National Museum
On Saturday Stephanie and I went to National Museum of Korea. I thought that since we were not going on the Free Saturday that it wouldn't be crowded, but I was wrong. If there's one thing that I find really enjoying and refreshing about Korea, it's that the people are very big supporters and attenders at their cultural and park-like attractions, and the fact that it's so cheap, which I think must be the result of the attendance numbers. It cost us 2 dollars to visit this massive museum. Also, it doesn't matter how small the child is, the parents bring them anyway. I think that is great.This picture was taken on the second floor (out of three total), in front of the pagoda. Behind it you can see how huge the museum is. Fact is, there is another big part of the museum, with a rotating exhibition. Currently there is a display from the Louvre. The place is so big and so marbleized I felt like I was in Grand Central station or something.
I am mostly interested in historical and cultural things, and so I enjoyed seeing old artifacts from different times. Here is a crown (sorry it's a bad picture), I realized after I took the picture that I was not supposed to be using flash inside the museum. Oops.
They also had these trunks, which made me think of my mom, who loves antiques. First two are trunks, and the third one is a smaller item. The sign said it was a comb chest.
Also, some sort of chest/armoir/storage. I loved this one:
Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) is really something that is fascinating to me, because of its creation, its phonetics, and its ease to learn. I especially thought these thoughts from King Sejong (who created Hangeul) were interesting. I think the Korean alphabet and language is really something the Korean people should be proud of. I think its history and usage is amazing.
And here's the required tourist photo! A friendly pagoda and me.
As we left the museum, we walked down to the front gate and to the subway. While walking down we noticed a very strange man walking, and making animal noises (growling/yelling) at people he walked into, including groups of middle-aged women. Stephanie and I were feeling a bit nervous because not only do we look very different from everyone (and seem to sometimes get more attention), we can't tell him to go away in his language!
We walked down to the crosswalk really fast, and stood with the large group of people. We knew that other people knew about this man because a dad behind us grabbed his son's shoulders and "arrgghhhhh"-ed at him. Everyone around laughed. The scary man came, walked across the crosswalk, where the crossing guard told him to "shhh". The scary man kept walking down to the subway. As we passed a Western couple we knew the scary man had passed them as well because we heard the western man say "That was like we were in New York again there for a minute". We thought that was hilarious.
posted by Meghan @ 8:25 PM
2 Comments:
We are going this Saturday. It should be cool. We are going to meet in Itaewon for lunch if you're interested. BTW, North Korea was awesome! You definitely have to go.
I'll bet you didn't know that I read other blogs, too, and I strongly suspect that you stole these little tidbits from someone else. Plagiarism is a sin.
And what a weak attempt at a cover up! That picture of you and "the pagoda" is obviously just our little Meghan at a mall next to one of those 3-d foam puzzles.
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