I've been telling Ami that I want to ride the subway so that I can learn how it works. I've ridden subways in Tokyo, London, Paris, Washington D.C. and a few smaller cities and have always been able to figure out how they work and love the challenge of trying to get myself, and anyone with me, from point A to B. I knew I could figure out the Seoul system too, but I also knew that it would be likely that Ami would be with me when I was doing it and that perhaps she could enlighten me to any details I might not be able to get on my own (I recall my Brit friend telling me in London that a certain line didn't stop at a certain station on Sundays or maybe it was a certain time of day, and how that little tidbit of info really helped).
So on Saturday Ami and I headed out to meet her cousin and brother for lunch in an area north of the Han River and one that is known for being the university area. The subway runs pretty much as expected. You need to know three things: the line to take, the direction to take it, and the stop at which to get off. The lines here, like Tokyo, are given both numbers and colors. And each stop has a number too, along with a name. The hard part for me is trying to figure out the names. It's not that I can't read, mind you, as the names of the stops are written in both Hangul and our Roman script, but rather I'm finding it difficult to tell the difference between the names. For example, if I go down to the main road to the nearest station, I will be at Samseong station. One stop west is Seouleung and two stops easy is Sinchon. Ok, that's not too hard, I guess, but then there's Jamsil, Jamsilaru, Gangbyeon, Guui, Konkuk, and Seongsu if I keep going on that same line. I imagine that eventually, I will come to recognize the names but trust me when I tell you that at the current time, they are all running together for me (much like all my students' names).
Anyway, riding the subway was easy for the most part--and cheap. To get pretty far away here in Seoul cost me just about $1.50. Not bad. They are clean, relatively quiet, run on time, run often, and, unlike subways I've experience before, there is a glass wall at the station between the platform and the tracks so that there seems to be no way a drunken idiot could fall down onto the tracks. The driver of the trains stops so that the doors of the glass wall and the doors of the train line up and then both open and close. I've also noticed that people seem to line up in front of these doors--a strange practice as I've never seen passengers line up anywhere for subways. Usually there's a guy over there reading a paper, a lady over there checking her phone, a couple sitting on the bench talking and laughing, and a teenager listening to his headphones, and when the train comes, they all gather in a mass near where the door will be. But here in Seoul, the norm seems to be lining up. I'm not so sure I like this practice though as it means I'll also have to line up instead of standing off away from the masses or sitting on a bench. Well see how it goes.
Ami and I had to change lines once and then rode up to a station called Hyehwa. Upon exiting the station I could tell immediately that I wasn't in Gangnam anymore. The people were younger, the sidewalks narrower, and there was more neon. There were street vendors selling hats and jewlery and shoes and all sorts of food, some recognizable, others not so much. As I looked around, I thought to myself, "Yeah. This is the Korea I expected." It's not that Gangnam is bad, but it's a little more civilized in the sense that you see a lot of suits walking around, the sidewalks don't really have too many vendors, and if you want to find any "life" beyond taxis and businessmen/women, you have to dive off the main roads and back into the side streets. In other words, it seems a little boring.
Ami's cousin, So Yeon (she also goes by Sophie as she lived in New Zealand for a few months), came up and greeted us and immediately turned red upon seeing me. I'm not really sure why this was, but she's a cute young woman whose English actually turned out to be pretty good. We then waited a few minutes and Ami's brother, Soon, who lives in the local area, walked up. After the introductions we walked over to a place that serves Tak-kalbi. For those of you who don't know, and I assume that is all of you, tak means chicken and kalbi means something along the lines of grilled marinated meat, although its literal meaning is rib. Tak-kalbi, I soon found out, is the specialty of Ami's (and Soon's and So Yeon's) hometown, Chuncheon. We sat at a table with a large gas burner in the middle for a large skillet and a little while after ordering, the chicken with kalbi sauce (I guess it's called) and rice cakes, and cabbage and some other veggie I'm not sure what to call was all sizzling in front of us. It was a tasty meal.
Meeting more of Ami's family was good too. So Yeon is studying here in Seoul at some university to be an air traffic controller, while Soon is studying so that he can pass the Korean equivalent of the BAR exam. I'll have to keep him close in case I ever need him while I'm over here. Soon loves American baseball, although he loves the wrong teams, so we talked about sports while the girls laughed at us and talked in Korean about fashion and makeup and shoes (I'm assuming).
After we ate, we went and got a coffee--a VERY Korean thing to do I'm discovering--and then we all boarded the subway south. Soon was going to his church while Ami, So Yeon, and I were headed back to our place so that So Yeon could meet Stella. The two of them then took off for a cat cafe where the owners have 27 cats to entertain you while you drink coffee and talk, presumably, about cats. As you might imagine, I stayed home with my beer and tv. Too many years at vet offices has turned me off to drinking coffee with the smell of cat pee in the air.
Anyway, riding the subway was easy for the most part--and cheap. To get pretty far away here in Seoul cost me just about $1.50. Not bad. They are clean, relatively quiet, run on time, run often, and, unlike subways I've experience before, there is a glass wall at the station between the platform and the tracks so that there seems to be no way a drunken idiot could fall down onto the tracks. The driver of the trains stops so that the doors of the glass wall and the doors of the train line up and then both open and close. I've also noticed that people seem to line up in front of these doors--a strange practice as I've never seen passengers line up anywhere for subways. Usually there's a guy over there reading a paper, a lady over there checking her phone, a couple sitting on the bench talking and laughing, and a teenager listening to his headphones, and when the train comes, they all gather in a mass near where the door will be. But here in Seoul, the norm seems to be lining up. I'm not so sure I like this practice though as it means I'll also have to line up instead of standing off away from the masses or sitting on a bench. Well see how it goes.
Ami and I had to change lines once and then rode up to a station called Hyehwa. Upon exiting the station I could tell immediately that I wasn't in Gangnam anymore. The people were younger, the sidewalks narrower, and there was more neon. There were street vendors selling hats and jewlery and shoes and all sorts of food, some recognizable, others not so much. As I looked around, I thought to myself, "Yeah. This is the Korea I expected." It's not that Gangnam is bad, but it's a little more civilized in the sense that you see a lot of suits walking around, the sidewalks don't really have too many vendors, and if you want to find any "life" beyond taxis and businessmen/women, you have to dive off the main roads and back into the side streets. In other words, it seems a little boring.
Ami's cousin, So Yeon (she also goes by Sophie as she lived in New Zealand for a few months), came up and greeted us and immediately turned red upon seeing me. I'm not really sure why this was, but she's a cute young woman whose English actually turned out to be pretty good. We then waited a few minutes and Ami's brother, Soon, who lives in the local area, walked up. After the introductions we walked over to a place that serves Tak-kalbi. For those of you who don't know, and I assume that is all of you, tak means chicken and kalbi means something along the lines of grilled marinated meat, although its literal meaning is rib. Tak-kalbi, I soon found out, is the specialty of Ami's (and Soon's and So Yeon's) hometown, Chuncheon. We sat at a table with a large gas burner in the middle for a large skillet and a little while after ordering, the chicken with kalbi sauce (I guess it's called) and rice cakes, and cabbage and some other veggie I'm not sure what to call was all sizzling in front of us. It was a tasty meal.
Meeting more of Ami's family was good too. So Yeon is studying here in Seoul at some university to be an air traffic controller, while Soon is studying so that he can pass the Korean equivalent of the BAR exam. I'll have to keep him close in case I ever need him while I'm over here. Soon loves American baseball, although he loves the wrong teams, so we talked about sports while the girls laughed at us and talked in Korean about fashion and makeup and shoes (I'm assuming).
After we ate, we went and got a coffee--a VERY Korean thing to do I'm discovering--and then we all boarded the subway south. Soon was going to his church while Ami, So Yeon, and I were headed back to our place so that So Yeon could meet Stella. The two of them then took off for a cat cafe where the owners have 27 cats to entertain you while you drink coffee and talk, presumably, about cats. As you might imagine, I stayed home with my beer and tv. Too many years at vet offices has turned me off to drinking coffee with the smell of cat pee in the air.
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