Warrrrrped!

The mastermind himself

Now I’m back in the Northern hemisphere, not quite in my hometown Stockholm yet – still on the road – but never the less: out of Seoul. I feel lonely. I feel tired. I feel a wreck without my compadres in the work shop! Splitting up from Seoul with a last night out was interesting but a bit sad. Saying good bye to Jooyoung felt unreal, it was kind of “I’m seeing her tomorrow anyway”. Splitting up with Jan and Bjørn in Frankfurt was like “They are going to grab a bite, I’ll see them later” and hugging Erlend farewell in Copenhagen was like saying good night or something. After a night when waking up in the middle of the night worrying about where the rest of the bunch had gone from the bed was the last token of my reluctant coming back to myself again. I’m like a part of a cell that has been split. This is the final achievement of Jan’s! Complete success. How can I retain my personality when I hardly can remember what it was before Seoul? And how much has it changed, and in what way/direction since? And what does that mean? Is it good or bad? Or completely uninteresting?

Some things should be blogged about before leaving the blog to itself though.

First some general remarks about our life in Seoul.

Money does not matter. Or it does, but not much. I mean… well, first of all, you need cash to survive in Seoul. To use a credit card will add 15% to your tab, so you need cash everywhere. 65 Norwegian kroner equals 10.000 wons. If you exchange even a small amount of Scandinavian bills into Wons you’ll end up with a pile of 10.000 greens in a pimpy envelope in your hand. There is just no way of having a sound relationship with a stack like that. Either you feel extremely rich and start spend like crazy or you feel like you just won some cash in the Monopoly game and spend like crazy coz you know its not for real anyway. At the end of the day you’ll have spent a ridiculous amount of money – either ridiculously low or ridiculously much.

Food seems to be an issue for veggie foreigners like me. For those of you who has followed the blog here knows that my fellow bloggers has been mobbing me about my eating habits. Yes, I’ve hailed the nutritious Pringles from time to time, not out of a completely convinced mind but out of necessity. See – its not easy to order if you don’t speak Korean, and even if you speak Korean there are not many dishes on the menu that actually are pork-, chicken- or fish-less. And then there is kim chi. For those of you who still don’t know what kim chi is: find out. For those of you who don’t like kim chi: it takes time for some, but eventually you’ll be convinced about its greatness. It grows on you. And yes – you start to smell like kim chi after eating it.

Hierarchies have been a topic on our minds as you by now know. Being the oldest of the Scandinavian group as well as the only lady and additionally with some inherent diva princess attitude I have obviously stirred up some strong feelings in the Korean group about me taking care of the guy’s (my babies’) laundry. I’ve heard from several Korean participants in the workshop about how unheard of this is. I am fighting to make completely sense of it, but from what I understand, this is something very Scandinavian of me. This in turn makes me think about the quote “How very Scandinavian of me to think that I could organize freedom”. But to be honest – Jan, Bjørn and Erlend in particular were quite reluctant to leave their laundry to me. Why? Because of social hierarchies? Not sure. I’ve no problems with doing laundry, mine or others, if it is needed – why should I? Because I’m female and should be worried the other’s might place me in a “woman’s trap”? Bogus, I drink them all under the table anytime and have bigger balls than most of them anyway. Even if I happen to be the “big mama” – or “Mrs Hammer” with “Baby Bjørn” as our rampant little kid.

Jan’s lecture at Art Sonje for the personnel of the exhibition space where he’ll have an exhibition later this year about his art. Erlend and I had the pleasure to be around for it. Once again Erlend and I could conclude that the Korean art scene is completely gender fixed to be all about women. There are just no men in the art world at all – at least not that we have encountered. This is of course something about hierarchies too that needs to be figured out...

The Etiquette Belle installed in different bathrooms (at least for women). The bizarreness of the Etiquette Belle for me can best be announced in a Norwegian word best not translated: “prompe-skjuler”. What happens when you push the button is that you’ll hear a strong sound of a toilet flushing for approx three minutes. It is supposed to make the toilet a nicer environment.

The electronic market is pure heaven for geeks like me without much cash. All I can say is: yummy!

The aftermath post opening can most likely best be described with this image: