Amongst the kids in a whole new setting

Before Phil departed Korea for 'merica-land, we had the opportunity to visit Everland Resort, Korea's biggest (and pretty much only) major amusement park. There are other smaller parks in the country, to be sure, but this is the only one complete with themed areas, a water park, a big old hotel, and all the trappings of a comparable park elsewhere in the world. Some observations:

Not for thrill-seekers - The park had a whopping one roller coaster running when we visited out of a possible three. The roller coaster I had been most excited about, a suspended terrain coaster called Eagle Fortress, was closed for "refurbishment" according to signs on the loading station, but it had been suspiciously taken off the map. The second closed roller coaster, Rolling X-Train, was a kind of take-it-or-leave it ride, but it was being inspected. For months. Yeah, it takes awhile, I guess? Anyway, that left T-Express, which is a very solid wooden roller coaster, and the steepest coaster in the world. It is apparently also the tallest roller coaster in Korea, which at 170-ish feet kinda makes one pause. It's a hoot and a half, though. Very smooth and enjoyable, even though I wasn't allowed to wear my glasses. If you've got to name your roller coaster after an evil monolith of a company, might as well make it good, right?

Repetitive Stress Injuries - Bafflingly, all employees at Everland have to wave their hands at you at all times. If you know what deaf people clapping looks like, it is pretty much the same thing. Always. At varying degrees of enthusiasm and effectiveness. I really don't get it at all. It's not a wave, they're not beckoning to you to try Dippin Dots for freaking $1.50 (~~~~), they're just doing it. Like a tic or something. Maybe it's a cultural difference.

It's a Small World, After All - so, I ran into one of my students at the park. I was with Phil, and we were sweating buckets and I'm sure I looked kind of like crap, but the kid hasn't quit yet, so I guess I didn't spook her too badly. Still, how do the fates align that myself and young Sally happen to be at Everland, in Holland Village, at the same exact time? Probably because it is the only amusement park in Korea. Right.

Did I mention they have Dippin Dots for $1.50 - because it is kind of awesome.

The Zoo - They have at Everland the world's "only mixed zoo", as in they toss lions and bears and fennec foxes and tigers into the same overly-small habitat. Is it depressing? Yes, yes it is. Are the animals cute? Yes, yes they are. They had several tiny cages of cockatiels and I wanted to be their friends pretty badly. I benefitted from this lack of animal care, however, because I got to pet a lion cub. He was fuzzy.

Also, rafting - Nobody prolly cares, but I was fascinated by the vehicles on their river rafting ride. You got a giant plastic cover that renders your body pretty much un-soakable, and also, the raft has joints in it. No, not that kinda joints, alas. It's hard to explain, but each seat is on its own slice of the round pizza, and the pizza can flex when it goes over the rapids so it's not so rough and... anyway, this analogy is flawed, but it was cool, okay?