Heyri Art Valley & What America Can Learn From S. Korea

It just didn’t look like the jazz festival was gonna work out this time around, despite my free tickets. Since I hated to waste my early, abnormal Sunday morning shower and dress-up, though, I decided to make the best use of the day and head to the Heyri Art Valley, about two hours away via subway and bus. Today was a gorgeous Fall day in Seoul, another perfect October weekend. I could get used to these!


On the bus I sat behind a couple of blonde American girls talking to an English-speaking Korean couple they had just met across the aisle. The woman I asked to share a seat with smilingly offered me apple slices from a plastic bag, but when I murmured a few Korean phrases, seemed disinterested in conversation so we munched in contented silence, listening to the Waygookin chatter and watching city roll into marshland then into suburban hillside.

I got off one stop too soon but it was a quick walk up a leaf-strewn sidewalk to the Art Valley, and I was pleased with what I came across. A little confusing to navigate at first, since I don’t read Korean and all the maps are just that. I wandered around taking pictures of artists’ private homes til I stumbled into the “Clock and Blade” museum, an interesting little collection of ancient clocks and knives but a little overpriced at ₩5,000 admission. The lone and fairly young curator was super friendly and helpful, but I didn’t need to stay long and it was difficult lighting for photographs: too much light and too many glass windows and reflections.



After that I hit up the rotating “Gongan Purple “ gallery for some random, uninteresting art, then tried to hit up a ceramics gallery but didn’t want to pay another entrance fee. Got suckered into paying for a small gallery that was pretty disappointing except for a few naked backs:
Then, quite hungry, ordered a salad and coffee on the outdoor patio of an Italian-style wine house. The jazz they piped into the back was lovely and made me regret my decision to skip the festival, but I spent a pleasant hour musing over the "lists of 10s" I posted below and basking the sun. As a side note: it’s a very good marketing ploy for restaurants to serve water out of old wine bottles, as this one did. It made me re-think my decision to not order wine, although I remained strong and refrained, in the end.
After that, with renewed interest, I set out to hit up a few more places and found a strange gallery (93Museum), some great live music (Creedence and Jason Mraz done surprisingly well by a non-native English speaker!), some outdoor people watching, and a few wonderful gift shops. My favorite was the music box one (Moony Art), which had a giant musical cog piping out onto the boardwalk and inside tinkled the liveliest most delicate ear frenzy you ever heard. When I was attempting to make conversation with the employee, a little boy came in with his dad and started making some comments about “that foreigner can’t speak Korean…” and I laughed. His dad looked sheepish that I understood.

On my way out of the Valley I stumbled into a cool little “Cabaret Mechanical Theatre” of London fame with little wooden and brass mechanical animations. Pretty fun.
Sunday traffic heading back into Seoul wasn’t so fun, but I finally made it.

10 Things America Should Consider Adopting from the ROK:
-BYOB to sporting events
-Affordable cabs and food
-Late night service (clubs open til 7am etc)
-Galbi grills
-Quick service/repairs/construction
-Seoul public transportation
-Portion sharing and calorie posting
-Screen golf and noraebang (cuz only your friends care about your drunken caroling, not the entire karaoke bar!)
-Using obnoxious shouting and the “last word” policy to solve differences, instead of violence (for the most part)
-“Anything goes” fashion permissibility

10 Korean Things Which Should NOT be Adopted by the U.S.
-Blatant plagiarism
-Cosmetic surgery/mirror obsession and skin whitening
-Insane work hours
-Squatting toilets
-“Cute” whining
-Anorexia
-Paying extra for ice in beverages
-Crowds, and public unexcused shoving
-City architecture
-The way they ride bikes