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adventurer, traveler, and designer at heart, jay roop is on a mission to experience the most that earth has to offer and bring others on board for the time of their lives. currently residing in seoul, korea where he runs operations for his design studio, and previously living in gothenburg, sweden and san francisco, california, he is ready to share documentation of his life and work with all those who are interested.
curiosities? drop a line!!
FEATURED PROJECTS
taking care of business
last weekend i finally ran out of clean clothes. fortunately, minyup also ran out of clean clothes while he was crashing here and we both decided to do laundry together.
unfortunately, we put too many clothes in the dryer and ended up with wet, wet clothes and had to leave them hanging around the apartment for 2 days before they dried out (some of them ended up pretty stinky and will need a re-wash). such is learning how to live in a new place (we also almost bought fabric softener instead of detergent).
minyup: ukulele master
my friend minyup has recently started playing the ukulele. he is actually quite good and has been playing ‘rain drops keep falling on my head’ the past week or so. i would be lying if i didn’t admit that as a result the song has gotten stuck in my head a few times.
here is a low quality recording from my iphone, but thought it would be nice to share some of the hdk experience.
settling in
jay here. for two-and-a-half weeks. in gothenburg.
it has been a hectic ride, i’ve gone from confusion to excitement, boredom to being overwhelmed.with.new.experiences. meeting people wasn’t nearly as hard as i thought it was going to be, and everyone in class has so far been super nice. i’ve gotten the chance to meet up with some old friends as well and it has helped to make me feel right at home.
i am currently in the first week of my first project for our introductory course which seems to be more about following process than turning out an excellent end product. (more on that later) my project is a revitalization of the second cities project i had tried to get started about a year ago and i am very excited to get the ball rolling on it. i hope to have a project update in the near future. but as for now i just wanted to say that i am alive and well, missing annie back home but excited for what the future may bring.
that’s all for now.
beginning (end > beginning) end :||
when i first went to japan, i had no idea what i was getting myself into. on the plane ride over there came a moment when everything stopped and i realized, quite suddenly, that home was far, far away and it would be a long time before i went back. in essence, i realized that the situation i had put myself in was not one that i was prepared for, nor knew how to prepare for. i now had to face the consequence of my seemingly rash decision to study abroad 6 months prior.
what i didn’t understand at that point in time was how the next four and a half months would affect the rest of my life, and the degree to which i would have my outlook on life + the world reshaped. it would be many, many months after i had returned from studying in japan before i started to gain even an inkling of how i would be changed. so when my new friend in sweden, duck, left to return home to korea this week, it reminded me of the solitary feeling of departure and the uncertainty that the future holds for those at the end of a journey, not yet aware of the new ones yet to come.
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for me, the kind of change experienced from living abroad is one that has come from the inside out, and from the outside in. i have opened up to a new reality, a new way of viewing the world – one in which i exist as a struggling entity rather than a knowledgeable adult. thus, the power of traveling and finding yourself in new and unfamiliar territory is something that i will forever embrace as an agent of change that can be deployed at will, time and time again.
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good bye duck, you might not know it yet, but there are wonderful things to come.
the first day of school
yesterday was the first day of school, and although it started off as an awkward and solitary journey, it ended after having made a group of friends. ironically, they are from korea, japan, and thailand – no swedes yet!