Being Cultured

Two Saturdays ago, after spending 4 hours at Lotte World (if you don't remember Lotte World refer to this post Christmas at Lotte), we headed over to check out a French painting exhibit and a live Korean production. Of course we were late and missed the 4:00 live performance so I suggested that we look at the art first then catch the 5:00 one, clearly we can get through an art exhibit in 45 minutes. I forgot t

hat I was in Korea...you can't do anything quickly. 

We walk in to this huge museum (I can't remember which one) and end up stumbling upon a "Capture the Moment" photography exhibit.... and I immediately want to go. Not wanting to step on any toes since Jeff planned the day I didn't say anything. Then I started noticing everyone staring in the direction of the photography exhibit so I casually ask who wanted to go to what and thankfully our minds were all on the same wave length: ditch the French paintings and check out the photographs. 

We pay and head inside, only to be met with the number 2580... what's this number? The wait number, as in we were also given tickets with numbers on them. Our number? 3731. Well there couldn't possibly be over a thousand people waiting to see it before us, it muuuust skip some numbers, or so I thought. Nope, after half an hour we realized it was not skipping any. We wandered around the museum and even tried to look for something near by to see outside, but were met with nothing. We had passed a store selling wine earlier so I make a push for going and buying a bottle and just finding somewhere to sit and drink it while we wait. I should also mention that it was pouring on and off this entire time, so most everywhere outside was wet, but it still seemed like a good idea to me. With a little resistance from Jeff, he finally agree after we kept insisting there was nothing wrong with it.. besides, you can drink anywhere in Korea! 

We headed to the wine store and I noticed a table, and ask if we could sit there and drink the bottle... and of course we can. The only thing was there there were no other tables and we were right behind the wine sale so it was almost as if we were on display as well. But hey, we get stared at enough in the country, we might as well be doing something stare-worthy. 

After a bottle of wine we head back up to the exhibit, still at least another 45 minutes, and by this time it's been about an hour and a half. Jeff goes up and tries to get in (for the second time, as we tried initially to play the stupid foreigner card and not know our number in line) and literally begs and pleads with the guy to let us in. The guy of course spoke little to no English and let us in just so he could stop dealing with us. The place was packed, and in Korea there are actually lines of people and you walk through exhibits like cattle. I hate it. I don't like to go at the molasses pace of everyone else. Thankfully I am taller than many so I could still read the caption for the photograph (all descriptions were purely in Korean). 

I thought the exhibit was great, granted if was very Americanized but other than that it was great. I am in love with photographs that catch a special moment in time, that a minute earlier or later and you would have missed it. I appreciate artistic photos, that take forever to set up, but there is something about these capture the moment photos that grabs me. 

Of course to end off a great day, I put us on a bus that takes us in the wrong direction and is packed to the point that people can't even get off the bus when they want to. When my friends will stop letting me make transportation decisions we will all be a lot happier.