ok so you need to tilt your head sideways to look at these pictures, but tough titty. the top pic is a FLAT escalator! NO STEPS! It's at the airport. Ive never seen one of those so I was amazed.

And this one is a freakin TALL ASSS escalator at one of the train stations weve been riding on.

These trains can be confusing as hell!! But we have MASTERED THEM! wooohooo!! You have to really study the maps on the walls, and since Koreans are a short people I DO NOT KNOW WHY they put the damn wall maps about 9 feet high!! and make the print microscopic! DAMNIT PEOPLE! We finaly got a little paper map ( which is now warn to a frazzle and you can barely read the damn thing).

You have 6 different lines, and you ride part way on like 2, get off and nam dea mong, walk over there, ride the escalator up, but you BETTER stay to the right becuse the LEFT is for people who WALK up the escalator and they WILL shove your ass. then you find out that line 6 has TWO trains. one goes one direction and one goes the opposite. so depending on which way you need to go you BETTER read and pay attention!

So you get to where you transfer to you stand on the footprints printes on the ground and wait a few min. a litle chime sounds, announcing the pending arrival of the train. It wooshes into the station and a crowd charges out the doors and a crowd charges in. You better flow in WITH them or get smashed in the doors when they slam shut. we saw a lady get caught in the door and another one get her bag caught in the door.

sometimes you get a seat. sometimes you have to stand up. there are neon signes announcing what stops come next, and which side you will exit on. we consult our map to see where we need to get off or transfer to next. and do we need to buy another ticket. because some tickets only take you so far, then you have to buy another ticket.

at the end of your trip, the ticket thingy sucks up your ticket for good and you dont get it back.

by today we are pros at this train thing and are helping other americans buy tickets and showing them where to go. we race up the escalator and onto the train. We stand up and ride and dont fall over when the train takes off. we dont stand at the map and look like lost fools. we can actualy prounounce things like nam dae mung and Ita wan. ( even if I cant spell the shit).

Its been a learning experiance and its been so much freakin fun I can't even begin to tell you how much we've enjoyed it!! I just hate that it's almost over.