2012 the Year in Review - Part Two

2012 the year in review part two.  this year it's not a "best of" list per-say but more of a year in review.  that means the best photos aren't necessarily here if another photo better aides in the reviewing of my 2012

back in NY york for the summer.  The discovery of brooklyn besides williamsburg was a new thing for me.  this magical tree in prospect park by the boat house was amazing.  you can climb to the top if you believe in yourself and make a leap of faith.  

bob in NYC again!  bob really needed a break.  this time he demanded karaoke

i finished a sketchbook for maybe the first time in my life.  bob was still wearing sports sandals even in NYC.  we got him some new clothes. 

wine tour of the finger lakes region with my parents.  the first time in a long while that i've gone anywhere in upstate new york besides my parents house.  usually i avoid even leaving my parents house because of my feelings for the region but the finger lakes are cool.  my mom drinks a lot of wine so she was happy to go.  it was also good to be out with my parents doing something.  I suggested and they made it happen.

the discovery of brooklyn bridge park.  it is awesome and you have to go to get a new view of icons like the brooklyn bridge, south street seaport, manhattan bridge, dumbo.  Also got in two croquet tournaments with the illustration crew + more.

embarked on what hopefully will be a long stint with the wall street journal.  i've done about one a month so far 

rented a car and drove to Bethany Beach delaware to meet my fam that lives in Paris.  used to go there as a kid/teen with my family.  It's been probably 15 years since i went back.  Weird to be back there as an awkward adult instead of being an awkward teen.  finally got to fly this kite i bought in beijing too.  no skill involved it literally magically floats out of your hands with the slightest breeze.

rented another car and drove to Washington DC to see yoon and a little family renunion so i saw my parents three times in 2012 which is a feat.  that's the maximum even if i lived in New York.  Obama ate at Ben's Chili Bowl.

and finally i moved to Paris, France!  this is my street.  My aunt, uncle, and two cousins live here in a "Papillon".  The start of the paris chapter of my life began with coming home to an empty house because they were on vacation for 2 months like the rest of france.  

working at cafes, sketching, or just relaxing is awesome in paris.  its a thing, a huge thing.  why isn't it a thing in more countries?

a whole new world of food awaits me

i got a pretty nice bike finally.  and i totally seriously like to walk around like this and am trying to grow out a handle bar mustache and have a beret and thick framed glasses and cartons of cigarettes for the next photo.

oh france.  the adventure of getting my papers and becoming legal.  they have no information whatsoever about how to get a carte competences et talents and then after you get approved for it they have no info at all about what you're supposed to do.  not even a definitive computerized list of the documents you need.  they literally wrote it on the back of an envelope from memory.  and it wasn't even their envelope.

Ile St. Louis, i love this smaller island in the seine.  that corner right there is an awesome place to drink wine and cheese and relax when the weather is nice.

scraping, sanding, plastering, priming, painting, dying of fumes.  all part of getting my basement command center is working order.

a visit from Kelly Koo who i haven't seen in years.  we studied at Yonsei in Korea 10 years ago.

picnics in paris when the weather is nice is one of the best ways to spend your time.  there is no shortage of yummies like fois gras, cheeses, wines, breads, etc....  the markets here are awesome too

a visit from Matt who is in berlin doing an artist residency or something german.  he dropped his camera (same as mine) and his more expensive zeiss lens got f'd up.  he must have been too excited about spooning an unknown french dude on the back of a bike.  best day of his life.

a visit from Justin Chon, hollywood actor and dude i used to skate with every day when we studied in korea 10 years ago.  also before this Melissa from NY visited but she doesn't like photos so i have nothing there for you.  thanks mel.

the world of french wine.  they really take pride in it.  some dude on ile st louis once said to me, "we french don't do many things well but one thing we do the best at is wine".  i'm still learning

i had a feature in 3x3 magazine.  i think its the only magazine about illustration in america at least.  it comes out 3 times a year.

i got an iphone.  this is a big deal because i use it so much everyday.  the iphone os sucks.  i've been using it for months now and i can say i liked my android phone better except it was the cheapest one you can buy so it only had 128mb of internal memory and i had to delete programs on it everyday just to use it until i couldn't delete anymore, or else i would still be on android.  and why are so many apps that are free on android cost money on the iphone?  i'm looking at you evernote and whatsapp!!! 

a visit from zhu ru

canal st. martin is in competition for my favorite quartier in Paris.  its cute and charming and quieter and everyone is friendlier 

met Jeremy and the band and everyone in the bar and all the local business owners at this tiny bar near canal st. martin, further proving that french people get a bad rap for being rude.

rented a car and drove around the south of france.  went to this chateaux in Bordeaux

Jeremy, the guy from the band, hooked us up with his friend in Pau, a small town and we rode around with them and saw that small town france is much like small town USA when you get down to it.

dinner at Christine's house, who was a seller on etsy.  I bought a vintage petanque set from her and she liked my suggestion of coming to pick it up in person since i wanted to travel to the south of france anyway.  she's starting a bed and breakfast in this huge house with a view of the Pyrenees   What an adventure this trip was.  You could say it was all for a petanque set, but that's just the beginning.

drove over to Biarritz on the Atlantic ocean.  it was raining, which i guess happens a lot.  

I read two (2) books this year!!! a new record.  Collapse by Jarred Diamond and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway.  the later covering the time he lived in Paris.  most of the places he talks about are still here which is cool.  

I won't be able to live without fresh baguettes after i leave france.  i'm spoiled for life.  this is our boulanger on the corner.  there is nothing like a fresh hot baguette fresh out of the oven at 4:45pm.

my paris fam has only done thanksgiving dinner once in the 12 years they have lived in Paris and my cousins were so young they don't even remember it.  I took it upon myself to change this and we made a real american thanksgiving dinner for 12 people.  the turkey here was $75!!!!!

went to the Children's book Salon and had a meeting with 4 different art directors.  my first for-ray into trying to get work in france.  I honestly haven't done anything else since and should in 2013.  

took two months of class at Alliance Fransaise which is as famous as the sorbonne supposedly.  It's $500 a month so it's expensive but it might be the best language school i've been to in all the 6 countries i've studied foreign languages in.

did my Japanese new year's card again, 2013 is the year of the snake.  the one time a year i do an all analog painting with no photoshop involved.

my first European job (continental europe, not includint the UK cuz i've had loads of those).  this cover for this mag in Belgium ended up getting killed.  Zut

First time i spent a real christmas in a foreign country (because inside my Paris fam's house is basically America).  

So 2012 is another one for the record books.  A year full of bad decisions and good decisions.  The important thing is that decisions were made and things got done, things moved and changed.  I moved and changed.  I lived life pretty full on i can say which is all you can ask for.  I went out and lived and worked for what i wanted.  i'm pretty proud of my 2012.  I got older this year, not just physically but something has changed.  Could i dare say that I matured?  What does 2013 hold for me?  I don't know, i don't really have any plans besides doing some travelling around europe and doing some personal artwork.  If you stick with me on this here travel blog you'll get to see where 2013 takes me.  Thanks for reading and see you on the other side of 2013!