Saturday, June 13, 2009

Field Trip

My public school teacher friends get to take a free Korean class (of course I couldn't join ~grumble~). They have a few field trips planned, and members of the class are allowed to bring a friend. Salsa Boy, of course, elected to bring me. So bright and early Saturday morning we headed to a ceramics museum where we got to see ancient and modern ceramics. A lot of Korea's ceramics centers on ginormous containers, used for fermenting and storing kimchi. Ususally these were pretty plain but some were painted with symbols to promote fertility (the fish), high status (the cock, as in a male chicken people), long life (the tiger... I think) and so forth. There were a few other symbols BUT I FORGOT MY NOTEBOOK! This is what happens when I get coffee from the shop instead of drinking some before I leave the house. Oh well. The curator gave us a tour and one of the Korean teachers translated. His translation was excellent but the curator didn't talk too much about every piece in the museum. I wouldn't have minded a bit more information since it was really interesting and there wasn't anything available, in Korean or English on the pieces. It was a fairly balanced mix between ancient and modern pieces. I found the modern work much more fascinating, a mix between art and historic and cultural influences. Very different from pottery and ceramics that are being produced at craft fairs and such (that I've seen anyways) in America.

After a tour of the museum's collection, we got to MAKE OUR OWN POTTERY. And this is where I was brutally reminded of my utter failure in arts and crafts classes at summer camp. I just never have the patience to sit still and slowly work something into the desired shape. My only semi success was a great pencil holder/mug thingy of Albert Einstein's head. If I remember correctly, it was sort of an accident but it turned out nicely anyways. We were basically given a large lump of clay and told to go crazy. I ended up making a pendant, stamped with a traditional Korean fish (it looked cool!). This is after several comically failed attempts at making a bowl shaped thing. However, I did manage to make a very cool little bowl during my turn at the wheel. I even managed to write my name, in Korean, without ruining it! Salsa Boy will get our pieces in a few weeks (after they've been fired in the kiln and such) and bring them back. He made a rather cool dragon and a perfect bowl. Obviously gifted with the artistic gene in ways that I am not. It doesn't help that I have a bit of an inferiority complex about art, since my mother is so talented. I used to moan at the fact that I didn't inherit her artistic genes OR my father's math/science skills until my mother pointed out that I am artistic, just with writing, not visual arts. Also, as my math teachers have pointed out, I'm not terrible at math since no one who is terrible at math decides to take upper level abstract mathetmatics courses for fun in college. I may love doing 3 page proofs but I still subtract on my fingers. In my book, that counts as pretty awful at math. In any case, that was my Saturday morning at the ceramics museum.

What did I do Saturday afternoon? I went out to lunch with a friend and then came home and slept until dinner. I didn't go to bed late on Friday either, I think I was just run down from a week of teaching while sick. It still hurts a bit to talk but it doesn't make me want to cry so I suppose that is progress. I'm pleased that the steroids are finished though. They made me incredibly moody. Happily, Salsa Boy was not put off by this and cheerfully made me fajitas and tea throughout the week. I plan on doing absolutely nothing today. I am caught up on all of my favorite blogs and after I eat my breakfast/lunch/meal shaped thing I plan on laying in bed and reading until dinner time and not doing anything remotely productive. ... Except for laundry as I cannot show up to work in the clothes that are left clean in my wardrobe. Somehow, I don't think that college tshirts and mini skirts are appropriate attire for a kindergarten teacher.

Obviously, blogger is plotting against me. I just tried to upload my photos twice and it keeps giving me a "HTTP 400 Bad Request" error. I'll do a picture only post later tonight or something.

6 comments:

Nancy K said...

You aren't bad at math, you just think you are because you couldn't get A's.
Great post. Call your mother! I'm up, yuk! Two days in a row with little sleep.

Salsa Boy said...

My pottery had a cock flying over a tiger with a fish in its mouth. I wonder what that symbolizes.
Speaking of which, why haven't I read any of your artistic talent? Considering you read some of my shades of mediocrity, I think I'm quite entitled.

Also, counting on your fingers still takes talent, at least your not so lazy that you use a calculator for simple arithmetic. Children are growing up these days with that habit.

Finally, LAUNDRY is evil. When are they going to invent self-cleaning clothes, like the jacket that dries itself in Back to the Future Part 2?

Alex said...

What do you mean you haven't read any of my artistic talent? Doesn't this blog count?

Laundry IS evil. I didn't used to think so, but that was until they took away my dryer.

Josh said...

subtraction isn't math.... it's arithmetic!

Alex said...

Okay, so I suck at arithmetic.

Josh said...

einstein couldn't do arithmetic either short stack