Gayaland

for those of you who know me, you know how much i love amusement parks. i once planned a whole holiday with my friends around driving to canada's wonderland near toronto (it was a good one, wasn't it ladies?). so wasn't i happy when "they" (the powers that be, at my school) told me that we were having picnic day and the grade threes' were all going to Gayaland... i was allowed to choose whichever grade i wanted to go with - though i'm sure that if ihad said movies with the grade twos' Jay would have found a way to make me go with the grade threes... but anyway, i was totally psyched about gayaland. i can practically see it from my house and have been meaning to go anyway, even though a bunch of people have told me that it's "dangerous". i'm still not sure why we would bring 500 students to it if it's so dangerous... but more on that later.

so teacher Jo picked me up on the corner of my street at 9:10 - yes! i got to sleep in!!! it took
like four minutes to get there, then all the other teachers' arrived, all the students arrived - on their own. this seemed kind of weird to me - in canada if there's a field trip, you all meet at school, take attendence, get on buses, and go...but here you have to make your own way... even the kids. so after taking attendance (which a student did for the teacher) it was picture time! that's right, we didnt' all run to get in line for the rides, we had to line up class by class and take our class pictures... with a "real" photographer. i've never seen someone take so long to take group photos, i would have been done in half the time. this guy kept looking through the camera and then just standing up and staring if someone didn't look right. he wouldn't say anything... he'd just stand there. anyway, it took forever, and of course, i had to be in ALL of them. yes, i was in every grade three class picture - they ARE all my students after all...anyway, finally the pictures were done and we went in.

the first ride i found was the "PIRAT" ha!ha!ha! more spelling mistakes and in big lit up letters. what is it with the pirate ships in this country?

i am quickly becoming an expert on this ride...it's my third since arriving in korea... so i'm averaging once every two weeks...which is cool, since it IS one of favourite rides.

this one was quite small in comaparison to others that i've been on in canada, but it was all right. they seem to go higher here, and run for a little longer. i never hold on to the bar.

found this pond, where the kids were taking MORE photos with the photographer... they were here all morning, koreans LOVE pictures... it is quite a pretty little spot though.

finally made it to the one and only roller coaster - which i was hoping would be the highlight of the day, but which turned out to be more like a kiddie coaster in canada... a real let-down actually. the only really scary part is that the bar that holds you in doesn't clamp down until the ride has started moving...so until you're up there you aren't sure if you're tucked in nice and safely. maybe this is what they mean when they say it's dangerous? anyway, you could probably get away with not having any seat belt on this ride - it was that lame.

this was probably my favourite ride of the day. we had to wait like ten minutes to get on it cause the operator ran off to the toilet just as we were about to get on - i think it was worth the wait.

after that we decided to find the other teachers to have a snack. they all brought kim bap which is rice and veggies rolled up in seaweed. since i don't like seaweed, i didn't join them, but walked around taking pictures and going on rides with the kids... but i did take this photo:

from left to right: the principal, the vice principle, Jay, and two other teachers. then i left the teachers to wander.

i ended up on this ride called the twister... big mistake. it looked kind of fun, but i forgot that in korea rides are dangerous... and this one definitely was.

notice the cages are open? and the only thing holding you in is a big belt made of some kind of material. anyway, it doesn't look scary, and it isn't really, but it hurt like a bitch. i have bruises on both of my hips from it. probably because the cage i was in got stuck upside down for about a minute and a half. which in real life isn't that long, but when you're hanging upside down by your hips, it really is... a little while after i signalled to the guy to stop the ride... i was in pain... not good. anyway, it was all right and i think i gained some infamy with the kids for being brave enough to get on in the first place... none of the other teachers did.



these are just some kids' drinks' that i saw and thought were cute... haven't seen them anywhere else. the korean teacher looked at me really funny when i said i wanted to buy one "but they're for kids," she said. so i didn't get one. i know i should just do what i want, but they already think i'm weird as it is... but aren't they cute?

can anyone say copyright infringement? there were all kinds of these disney characters painted on the ground... maybe i should tell disney... do they pay for tips like that? haha... just thought i'd show you...

and that was gayaland. there were about hundred or so kids that came running up to me to take a photo with me too... so i took a couple. here they are... sorry no names...



some of them didn't want a picture with me... they just wanted me to take one of them... but most of them took one with me on their mobile phones... yes, the 15-year-olds have mobiles, and i (still) can't one...

stay tuned for the continuation of the eternal hunt for a mobile...