Everland and 이순신 Festival

This past weekend was really cool. This time of year is holiday time...Saturday was Buddha's birthday and then tomorrow is Children's Day. So...I had several days off of school (including tomorrow) and so I tried to get out and see a few more sites. Friday I went to Asan to the 이순신 (Lee Sun Shin) festival in Asan. I don't know if you remember in my first ever blog I went to his house in Asan (Hyeonchungsa) and posted some pictures. Anyway...he is really famous in Korean, he was an Admiral of the Korean navy and fought bravely against the Japanese in the Japanese Invasions during 1592-1598. His birthday was April 28, 1545 so I think that's why they had the festival this past week. He did some really amazing things. He designed the "Turtle Ship" which was an amazing war ship which sometimes featured over 20 cannons, versus the Japanese ships having 1 or 2. At the Battle of Myeongnyang Lee Sun Shin commanded 13 ships versus 133 for Japan. The Koreans were victorious and forced the Japanese to retreat. He grew up in Asan (near Cheonan) and that's why the festival is there. It was really cool...I went to Hyeonchungsa again (his boyhood home) and then they had 100s of exhibits set up along the river in Asan. They had a portable bridge across the river since the festival was on both sides of the river. It was a little windy late in the afternoon, and it was kind of funny watching people try and cross the floating bridge. As the wind picked up, or course it was moving the water and then people just walking across the bridge too...hahaha, it was swinging all over the place! HA! It had been nice most of the day...and then around 4 PM the sky turned black and the rain started pouring down. I was glad I had been there long enough to enjoy it before I got soaked! :)

So on Saturday I went to Everland! I had been waiting to go here for quite a while...it's the biggest amusement park in Korea and has the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the WORLD! It has a 77 degree drop...unreal how scary this thing was. I've been on some pretty scary rollercoasters over the years, but the T-Express was by far the scariest. The first drop it literally feels like you're going straight down! It was scary, and I thought my stomach was going to come out of my mouth! HA! The only thing I was a little disappointed in as that they were working on two of the rollercoasters in the park, so the T-Express was the only coaster I got to ride. There were still some other cool rides though, so it wasn't a wasted day or anything. The park in HUGE. There are some really pretty areas with flowers and fountains, and the weather was perfect for a day at an amusement park. It was nice and sunny but not hot.

I had a great weekend, and tomorrow I'm planning to go back to another Doosan Bears game...they are having a day game since it's Children's Day. Hopefully I can help them go 3-0 this season! HA!