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The subway system here in South Korea is a marvelous, wonderful thing. For about a dollar, you can sashay across the expanses of Seoul, annoying Koreans with your Westernness. I've noticed that most Koreans will get onto the subway and, assuming they're able to wedge themselves into a seat, will immediately pass out. I don't quite understand how they're able to rouse themselves when the appropriate stop comes along. It seems likely that many businessmen have to call their wives and tell them that they're not coming home because they took a two hour power-nap and ended up on the far side of the city. The train seems to be a perfectly acceptable place to sleep, and one time an old woman SHUSHED me because I was talking too much and ruining slumbertime. "IS QUIET TIME???" I asked her, and luckily my stop arrived right then and I left Matt and Sarah to deal with the tail end of her wrath.

Anyways, the only balls-y thing about the subway is the inconsiderate hours it keeps. Inconsiderate, that is, for drinkers and carousers: the line stops running at about midnight and opens again at 5:30 AM. This means that if you're out for the night, you're really out for the night. There's a dead zone between 4 and 5:30, when most bars close and you're left to toodle around drunkenly or pass out in the subway station until the metal grates open and the path home is blazed once again. Taxis aren't really too expensive - I could probably get back to Sanbon from anywhere in Seoul for less than fifty bucks - but goddamn, fifty bucks will get you a lot of better stuff over here. Comfort can wait.

It's pretty easy to find where you're going because everything is colour coded and station names are Anglo-friendly. You can even get these rad magnetic cards that automatically calculate your fare so you don't have to deal with the embarrassment of mispronounciation. You just set your whole wallet on top of the turnstile and -BLAM!- The System knows that alien resident #103530101 wants to get the fuck out of Sanbon. Sometimes I wonder whether it's reading my credit card info as well... I should probably check that out.

It's pretty interesting to travel this much via public transit: you don't really realize how infrequently most people take advantage of the services back home until you rely so heavily on them abroad. I don't think I'm ever going to buy another car.

But, of course, I will. It'll be silver and shiny and have a massive spoiler and oversized exhaust pipes. That's how I roll, baby. That's how we do it in the S. K.

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In other, unrelated news:

My body is rather battered and bruised from fighting Chad and a bunch of Kiwis with bamboo poles, and falling down a giant childrens' slide fashioned like a fearsome alligator. I just got a call from Lisa in Daegu and she's doing well; hopefully we'll head down to visit her soon when we're not quite so broke. Daegu sounds pimp.

My private lessons are going well, and I found out through the grapevine that the mother is 'chuffed' (presumably British slang for happy - sometimes I don't know what the hell Mike is talking about). Her elder kid, Chun Min, got a 95% on his English exam last week and I felt a wee bit proud when he told me. I'm having dinner with their family tomorrow and I hope they feed me a tasty scrumptious dog soup.

I hope you guys aren't bored back home, because with a planet this huge and varied and fucking amazing there's really not much time for apathy. Sometimes I get scared that I'll die just as I realize the beautiful magnitude of everything that's left to see and do.

Posted by Chris at 10:14 AM >> Commentations (2)