Disneyland... In Korea

(Conan the Barbarian meets Pumpkin King meets Cute Racoon Hat. Priceless)

Hi all,

Disneyland in Korea, you ask? But isn't that in California? 

Well, not exactly. This weekend, we decided to have a little fun instead of just grade papers or do too much serious touring like our DMZ trip, and went up to Everland on Saturday. Everland, a theme park/zoo/fun place is located just about 20 minutes away from us here in Yeongtong, Suwon. We took a 30$ cab ride out to the front gates and waited for the rest of our group--there were 7 or so of us-- to catch up.

(The Front Entrance to Everland)

Then, we entered the front gates.

If this doesn't look like Disney to you, I don't know what does. We strolled through the equivalent to Main Street USA, Korean style, browsing through some gift shops as we headed towards, of course, the chief attraction in any amusement park: the roller coasters.

(Jennifer, at right, on the Columbus Boat Ride. This was taken in mid-swing)

Jennifer, I should add, has not been on a coaster since she was very young, and has avoided them like the plague for a good couple of years. We provided the necessary peer pressure, and yes, that is Jen screaming in the picture above, while on the Columbus swinging-boat ride.

Suffice it to say, much fun was had by all, throughout.

The only down side was some rain that hit us mid-afternoon. We had gotten in line for the T-Express, a monster of a wooden roller coaster with a ridiculous 75-degree vertical incline on the first drop. Apparently, seatbelts are mandatory due to said wall of straight-down screaming insanity and fun. Unfortunately, after waiting for 2 hours, the line was told to vacate due to rain, and we had to rejoin the line at the beginning.

While we don't mind this so much, when it happened the *second* time, we were pissed. Two of our group, Oliver, and Daniel, being cold and frustrated, decided to head back to town. We understood where they were coming from, but decided to go and have a beer or two while waiting for the rain to slow down enough for us to go on some more rides.

(The Hallowe'en Central Plaza)

We did finally get on two more big rides, the Rolling X-Press, which is basically the Bat or the Dragon's Fyre from Canada's Wonderland, and then the mighty T-Express itself. It was, suffice it to say, well worth the wait. The first drop is quite the plunge, while the rest of the ride has some serious G-Forces behind it. It was rather fun, since I could tell exactly when Jen would scream, and because I was joining right in with her. My mother, I suspect, would be hoarse by the end of such an adventure. 

(Interior of the Global Village Ride)

While there, we also ventured into a little ride called "Global Village." If anyone has ever been to Ye Olde Disneyland, one might recall the "It's a Small World, After All" ride. This modern torture device of the Inquisition projects stereotypes of the rest of the world for all to see, while a gratuitously cheerful song (the eponymous "Small World") is warbled by puppets for an agonizing five minutes.

The Koreans get you for 10. And the song is actually catchy. The ethnic stereotypes remain intact. 

It's funny. We wouldn't mind that, or the lack of service on the T-Express, but I definitely do notice the disorganization present in Korean culture as opposed to Canadian. Don't get me wrong, we're as guilty of doing things on the fly and out of control as any, but the general rule in Canada is to plan things out a couple of weeks in advance, or at least have some plan in place for emergencies. Take the T-Express, for example. In Canada, getting rained out when you were literally about to get on the ride results, usually, in getting a pass to jump the line at some later point. 

In Korea, you get to do it all over again and pray the rain won't come back.

In Canada, moving is set up quite some time in advance. In Korea, we had to wait until the last minute until the Korean staff at our Hagwon realized that it might be good to figure out how we were supposed to move from our small, temporary apartment to the one large enough for couples.

Oh, and they hadn't been able to figure out what to do with the couple living there already. Jen and I both felt awful for Stephanie and Dave (the latter one of our companions to Everland), and for Sumi, who was taking our place. All three must have felt like they were getting short shrift as a result of said disorganization.

Anyway, complaining over. We thoroughly enjoyed Everland, and we're very much enjoying the hotel we've been temporarily assigned to by our academy. It even has a jacuzzi tub, which, I think, after a hard night of teaching and Tae Kwon Do, I am going to go make use of.

G'night!

Chris