Friday: Deoksugung, MMCA, and Seoullo 7017

A big day downtown, as we went to the branch of the MMCA at Deoksugung Palace to see an exhibit on Egyptian Surrealism, then went and walked across Seoul’s newest park, Seoullo 7017. Finally, we walked up to Pizza School to get some pizza before Carly got home.

I remember he had a bad dream at some point in the night. Carly was up before 5, and right before 5 August woke up, said a couple things, then crawled over to me and fell back to sleep. He watched videos about bees on her computer, then was typing on her computer. Carly came over and he said “You smell like quesadilla.” She had just been making her quesadilla. He was sitting on the toilet when she left. He had Cheerios and banana for breakfast, and I made French Toast for myself. He ended up eating a good amount of it. He wanted to watch Pink Panther. We watched a new one together, then he watched ones he already knows and I exercised and took a shower.

After that, I had music on and he was dancing to Tuatara. He was ready to go outside and we left at 9:30. We went to catch the Nowon 9 bus. He spotted a truck he wanted in Israel, then was singing a “Just one perfect truck.” song. A few times I’ve brought up the idea of getting just one perfect car for us, instead of every truck he sees.

The bus was really slow, as we were in rush hour traffic. We played I Spy to pass the time. Got off at Kwangwoon University. On the train we looked out the window. We saw a colorful train. He said “Oooh, I like the colorful train.” The train got more and more crowded, and he said he didn’t like it and was uncomfortable: “That makes dada happy?” There was a woman next to us that was trying to touch him. He turned it around and was tickling her on the arm.

We got off at City Hall and went to Deoksugung Palace – the first palace Carly and I went to and we haven’t been back since (where they had one room with little kind of rolling chairs). He chose to go see art first, and we went to the branch of the MMCA that is there. We were there to see the When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists show. Continuing their anti-kid friendly attitude in art museums here, within two minutes of being inside we were asked to be quieter (I was holding him in my arms, talking about the art in a quiet voice) and told twice that I needed to hold his hand (by two different people) – something I’ve never heard before, and doubly odd that there really wasn’t any art he could reach in this show, outside a couple of sculptures in other rooms.

So we moved a bit quicker than we would have liked, as he didn’t like being cooped up. After we were done with the first floor we went to the gift shop and I bought the book for the show (less than 10 dollars) and a small print and three cards for Carly. Except in the middle of that August needed to use the bathroom. So we set down the stuff we had so far and went and found the bathrooms (oddly, not labeled at all, so we had to ask). Went back to the gift shop and while we waited for her to ring it up, August suddenly had poop on his finger. A wiping problem. I wiped it off with a tissue, then when we had paid we went back to the bathroom and cleaned up properly.

August was ready to go outside, but I got him through the second floor by saying we’d only stop walking for pieces he wanted to look at. After that, there were several pieces he wanted to stop for.

So then we went outside and found a spot to eat lunch. It was near a big hose that he played with a few times. As we ate, there were tons of high school students wandering around for…something. There was also music playing from a stage that was being set up. While we sat there, a few of the kids came over with one of the round tasteless snack cake things piled with the things that look and taste like big Trix. Then, a few minutes later another group, including a girl dressed as a bee, came over and wanted to take their photo with August. He agreed, and sat on the spot we’d been sitting on and they sat around him and I was just able to get photos with both of our cameras before he jumped up and ran to me. They kept talking to him and he was feeling uncomfortable, so I had him starting to say goodbye, and got him to give high fives to all the kids and he had fun with that.

We got going, walking around a bit and looking at the stage (he had heard Sarah McLachlan’s Angel playing earlier and said “Add it to my playlist!”). We then got in the backpack (on a bench he said was sticky, and he wanted me to clean up the bench after we got up) and headed out and south. As we walked past Sungnyemun Gate (the big historical one) he was singing his new tune. When I had to stop to cross the street he sang it slower and slower, then stopped. When we got walking again he was fast and loud.

We got down to the start of Seoullo 7017, a kilometer long park that is built on an old overpass through downtown, based on that park in New York. Along the way they have hundreds of different plants and trees planted in round planters. We liked looking at all of those. But August had two definite favorite features:

First were the three circles on the bridge where you can stand on glass and look down at the cars/etc. below. He spent a lot of time standing on those and pretending to fall through.

Second, there is a little performance stage, and there was an actor dressed in clothes, with a coat up over the head, making it appear that they were clothes with nobody inside them. We spent probably close to a half hour here, first watching other people go up and touch it. He spent a lot of time plugging his ears until he realized that it wasn’t going to make noise. He was yelling at one point, trying to wake it up, then he wanted me to touch it. Once I went and shook hands with it, then August kept wanting to touch it. Twice August was startled by it and let out a wonderful “Oh no!” I compared it to the Dr. Seuss story about “the pants with nobody inside them” and we had a wonderful talk about empathy and how the clothes with nobody inside them must feel, being surrounded and touched by all these strangers. When it didn’t respond to August touching it, but then swiped at someone else and startled them, I explained to August that it must be getting comfortable with August, but was still uncomfortable with all these other strangers, just like August often is.

We eventually left, and went over to get a drink and played with the drinking fountain for awhile. We then headed off the west end of the bridge and headed north to a park, only to find that this other park is all under construction until 2018. We went back across the bridge, and August spent more time looking down through the circles. While we waited to take the elevator down to Seoul Station to find a bathroom we saw someone walking a turtle/tortoise wearing a sweater. On a leash.

We went down and found August’s second favorite piece of art today: Shoe Tree. A massive structure covered with hundreds and hundreds of old shoes. First we went down into the station and found a bathroom though, then came back up and August was touching the shoes, putting his hands inside them, and then taking off one of his shoes and putting his foot in a pair of boots and in a Hello Kitty shoe. A guy came over and gave us a brochure for the artwork, and was talking to August. He was really nice and August said “I’m not uncomfortable with this guy. I’m comfortable with him.” August had previously hidden his hands in his shirt when the guy tried to shake his hand, so I suggested that if he was comfortable with him he should give him a high five. So August did.

We then went and enjoyed the pink light cast by a plexiglass piece built as the entrance to an art exhibition area. He liked that, then we went into the free exhibit. It looked really promising, but then disaster: The first big room had all these plexiglass figures with cool lights on them. Each was surrounded by a barrier rope. No problem, right? Except we couldn’t. Even. Touch. The.
Barrier. Ropes. Tell a three-year old they can’t even touch the rope right at their hand level and see how that goes over. I was not happy with the guy that kept telling us this at all, and as calmly as I could told him exactly how I felt. August was quite upset as I picked him up. We went to the side of the room, and I set him down. August held onto a rope (wasn’t even shaking it, mind you), and I was kneeling down next to him, talking about it, when the guy came over to us again and told us we couldn’t touch the rope. I stood up, pointed at him, and said “Back off. Now leave us alone.” We tried to proceed to the other pieces, but August kept saying “I want to go back there!” Too bad, as the last room had a motion-activated video screen thing that made these really cool animations when you moved in front of it.

Anyway, we headed out and caught line 1. As we waited for the train, August put his head on my shoulder and was falling asleep. Don’t blame him. I woke him up by telling him I’d brought a grape and a mango squishy candies from the bag of goodies that Jenny had given him at the end of class. He ate those, then said he had to go to the bathroom. So one stop north we got off at City Hall. We went to the bathroom, then he got a little upset when I washed his hands for him. He wanted to do it himself, so he washed them a second time. It was one of the short sinks, so I think he really liked that. Earlier we had seen one, but a guy was washing his face and taking too long, so eventually August let me wash his hands in another sink (oddly, at that point all three sinks had been taken by men shaving/washing their faces).

Anyway, back on the train we stood for the ride home. When the train exited onto the surface he stood at the window and looked out. We got off at Kwangwoon and he spent a few minutes watching freight trains go back, plugging his ears the whole time.

We then went to Daiso to find a cutting board (our apartment checkout list says we were given two of them, although we only remember one, so we wanted to buy one just to be sure) and some small caribiners to use on the broken zippers on the suitcase we got from Chuck and Cherie. I let August look around, but that was a little nerve wracking as he wanted to play with the breakable little milk containers, etc. pretending to pour things back and forth. He kept saying “But I’m being careful.” As we paid he saw candy things at the counter. I took him out and set him down to put things in the backpack. He ran back into the store. I thought he’d just gone there, but he’d actually made his way halfway through the store, back to the back scratchers he’d looked at.

Then, as we waited for a bus, he found someone’s old coffee drink under the bench and poured it on the ground. We got home, dropped off the backpack, grabbed our other backpack, hopped on the bike and walked up to Pizza School to get pizza. Three pizzas this time: pepperoni, the noodle pizza, and a sweet potato pizza.

We got home just before 5 and ate a few slices by the time Carly got home. They nursed and ate more pizza (and I had him eat some banana) and he climbed on her on the couch.

He and I then read Curious George Cleans Up, To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Yertle the Tirtle, and The Cat in the Hat. I then gave him a bath and washed his hair. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean and the bathtub and Granny’s Pizza episodes of Pink Panther. After his bath he watched one where they are cavemen.

He did really well in the bath, letting me wash his hair. This was mainly because he was so focused on Pink Panther. But Carly asked him about it and he said “You were used to that bath? Like Vivian? I like baths.” It would be really nice if he started liking baths. Months since he’s sat down…

We took him to bed and he was asleep by 8.