Gwacheon National Science Museum

This week is spring break for the public schools, so there are a lot of people at Osan trying to entertain their kids. While this doesn't make much of a difference in our day since we are homeschooling, many of my friends who are not usually available for day trips are this week because they don't have to be home to pick up kids just after 2. And most need to get their kids OUT of the apartments! A friend in the squadron organized a trip to an awesome science museum in Seoul. I have to say, I was really impressed! The exhibits were wonderful (would have been better in English, but next time we will rent the PDA in English to tell us a bit more about the exhibits). Today was just for the kids though and they didn't care that it was all in Hangul. The museum was busy with Korean field trippers, but we owned the place for the first hour or so. There were a dozen moms and their kids there and even a couple dads. There was so much to see, I don't think we saw half of it in the 4 hours we were there! They had a lot of hands-on stuff for the kids and everyone had a great time. We saw a dancing robot show and a 3-D animated show in Korean about a whale mommy and her baby who was captured by a giant squid and taken to the squid king and queen's lair. The mommy whale was on a mission with the help of some other weird sea creatures to rescue the baby. There were no subtitles, but naturally, we added our own English story line to follow the show. The film was very reminiscent of Finding Nemo. All of this for 4,000 won, or about $3.70 depending on today's exchange rate. That was for all three of us!

One of the things that impresses me about this country is their work ethic. Sometimes I think they work too hard. This is evident in the lives of the children who go to school all day, then go meet with an English tutor or go to an English class and are only on the playgrounds on the weekends, sometimes only on Sundays. It is also common for the Korean children to go to English school where they are taught their subjects in English. The job market in Korea is very competitive and their future often depends on whether or not they speak English. Many of the field trippers today had two teachers. One (usually a Canadian) teaching them in English and the other a Korean National speaking Korean. It was cool to see how the Korean English schools operated. As usual, the Korean kids enjoyed the Americans at the museum as well. They were photographed and doted on. Some turned really shy, some were a little weirded out (upper elementary/middle school boys kept telling some of the little guys in our group that they loved them-I think they were just practicing the English they knew, not trying to be creepy), and others loved the attention. It was cute to watch their different little personalities come out in unique and strange situations.

Sorry folks, no pictures with this post, but if you are interested in seeing where we went, here's the website for the Gwacheon National Science Museum. While I remembered to bring the camera, I left the memory card in the computer after dumping our last few outings last night. Fortunately a friend was kind enough to take a few pictures of the kids for me. I'll add them when I get them and get a moment.