When I was a little girl of about 10 years old, I went to Disneyland. It was a little girl's dream - filled with colour and parades and rides... and I didn't go on any of them. Sure, there were a couple like the teacups that suited my fancy, but when it came to the rollercoasters, I was terrified. I refused to go anywhere near them (and for good reason, since I have quite a vivid image of my very pale parents coming out of Space Mountain, and that in itself should have been enough to stop me.) And so, Disneyland was largely wasted on me. It was pretty and it was fun, but I didn't take advantage of it when I should have and I regret that now. See, a couple of years later I was forced onto the Cobra at Ratanga Junction (hardly a comparison to Disneyland, I know, but still...) and I found that I loved it! Since then I have become a giant fan of rollercoasters, and when I heard that there was a theme park just outside of Seoul, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I would find myself there. And so, when I was invited to Everland last weekend, there was little hesitation.
Saturday dawned and my bags were packed and ready to go. We had decided that the best idea would be to spend a night in Seoul and catch a bus to the park early on Sunday morning to miss the queues. But before we could head through to Seoul, Patrick insisted that we go to see Iron Man 2 - he had apparently been waiting with baited breathe since the first one came out - and so, I met Patrick and Blake (another friend who was joining for the trip) at the movie theatre at 11:00 for an early lunch and a quick show. The movie was good, but it wasn't the reason for my waiting on the edge of my seat. I was dying for it to end so that the trip could finally start! It eventually did (after what seemed like an age) and we made our way to the bus terminal and booked ourselves some tickets on the earliest bus to Seoul. Of course, we forgot to check exactly where in Seoul we would be winding up, and ended up in a completely unfamiliar area. We walked around for awhile, trying to figure out where we were and how we would get to the park the next day, and after about an hour of scouring the bus schedules (all in Korean, and me being the only person there who could read Korean), we managed to figure out which bus we needed to be on the next morning. Once we had figured that out, we decided to try and find ourselves a place to stay for the night. The only trouble was that we had landed up in what seemed to be the only motel/hotel-free area in Seoul. We asked a passerby, who thankfully spoke a little bit of English, and were informed that there was nowhere to stay in a two mile radius. And so, we split up (agreeing on a time and place to meet later) and started searching for places based solely on the flashing neon signs that surrounded us. After about half an hour of walking the streets, Blake and I bumped back into each other and managed to discover a little motel on a sidestreet, with a bright red flashing sign overhead that screamed "CHEAP", which we hurriedly booked into. Having realised that three people would be staying in the room rather than two, the owner quickly brought us a variety of matresses and duvets to make up a bed on the floor, and once that was done and we had found Patrick, Blake and I headed to the English bookshop (a godsend that I had not been expecting filled with delights like Jose Saramago and Salman Rushdie, though I decided to skip buying these in favour of copies of Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, all of which I had been dying to read but had never gotten a chance to.) Patrick decided to stay in the motel and take advantage of the giant bath. When we returned, it wasn't long before we were all fast asleep and dreaming of the rollercoasters of the next day (well I can't speak for the other two, but I certainly was.)
We all woke bright and early on Sunday morning, at 7:30, and made our way down to the bus stop. We all decided that we were going to need some food and hot drinks to get us through the bus trip, and so we made our way to the cafe just outside the stop. As we walked out of the cafe, we saw our bus driving away and started cursing our stomachs. So we ended up sitting at the bus stop for an extra half hour or so until another bus came along, and this one was full, so we ended up having to stand uncomfortably as the bus weaved its way along windy roads and through ridiculous traffic (all apparently headed to Everland), and after about an hour we had finally arrived, all grateful to place our feet on solid ground. We pushed through the people and, after buying tickets and going through a suspiciously simple security check (no metal detectors? No body searches? What the hell?!) we were through, into the park, and were confronted by a tree that looked like it had crept its way out of the Avatar set and covered itself in as many colourful flowers as it could find to disguise itself. The queues were already fairly crazy, and so we made our way to what we knew would be the longest one, realising that it would be even crazier later in the day. And so we came to the T-Express; the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the world, and certainly the steepest that I'd ever been on. Looking at it made my stomach churn, and yet somehow I found myself happily making my way through the queue to the front of the line, placing my bag in the cubicle, getting into the rollercoaster and strapping myself in. It was only after I had done all of this and the rollercoaster had started that I began to wonder what the hell I was doing. I asked Patrick (who was sitting next to me) over and over again why he had let me get on the ride? This was followed by choruses of muttering and swearing to kill him if I survived, which were shortlived because by this time we were at the top and about to head over the edge of the giant cliffhanger of doom. Two minutes later, with my hair ever so slightly dishevelled (it's to be expected when you are going at a sensory speed of 200 km/h), we all got off, looking slightly pale but all with the same question on our minds: Should we go again now or later?
This was the start of the day and was followed by another smaller rollercoaster, another ride on the T-Express, a water ride involving a raft, and an electric guitar ride that liked to throw all of us around (this was by far the scariest and gave a whole other meaning to the word headbanging for me, as we did somewhere around 10 loop-the-loops and were upside down for about 80% of the ride). Because it was the first decent weekend of the Spring, the park was packed and so these five rides took us all day. By the time we finished on the guitar ride, it was almost 6pm and Blake and I decided that we were over the queues and that it was time to head home. Patrick wanted to stay with his friend, Carene, who had joined us later in the day, but didn't want to bus back on his own, so he reluctantly joined us, but insisted that we not go back to Cheongju through Seoul. Instead he thought it would be quicker to go to a town on the outskirts of Seoul known as Suwon and from there to catch a bus to Cheongju and that way avoid the hustle and bustle of the city. And so we got onto a bus to Suwon (which took an hour and a half) only to find when we got there that there weren't any busses to Cheongju. So we decided to take the subway back to the bus terminal in Seoul in any case (taking us another hour and a half) and we arrived at the terminal only to be told that the earliest bus we could get tickets on was leaving at 23:05 (it was about 21:45 at this point, and we had been hoping to get tickets on the 22:00 bus, which would usually have been fine but a great deal of the Everlanders seemed to be from Cheongju.) And so we boarded a bus at 23:05 and arrived in Cheonju an hour an a half later, thoroughly worn out and unimpressed. From there, it was still a 15 minute taxi-ride to my house, and so I arrived back in the comfort of my own space a little before one in the morning - just in time to miss getting a full 6 hours sleep after I had showered, changed and tidied my room ever so slightly (involving taking things off the bed and finding places to put them so that I could in fact get some sleep.) And so, what should have been a 2.5 hour trip in mild traffic, 3 hours at the very most, ended up taking almost 7 hours.
And now I am back at work, having a typical Monday. Though the weather is beautiful (I am feeling hot in my long-sleeved shirt), my classes have been very difficult. The techniques and games that worked in all of my classes last week are refusing to work today, and I had not been told that I would be having my school photo taken today, and so was thoroughly unprepared in the clothes that I grabbed off the line this morning because I was too tired to find anything else. I am, however, extremely grateful to note that it's almost over - I only have one class left - and I will be able to sleep soon enough. Plus, Wednesday is a public holiday in South Korea - while you will all be celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, the Koreans will be celebrating Children's Day on Wednesday. I quite like this tradition. Not only does it mean that the kids get appreciated once in awhile, but it also means I get the day off school! Hooray! I have already been invited to a hike up to the fortress that surrounds Cheongju on Wednesday, so you can be expecting some pretty pictures soon enough. For now, I must stop daydreaming about the holiday to come and get back to reality where I am faced with a lesson to teach in half an hour.
Saturday dawned and my bags were packed and ready to go. We had decided that the best idea would be to spend a night in Seoul and catch a bus to the park early on Sunday morning to miss the queues. But before we could head through to Seoul, Patrick insisted that we go to see Iron Man 2 - he had apparently been waiting with baited breathe since the first one came out - and so, I met Patrick and Blake (another friend who was joining for the trip) at the movie theatre at 11:00 for an early lunch and a quick show. The movie was good, but it wasn't the reason for my waiting on the edge of my seat. I was dying for it to end so that the trip could finally start! It eventually did (after what seemed like an age) and we made our way to the bus terminal and booked ourselves some tickets on the earliest bus to Seoul. Of course, we forgot to check exactly where in Seoul we would be winding up, and ended up in a completely unfamiliar area. We walked around for awhile, trying to figure out where we were and how we would get to the park the next day, and after about an hour of scouring the bus schedules (all in Korean, and me being the only person there who could read Korean), we managed to figure out which bus we needed to be on the next morning. Once we had figured that out, we decided to try and find ourselves a place to stay for the night. The only trouble was that we had landed up in what seemed to be the only motel/hotel-free area in Seoul. We asked a passerby, who thankfully spoke a little bit of English, and were informed that there was nowhere to stay in a two mile radius. And so, we split up (agreeing on a time and place to meet later) and started searching for places based solely on the flashing neon signs that surrounded us. After about half an hour of walking the streets, Blake and I bumped back into each other and managed to discover a little motel on a sidestreet, with a bright red flashing sign overhead that screamed "CHEAP", which we hurriedly booked into. Having realised that three people would be staying in the room rather than two, the owner quickly brought us a variety of matresses and duvets to make up a bed on the floor, and once that was done and we had found Patrick, Blake and I headed to the English bookshop (a godsend that I had not been expecting filled with delights like Jose Saramago and Salman Rushdie, though I decided to skip buying these in favour of copies of Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, all of which I had been dying to read but had never gotten a chance to.) Patrick decided to stay in the motel and take advantage of the giant bath. When we returned, it wasn't long before we were all fast asleep and dreaming of the rollercoasters of the next day (well I can't speak for the other two, but I certainly was.)
We all woke bright and early on Sunday morning, at 7:30, and made our way down to the bus stop. We all decided that we were going to need some food and hot drinks to get us through the bus trip, and so we made our way to the cafe just outside the stop. As we walked out of the cafe, we saw our bus driving away and started cursing our stomachs. So we ended up sitting at the bus stop for an extra half hour or so until another bus came along, and this one was full, so we ended up having to stand uncomfortably as the bus weaved its way along windy roads and through ridiculous traffic (all apparently headed to Everland), and after about an hour we had finally arrived, all grateful to place our feet on solid ground. We pushed through the people and, after buying tickets and going through a suspiciously simple security check (no metal detectors? No body searches? What the hell?!) we were through, into the park, and were confronted by a tree that looked like it had crept its way out of the Avatar set and covered itself in as many colourful flowers as it could find to disguise itself. The queues were already fairly crazy, and so we made our way to what we knew would be the longest one, realising that it would be even crazier later in the day. And so we came to the T-Express; the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the world, and certainly the steepest that I'd ever been on. Looking at it made my stomach churn, and yet somehow I found myself happily making my way through the queue to the front of the line, placing my bag in the cubicle, getting into the rollercoaster and strapping myself in. It was only after I had done all of this and the rollercoaster had started that I began to wonder what the hell I was doing. I asked Patrick (who was sitting next to me) over and over again why he had let me get on the ride? This was followed by choruses of muttering and swearing to kill him if I survived, which were shortlived because by this time we were at the top and about to head over the edge of the giant cliffhanger of doom. Two minutes later, with my hair ever so slightly dishevelled (it's to be expected when you are going at a sensory speed of 200 km/h), we all got off, looking slightly pale but all with the same question on our minds: Should we go again now or later?
This was the start of the day and was followed by another smaller rollercoaster, another ride on the T-Express, a water ride involving a raft, and an electric guitar ride that liked to throw all of us around (this was by far the scariest and gave a whole other meaning to the word headbanging for me, as we did somewhere around 10 loop-the-loops and were upside down for about 80% of the ride). Because it was the first decent weekend of the Spring, the park was packed and so these five rides took us all day. By the time we finished on the guitar ride, it was almost 6pm and Blake and I decided that we were over the queues and that it was time to head home. Patrick wanted to stay with his friend, Carene, who had joined us later in the day, but didn't want to bus back on his own, so he reluctantly joined us, but insisted that we not go back to Cheongju through Seoul. Instead he thought it would be quicker to go to a town on the outskirts of Seoul known as Suwon and from there to catch a bus to Cheongju and that way avoid the hustle and bustle of the city. And so we got onto a bus to Suwon (which took an hour and a half) only to find when we got there that there weren't any busses to Cheongju. So we decided to take the subway back to the bus terminal in Seoul in any case (taking us another hour and a half) and we arrived at the terminal only to be told that the earliest bus we could get tickets on was leaving at 23:05 (it was about 21:45 at this point, and we had been hoping to get tickets on the 22:00 bus, which would usually have been fine but a great deal of the Everlanders seemed to be from Cheongju.) And so we boarded a bus at 23:05 and arrived in Cheonju an hour an a half later, thoroughly worn out and unimpressed. From there, it was still a 15 minute taxi-ride to my house, and so I arrived back in the comfort of my own space a little before one in the morning - just in time to miss getting a full 6 hours sleep after I had showered, changed and tidied my room ever so slightly (involving taking things off the bed and finding places to put them so that I could in fact get some sleep.) And so, what should have been a 2.5 hour trip in mild traffic, 3 hours at the very most, ended up taking almost 7 hours.
And now I am back at work, having a typical Monday. Though the weather is beautiful (I am feeling hot in my long-sleeved shirt), my classes have been very difficult. The techniques and games that worked in all of my classes last week are refusing to work today, and I had not been told that I would be having my school photo taken today, and so was thoroughly unprepared in the clothes that I grabbed off the line this morning because I was too tired to find anything else. I am, however, extremely grateful to note that it's almost over - I only have one class left - and I will be able to sleep soon enough. Plus, Wednesday is a public holiday in South Korea - while you will all be celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, the Koreans will be celebrating Children's Day on Wednesday. I quite like this tradition. Not only does it mean that the kids get appreciated once in awhile, but it also means I get the day off school! Hooray! I have already been invited to a hike up to the fortress that surrounds Cheongju on Wednesday, so you can be expecting some pretty pictures soon enough. For now, I must stop daydreaming about the holiday to come and get back to reality where I am faced with a lesson to teach in half an hour.
HI!!!
I am so glad I ran across your blog! I am moving to Korea on June 20th and I am super nervous. You have such detailed information here. I have some questions if you don't mind!
I am a little on the thicker side so I am wondering if there will be any good shopping for me? Like XL?
I am also wondering about the luggage. I have about 3 big suitcases right now. Is that too much to travel with?
I am going to be in Cheongju as well. What is your favorite/least favorite part thing about the area?
And lastly, how far are you from the GS place? I am so nervous about traveling alone in the beginning.
Sooooooo sorry to pick your brain but I feel like I'm walking in blind!!!
Shaina
Hey Shaina
So I am also a little bit on the bigger side, and though I have found a couple of choice pieces of clothing, it is generally pretty damn hard to find clothes for bigger people. There are Western stores in Seoul where they stock bigger sizes, but I have not explored those yet. I intend to soon though - having lost quite a bit of weight, my trousers no longer fit and my belts are looking seriously worn.
As for how much stuff to take - I took one giant bag, which weighed 30kgs almost on the dot. I know that the airline I went on had a 30kg limit - find out how much your limit is. I must have repacked my suitcase at least five times to stick to the limit, and each time I found stuff that I realised I wouldn't really need. Just keep doing this until you have whittled your stuff down to one or two biggish bags.
I live in quite a secluded part of Cheongju, far away from pretty much everything and that's not so fun. The good part is that I am quite close to the shopping district, which is a pretty common meeting point. What I love about Cheongju itself is that it is quite a big city without too much of the hustle and bustle of city life. There are quite a lot of Westerners here, and you can always head to Chungdae Jungmun and be guaranteed to run into a Westerner and make a new friend. My least favourite part is that it is not exactly a pretty city, but I got over that pretty quick.
I take it by the GS place that you mean the GSmart? It's a half hour walk away from me, but there are giant supermarkets of doom scattered throughout the city. You just have to find them. I was also really nervous about travelling alone in the beginning, but after a couple of weeks, I started feeling braver and now (aside from laziness) I have no problem making the walk and it's become pretty familiar.
Don't worry about picking my brain! I am happy to help out wherever I can :) If you have any more questions it might be easier to e-mail me though. laislinns@gmail.com