Hike

I know everyone thinks it's funny the way I say it, but it truly gets the point across here. Seoul is HUGE. Uuu-juh.

We went on a hike for our history class. And the trail was rather intense compared to a classroom. Ingwangsan is 338 meters up and our professor was trying to stick to a packed schedule so we went faster than I expected. Seoul is also very mountainous. Huge and Mountainous.

The views over "the city" were incredible. It's hard to see where it starts and where it stops. Unlike in the standard US city there seems to be several downtown's. And there is a very interesting similarity with the landscape and the built landscape they seem to mimic each other and ironically the lines pulled from the high-rises sometimes harmonize with the ridges of the hills.



Downtown #__



It looks funny if you squint


Yes I did it!!

Here is some other cool blogs of my co-hort's here in Seoul. Check them out.

http://helarchitecture.blogspot.com/
http://jedolci.wordpress.com/

Field Trip Week

Korea has been awesome! This is our 3rd week of class but so far It has been almost all field trips! We went to Paju Book City a small place for contemporary architects to build galleries and publishing works and houses, and that same day we went to Heyri Art Valley, which is a village for artists to build there modern homes and have there mini urban farms. It was kind of weird. TMA (too much architecture) for me.

Beautiful art gallery designed by Portuguese Architect and friend of Professor Kim, Alvaro Siza.


Very fine concrete and all natural lighting on the interior


Publishing office designed by our studio Professor Kim

The man and his building (and Jordy)


Building at Heyri Art Valley. Yeah even I was a bit confused.


Beard on Bike who saw 10 people crammed in a van suspiciously driving around Heyri Art Valley. Whose sketchier?

안녕 서울

bye bye USA.... hello South Korea

Greetings from one of the world's fastest developing cities. Seoul, where one of our Urban Issues professors described his job as somewhat of a patriotic duty saying "we simply cannot lose this market." Old and new claim to co-exist here, in a mess of high rises, markets and urban green development. I guess with a rugged landscape and so many people the only place to go, is up. I like it here. The city is vast and fast paced with a transit system perhaps bigger than any other in the world. But in this swooping development movement Korean's and I guess city planners never lose touch with their core, the mandoo (dumpling) stands, the kitschy convenient stores, and Soju/beer shacks are all integrated into these tower complexes.



Its been more than a week but Ill say its a week because those couple of days after spending 18 hours on planes was quite disorienting. I still don't know what happened. But since then I have had an amazing time. Its quite fun and suspenseful not knowing what areas will look like or what things will taste like. You gotta be bold and try everything, because it's quite gratifying when you find something you like. Stay tuned for more detailed findings.


Before class.... After class



Welcome dinner from our studio Professor Kim and his wife

SUMMER YO!!!

Folks I know you are anxiously excited to here about how things are going in KOREA!! But I cant go without acknowledging how fun summer was. I was quite busy, thank god for my Uncle Stephen for employing/putting up with me. I am very grateful for the experience.

I also went to a bunch of the best concerts ever and had an awesome summer finale with my family down in GA for my cousin Al's wedding. Here's some highlights.


Maggie + Al




Stabone Kat and Mikey. And I didn't have time yet to photoshop what looks like my toupe


Mombo


The touted "Guido Torpedo of Lido"










Drip Castles at Lido West. Pretty much why the world goes round for me.

CCB goes West

I hate to keep apologizing for my lack of contribution to this blog, but luckily I was a bit busy this summer. However there is going to be quite a change coming soon. For now I'm enjoying my last days here in New York and getting ready to head to Georgia for my cousins wedding which will be the finale for my summer.

Incase you haven't heard the news yet Chocolate Covered Bacon will be going abroad again! This time doing a 180 and going West, way West... to Seoul South Korea! I leave in about a week and am getting really excited. It is a completely different culture and urban experience than Helsinki. More to come!

Cheers,
-jm

Euro Rap-up #2

Here is some photo's of Venice. As I mentioned previously Venice is an amazing city, the hierarchy of the planning and architecture is so well established and authoritative. You can easily sense the historical presence and feel what life was like just by walking through the city and all its small alleys. Here's some long awaited pictures. Sorry I have been so slow at this, Jordy-pie looks like shes keeping up really well. And luckily enough our blogs will cross paths again soon... details to follow.


Milan Central


Standard Venetian plaza + fountain


Grand Canal


Nighttiming


Rialto Bridge


"Cousin Jimmy can I make a photo"


Salute, Felicities shool was right around the block from this church, who wouldn't mind going to school there?


Island of Burano, I'll never forget the way the vaporetto lady said the name of this island. So loud and routine.


From the top of San Giorgio


Canal (not grand)




St Mark's


Cousin Felicity and Uncle Bobby

Euro Rap-up #1

Sorry its been so long folks. I really should have posted earlier. I have been back
in the good ole USA for about a month now and was doing something I hadn't done in months... be extremely lazy. It fealt really good actually and was much needed.

The semester and my travels ended overall very well. However if you were to look at it
on a graphic chart it would probably look like this:


Most of those downpoint's being attributed to a pessimistic professor, but I didn't let that ruin my spirits. The final trip to the island was pretty fun. And we got our benches done, I'll leave it at that. And the process of getting to, and checking out Venice was although financially stressful at times, very relaxing and fun. I got to see one of the most spectacular cities in the history of the world. And although I too was one of the (what felt like millions) of tourists exploring the city I got to see it simultaneously as a local from the help and hospitality of my aunt, uncle and cousin.