Seoul Museum of History

Last Sunday, it was monsooning as usual (literally, since it's monsoon season). It was down pouring and thundering beyond belief, so naturally I decided to face the river that was running down the hill in front of my apartment and trek to the Seoul Museum of Art.

Even though it's raining and monsooning, the weather still manages to be really humid, which is something I have not figured out. So, by the time I arrived at the Museum (after traveling by train and reading Bossypants, I was feeling really gross and sticky. I walked by the large amount of homeless people at the gate to the art museum and wandered up to the museum. I went in the door, but realized that there might be a problem when it smelled strongly of paint inside and there wasn't any art. Apparently, they were in transition between exhibits. I decided just to go to the Museum of History three feet away instead, since I'd been to the other branch of the Seoul Museum of Art already. I'll try again on another day.

I wandered through the woods over to the Seoul Museum of Art. I grabbed a brochure and headed up the stairs.

The first room was a room with a glass floor with a lighted model of Seoul underneath that was freaking me out. Naturally, I felt like I was going to fall through the floor. So, I headed to the next room. The next room had a bunch of very cool old documents, written in Korean of course, which were very interesting. I'll have to return once I actually can understand Korean. Then, I'll most likely discover that I can't read it because it's old Korean. But that's ok.

It also had this:

A Placenta Jar. It was featured in the Brochure as one of the highlights of the museum. At least the placenta wasn't displayed separately. Slightly gross.

I learned a lot about how Korean culture developed into what it is today. It talked a lot about how, after the Korean War, people embraced education and hard work as the only way they could better their lives. Millions of people moved to Seoul for work and education, which lead to massive overcrowding and tons and tons of people living homeless or in shantytowns. They talked about how Seoul ended up being an apartment city and gradually expanded into what it is today. It was all very interesting. They had an exhibit on the 1988 Olympics as well, which featured these tigers:
The happy one
and the angry one

Other parts of the museum also had this tiger:

and this tiger:

and this man running:

This extremely long pipe:

This 1970's outfit, which seems to come from the Jetsons. Or possibly Zenon Girl of the Twenty First Century

They had this hat for babies, which was pretty.

And this turtle:


Naturally, at the Seoul Museum of History, they had an exhibit on the history of Moscow.

I enjoyed that a lot. It was very interesting. My favorite part was definitely learning about the Accordion Museum

These women. You'd think that they'd be old, old pictures. But no, it was part of a "Eurovision" campaign in 2009.

And these men's mustaches


Other than the museum, I've basically just been wandering around with my friends, working as usual, and seeing this shirt:

and this sign:

while really anxiously awaiting this:

which I will be seeing on Wednesday night for the midnight showing, no matter what.

Next blog post will be: funny stories about my students. I have a few built up over the last few months, so I will share a few with you!