National Folk Museum

This weekend I went with Samantha and Victor, two fellow exchange students to apply for our alien registration cards. The process itself involved about three hours of waiting in line and lots of running back and forth for photocopies, postage, etc.
And then there was the slight problem of transportation. The bus ride there took only and hour, but afterwards, we decided to get on a bus that would take us to a nearby subway station that was six stops away. Six stops and about an hour later, we ended up in Seoul. The southeastern part. Suwon is to the southwest of Seoul. So we spent another hour or two making our way back to the university via subway and bus.

The red arrow was where we ended up.
The bottom middle of the picture was where we needed to go.

We were so hungry at that point that we went to a chicken place to eat. They put chicken, cabbage, potatoes, and rice cakes into a large skillet and cooked it for us on our table. The banchan were self-serve and all you can eat. Mmm.

The uncooked barbeque chicken and cabbage

I also went to the National Folk Museum of Korea.

These totems were once placed at the entrance to villages to give protection.
The tall stick has a bird on top and served the same purpose.

Huge mill stone.

There were replicas of buildings from various eras of Korean life, both traditional and from the era after the Korean War.

The inside of a westernized Korean restaurant

A school house

Movie posters

Water wheel

Old toilet. There was likely a stream running underneath.

From the inside of a traditional house

The temple under which the museum is housed

The twelve animals of the zodiac

I was born in the year of the monkey

A tree with paper foliage from inside the museum

Miniature replica of a traditional village

Traditional dress of the high class

Beautiful vases

More totems!

This was on the floor of one of the exhibits

Some puppets recreating a parade

Rolls of fabric

Inside a high class home

These are all different kinds of kimchi

I had to include this fail!pic for the history behind it.
When a child was born, a garland was hung with charcoal
 and for a girl, pine, or for a boy, red chili peppers.

Acupuncture chart

Here they celebrate 60 years instead of 50. It takes 60
years for the zodíac and element under which one is born to realign.

Smallpox exorcism by a female shaman

Funeral beir for a high ranking official

A jessa, or table for the honoring of ancestors

Random rock pile near the exit.

After going to the museum, I wandered around a bit, ending up at the Seoul campus of SKKU, and took the subway to the Seoul forest. It was very underwhelming, but I think I'll come back in spring when it's green and not freezing with sub-zero windchill.

Look what I found!

I climbed the mountain to the SKKU entrance
and had to walk halfway back down to get to the actual buildings.

Seoul sup

They had an "Insect Garden" with a greenhouse and a few dead bugs.

Deer!

A random bridge

There was also a sculpture garden

The Seoul Forest was made up of five or six separate parks. I think I only saw two or three of them. I'm definitely coming back when it gets warmer and exploring some more.