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Traveling in 2020: Where to Kim?

Kim — Wed, 27 May 2020 14:00:00 +0000

My blog name has never been more relevant. Where is Kim going in 2020? Physically speaking, Kim is going nowhere, but mentally Kim is still going places.

In the past few months I revised a short story I wrote for this year’s Luitingh Sijthoff Fantasy contest. It is not something I can post here because of the contest guidelines, but if you’re interested in short story snippets you can read about the Traveling Robot. Part 9 is out now.

My luck with NetGalley ARCs has been a bit less this month. In the past few weeks, I read I Live in the Slums by Can Xue (China), The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos (France) and Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth (Norway). These books were very interesting, but they didn’t give me this ‘wow’ feeling I always hope for.

I also read four books for the Hebban Debuutprijs 2020, a prize for the best Dutch debut novel. Two of them I really liked, the other two were okayish. I’ll be posting book reviews for these books in summer when the shortlist has been announced (only on the Dutch part of my blog). I’m now reading The Law of Lines by Korean author Hye-young Pyun: it’s time to work on my general awareness of Korean literature in translation.

The coronavirus situation in the Netherlands has changed a bit in the past few weeks. More is possible every day, but for now, I am still patiently staying at home until I see no increase in hospital admissions and deaths. If all is still well in June and the museums open as planned, I will probably give it a try and visit a museum nearby. The contenders: Stedelijk Museum Schiedam or Museum Vlaardingen. The runner-ups for my first museum visit are two open-air museums: Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen and Watersnoodmuseum in Ouwerkerk (if they open). Have you been to any of them?

What’s also still possible: visiting parks and taking a walk outside. I really like exploring the Broekpolder in Vlaardingen, but lately, it’s been so crowded there that I will patiently wait until I can take a walk in my own 1.5-meter bubble.

I’m thinking about future travel plans a lot. How to travel after corona? Where can I go and when can I safely do so? Renting a holiday home in Iceland or France becomes a more interesting option every day. Especially the latter, as I can thoroughly limit the people I meet on the road by driving to my destination. In that scenario, I’ll only come in ‘close’ contact with other people when I buy groceries or eat at a restaurant. By only exploring open-air hotspots, like watching architecture and landscapes, I keep it safe for everyone. Fortunately, I have always liked sightseeing like that! Iceland is trickier because it involves taking a flight, but once there…

The next few years will ask for different itineraries. Let’s see it as a challenge?

Do you know what you’re gonna do when travel is possible again?

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Best Virtual Museum Tours in the Netherlands

Kim — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Even though the museums in the Netherlands are closed, you can still visit many museums at home, from the couch. Find out about the best Dutch Virtual Museum Tours.

Last week, April 20-26, was the Digital Dutch Museum Week 2020. During this week the ‘golden’ showpieces of museums in the Netherlands got special attention online. This year there was special attention for virtual museum tours and workshops that you can follow from home. Because of this Museum Week I discovered many new museums online!

Below I will share my favorite free virtual museum tours in the Netherlands.

1) Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam has an impressive collection of more than eight thousand showpieces. The digital offer is also well developed: experience the museum online with an audio tour and high-quality close-ups of paintings. This digital experience is available in English. It is one of the best.

2) Mauritshuis

You can do the online 3D Tour at The Mauritshuis in The Hague to see the world’s best Dutch and Flemish artworks from the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer.

3) Meet Vermeer

At Google Arts & Culture you can view all of Vermeer’s paintings in a virtual exhibition. The two Dutch museums you can explore are Mauritshuis and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

4) Dordrechts Museum

Another way to explore museums is via Google Street View. At the Dordrechts Museum you can see a varied collection with Dutch paintings from the 16th century until now. This museum has the biggest Ary Scheffer collection in the world.

5) Groninger Museum

Do the 360 degrees tour and explore the Chihuly exhibition at Groninger Museum. This museum has modern, colorful art from both well-known and lesser-known artists and offers exhibitions focusing on fashion, design, and photography.

6) Westfries Museum

Learn more about the Dutch Golden Age in the Westfries Museum in Hoorn. You can walk through a virtual 3D model of the museum to explore 27 rooms full of art in a beautiful building. Although the extra information is only available in Dutch, it is still worth a visit.

7) Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

At the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, you can learn about the fascinating culture of the Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans using Google Street View. Inside this museum, you can see the sister temple of the Temple of Debod that I visited in Madrid.

8) Rijksmuseum Twenthe

Explore contemporary, modern, and classical art at Rijksmuseum Twenthe. At the museum, you can see the art of Breitner, Breughel, Ruisdael and Redon, Jongkind, Monet, and many others. Unfortunately, close-ups are not possible and the information is in Dutch only.

9) CODA Museum

Google Earth Art with Agnes Martin. The work of Agnes Martin is part of the exhibition The Future is Female – Love Letters at CODA Museum. While the information is in Dutch only, you can simply copy the coordinates listed on this page to Google Earth (in Chrome) to find the abstract art Agnes Martin wants to share with us. If you are looking for something different!

10) Museum Huis Doorn

The last one! Explore the estate of Huis Doorn in a virtual panoramic tour. You can scroll through the photo spots and look around. No walking tour unfortunately and the info is in Dutch only, but the pictures are high quality and give you the feeling you are outside exploring the estate.

What’s your favorite virtual museum tour? Where should I go next?

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On blogging: how the feeling of being useful can turn negative

Kim — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

When you feel you have to spend 100% of your free time in a useful way to have something to look back upon positively ten years from now, you forget to live in the moment. Turning every action into progress can take the joy out of those activities. Especially when you have the feeling that you should use the corona restricted period of your life in a useful way because there aren’t as many fun things to look forward to.

Gamification?

As a kid, I used computer games to learn for exams by changing the names of Crusader Kings II characters into Indo-European linguistic changes. Every time these characters popped up in the game it helped me to remember the phonetic changes I needed to learn by heart. I did the same for cities in Civilization V – numbers of tax court cases this time – and found a way to include questions about civil law into a Football Manager game to help my brother learn for his exams. Was I really playing a game or learning something new?

Neither probably. As the game became less of a thing I did for entertainment, it did less for my feeling of joy. I still had fun playing the games, but I wasn’t looking forward to continue playing as much. The ‘one more turn (/year)’ feeling had disappeared. At the same time, I wasn’t memorizing the course syllabus as fast as I usually did. The game was helping me learn but not in an effective way. Doing one after the other in timeslots would have been better.

Blogging

Fast-forwarding to my post-university life also known as my blogging as a hobby next to a full-time job life. The setting is different, but I feel like I am doing the same thing. I am reading more books than ever because I want to review some of them on my blog or add them to my booklists. For that, I choose books with a recent publication date or a low number of ratings and in particular books from authors that fit the topic of my blog: international authors from countries that I write travel posts about. I feel really good when I can add another book to my booklists with recommendations about Korea, Japan, Finland or Malaysia (does Space also count?), because that also means I liked the book.

While I enjoy reading these books, I long for the lighter books I used to read more often in the past. My less sophisticated pleasure reads so to say. But reading these would not be a useful way to spend my time, except that I get to reload my energy. Not only would it help to do one thing using my full attention – even if it is for a shorter time – but also to not spend every single hour in a useful way which would only increase my effectiveness in the hours I do spend on my blog.

Solution

My solution: to write down the things I want to have achieved in ten years. If I succeed in those somewhere along the line then that is enough to look back upon and I can accept that the other hours in my life are for living in the moment. Doing fewer chores no matter how much I love the outcome of them.

In ten years, will I have published the book that I dreamed of writing for so many years? Yes! I only have to write about 70.000 words which is less than 10.000 a year or 1000 a month. I can easily write 1000 words on a good day so even if I write only one day per month I can finish my book in ten years. Easy! I wrote more than that for my blog which now has 160 posts and counting. I started out with nothing and created all this within eight months. One post at a time.

At first, I was like a writing machine on steroids: the posts almost wrote themselves. Especially in the weeks after returning from my month-long trip to South Korea. Then it became harder, as the energy I got from traveling diminished with every passing day. By approaching it one post at a time and by not forcing myself to have all posts ready three weeks in advance I notice that I am writing posts that are more relevant in a specific week. Posts about what’s on my mind right now, like the lockdown and books-yet-to-be-published that I am eager to read. Those posts will make way again for travel and museum-related posts in their own time. It is never too late for these.

As for my book: I already wrote my 1000 words this month. So I am done for April! Good job. Time to read a fun feelgood book (last week I read Karen Swan – The Christmas Lights!).

If I can do it, then you can do it too:

Live fully and allow for fun
Divide your plance into manageable chunks
Focus and don’t do things halfway
Follow your feelings: if lockdown is what’s on your mind, then write about that

Have you ever dreamed of writing a book?

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Getting inspired at home: from inspiration to action

Kim — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

How to get travel inspiration when you’re not allowed to travel because of the coronavirus?

Do you have more inspiration or less when you stay at home?

For me it is less. I thought that the lack of traffic jams, wake up calls in the morning and an empty weekend schedule would give me lots of energy. And it does, except I am still trying to find the formula that turns this energy into inspiration and action.

I like to dream about travel en especially about planned trips. As I don’t have anything planned at the moment, the pre-trip excitement is completely absent. I am still dreaming about traveling but seem somewhat unable to take any action based on those dreams. Realism is catching up with me. Where previously I easily wrote several blog posts a week about past travels and interesting places I visited, they now stay inside my head. I can’t get them out.

My step from inspiration to action seems to rely on me actually experiencing things, getting out there. Think of the weekend city trips or strolls in the park, and visiting museums and having lunch at a good restaurant in Vlaardingen or Rotterdam. All of these triggered my action mode and made me want to write about these experiences and also about trips from long ago. So what now? A few weeks ago I even pretended my own home was an Art Gallery.

I am writing more book reviews as that is one hobby that is still very much viable and is taking the top spot in my life at the moment. Recently, I started to request advanced reading copies to join the action before it happens instead of years after. Breasts and Eggs and The Disaster Tourist are the first examples of that. Especially the last one is an interesting book to read during the Stay Home period of our lives as we now have time to reflect on the consequences of our travels and tourism in general. I didn’t write this in the book review itself as I don’t think the book deserves to be linked to the corona pandemic but I can think of some corona themed itineraries to the epicenter cities of the outbreak. No, let’s not go there right now. The question remains whether I should take criticism as the most important part of the book or the absurdism?

I also try my hand at writing fiction (short stories) every now and then. The funny thing about that is that my protagonist is currently locked up at her own place. She can’t leave. So far for my imagination… Only the Traveling Robot seems capable of traveling but I’m not sure if virtual travel counts. I’m trying to convince my mind that it is capable of coming up with a story that takes place elsewhere or, taking a huge leap, in an alternative universe or made-up world. Yet my mind is not buying it: we’re both very much locked up at home.

How about you?

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Pretend your Home is an Art Gallery (Gallery WheretoKim)

Kim — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Fun things to do while staying at home during a lockdown because of the coronavirus: take a virtual tour of Pretend Art Gallery WheretoKim.

No, the art on display is not worth millions… the memories of the acquisition, however, are. To me at least.

In most countries, the museums are closed because of the coronavirus. Many of you are on lockdown and staying home. The same goes for me. My country is on an ‘intelligent lockdown’, meaning that 90% of the people stay at home and the other 10% ignore the requests and do as they always do.

So what do you do when you can’t go where the art is? You either create your own art show or show some appreciation for the art that you own by pretending your home is an art gallery.

Your own #PretendArtGallery

Dress up nicely and prepare yourself mentally for a special visit to your own home. You’ll be surprised about all the interesting pieces you can find within the confines of your own place. Over the years you probably gathered many beautiful objects befitting an art gallery, many of which you don’t consciously see any more because they were absorbed by the house, like furniture. They’re there and you would notice it if one of them when went missing but you don’t really see them anymore once the novelty wears off.

Now is the time to take a step back from real life and look at your place with the eyes of a first-time visitor. Be prepared to marvel at the beautiful pieces that you will see on your tour through the art gallery also known as your home.

Inside your #PretendArtGallery you can do everything you normally do at an Art Gallery or Museum.

Just take your time in front of an artwork that interests you and read up on its origin. Where and when did you buy it? Are there any fun stories attached to it? Good memories?
As always you can skip the pieces you don’t find particularly interesting. For example, those you received as a gift or those that your significant other brought into your home. Though it is possible those are the ones you cherish the most.
Take elegant pictures of your favorite artworks and post them on your social media accounts with the hashtag #PretendArtGallery. Selfies get more likes!
You can keep coming back to the pieces you like best to look at them a little bit longer. Sit down on a chair in front of the artwork if you want to spend more time gazing and dreaming (unless that one happens to be in the stairwell). There is no closing time for this Pretend Art Gallery so an all-day visit is now an option.
The toilet is always near and drinks and snacks are cheaper than in most art galleries. You’re free to touch the objects as no angry observer will come running at you if you do.

Gallery WheretoKim

So let’s take a look at #GalleryWheretoKim. As you’re not allowed to visit my place in real life I’ll take you on a virtual tour of my Pretend Art Gallery.

Cormorant of Sund (Norway)

This beautiful piece is the centerpiece of my living room. It stands proudly on the TV cabinet and I look at it daily. It was made by the blacksmith of Sund in the Lofoten in Norway. I saw him creating pieces exactly like this one and bought one of the finished cormorants to take home with me.

Owl of Matsumoto (Japan)

Next to the cormorant stands my owl. I still remember how this blue glass owl caught my attention in this little shop in Matsumoto in Japan. It stood surrounded by other metallic and glass objects, like the R2D2 that now lives at my brother’s place. I like to think it feels right at home next to my cormorant.

Herbarium of Tokyo (Japan)

These Hikka Herbariums are quite popular in Japan. Inside the glass jars, the dried flowers are preserved in a special oily liquid. You can buy them at Tokyu Hands (and some other stores) in the big shopping malls in Japan. I am especially fond of the one on the left as I picked the flowers myself and a flower artist created this bouquet on the spot during a festival at the Ueno Park in Tokyo.

Winter sky of Honningsvåg (Norway)

For her collages artist Eva Schmutterer takes inspiration from the landscape around her. She first sketches what she wants to depict and then fills her sketches with pieces of magazines and other printed media. I only have prints of the original work (Gallery WheretoKim contains only budget-friendly art). You can view Eva’s work at the Art Gallery “West of the Moon” in Honningsvåg or “East of the Sun” in Kamøyvær, both located very close to the North Cape in Norway.

Postcards of Busan (South Korea)

Postcards of Busan‘s Gamcheon Culture Village in South Korea. Taking inspiration from the collages of the Norwegian winter sky, I thought these would fit my living room perfectly. Nice and colorful, a happy and bright view opposite the darker winter skies of Norway.

Banner of Matsumoto (Japan)

A banner for protection from Matsumoto in Japan. It is elegant and unique (at least in the Netherlands). The shop owners told me about the general and battle depicted on it but I lost the note, unfortunately. I guess I should go back for an explanation.

Frog of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

A very charming frog made from coconuts. Who wouldn’t accept a proposal from this frog if he looks at you like that? I bought this one at the Art Gallery Museum of Ethnic Arts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Inside this gallery, you can find some interesting small handicraft shops next to the more touristy shops.

Pillowcase of Southern China

Colorful and handmade. For some time I didn’t dare to actually use this pillow as to not damage the pillowcase. By buying it I supported the women of the mountain village. I don’t remember which village, but I visited it on my tour through southern China.

Bird of Pythagoreio (Samos, Greece)

A small hidden bird that glows in all colors of the rainbow. It would be more natural for him to sit on the wooden skid but I guess the fridge is second best.

Tekoteko (New Zealand)

A tekoteko: a Maori style carved representation of the Maori tribal ancestors. I remember the store I bought this at and I can still picture myself exploring the store, but I can’t for the life of me remember in which city it was.

Mask of Arenal (Costa Rica)

I spent my whole lunch break in Arenal looking at masks (and skipping lunch) to find the perfect one with the right color and expression and without imperfections that annoyed me. The result has been staring at me for many years now.

Untitled

Artists often call their work untitled. I’ll take that liberty as well for this green stony work of art hanging in the hallway next to the door to my living room (with the Costa Rica mask on the other side). It first hung in the bedroom of my parents, then in mine (as a kid) and now in the hallway of my grown-up house. So basically it’s been in the family for many years, but I have no idea what it depicts or where it came from. Anyone?

Guardian from Seoul (South Korea)

The real guardian of my living room, supported by the mask of Arenal and mister Untitled. I bought this one in the handicrafts street in Insadong in Seoul.

Kodama of Yakushima (Japan)

Let’s start by saying I mean no offense to the forest spirit now brightening up my toilet in a not very wooden house. You might recognize this figure from the animation movie Princess Mononoke that took its inspiration from the Shiratani Unsuikyo forest on the subtropical Yakushima Island in Japan. The Kodama was carved from cedar wood grown on Yakushima.

Print from a museum in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

A souvenir from my only voluntary museum visit during high school. I still don’t know why it happened but when I was 14 I visited an exhibition in the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam with a friend and bought this print because I liked the colors and composition very much. High school made me visit the most boring exhibitions and theater performances as a result of which I didn’t like visiting museums for a long time. This only changed when I found out which type of museums and what type of artworks I do enjoy seeing a few years ago.

This work of art is flanked by water colorings from Japan.

Newspaper front pages from The Hague (Netherlands)

Golden front pages used for printing a 1981 ‘Den Haag Courant’ newspaper. I got these from my grandfather who had a printing house.

Zebra from Stone Town (Zanzibar)

This painting adorns my bedroom. Do you see all the cracks? It didn’t survive the flight home as it was rolled up too tight by the shop owner. At first I was very disappointed but then I thought it was actually quite funny. I bought this painting from a shabby shop, so the current state of the painting reflects the establishment perfectly. Underneath the zebra painting, you can spot another painting. Hence this is the perfect souvenir from Zanzibar.

Challenge

Take a virtual tour through your own Pretend Art Gallery and share the photos online. Use the hashtag #PretendArtGallery and tag me @WheretoKim. This way we can bring art to everyone’s house.

My next challenge: to set up an exhibition with my own art in my Pretend Art Gallery and share it here as a virtual tour.

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