Field Trip to Seoul and Museums

A few weeks ago, on October 19th we went to the Children's Museum in Seoul on a field trip with our school and we also went to the Seoul National Science Museum. It was an interesting and fun trip. The bus ride is the usual hour and a half and we got to ride on this very snazzy bus. Think Gangnam Style party bus, then imagine it filled with kids.

The bus ride was filled with snack sharing and watching a show called Shin-chan, which is popular here. There's a US release of the series which I've seen, but my understanding is that the series here is a little different.

We made a quick stop at a rest area so that everyone could have a bathroom break, and everything went pretty smoothly.

We sat all the way in the back, easier to keep an eye on the kiddos and kept us out of the way.

This is on the bridge as we drove into Seoul.

The museum has a playground attached. We got yelled at for taking the kids there since they're apparently supposed to play on it after they get done inside, or something.

The children's museum is also attached to some other museums/theatres and this is the general area for all of them. The view was very pretty and you can see Seoul Tower in the background.

Now we know what children's museum is in Korean!

We had to wait for our time slot to open up, so in the meantime everyone played around on the stairs.

The museum was really neat and had very interesting things for kids to do and observe. 

Here they could look at architecture and construction and try something similar with their own pieces.

Here they are learning how to prepare grains to make food.

The lights on the ceiling were so neat. They faded in and out and were different constellations.

What's a children's museum without an informational dress up area?

I'm in charge here, clearly.

This was really interesting and a fun concept for a children's museum. There were three screens like this which were set up with XBox 360 Kinect-like technology where you utilize motion to make the character on screen move. I think they were supposed to be harvesting rice.

An interesting display of farming tools and equipment.

That's another one of those motion games where the blur of a child is.

The display of old weaponry was fascinating. They had a variety ranging from swords to arrows.

Bronze weapons are highlighted in this case.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with these large puzzles.

This castle was really neat. The kids could enter and exit and climb behind the wall and look over it.

After we finished at the Children's Museum we had lunch on the bus, which was interesting. Everyone had a packed lunch or something bought by their parents. There was a little bit of everything, including the more traditional kimbap. They were all very generous with their food and shared with their friends and us. 

As for our lunches, our director had bought sandwiches for us from KFC which were actually pretty amazing. They were chicken sandwiches but they were grilled and smoked and had a delicious flavor. Definitely something to have again.

After we finished lunch we left the children's museum and headed to the Seoul National Science Museum, which is actually right next to one of the old palaces in Seoul. We're hoping to make it to one of the palaces once it starts warming up here again. 

The science museum itself was kind of a zoo around the time that we visited since there were lots of older high school students mingling around. Some of them also had a strange interest in some of our kids which I would venture to say was pretty creepy. Once everyone was wrangled though, I have to say that we all had a good time.

McDonald's here is tasty, and popular! Those are delivery bikes parked outside.

For those of you who are Twilight fans, here's a bus advertising Breaking Dawn. I'm sad I missed getting a picture of the World of Warcraft bus though.

This is the palace that's next to the science musuem.

Welcome to the Seoul National Science Museum! I believe the entry fee is 1,000 won.

Standing inside the main lobby of the science museum.

The kids got to play with and observe the different things. The museum was hands on and a lot of fun.

Trying out some of the exhibits.

Those high school guys to the left? Yeah, they were kind of creepy.

Everyone had to ride the car, they spent most of their time waiting in line to drive.

The space portion was really neat. There was space food, including space kimchi!

This thing was a lot of fun. That's Zach on the left and me on the right.

Sometimes things just make you laugh a little.

We stayed for the final event which was this little robot dance show. It was pretty cute.

Dance little robot, dance.

On the way back to the bus we passed Changgyeonggung Palace.

Everyone in front of the palace sign.

Following the end of our trip and pictures outside of Changgyeonggung we hopped back on the bus and headed home. The kids watched Shin-chan and some of them fell asleep on the hour and a half long trip. We made a quick stop at a rest area on the way back as well so everyone could use the restroom (I got stared at in the bathroom, but that's nothing new) and have a quick snack. 

We made it back to the school with enough time to drop things off and then head to the school where Zach teaches adults. So we went to the school and I sat in on two of the classes and got to meet some of his students and then we went out for dinner. :)