winter camp @ gyeongju world - part one

on tuesday i got an email from my friend emma. she was going to be working at a winter camp and they needed some extra waegooks (foreigners) to come along... so i volunteered. we would be going to gyeongju and staying overnight, everything was planned already, and all we had to do was show up.

gyeongju is the ancient capital of the silla (pronounced shilla) dynasty which ruled korea for about a thousand years. it's about an hour and a half north of here (gimhae) in the province of gyeongsangbuk (i live in gyeongsangnam - nam means south and buk means north). in 1979 gyeongju was recognized as one of the worlds ten most important ancient cultural cities by UNESCO; it is also home to six world heritage sites. there are hundreds of royal tombs, temples, palace sites, fortress ruins, and pagodas. this is just to give you an idea of the kind of place we were going... so much history, interesting sites, and cultural heritage to learn about. we were excited. but, this being korea, the camp wasn't going to be touring any of these places, we ended up at gyeongju world - an amusement park!

our day started on the hour and a half bus ride with 50 kids.
i love the way korean buses always look like your grandmothers living room. at least this one didn't have the technicolour lights that you often have on tour buses here...or maybe they just weren't on because it was daylight. so after our bus ride of awkward conversation with kids that don't really speak english we arrived at the great and wonderful gyeongju world... how odd that they go to amusement parks in the middle of winter. the weather isn't terrible (by canadian standards, it's actually quite nice) but it's still cold out.
the first thing i noticed was the snow on the ground. i haven't seen snow since last winter, back home in canada. this is man made snow that just blew off the toboggan run, but it is snow, and i had to get a shot of it!
i thought this display was hilarious! eskimos with their igloos and huskies! how canadian of them! there were displays like this all over; houses with roofs covered in snow, santa clause standing on a mountain of snow, but the best was all the korean stuff thrown in around it:
like this one. i'm an ancient silla warior! i mean, this is, after all, gyeongju world, not the north pole!
and this one where i am a korean bride being carried off after my wedding - i just couldn't resist getting my picture taken in these.
and they had churros! i HAD to get one, just because it was so random to see them in korea. it's hard to find them in montreal, but to have one in korea was so weird. they also had waffles that they folded in half and filled with apples and sugar... reminded me of beaver tails, and how i haven't had one in ages... (just another thing on my list of stuff to do when i get home.)

you can see the picture of the baboons in my previous post... they had a petting zoo with goats and other animals, but i didn't get to see much because i was meant to be walking around talking to the kids... who didn't want to do anything but get on the rides. i was allowed to go on two rides - the octopus (pretty lame), and the tornado, which rocked. it was probably one of the best rides i've been on since i went to canada's wonderland a few years back. they had a ride similar to drop zone, but i didn't get on it.

so the afternoon at the park was okay, but it was freezing cold, and i was really happy when it was time to go inside and "play games or whatever" with the kids... stay tuned for that - i'll be posting more soon!