Subway: The Blog

A lot of interesting or semi-interesting things go down on the Seoul Metro.

For instance, there are salespeople on trains. Usually ajumma or ajosshi and interestingly dressed, they wheel around a little cart full of 1,000 - 2,000 won items. These items tend to be: Xylitol gum, drain uncloggers, workout armband thingies, pens, scrubbers, and insoles.

There are some outliers, though. The most obnoxious salesperson (who happened to come around after my iPod battery died) was selling a Best of the '90s easy listening CD. The pitch? Wheel in a boom box and play 10 minutes of the CD, quite loud, for all to hear. I was surrounded by people equally unhappy as I, which softened the blow slightly.

However, last Sunday was apparently a popular day for sellin' stuff. It was 8:15 AM, dreary and sideways-raining, and the whole train smelled of wet commuter, sitting and trying to keep to his or her self. In walks a salesperson with their cart. They were selling a little knife sharpener stone. Keep your pointies fresh! and all that. I thought to myself, 'Alright, who in their right mind would be keen on buying a knife sharpener in the early morning on a day such as today?'. However, my finger is clearly not on the pulse of the average Seoul Metro rider. Five people paid up and bought the thing within a few minutes.

Next to me sat an ajosshi, listening to his headphones. He held out a 1,000 won bill and got his knife sharpener. He then proceeded to whip out a fairly large and menacing hunting knife, and sharpen in the entire way down the Bundang line for about 25 minutes. In New York, such a sight would send me fleeing to the opposite end of the train. But it's Korea, so I sat and listened to my Animal Collective and thumb-twiddled, quite unafraid.

One step forward, two steps back.

I had the good fortune the other day of stepping onto the Seoul Metro into a train that, quite literally, still had its new car smell. It was a little leathery and overwhelmingly clean. The seats were stained with absolutely nothing, a bit cushy, and had the classic color scheme of gray and yellow.

However, this was no ordinary new subway car. It was quite clearly a CAR OF THE FUTURE. Check out the picture above. This is the panel above one of the doors to the train, with a shiny new video screen in it. Now, I remember first being impressed by video screens on trains... 5 years ago, on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. Here was a screen that let me know the weather, the entire route that the train was gonna take, any potential delays nearby, and length of time to the next station in both English and Japanese.

This video screen, though? What you see above is what you get. The station you're going to is displayed nice and big on the center of the screen, with your previous station on your left and the next-next station on the right. The name of the station you're hurtling toward fades between its name in Korean and English. That's it. No other pertinent information other than, oh hey, you're on a train, a-goin' this way.

So, I'm not entirely positive why the Seoul Metro found installing these screens to be a good idea. In fact, I find it a pretty poor idea. Where these screens now sit, there used to be maps of the entire subway system, and maps of the line you're currently on. If you're sitting on one of these new trains, wondering, 'Gee, I wonder how many stops until my destination?' or 'Crudmuffins, where do I transfer again?' or 'O GOD AM I ANYWHERE NEAR WHERE I MEAN TO BE?!', you're crap out of luck. Hopefully, you've got a copy of the map handy, and no need to second-guess yourself. All of the maps are gone out of the car entirely, to be replaced by the future of subways: even more confusion.

They went ahead and made my day accordingly

Lucy: Teacher, what is today?
Me: It's Friday.
Lucy: So tomorrow is... Saturday?
Me: Yes, Lucy, that's right. Aren't you excited?
Lucy: Awwww, no.
Me: What, why?
Lucy: On Saturday I don't come in the school and no English class. So, I sad.
Chloe: Me too!
Sally: Me too!
Dora: Me too!

It may have been a direct response to me being grumpy at their inability to eat lunch within a 45-minute span of time, but regardless, d'yawwwwwwwwwww.

Magical powers

If Korea has taught me anything, it is to appreciate food. Like, I had apple pie the other day, and it was the first pie I'd had since arriving in the country. Normally, I would've scoffed at such a treat, store-bought and nowhere near crisp (my preferred mode of pie, naturally). However, the sugar-coated dough melted with the gooey appley stuff in such a way that I thought, 'My GOD, this is how one oughta spend a July 4th'.

Sources indicate that the moment I eat a really delicious pie, my heart will explode with excitement and I will keel over then and there.