Wanderlust: Seoul Grand Park

Last week, I went to the first official meeting of SAPA, the Sungkyunkwan Academic Photography Association, and learned a bit about cameras, though not much I didn't already know. Then on Sunday, after doing homework for most of Saturday, I went with my fellow SAPA members to the Seoul Grand Park for a picture-taking adventure. Both the Seoul and Suwon chapters were there, and I met many new people. There were so many of us that we split into two groups. My group was the "global" group. In all, we knew nine languages including Russian, Swedish, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
The Seoul Grand Park includes a zoo and an amusement park, but we only had time to see the zoo. To give you some idea of how large it was, we stayed for three hours and didn't even see half of the exhibits.
Most of the animals had decent enclosures and were in good shape except for the prairie dogs. They were all balding and missing patches of fur. However, they were very lively and even approached the sides of the enclosure seemingly to beg for food from the zoo visitors.

Scruffy prairie dog

Adorable fennec foxes

There were two baboon enclosures, chimps, orangutans, and a lonely gorilla. The ring-tailed lemurs were gamboling about with babies latched onto their stomachs, but the glass was too dirty for any pictures.

Baboons

A baby climbing around

Stoic orangutan chewing away

The greenhouse had more orchids than I'd ever seen before which were quite beautiful. One thing that struck me as unusual was the large styrofoam statues erected in every room. There was a pegasus, a deer, a giraffe, and several others. I couldn't quite decide if they added to or detracted from the beauty of the vegetation.

My "global" group heading up to the greenhouse

Flowering cactus

Spiny flower bush

A backlit grove of orchids, one of many

A cute decorative basket

An exhibit was in place that featured artworks made entirely from dried flowers. Many looked exactly like paintings until you took a closer look.

The triple yin yang symbol of korea

A waterfall of seed down

My favorite part of the trip was the feeding of the lions. A zookeeper tossed whole chickens and large chunks of beef to seven or so male lions. I managed to take a video(sorry for the awful quality and sideways-ness).

Some hungry lions

A mask exhibition offered some relief from the cold while we waited for the other groups at the entrance.

Traditional Korean mask

I think this one was Native American

Spanish golden masks

Leather masks from somewhere in Africa?

Venetian Carnival mask

An acapella group was performing songs from the Lion King and others. They were one of the best I had ever heard. When they sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Petra(another exchange student) and I sang along rather loudly. :)

An unknown Korean song

The first half of Jason Mraz' I'm Yours

When all the groups had arrived, we went to Sadang Station for Budaejiggae, army stew. They put all the ingredients in a wok and simmer it right on the table.