Grand Adventure Day 9: Art Museums

I finally did my laundry. The caretaker asked that I wait until after 10am to run the machine since it's kinda loud, so there went most of the morning. Visited the Horim Art Museum in Apgeong (?) first. When I checked on my phone, it recommended catching a train to a station, then taking a bus. When getting on the bus I couldn't find a sign with the prices. I turned this into a dumb-foreigner moment and started showing the bus driver different bills. Eventually, I gave him the 1000won bill and he pointed for me to get to the back of the bus. The Horim Art Museum had an exhibit of Korean pottery from the ... the ... I forget which dynasty. I'm also not sure if it was actual ceramic pieces from that time period, or works done by modern-day artists in that particular style.

The best parts about museum visits are that you can walk around them without anyone bothering you, or asking you to leave, well, until closing time; they're indoors and out of the sun; typically, they're pretty cheap for several hours of entertainment. As a daydreamer, I spent most of the time wandering and wondering what kind of creature might be housed in each of them, or what type of ritual would require that type of vessel. I stumbled upon a Shake Shack on my walk from one museum to the other and I definitely wasn't going to pass that up. I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw it, then headed right inside.

Now that I look at this picture, I'm not sure why I don't have fries. Did I not order them? Did I eat them all before I at the sandwich? Did someone steal them? Another mystery left unsolved. Along my route, I also spotted a lot of plastic surgery clinics. A lot. Like every block seemed to have at least one, and some were in buildings that I wouldn't even guess would house a medical facility. And the weirdest thing that just occurred to me as I write this, since I know they were plastic surgery clinics, why were the signs in English? Also, I saw this building

That's pretty cool, right. Several blocks away was the Korean Museum of Contemporary Art which had a exhibit on a story called, "The Little Prince." I think it was that they asked artists from ... I think it was all over, but really, it might've been within Korea (I didn't read the sign) to come up with art pieces using "The Little Prince" as the subject. I meant to look up the story/read it, but I forgot. Like with most contemporary art (both here and abroad), it was weird and at times disturbing ... disturbing that people would pay money to view this thing you put together and called "Art". My main interest is in seeing what people are currently putting together, what is the popular thing today that maybe I can learn from/replicate a little. I had an English class in college that required me to give a report on a book from the last 5 years to show the class what was currently being published.

All of the glass bubbles were filled with used chewing gum

From there I wandered around, walk up the street this way, then walk back the other way. I found a white building with "SM Entertainment" written on the outside but I can't find the picture I took of it. I also didn't go inside because I couldn't find the doors and was afraid to go pounding on the walls, searching for a door to someplace I'm probably not supposed to be. I wandered into a park, thinking I could sit on a bench and rest my legs from all the walking, but then a swarm of mosquitoes began to gather, like a black cloud in the setting sun. Fucking mosquitoes. I will talk about them more, but for now know that these fuckers are twice the size of the ones back home. And to just be massing like that, that's not right. Back home, I'll find a couple flying around in circles, like guerrilla fighters with hit-and-run tactics, one disappearing just as the other one swoops in to strike. I've never seen them just hanging in the air at eye level, forming up into a regiment before marching en masse onto whatever poor, unfortunate target got in their way. I took one look at that and just left.

For dinner, the plan was to head back the Hongik area, grab more food on sticks, and watch the buskers which should be even busier since it was Friday night. Instead, I ordered a plate of toppoki and ate it right there at the cart, unfortunately, right underneath a spotlight she set up at the ends of her cart. Hot food, bright light shining on me, I started to sweat. A lot. Then the heartburn hit as I was walking around, so I gave up and headed back to the hostel to turn in.