Getting Brave and Doing Some Exploration...

Now that we've been here a week, Jay and I decided to get brave and attempt to go somewhere on the subway. You need to understand just how brave we are by attempting this on our own, since we have no clue where we should go, how to get there by subway, what we would do once we got there, or how to get back on the subway once done. We are brave and adventurous, and probably a little full of ourselves.

We walk to the subway following the picture signs since we can't read Korean, and once there we stop, taking in the chaos and trying to decide what to do next. Jay sees the money machines, okay, then he mentions that you can buy a card somewhere where all you need to do is scan your card to get on the train and put more money on it when it runs low so you don't have to keep buying tickets. Cool, so how do we get those? No clue... great. We found a ticket booth, and as we walked to it, we were approached by a nice gentleman who was wearing a "Volunteer" vest and asked us, in English, if we needed any help. "Yes, thank you!" was my reply, and Jay gave me an annoyed look. Men... they always act like they know what's going on even when they don't have a clue. The man showed us how to work the ticket booth (an electronic touch screen), how to select English, how to select which route we wanted, how to pay for the ticket, and even where to go to catch the correct train. All the while, Jay was very annoyed and acted as if he had known all along what to do and where to go. When the helpful volunteer left, I asked Jay what was wrong and he replied that he wanted to figure it out on his own, no matter how long it took him to figure out, no matter how impatient his wife and toddler were getting, it was just very important to him to be able to figure this stuff out on his own. Now it was my turn to be annoyed, and in a pissy attitude, I told him, "fine, figure it out on your own, I won't ask questions, I'll just let you figure out what we're supposed to be doing, and if we get lost, you can ask for help, because I'm done with this." Yeah, I can be temperamental...

With Jay and I bickering the whole way, we made it to the gate of the train we wanted to take, and Jay went first through, inserting his ticket, and then I watched another woman go through, and she just scanned a card, "oh cool, I thought, we need to get one of those cards." Then I inserted my ticket, and pushed my way through the gate, and we walked to the train, which had just pulled up (great timing) and boarded the train. It was very crowded and with my adrenaline pumping from the adventure of it all, I stopped feeling pissy toward Jay, and started enjoying the experience. We figured out how to know when we were at the right stop, and we got off on our stop. Everything was working out really great, then a thought hit me as we walked up the stairs to exit the subway... "Jay, " I asked, "how do they know we paid for a round trip fare when they took our tickets at the beginning of the trip?" But before I could finish my question, we came to the gates to let us out, and I watched as Jay inserted his ticket, pass through the gate, and take the ticket out of the top slot of the gate booth. WTF?!!! I didn't have my ticket, so I just tried to go through the gate (I'm leaving the subway, not getting on, anyway), but it wouldn't let me through. Jay turned around and asked, "where's your ticket?" Realizing my incredible mistake, I blushed, and answered, "at the entrance gate, I didn't know you had to pick it back up at the top...". Jay found this hilarious, especially b/c I had been so pissy with him just a few minutes before, and started laughing at me as I was stuck behind the gate. Not knowing what else to do, Jay ran to a ticket booth and bought me another round trip ticket, and laughing, handed me my new ticket, just as we watched a little old lady push open a side gate to get through with her cart. Oh, I didn't need a ticket to get out, after all, so I followed the old lady out, clutching my new ticket, feeling like a total idiot. I also felt like a jackass because I had been giving Jay a hard time about things before, and even though I had asked for help, I still didn't have a clue what I was doing. Ooops, live and learn, right?

We explored a little, realized we had chosen a really boring stop to get off on, and got back on the subway, heading back to the hotel, and decided we would take different routes next time. On the train, an older Korean gentleman was watching us (which we're used to by now, I guess there aren't a lot of blondes around here and understand we're a bit of a side show attraction to them) and before he got off his stop, he bowed to us and gave us a calender he was carrying. "A gift to you," he said as he presented it to us. Utterly taken by surprise, Jay and I took the calender and bowed back and thanked him. I felt like we should have given him something in return, but we didn't have anything to give him. I didn't know if we should have introduced ourselves, or offered him anything else, but I thought it was so incredibly nice of him to give us the calender. It's one of those basic desk calenders that sit on top of your desk or work area and you can write on it and such, and it's all in Korean (which I think is pretty cool). I really need to get a book on Korean customs so I'm not caught off guard anymore and respond appropriately. I think the thing that causes me most anxiety is that I'll unintentionally offend someone, and not be able to apologize for it. I don't want to come off as the rude, arrogant American. The Koreans are very graceful and polite and I'm glad Mia will be living here, so hopefully some of that will rub off on her.

I guess I'm going to have to get the Rosetta Stone for Korean after all, so I can learn to communicate here. How do you say, "sorry, I'm just an ignorant American" in Korean?