort of stationery from my trip.  It's cheap, light, and useful - and of course, cute.

Masan

Last year, when I went to visit my friend Denise in Masan, I picked up what would become my current knittingnotebook and a little score-book that I still haven't decided what to do with.  It's for writing music, but it was adorable enough that I figured I'd use it for something.

Nonsan

In April, when I went to Nonsan for the Strawberry Festival, Cait, Caroline and I spent an afternoon exploring the city, which included a visit to a stationery store because let's face it: we're geeks and all of Nonsan is probably about the size of my neighborhood here in Sincheon.

That's not all I have to share, but it's rather late, so I'll post part 2 tomorrow.  Night!

168/365: On the Menu

Well here we are again.  This weekend was my birthday, and while lots of adorable pictures were taken, those will have to wait until later.  But here's something entertaining from last weekend to tide you over until I get around to putting those up... eventually.

Last weekend was Tim's leaving Seoul/birthday party, so we went out to this cafe/hookah bar with a big group of friends.  Now, granted hookah bars aren't all that common in Seoul, but this particular cafe, aside from having awesome decor (which I really need to go back and take pictures of some other time) also had some pretty special menu items.  See below:

Seoul 2010 - Orgasm Sausage

Not only could you order staples of the cafe world such as a trumpet shell salad (no clue) and flower special dish (?), there is also the famed 'orgasm sausage and potato' for a mere 14,000 won - for you US folks, that's roughly $11 with the current exchange rate... We were going to eat dinner somewhere else, but I totally would have ordered it if I had a chance.  After all, where else can you get an orgasm for that cheap?  And it assuredly would've tasted better than a $10 whore. I hope.

157/365: Use protection!

I thought I had given up doing Photo365, but then I remembered I have a whole folder of funny picture I have found here in Korea, and those are just as good for Photo365 as anything else. Sure they aren't the most artistic photographs you have ever seen, but whatever.

I'm going to be perfectly honest - I'm completely exhausted. It's the week after break, and I'm so glad it's Wednesday 'cause it's all downhill from here.  I was cheerful enough for the fieldtrip this morning - we had a lot of fun, but even 2 cokes and one of my coworker's energy pills is barely keeping me awake - I seriously wanted to go to bed at 830, but I forced myself to stay awake by cooking dinner and downloading all of the Fruits Basket manga to put on my nook. My arm's bothering me, so I should give it a rest before Namu Keuneul tomorrow, so I ended up rifling through picture folders.

Anyhoozle - here is today's picture.  My friend Robin showed me these - she won them in a contest, and I thought it was a funny thing, especially considering all the issues Korea has with sex education (namely, a lack of it) and how most Koreans won't use condoms.

I feel like this picture could probably do with a witty post, but I'm just too tired. You'll have to make up your own commentary.

Seoul - Robin's Love Rubbers