Field Trip to Seoul Zoo!

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Today I’m not sure who was more excited, the staff or the kids. Our Safari ride at Everland last week was at night, so we didn’t really get a chance to see the animals clearly. Today was much different. It was a great day for mid October. The sun was shining and the temperature was about 28°C. I feel for you all back home! The kids seemed pretty tame when we met in the school gym prior to departing for the buses. This didn’t last long. The bus ride was quiet for the most part because all of the children are rummaging through their bags eating snacks that their parents pack them. I think I saw about 10 varieties of chips, candy, crackers and cookies being eaten. In addition, just about every kid had a different type of drink, and this was all just on the bus ride there. How can such small kids eat so much!? Well the calm finally came to an end as soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the Seoul Zoo. Chaos erupted. Kids were screaming, singing and banging the sides of the bus. It was intense.

Once off the bus, all of the teachers herded up their children and got them to lineup in pairs holding hands. This is good because instead of looking after ten hyper kids, it only seems like I’m keeping an eye on five. We dropped off their bags in an area we would later return to for lunch and then began walking through the different sections of the zoo.

First we saw the zebras. The kids all thought they were pretty cool. Next were the ostriches. They enjoyed seeing these because we just finished our animal theme and an ostrich was one of the animals they had for the letter “O”. Just the other night I briefly saw a T.V. show on the National Geographic channel that was on the Serengeti and it displayed a few wild ostriches. Needless to say, the ones we saw weren’t looking as healthy. It was still neat to see them up close though, because its been awhile since I’ve been to a zoo. Moving on, we then saw the giraffes. They looked pretty healthy and were busy munching their grass/hay from a feeding station about 30ft. high. Again, the kids liked them because giraffes were one of their “G” animals. Next we saw the hippos. Again, these are one of the animals from the “H” family. They really liked the hippos because whenever they say the word “hippo”, they always do it with so much enthusiasm. Elephants were also another animal they knew from their theme. The polar bears were looking a little rough. They were small in size and they also had a green tinge on their fur. I believe it might have been algae, but nonetheless last time I checked polar bears were white. They weren’t looking too happy.

We then had to rush back to our meeting spot and get the kids lunch. I thought that after lunch we would be able to go back and see more of the animals, but we were informed that this was it, and it was time to head back. That was a disappointment. My kids and I really wanted to see the lions and tigers but we didn’t make it that far into the zoo. Lunch for my kids went fine, but for Katie’s class, not so much. I didn’t see it, but apparently one of her kids had to go to the bathroom after eating his lunch. Instead of asking his teacher to go use the bathroom facilities, he just peed right on the ground beside the rest of his classmates. It was pretty funny. This concluded our trip to the zoo.


On the drive back to the school from the highway I had noticed about 20 cranes just north of where we were driving. It was by far the most construction cranes I’ve ever seen in any one given area. I decided to take a picture because it shows how rapidly areas are developing. The land surrounding the highway in this particular area appeared to be used mainly for growing vegetables and fruit, with the odd building currently visible in the background.

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Photos

Justin
This is Justin wearing a pair of Aviator sunglasses while we are waiting for all of the students to get organized in the gym.

Escaped Wild Animals??
Maybe these should be the real animals behind the cage. It was going to be a nice picture until James decided to stick his head out.

Giraffe
Eating some food way, way up!

"Everybody stay still!"
It took awhile to get everyone standing like this, but I finally managed. In behind you can see two of the elephants.

Camel
This was the best camel I could show the kids. All the other ones were too far from the fence. I was kind of let down because I wanted the kids to see him standing up.

Green Polar Bears??
Here's the green polar bear. It was a pretty sad sight.

Rhino
Even though experts say hippos are deadlier than rhinos, I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this nose...

Lunch Time
This is how the kids ate their lunch. It's funny watching them trying to shove pieces of food larger than their mouth into their mouths.

Cranes, Cranes and more Cranes...
In this picture you can only see about 16 of the 20 or so cranes. Whatever they're building, I'm sure the final product will change the area drastically.