Road Trip to Seoul

Last Saturday, Jamari had to go to Seoul to meet his friend Drew who was coming in from ATL for a visit. We decided to make it into a mini roadtrip with a visit to Seoul Grand park. I admittedly was playing Julie cruise director. I had wanted to go to an Art Museum for awhile and I'd heard the Korean Museum of Contemporary Art was pretty good. The park also has a Korean version of Disney World (Seoul Land) and a Zoo there. Plus it was only a half hour by subway from Seoul Station.
Jamari decided that he'd had enough teasing from me about being late that he showed up for the train 45 minutes early. I got there about 35 minutes early and had grabbed breakfast at the station when we ran into each other. Then it was a 2 hour KTX ride north to a station I've gotten to know very well recently. I really need to find out if there is a frequent rider program for the KTX since I've been on it so much recently.
On the way Desi started calling about joining us. We said we weren't waiting for her she could come and meet us at the park. (yes, we have both learned about waiting around and wasting time here.) So we hopped the subway (thank god it was one of the nicer lines and we had no transfers) and landed at the park. We then walked up to the place where you can get tickets for the tram, chairlift and, zoo.
I don't think I've said much about lines in Korea. If you let there be any space(like 4 inches even) between you and the person in front of you, it's a big enough space someone will slide in front of you. I made it through the line and with my limited Konglish got a set of tickets. Jamari got cut off by an ajshossi. We cleared out a whole section on the tram over to the museum. As much as Seoul is bigger and people there are more used to seeing foreigners it still is a reason for them to stare when you have a big black guy running around with a white girl.

I really enjoyed the museum... I wish I'd been able to take some pictures. There were several levels and we started at the top and worked our way down. The first gallery we went into was of Korean works from the 1920's through the 1970's (I think). Thanks to my recent trip to the DMZ and some of my studying of Korean history to understand that I got some of the pieces that were in there. They did a good job showing how the fracturing of the country and the wars had changed the people during that period. There was a beautiful landscape done by No Soo Hyeon that could have been done in the last few years even in the countryside. I've seen that same scene still playing out as I've traveled around. Then there were pictures of refuge life by Lim Eungsik from the 1950's that were amazing in how they framed the life of the refuges from the North as things were still happening during the Korean War (I think).
As we worked down the levels I got sucked into an exhibit done by a Korean who had fled to South America. His works were an interesting mix of typical Asian styles mixed with Aztec looking symbols.

The last exhibit we went through was current works done by young Korean artists... some were very brutal and I was like, ok I can only take about 2 minutes of that, and moved on. Others were much more peaceful and I could have stood infront of them studying them for much longer. There was one that was titled "Buddha and Jesus Enter the city of Seoul" by Lee Heung Duk that I would have loved to talk to some Koreans about cause I'm sure there are things I missed because I don't have a huge background in Korean pop culture but there was enough that I did get that was an interesting representation of the mix of cultures that are happening in Korea currently.

After we left the museum I took a few shots in the sculpture garden and we headed to the Zoo to meet up with Desi. I'm not sure who was on display at the zoo the animals or us foreigners. It was like we were the exhibit with out cages. I'm sure it is a beautiful zoo in the warmer weather. But the plant life was still a bit dead and some of the exhibits were closed due to construction.
It was a fun afternoon though cause all three of us got to be a bit silly and have fun. We eventually took the chairlift back down the hillside. Jamari is a bit scared of heights of it was fun for Desi and I to tease him since we both had recently rode chairlifts for skiing.
Eventually we met up with Drew after he found his way from the airport and we all hopped the KTX back down to Daegu where I went home and crashed and from the sounds of things they went out and had a rowdy night on the town.

I do have pictures I just need to upload them. So I'll add them in soon... hopefully.