A Trip to South Korea's Largest Theme Park! (Lots of Pictures)

We finally went on the big graduation trip with the school and we went to Korea's Largest theme park, Everland. The park is located in Yongin which is just outside of Seoul. The trip itself took about an hour and a half, but there's a rest stop that we went to along the way that I think was about halfway through. Unfortunately for us there were 28 children coming along on the trip ranging from 5 years old up to about 10 or 11, but we found out the good news that two parents were coming along with us for the trip. Chef teacher came too, and thank goodness!

We went downstairs (since we live above our school) around 9:30am or so to wait around and keep an eye on the kiddos while we waited for the bus to come around 10:30am. Chef teacher had placed some sort of rice cakes covered in an almost finely ground corn powder in each of the classrooms and other rooms in the school where they sat briefly in small dishes. I was quite confused. Then, she went back around and collected them all and we were able to eat them. I'm not really sure what they were for, I need to do some research. It was very interesting though.

This is the small lift used to send food and dishes up and downstairs for lunch and snack. Chef teacher had placed one of the small dishes there too.

Finally the bus arrived, Zach and I were assigned to take a box of water out to the bus. Not the most appetizing bottled water ever as it's called "Pocari Sweat", but we did it nonetheless. (After the fact we discovered that it's actually a sports drink type thing, but still.) Once everyone was settled on the bus we did a few stops around Cheongju to pick up some kids from different elementary schools and finally we left for Everland.

Yet another party bus. Well, without the party part that is. Just children wanting snacks opened. About an hour and a half later or so, and a mid-way rest stop and we finally made it to Everland. 

We took a bus/shuttle to Everland itself once the bus parked and we spilled outside into the parking lot. It wasn't until this time that I realized that we were somehow supposed to be in charge of the classes (his and mine, so she said), despite not knowing the park or being competent enough with Korean. Thank goodness for Chef teacher in purple and Julia's mom in the blue jacket. 

I have to admit, despite being chilly out and the snow on the way, the park really is pretty. They have the Snow Festival going on at this time, so everything is winter themed.

One of the first views we saw right outside of the place that we ate our late lunch.

Everyone finally assembled for lunch. I ran away to use the restroom at this point with Luke so I wasn't sure what happened. Like most Korean places they had a self serve water dispenser with cups and there was a small self serve place with kimchi and a type of radish they like to have with meals.

I was informed after getting back that the food options were pork cutlet and fish with rice and a cabbage salad (above) or a similar meal just with the meat, rice, and curry. I got the above option which was admittedly quite delicious. We were in the minority of adults with meals because I noticed that most of the others just helped the kids cut up their meals and then helped various kids by eating some themselves.

After lunch we finally started our Everland excursion. At first we had a big group of 28 with 6 adults, but after lunch the older kids parted ways with us and our Korean teacher went off with the older elementary boys. We then "started" out as a small group of 19, but later dropped down to 13 as some of the kids split off with their parents. We were all together for this part.

The tigers were quite pretty and their habitat was pretty nice (of the not so great ones we also saw).

I can't blame them, seeing boring humans passing regularly doesn't sound exciting enough to wake for.

The bears were trained and did some tricks though. Kind of depressing, really. 

I like this picture because you can see me in the reflection.

There was a petting zoo that was not quite a petting zoo. More of a close up observation spot. They had spoons with extensions here so that you could make a w2000 donation and feed guinea pigs. 

I wish we had seen more of the park, but I did get some interesting pictures. Since we had little ones that couldn't really do rides, we headed toward the animal/zoo type section which was kind of neat. Some of the enclosures were better than others though. 

The fennec foxes were adorable, also sleepy.

This looks familiar...

Like this beaver, we too are far from home. :(

These turtles were pretty cool, and cute.

Heed the signs, and follow the monkey's advice. I'm not sure how well using a railing as a balance beam would go anyway. Good advice, monkey.

I wish we had gotten a picture of us at this bench, but there was no one I trusted with my camera.

In which our director decided that harassing a seal was a good idea. The kids climbed on the fence (we had given up at this point, the director didn't care and we were tired of telling them to do something they didn't do) and all proceeded to yell at the poor seal. One loud voice and lots of little ones yelling "annyeooong" did not make for a happy seal. 

The seal was so irritated that it tossed the blue chuck of pool lining out of the tank at our group. Poor seal.

In another shining example of responsibility, she decided that hoisting the kids up so they could see better was a good idea. I'm not so sure about that...

Then we went to this seal/animal show which was admittedly pretty cute, if cheesy. 

How can anyone resist an otter on a small sailboat?

Things were good up until this part. I was pretty much flipping out. By this point our party had broken down into a group of 12, 3 adults and 9 kids. This little ski lift type thing was a transport to a different level of the park, which was all fine and good. Then we got split up to 1 adult and 3 kids per lift, a large lift, but with a bar that can be easily moved upward. I almost had a panic attack. And why were they letting us do this? I may be a bit of a spoilsport here, but this seemed like a major liability. Yikes!

By this point I had started to breathe normally again since I was able to actually take a few photos, but wow. Fortunately I had girls that actually listened, unlike Zach who got stuck with squirmy Evelyn who tried to bail from under the bar. I was glad when that was over with.

The next time we took these back and forth a few times (since the kids were so little) and they were MUCH nicer than the ones we rode initially. I am a fan of enclosed spaces with closing doors and sitting spaces when travelling with little people. It's also important to note that our director, in all her wisdom, was at this point was pretty much scampering about without counting children, ignoring us and getting ahead, and with us having no real idea of where we were supposed to be going. It made this field trip slightly less fun.

I wish we had had more time to just amble and I could have gotten more pictures, but I'm lucky I got the ones that I did. This tree was pretty and had hand prints in the tree that responded with sounds and music when a little hand filled it.

Since Pororo is so popular here we attempted to go to this, but due to our director and the late time of day we were unable to go. Pororo is everywhere and we even watched it on the bus on the way back. 

Speaking of on the way back, we finally boarded the bus once the park closed (we made it out pretty close to 6pm when it closed) and then headed back. Fortunately, Chef teacher had made kimbap for the ride home and everyone who wanted some got some along with various other snacks. 

We hauled the boxes of water out of the bus, walked up the small road, took off our shoes at the door, deposited the boxes, looked around tiredly, and finally went upstairs and relaxed. Maybe not the most ideal field trip ever and riddled with more anxiety than I anticipated, but I suppose it's a day in the life of a teacher here really. Expecting the unexpected can be a challenging and taxing skill, admittedly.