Wednesday, Day 26: Korean Folk Village

We visited the Korean Folk Village the last time I was in Korea, but Steve had never been there, so we were eager for him to see it.  Erika looked up the route on the computer last night. We could spend an hour on the subway to connect to a half hour shuttle bus that goes every half hour, plus needing to get to the subway, for a total of probably two hours. Mapquest said the Korean Folk Village was half an hour away, but that didn't take into acocunt Seoul traffic. It really was a debate, but in the end we decided that the car would allow us to take the stroller more easily. In fact, the drive took a little over an hour, and the return during rush hour, just under an hour and a half, so driving was the right decision although at one point as we sat totally stopped in traffic we wondered.

Unlike our previous visit, there were not 10,000 children on school outings. It was easy to see the shows and traditional houses. Front row seats for the farmers dance that I still find awesome.

Simeon wanted his picture taken with one of the guys with a "string," the ribbon on his hat.





He also enjoyed helping "make food" with a mortar and pestle not unlike the ones we used in Africa. Erika is carrying a water jar in a kind of backpack. African style on the head looks simpler to me.

There was also a baby carrying back pack, but we didn't figure out how you could do that without the baby falling out. There weren't re-inactors and English signage didn't answer all our questions. There were sometimes manikins in the houses like these in the nobleman's house where the traditional wedding ceremony took place.

I loved this garden in the middle of the scholar's house.

 And even more this scent garden.

Midday I saw teens sprawled in one of the gazebos, sleeping or on their phones. That looked like a good way to avoid pooping out mid afternoon. 

We left at 4. Simeon was asleep before we reached the highway. Steve and I sat in the car with him while his mom went into the commissary to buy vegies for supper. Then I sat in the car and read my e-book in the parking lot in front of the apartment while he continued to sleep. Pretty tiring day.

Last night we watched Planes. Tonight we watched Planes 2: Fire and Rescue, "Red Dusty" as Simeon calls it.  He has watched the first Planes movie at least a hundred times, and is well on the way with the second. He watched it at least five times on the iPad over the weekend. I saw the ending multiple times in the car as he kept rewinding to see Dusty turn red (as he becomes certified as a fire fighter), but we had never actually seen the movie start to finish until tonight. His favorite Wii Resort game is the flying one. I wonder how many little boys will grow up to be pilots thanks to Disney.