The Subway: A love/hate relationship...

...it's a part of my daily existence. It takes me to work M-F. It gets me anywhere in Seoul for a dollar or two. It's pretty amazing to think about the massive undertaking that went into building it. Some of the coolest and strangest things I've seen in Korea have been on the subway.

The other day I got on and something was different. I couldn't quite place my finger on it at first. Same people sleeping, heads tilted back, nose hair on full display. Same grandma's texting while businessmen watched last night's baseball game on their phones. Then I realized it was the sweet sound of music caressing my eardrums that had completely changed the atmosphere. It was the classical gospel hymn, 'Amazing Grace'

I looked around. Where was it coming from? Then I saw him: a little old blind man carrying a speaker and basket of change, begging for alms. Genius. 'Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but not am found, was blind but now I see.'Beautiful synchronisity. How could I resist giving him 1000 won not (about a dollar)? I couldn't.

So the amusement and convenience factor are what I love about the subway. The hate part? It's really not that fast. At least 45 minutes to an hour to get into Seoul, generally standing up the whole time. People pushing and shoving to get on and off. The fact that it stops running at 11:30pm, 11pm on the weekends. Wanna go party in Seoul Saturday night? Be prepared to stay up till 5:30am when it starts running again, or be lame and go home at 10:30. I'd like to be going into Seoul more on the weekends to explore, but the thought of standing on a crowded subway for an hour or more honestly deters me. Best get over it though, too much to do and see here to let that deter me.

Supposedly the buses are actually much quicker to get into Seoul, the problem is that there is no English website that has the routes and times, while the subway is easily navigated through the English signs in the terminals and an English language website.

On the whole however, amusement and cheap transportation wins out and I love the subway more than hate it.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was close however.