Wednesday: Folk Museum and MMCA

With time running out on our time in Korea, last night I did some sketching out of our calendar and places to go. We’re to the point where we are now visiting places knowing it will likely be our last time there. It was also supposed to rain a lot today, so we headed down to Insadong and the Folk Museum and MMCA for some inside time and to scratch a couple of errands off our list (getting a couple more lanterns for my parents and picking up tea for Glecy).

He was up just before 6. We played Dragonbox Numbers in the morning. Been a few weeks or months since playing that last, and the change was noticeable, as he could reason his way through making the different number lengths a lot more easily. It was also cool how the app adds in challenges so you have to use different strategies for making the numbers.

From there we went to the reading to play the snake game. He then wanted to look at the Musical Instruments book and we watched videos of an ophicleide and violoncello on YouTube. We played mandolin and then typed in Pages, then he wanted me to choose an app for him before I took a shower. I chose Endless Reader, but he kept interrupting me before I got in the shower to come help him with it. After my shower we did a little more Endless Reader, then tuned the mandolin.

We left at 10:45. He was talking about crazy instruments with hundreds of strings and I had him ask me “How many strings on your acoustic guitar?” I replied “-3” He said “What? That doesn’t make sense.” As we walked and waited for the bus I introduced the Down by the bay song to him and he thought that was funny. We took the bus to Kwangwoon then boarded line 1. Lots of empty seats, and when a woman sat down he moved next to her. I realized we should move to the end of the row before it filled up but he said “No, I’m staying here.” So I had to move. That was fine, but later when people got up he tried to move and when I told him he couldn’t he got upset and I had to hold him. He was a little sniffly and a woman tried to shove a lollipop in his face. Wasn’t too happy about that one.

We got walking at 11:40. We went to Tappel Park. It was sprinkling a bit, but then stopped, so we stopped in the park to have lunch. He was then making up lines for the Down By the Bay song, although they didn’t rhyme:

“Have you ever seen a pine nut dancing in the street?”

Have you ever seen a pipa growing a tree?”

“Have you ever seen a tree growing a rock?”

“Have you ever seen a cat asking about?” (about was a word in Endless Reader)

He was then jumping from stone to stone (he said “I call these stones and I call those rocks, pointing to the big rough rocks) and running around, then jumping off one of the rocks. We got walking again and he wanted me to play trombone and he played clarinet. He said “My clarinets sounds similar to your brass instrument.”

We got to the Folk Museum and went to the downstairs exhibit first. No waiting or tickets today as we were literally the only people in there. He did the climbing wall area a bit, then wrote his name on paper and we sent it up the pneumatic tube a couple times. Went in the ball area for a few minutes, then looked at all the little post it note animal pictures. Threw balls at the rotating thing and it was exciting when he got one to stick (with me holding him up). He colored one of the dragon pictures and wanted to make it rainbow colored like some he saw up on the wall. In the reading area he had fun throwing pillows around. Finally, he put on a pink climbing wall helmet for a minute and hung on the spider web.

We then went up to the upstairs exhibit. He hammered nails, we tried the saw, did the wood puzzles, he danced to the video, and we made towers. Finally, he wrote ‘Mama I love you’ on a leaf and we sent a photo to Carly as he wanted to leave it there hanging with the others.

We went to the bathroom and he asked what the changing pad was – been awhile since he’s used one. Before we went in the bathroom I told him about how he stole a sandoo from me in the seating area next to the bathrooms. After we came out we went and sat there and had a snack. He broke a piece of crab in half and gave me half – then he stole it from me.

It was raining a bit as we walked to the MMCA. He let me put his hood up. He counted petals on the flowers and as we walked to the building he said “That’s a one monster and that’s a two monster.” He was looking at the shapes of the paving stones, and referring to the shapes in Dragonbox Numbers.

At the MMCA we first sat on a bench to put our coats away so I could check the backpack. He said “It looks like the lines are on the building but actually they are not.” He was talking about the little lines on the big glass windows and how they looked like they were on the building across the way. He was excited he had found another optical illusion.

He said “A jellyfish doesn’t get a present because it doesn’t exist?” This was somehow based on a conversation we once had, but I don’t remember the details. He also joked “Bob!” – referring to the name of the carrot he eats “Oh no! He ate Bob!” So inside jokes based on other inside jokes.

Finally, before we went in the exhibits, he sat at a grating on the floor and played it like an instrument for a long time. It had screws at the corners, which he said were nobs for volume and other things.

We had fun in the galleries. He liked one of people playing instruments, and of a really abstract one he said it was a “Bubble baby”. There was a wooden sculpture that he was wanting to touch and the attendant whispered to him, but with a scratchy voice. He told her “You sound like a monster.” and repeated it several times. There was one piece along a wall that he said looked like fire, and another one looked like a bench. When I wasn’t sure if we could sit on it another attendant came over and told us we could.

In the last big gallery we explored I was carrying August. Soon after we entered, August was talking to me pretty quietly, not whispering, but quietly, about the art, and another attendant came over and kept saying he needed to be quiet. It wouldn’t be a trip to the MMCA without being shushed once. The other attendants were all nice, but he followed us around. Anyway, we then found August’s favorite piece, which was a two screen video of bottles in a bottling plant. He watched it through a few cycles, probably close to ten minutes.

We went in one smaller gallery before we left, but August was ready to go, and not too fond of the dark video rooms, although he did like some music notes on a wall.

We looked around the other end of the museum to make sure there wasn’t more art, then August played in the big lobby. He was looking up at the colors on the ceiling, then running and spinning in circles and getting dizzy. Finally, there was a video of artists projected on the floor. August ran around on that and jumped on the people and pretended to eat their food.

We took one more look at the ‘breathing’ paper at the art box area, then went to the bathroom. He sat on the toddler seat for fun. We got ready to go, and it was really raining, but he got really upset when I suggested the cover. I let him go with just the sun cover, but by the time we got to the tea store he started whining when we walked in. I found the tea, but then had to set him down and take off his coat and sweatshirt. Then, he got really upset again when I put the yellow cover on before we left. But we compromised, and I just didn’t do the hooks by his feet. It leaves his legs more exposed and flaps around, but at least the rest of him is covered.

We then quickly walked over to the little shop by the temple where I bought lanterns before to get two more for my parents. But I couldn’t remember what design they had, so I got them in two designs. But then found out they only took cash. Luckily, there was a bank across the street. We hurried over there, got some cash, and headed back
and got the lanterns.

We then headed down to the subway station, and stopped to grab a cinnamon and sugar bread thing on the way. We ate it down in the station while we waited for the train. At some point, we were singing a song and he said “Sounds dramatic”. I later learned that this had come from a conversation he’d had with Carly yesterday.

On the train home he had a seat, but when a woman with a baby in a carrier got on he gave up his seat and stood when I suggested it. A couple stops later he was able to sit back down next to the baby. The baby kept touching his hair. The guy on the other side of August reached over and had August touch the baby’s hand a couple times. Also, I noticed the baby was crossing his fingers like August used to do.

We got home at 5:30. They nursed and read Little House on the Prairie. We then played another new music app called The Tune Zoo. Had fun with that, then watched part of Beethoven’s Ninth in that app, then he loved Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

For his bath he requested Beethoven’s Ninth and watched that. After his bath he had fun waiting for the ‘dramatic’ part of the symphony when the singers get loud. Think this was the origin of ‘dramatic’. He was asleep at 7:30.