Hwanho Park: Zoo, Gym, Playground, Sexy Museum

Nick and I decided that we needed a bit more structure in our family's summer, so we've begun doing Morning Jaunts around the city to visit new areas. On Monday, we took the kids to Hwanho Park - you may recall that place from my Date Night blog. They enjoyed the small zoo - the monkeys (one was definitely a boy) were very active; the peacock was in full "bloom," and the ostrich was feisty, booting the poor turkey a good one.

Then Nick and Sam visited the sleepy deer, and Nick decided to...act like a mountain lion: slow, sneaky, with short quick moves along the fence. I do not know where he gets these ideas. One deer went completely nuts, jumped the fence into the next enclosure, ran wildly about, jumped onto the roof of the shed back in its own pen, then slid into its normal lounging area, stumbling about.  Fortunately, the deer was not hurt, no zookeepers were in attendance, and we got to witness the mighty leaping power of a deer. Unfortunately, no pictures record this event because my mouth was hanging open in equal parts wonder and horror.

To get to the children's playground, we walked down the path past the "gym" which is an outdoor exercise with a walking path and several nautilus-type machines (you can see a bit of it behind the ostrich cage, above).  This was filled with ajeemas and their man-equivalents (we call them ajeemos, but I don't know their real title). Two things struck me.  First, a man looped the exercise path carrying a pair of crutches; second, a woman strode around the path...backwards.

The playground was much like an American one, but it had the unusual theme of Halloween--ghosts, spiders, and pumpkins -- with a side of Pooh-bear honey pots.











At the fish pond, lilypads were in bloom and we found some wood ducks.  Now, wood ducks, of course, are lovely creatures who like to nest in trees; these ironic pieces of art were, well, wooden ducks. I thought Ray "Opa" Lantinga would love these perhaps as much as I did.

This art prompted us to continue toward the Pohang Steel Art Museum.  The city of Pohang was a tiny fishing village until about 40 years ago, when POSCO Steel opened and rapidly became the world's largest steel manufacturer, helping Pohang grow into a city of about 1/2 million people (roughly Omaha's population).  That said, Pohang's reputation is a lot like, say, Gary, Indiana: a blue-collar, smelly, hick town based on fishing, rice, and steel.  So, I was excited by the promise of a museum but given the strange zoo, gym, and playground (and the city's reputation), I was not sure what to expect in terms of fine art.

Although the museum itself was closed (why??), the grounds were littered with interesting sculptures.  And our tour started well enough.  Elisabeth wrapped herself in a coily piece; another piece reminded me of leaded glass; Elisabeth posed atop another structure.

But then the nude sculptures started appearing.  Anatomically-correct male and female nudes - and some, frankly, were rather more "anatomically optimistic."  To a mature adult, nudes are fine and wonderful and worthy of artistic representation.  However, having 3 kids along (2 of them teenage boys) gives a rather different perspective. Out loud they say "Gross!",  "Sick!", and  "Why are there so many NAKED statues?" but if you watch them (the kids, not the statues), they're staring and giggling.  They're interested, all right.

And then...Nick and Sam are ahead of me on the trail.  Nick, apparently reverting to adolescence himself, shouts, "WOW - what a RACK!"  I move quickly to shush him, really not wanting us to reinforce the stereotype of Americans as loud and sex-obsessed....only to found this statue, with Nick and Sam laughing at the shocked look on my face.  They got me.  : ) 

Ah.  Our "educated" airs that led us to wonder what a little "steel art" museum in a "blue collar" city could offer were sucked right out of us.  Let's face it:  we fit right in, redneck humor and all.