Italian Archive

Just over six years ago I moved to Cortona, a small town in Tuscany.  A few months later I moved to Perguia, Umbria where my painting was the best it has yet to be.  This morning as I was looking through my photos for thesis references I came upon the painting below.

This painting is of my roommate and wonderful friend, Bettylou.  She sat for hours for me while I painted this.  Looking back, it was actually a decent painting but I wasn’t satisfied with it and painted a huge pineapple over it which inspired yet another huge pineapple.  I am very happy where I am in my life as an artist and creative (and person) but running into photos from this time in my life definitely makes me nostalgic for oil painting and my little studio in Perugia.

Old Mission Wine Tour

The Saturday of our anniversary trip Chad and I went to Old Mission Peninsula to visit the wineries.    I’ll just do a quick rundown and share our favorites.

2 Lads Winery–This was my first time here and I had heard quite a bit about this winery.  The view was fantastic but it was packed and the tasting was very rushed.  None of the wine from our tasting knocked my socks off.

Bry Estate–We had a lovely tasting in the barrel room and enjoyed some of the wine but it was a bit out of our price range.

Peninsula Cellars–A long time love that we refer to as the School House winery.  We had nice tasting and purchased a Pinot Blanc and Old School Red.  Wonderful staples to help us remember one of our favorite places.

Finally, as we headed back up to Northport, we stopped at Left Foot Charlie.  Do not go anywhere with in a 100 mile radius of Traverse City, Michigan without visiting this tasting room.  We had their famous Murmur as one of our wedding wines and it was even better this year!  We tasted a few old favorites but we also got to taste a few new things.  First, they had a red  table wine (they previously only released white) which we bought for that evening.  It was medium bodied, spicy, peppery, perfect with our grilled steaks.  That wine was sold “growler style” so we can go back for more next time we’re up there.  Finally, we tasted their cider.  Now, I’m not a huge cider person–the Cinnamon Girl was fantastic!  Well priced, not too sweet, crispy, phenomenal.  If we hadn’t been tasting wine all day I would have sat back and had a glass then.

Sunday we did tasting on the Leelanau Peninsula–thats up next!

By the way, looks like I’m not the only person in love with Leelanau–ABC News “Sleeping Bear Dunes Voted ‘Most Beautiful Place in America.’”

Anniversary Trip & Eats

As many of you know, my wonderful husband and I celebrated one year of marriage last week.  We had an amazing weekend trip in Northern Michigan where we got married.  If you feel like a quick glance at our wedding day click here to view the amazing feature on the Wedding Creativo website.

Two of our main activities were eating and wine tasting.  We hit all of our favorite lunch and breakfast spots including Barb’s Bakery for cinnamon twists and coffee, Cherry Republic for free cherry samples, The Early Bird for the famous only to us Chadwhich,  Art’s Tavern for a breakfast suited only for people who plan to taste wine all day (or did the day before), Stone House Bakery for the best scones in the midwest, and the lovely Riverside Inn for a romantic dinner on the river at sunset.

We forgot our fancy camera and used Instagram on Chad’s iPhone to take all of our photos.  We had a blast with it.  I think Instagram is like the new polaroid–you click a photo and must stylize it by selecting a filter and then save it before you can take another photo.  It is much more spontaneous and raw than a normal iPhone photo–I highly recommend it.   If you would like to see all of our anniversary photos our user name is “Jewsroch.”  I just learned on The Haystack Needle that you can get prints of your Instagram photos on Printstagram.

Look forward to a review of our wine tour of Old Mission and Leelenau!

Toilet Tourism

I developed a funny habit this summer of taking picture of bathrooms.  I can’t help it, I find them amusing.  If you ask, my sister will tell you a story about visiting a gallery space in Richmond, VA.  I was on the look out for art and ended up convinced the bathroom was not actually a bathroom but an installation piece.  Enjoy–I did.

The sign above is outside of the restroom in the train station in Seoul. *Fun fact: in many restrooms in Korea each stall has an “etiquette bell” which is the sound of rushing water.

This lovely restroom was in a gallery/restaurant in Itaewon.

Below is from a lovely coffee shop in Mokpo!

Last but not least, the restroom at a gallery in Beijing.

Mokpo

Last weekend I headed down to Mokpo, South Korea to visit my amazing friend, Ilka.  Ilka and I met when we both lived in Gangwon-do.  She lived in a town north of Samcheok.  I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I hit the rainy season in East Asia–both Mokpo and Seoul are a bit soppy.

Fortunately, there was very little rain on Sunday so we were able to explore a bit of Mokpo.  I think Ilka and I walked for about 4 hours.  We just kept going.  Above you can see the marshy area we found that is right next to the water.  We encountered many exciting things including a lost child with a scraped knee, Choco pies, a vacant dock, exercise equipment and undergarments!

After our walk we went home to freshen up and then made our way to a fantastic coffee shop in Mokpo.  Ilka convinced the owner to participate in the Body Project.  Ilka’s friend Annie met us at the coffee shop.  They both filled out a Body Card in Afrikaans–they are from South Africa.

Look at the hat above and to the left.  I need that.

After the coffee shop we proceeded to dinner and then to one of the most important parts of Mokpo, the reason why Mokpo is called “City of Light.”

Below are Ilka and Annie!  Look at how well they planned their outfits to match their selected light display!

Monday morning I went to Ilka’s school for a couple of hours.  She teaches in a huge elementary school that is about 5 times the size of my beloved Guendeok.  Two of her students (sisters nonetheless) just won the speech contest which is a huge deal.  You may remember Chad and I doing something similar with our students.  The situation tugged at my heartstrings a bit.  To level the playing field in this particular province the school system decided that each student would perform the same speech.  Back when we were teachers, our students did an excellent job at the speech contest but they are from a country school and those students are rarely have the privilege of private tutoring that the city kids have.  There is no real way to actually level the playing field (EPIK was a help), though I’m glad they are trying.  The kids that do it love it.  When Ilka was congratulating her students and telling them how proud she was of them she also emphasized that she was proud of them even if they didn’t win.  I loved getting to be in that environment again AND I got to eat school lunch!  Yes, I love school lunch!

A Visit to Samcheok-si

Chad and I landed in Seoul on Thursday night.  The next morning we hopped on a bus back to the town where we used to live, Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do.  The fact that we are back in Samcheok less than 18 months after we left is simply amazing.  Many of our friend didn’t think they would ever see us again.  We had a wonderful, quick trip.

Last night we went out for our favorite kind of duck and went to norebang.  Some of our closest friends joined us!  Teacher Kim Young Mi and Teacher Son Un Jin are with me above.  Teacher Kim Sook Jin was also with us.  Teacher Son invited us to come to school this morning.  Chad and I loaded up with a dozen Dunkin Donuts, our favorite edible gift to bring to school, and headed to Guendeok on our old route to school.

At school we got to see almost all of our old students and many of our former co-workers.  They were very excited to see us but a bit shy about it.  They have all grown so much!  Teacher Son and Teacher Kim both had their students do the Body Project! Many of the students used drawings!  I can’t wait for the next installation so that I can show off my students’ handy-work.

Tomorrow I think we will finally start getting settled in Seoul.  Chad and I keep laughing that it seems like he is settling me in at summer camp, I’m glad he’s here to do it.

Look forward to more posts soon!

Summer Palace

On Friday Chad, Mom, and Dad and I ventured to the Summer Palace.  It was a beautiful place and we visited on a cool and clear  day.  This post has some pictures that Chad and I took together.  Enjoy!

Our day consisted mostly of walking around looking at different sites but we also managed to taste test the local fare, take a boat ride across the lake, have some photo shoots with other toursits, and get our names painted.

A fantastic photograph taken by Chad with the main part of the palace in the background.

Mom and Dad are amazing (and in the air RIGHT NOW!)  :)

My favorite camera man!