Fall, Field Trip, Subway Train of DOOM and more.

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Ok, the title of this entry is pretty ominous because it is. Many of the pictures are of the beautiful foliage in Korea. Apparently fall is the prettiest season in Korea, so we are told. So we had to go to our local park and take plenty of pictures of the trees. And I have to say that the trees here are very nice to look at, I prefer the mountains of Colorado, but whatever I guess.
The reason I named this blog subway train of doom is because we rode a subway of doom. We were on our way back from the zoo, which was excellent by the way. Anyway we had to ride the subway home and we were waiting to get on a train. Finally a train showed up and it was packed, I mean pretty much full, we all considered waiting for the next train, but we decided just to squeeze on, bad idea! We rode the cramped train to the next stop, which we found out after the fact, was the horse racing track. Apparently the horse track just closed because at this subway stop there were probably 200 people standing outside our door on the train. Now Jenna and I, along with two of our friends were standing next to the door when the doors opened to let more people on the train. Being from the United States we were all under the impression that these two hundred drunken Korean horse racing fans would think logically and say “well hey this trains full we will wait for the next one.” Guess what, drunken Koreans don’t think logically, weird! So here is the scenario, the doors of a full or what I thought was full train open and a mob of people shoved their way onto the train pushing everyone back about eight to ten feet, no exaggeration. After this group of what I would estimate to be 30 more people pushed on the train, we were standing in the center isle about four feet down from the door. We rode squished together with these people for about four subway stops. Every time the train slowed down I could feel the weight of about 200 people pushing on my back, people were packed so tight that if I wanted to reach into my pocket I couldn’t. Luckily I had my hands in the air and I am taller than almost everyone on the train. So this train ride was defiantly the worst experience in public transit I have ever had.
Ok on the lighter side we went to the zoo, it was cool they had everything you would expect at a zoo and a little more. The zoo was bigger than we all expected, just because Korea has limited land. Another thing that we didn’t expect is that Korean zoos don’t have the rules about feeding the animals. I actually saw numerous people throwing bananas and apples into a bear cage. I mean 1 you’re feeding the bear, 2 bananas and apples? The apples, OK I could see the bear eating those, but a banana? It was funny actually watching the huge bears looking at the bananas after people threw them in the cage. The bears were like what the hell is this? Gimme a steak! The also had huge swimming rats. They were crazy looking!
One thing that we have learned about Korea in our short time here is that most rules do not apply. Drinking on the street do it! Littering do it! Running red lights do that again YEAH! Feed animals that could kill you, do it! Koreans like to do what they feel and I think that the laws here reflect that.
The pictures below are from another field trip that we went on. We went to an indoor playground, somewhat like a Discover Zone. The kids loved it. Most Korean children don’t have much time to play. They are usually in school all day and then go to an English hogwon then go home to do homework and receive other private lessons. So needless to say, what little play time they have, they take full advantage of it! Most of the kids would follow us around and I think that Josh had more fun than the little kids. He was playing in the balls and was just as energetic as they were.

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