Yesterday was Suneung, or Korean SAT day. The Korean SAT is very, very different from the American SAT. In Korea, students take the 9-hour test during their senior year, and it is one of the most important, if not the most important, factor in getting into a university. I read somewhere that Korea has the largest percentage of 18-34 year olds in college, and therefore it becomes very important to get into a good school in order to get a good job. If you do poorly on the Korean SAT, you can't re-take a month later like you can in the states - it is only offered ONCE a year! Talk about stress. A test that lasts all day, counts more than all your high school grades, and you start studying for often two or three years in advance. Yuck.
However, for us, Korean SAT day meant a lovely day off for S. in the middle of the week. So, we went up to Seoul to try to take O. to the Rolling Ball Museum. However, once we got there, we found out that it was one of those Korean temporary museums that was now unfortunately closed. O. took the news better than I did. I think strawberry ice cream helped.
As did getting to pretend to be the Mona Lisa.
Waaaaay to far for a taxi ride through Seoul....back to the subways.
So, we decided to head over to COEX mall and go to the aquarium instead. Two subways, a couple of smoothies and about an hour later, we were finally in the aquarium. Going late in the day, during the middle of the week, is definitely the time to go. There were few people and we could take our time looking at the exhibits without being pushed and shoved like we were the last time. (Of course, we did decide last time to go on New Years day when everyone had off...we are not the smartest when planning things...)
First exhibit...check out how big the catfish is at the bottom next to O.
Yes, those are fish in a washing machine, and fish and snowmen in a refrigerator. Those crazy Koreans and their creative exhibits.
Yep, the fish that eat dead skin are back....this time cleaning off O.'s fingers. With all the time we spent there, he has the cleanest hands in Cheonan. Video can be posted if anyone's interested. :)
There were fruit eating bats...
...really big fish...
... piranhas....who knew they were so pretty and sparkly...
...portrait of an eel by O. himself...
...lots of sharks...
...and the most awesome seal that raced back and forth with O. for almost 20 minutes straight. If I can get the video uploader to work sometime in this century, I'll put the video up tomorrow for you all to see.
O. had a great time.
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