For a few brief hours last weekend, I was three ages at once. 19 in America (given the 14-hour time difference), 20 in Korea, and 21 based off my lunar “Korean age.” So it was only appropriate that I celebrated my birthday like a 10-year-old.

For my 20th birthday, I agreed to go with some of my friends to Seoul Grand Park. Seoul Grand Park is basically a big conglomerate of fun stuff spread out over a pretty green area nestled between some mountains. Lots of food, picnic areas, botanical gardens, a museum, even a Six Flags-scale amusement park.

There was also what my friends described to me as a “small animal park.” Admission was only $1, and I figured it would amount to a pleasant little petting zoo with some pigs and goats or something.

My first inkling that this wasn’t just your standard State Fair animal tent came when I saw the giant plaster tiger statue guarding the main gate. Gee, I thought, tigers at a petting zoo! Exotic! Then I saw actual live giraffes poking their heads around in the distance, and realized my day was going to be a lot more awesome than I originally fathomed.

By some miracle of group discounts and currency exchange rates, my $1 ticket had admitted me to a sprawling full-scale zoo, similar to the massive Fort Worth zoo back home. This was the real deal.

Zoos are probably my third-favorite tourist attraction in general, following closely behind museums and aquariums (still on my Korea Bucket List at this point). I was ecstatic, and quickly reverted to a 2002 version of myself running excitedly from lion to orangutan to rhinoceros.

Without sounding too much like a Yelp review, I have to take a minute to talk about how awesome the Seoul Grand Zoo is. The layout of the zoo, the sheer number of animals to gawk at, the endless opportunities to buy ice cream and balloons– it is heaven. I would probably live here if I could, shooting the breeze with happy baby pumas and living out my days in the Peacock Village (which is just as majestic as it sounds).

My personal favorites were the Bear Pavilion, because I like to pretend bears are just people in furry costumes, and the underrated bison enclosure, because they seemed like noble creatures overshadowed by nearby alpacas. The zoo even had a section dedicated to North Korean wildlife, a category that I had literally never given any thought to before. North Korea has wildlife? I know that sounds ignorant, but I just assumed they had eradicated all flora and fauna with those empty paved roads we always see in the photos. Apparently, though, North Korea is the native habitat of several wolf and fox species, all of which look mildly vicious. Now I know.

There was also a ridiculous amount of statues, signs, and other adorable things with which to have your picture taken. Even more than what you might find at an American zoo. Just off the top of my head, I remember posing next to an acrylic portrait of a sugar glider, a statue of a meerkat family, and a man in a hamster costume. I also appeared in several photos riding a giant bronze hippopotamus. The possibilities are endless!

My friends and I ended our zoo trip with some more ice cream, soda, junk food and a few more photo ops. We rode the subway back to campus in a daze, half of us with cartoon animals painted on our faces, all of us exhausted but happy. Birthday accomplished.

If I had more time left in Korea, I know I’d make multiple trips back to the Grand Park to explore everything else it has to offer (and maybe the zoo like 8 more times). But with a little less than a month left in Seoul, I’m sad to think I probably won’t have time to make it back there again considering all the other things I want to do. I know this isn’t the last time I’ll be in Korea, though, so I know I’ll reunite with my bison friends before too long.