My childhood in Flushing, NY would not have been the same without Kissena Park. It was a great escape from the urban life and very close to my house (just a few blocks away). There is a park just across the street from me here in Songdo that reminds me of Kissena Park. It does not have the Bocce ball court with retired Italian men, or the drainage pipe surrounded by a swamp that was great for exploring, or the eutrophic ponds full of frogs, but somehow it reminds me of the park that will always have a special place in my heart.

This park is not to be confused with “Central Park” which is just a few blocks away. Josh and I call it the Zodiac Park. I have no idea what it is actually called, but there are small signs distributed around the park in a circular formation that have a diagram of each of the zodiac signs in English and Korean. The star patterns are actually lighted at night (we have taken a short cut through this park before on our way home from the subway).

There is a bike path and a walking path. The meters are marked off which I am sure will come in useful once I start running again. I cannot wait to get a bike and a pair of roller blades. Though I have both in storage in Texas, they don’t do me a lot of good there. (This is defintelly a source of frustration for me).

The path surrounds a small lake. This is the part that reminds me a lot of Kissena Park, the layout and size of the body of water is somewhat similar, except this one is newer and cleaner.

There is also a winding path that leads to the top of a hill. The view from here is fabulous. There are some canopied areas for sitting down and enjoying the scenery.

There is somewhat of a nautical theme which I love! There are some random statues of whales and dolphins in the grass and a playground that looks like a pirate ship. Even some of the drainage grates have diagrams of fish and coral on it.

There are wind turbines spread out around the hill. I am not sure what they are used for but I think this might be a “self-sustaining” park. I will have to look that up, but the city of Songo is supposed to be one of the “world’s greenest cities” so I really doubt they are simply decorative.

The trees are still pretty new, most of them are buttressed with support systems. Some of the plants are labeled and though most of the words are in Korean, the scientific name is in Latin.

Titan and I just came back from a fabulous walk. There were many people out and about and we saw a number of dogs, (only little ones, the larger breeds are not popular here).

There is no substitute for mother nature. I didn’t get to experience “real camping” until I took a class called Global Change in college, and not a single marine science class could compare to the awe and wonder I felt the first time I snorkeled on a Coral Reef. However, it is nice to have a small piece of mother nature that is accessible, no matter how small. My love for nature started in Kissena Park and has only grown with each encounter.

A picture is worth a thousand words so enjoy the slideshow