An Art Wrenching Day ...

Today; an exercise in futility. Seriously one of those days where if you don't laugh you will cry.

I lured my friend Sakhele (who is an artist - a real one, not a hobby painter like me) up to Seoul with promises of taking him to an exhibition where Vincent van Gough's painting 'Starry Night' is on display.

This morning we (two other friends and I) set off to meet him off the bus. After some confusion where we could not find each other - because as it turns out we were all in places other than where we thought we were (the joys of living in a foreign country - this doesn't happen to me too often these days ...) - we got together.   It is an hour trip on the subway, and we had a brief detour to put one of our party on the bus back to her home. So we finally arrived at the subway station closest to the Art Gallery. We had a booklet with the name of the exhibition  and the name of the art gallery and an advertising picture so we proceeded to the gallery by walking up people pointing at the picture and jabbering at them in English, they invariably jabbered back in Korean that none of us could understand but we would smile and nod and walk in the direction they pointed in first. Then after a block or so we would repeat the process with someone else. Worked very nicely!! We arrived at the Art Gallery all excited to see genuine van Gough and also Monet, Renoir and many others of the French Masters!!! Only to discover that the gallery is closed on the last Monday of each month!! Despair, horror and major sadness!!!

After consoling ourselves with a top of the line lunch at VIPS, Sakhele and I left Ica to go shopping and we headed to another Art Gallery to get our art fix. Was a maybe 20 minute walk, as we got close we went past one of the palaces and discovered that it too is closed on Mondays ... I was thinking to my self 'Oh No!! This does not bode well.' And as it turns out it boded very very badly!! The second art gallery was also shut!!! Looks like it is closed for renovations. This time we consoled ourselves with donuts.

Note to Self: Never try to see anything official on a Monday!! It will probably be closed!!!!

This evening we acquired an art fix by breaking out the paints and a brand new canvass then Sakhele painted a picture while I learned a lot by watching and asking questions.

We are going back to see the van Gough tomorrow - second last day of our holiday before a new term starts on Thursday. Has been an awesome holiday. Mainly filled with girlie stuff which I am currently planning to report on tomorrow night. But I will say right now - Korean mascara is highly impressive!!!!