so far so good. i'm currently outside of the city of seoul, and slightly outside of another city, but i don't know which. but even this small city, when i, or a few of us, walk in has the neon and the lights i am looking for.

there is a small gallery just down the hill from the Hyundai Learning Center which 200 or so of my newest and closest friends (some act like how i remember it at freshman orientation, thinking we will all always hang out, etc, for the next year, even when our assignments have us on opposite sides of the city) are all 'training' at. i believe the ' ' convey enough information. this gallery is in an alley. not expecting much, i headed over into the sculpture yard (3 or 4 pieces), and the man who was there came out to great me and waved me in. i get nervous in these situations--i dont want to be a monolith, tho i know i will be numerous times over the next year (ambassador one of the program organizers keeps saying). he was very kind, and plugged everything in and lo and behold, the first floor was all nam june paik and shigeko kubota. to see that even in this small out of the way area they have numerous paik photographs and fluxus prints, and then kubota's installation of 'nude descending a staircase' was just great. on the 2nd floor there were more recent korean works, that all seem to lead back to paik's aesthetic, or at least bear the mark. i particularly enjoyed a piece that was basically a giant mirror, circular, that had a very loose ying yang layout with screen printed faces starting in the top mid point and just drifted down to the lower right.

all of the officials, western and korean, who have spoken all say 'korea'. if they aren't going to mention it, i won't either.

last night everyone seemed to hit a wall, so i am up early and rested, still tired and smoking too many cigarettes, like everyone else.