Monday

Korean Broadcasting System is making a feature about the project.  They will return on Wednesday to shoot the whole Avenue in its completed glory.  Soon took this shot.  My role in the whole thing was actually quite minimal (thank goodness!) because they really can't have me blathering on in English that no one will understand.  I like that you get a glimpse of one of the many, many t-shirts will seemingly random English words printed on it.   (His t-shirt, not mine.  I am wearing an official 2011 Cheongju International Craft Biennale t-shirt.)

The shoot continued out at the Avenue of Trees.  Did I mention that the Avenue of Trees is basically a four-lane highway?  Because it is.  At first, we cowered on the median strip, somewhat taken aback by the speed with which cars and buses roared past, but in our good human way, we quickly adapted and soon the tons of steel barreling past were but background noise to our task at hand.

The task was a formidable one.  We had four big boxes of squares, organized so that we needed to simply take the one on top at each tree to install.  Of course, it wasn't quite that simple.  For one thing, the boxes all had to be moved along with us.  That task fell to the gentleman in the red shirt who spent hours carting the boxes down the strip.  Then Soon would add ties to the squares that needed them (ahem..that would be all the ones that I organized).  And I would install them.

We breaked for lunch and more help arrived.  Also, it started to rain a bit.  We found a little gazebo to take shelter in and have our meal.

One could not complain about the scenery.  And the sense of peacefulness that came from not being on a highway median strip.

We donned our raincoats and went back to work.  With more helpers and a truck that delivered the squares to each tree, things moved much more quickly and we managed to install about half our total.  It seems that we are covering much more ground than we originally thought - possible three kms or more.  I only saw snippets of it as I would walk up and down, so I can't say whether it looks good or not, but the snippets I saw looked pretty great....I am really looking forward to driving down the road and seeing it completed.

It was so lovely to handle each square and especially to encounter one made by someone I know.  A connection, a little piece of handmade love shared with me and with everyone.