Learning To Use The Subway!

At the Army Community Services (ACS) building they offer some free classes to help soldiers and families get acquainted with Korea. The newcomers class even has free baby sitting! They give you a bus tour of post and Seoul and a free Korean lunch. We've signed up 3 times....and something ALWAYS comes up. I gave up on that class! They also have classes that teach Hangul (the Korean language) and Korean traditions. I'd like to take those classes...but it's kind of difficult with three kiddos! But we did finally get to make it to the transportation class on our third try. They taught us what to watch out for when taking a taxi, then went over the subway system a bit before heading out on our very first subway ride! The Seoul subway is the largest in length, has the second most stops, and is the second most used in the world. There are 18 different lines, 593 stations, and approximately 6.9 million people ride the subway DAILY!!! That's a lot of people. It is considered one of the best subways in the world. I was particularly impressed with it's cleanliness, and the fact that all the stations have automatic doors that open when the train arrives...meaning no accidental falling on the tracks.

Addley was pretty excited! 

Austin trying to hear what the next stop is. 

The class was nice, but we defiantly could have figured it out on our own. It's pretty easy. I only wish we would have been brave enough to check it out sooner. With the amount of traffic and lack of parking here, the subway is almost always faster, and cheaper.  During the class we made a transfer from one track to another and took a short walk downtown. We stopped in at a tea shop, green tea is very popular here, and it was super cold and snowing.

Addley and Tracker were the only kids on the tour, Carter was at school, so our tour guide asked Addley if she liked sweets....of course Addley didn't answer...she doesn't talk in public, drives me crazy! She's got plenty to say at home I assure you!  Even though Addley wouldn't answer, our guide took us down the street to this stand that was making a traditional Korean sweet. It's called the kings desert and is made from strings of honey with candy pieces or nuts wrapped in the middle. It starts out as a frozen block of honey that they turn into 16.000 strings. It was crazy! They are pretty good, but you couldn't eat too many of them. Of course we had to buy some to take home to Carter. They taste a little better and are much less messy when they are fresh.

I really wish I would have had taken a video, but I found this one on YouTube and seriously think this is the same guy. If it isn't him, it's his brother or cousin or something. He sounds exactly the same as the guy we saw, sings the same, laughs the same, it's gotta be him. 

After we all had our samples and bought what we wanted we walked back to the subway and made our way back to post.