National Science Museum

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Paid a visit to Daejeon's National Science Museum last weekend. After our failed mission at finding the bus to Zooland, we decided to re-strategize and hit up the museum on the other end of the city.

After getting off at Government Complex Station, we headed north towards Expo Park, adjacent to the museum. We passed the airport bus stop, as well as several curious structures of people with business attire that were perched on top of some sort of restaurant. Not quite sure of the meaning, I decided to take a picture and let you guys decide what the heck the message is.

I kinda think the restaurant is trying to say "Hey guys, don't jump just cuz you've had a crappy day. Come in for some great lunch and you'll feel loads better." *shrug*

We came upon Kumdori Land's two official mascots...not quite sure what they are....but they seemed like pink and yellow Goombas.

We walked through a beautiful trellis-covered walkway with healthy bunches of squash-like vegetables swaying from above. It wasn't until halfway through that we realized this could be a potentially deadly situation if one of them were to fall onto our heads! This resulted in us quickly sprinting through the rest of the walkway before gravity decided to play a cruel trick.

The entrance admission to the National Science Museum was a mere 1000W! What a steal of deal, we thought. What was even cooler was that the first thing we saw were two ginormous robot/terminator-like structures flanking both sides of the museum's entrance. There were also smaller robot/terminator-like structures on either sides representing each animal of the zodiac. Of course, I just had to take pictures of the ones relevant in my family.

It was a quiet visit to the museum as we didn't see as many people as we thought we would. It wasn't like Telus World of Science were it'd be busy every weekend with families visiting. Chantelle and I didn't mind as it would just be less crowds to push through. The first building we went into was some sort of display of science projects from Daejeon students. Finding it a bit boring, we quickly skimmed through it and went in search of proper exhibits.

The actual exhibit area was divvied up into 4 main categories: Natural History, the History of Science & Technology in Korea, Understanding of Nature, and the Utilization of Nature.

The Natural History section comprised of your usual astronomical exhibits related to the creation of the universe along with the abiotic and biotic environments. Also, there was a small area dedicated to anthropology.

The History of Science & Technology in Korea talked about the start of the agricultural age leading into the Bronze Age (iron culture). We also read up on a bit of kingdom history, mainly the Goryeo, Baekje, and Silla Kingdoms.

There were many artifacts dating the history of Korea as well as examples of Korea's instruments, painting techniques (Dancheong), and a huge sweet-ass looking bell called the Divine Bell of Seongdeok.

Understanding of Nature was your usual biology, chemistry, and physics theories.

Lastly, the Utilization of Nature talked about the principle of nuclear power, solar energy, and the "future city". They even had a cool 1:10 scale model of the Columbia space shuttle.

In the end, we went outside and took a couple pictures of some korean battle tanks, aircraft, and possibly a real sample of the monorail car used during the 1993 Expo right here in Daejeon.

All in all, quite the educational afternoon. Chantelle, with her years of experience working at the Telus World of Science, along with my curious mind for science, were quite satisfied.

As we were walking towards the Gapcheon River, we happened to stumble upon seeing a whole row of ladies in their garden hats crouched on the ground either weeding or planting or something. It was so cute that we just had to snap one last picture.

All I can say is: Oh ahjummas....

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