Subway Tour!

One of the great things about being affiliated with the military in a foreign country is that they not only encourage you to get out and see things, they acclimate and offer tours for you to get out at relatively little cost. BONUS:) If you've ever studied abroad, you know what I'm talking about; these are just better because you can do them whenever you want, not just on the first weekend you arrive!

Yesterday, I took advantage of the Subway Tour. Now, Daegu's subway doesn't really require that much of a tour, being only two lines - the Green and the Red. Coming from Chicago, it's just not that complicated to navigate. Also, all signs are in English as well as Hangul, and all announcements on trains are also in English, after the Korean, so if you pay attention, you're good to go.

Daegu Metropolitan Transit - kind of laughably simple:) ...until it's not!

concert stage and decorative mosaic in underground station

What IS tricky is understanding your way through buying tickets - do you want a daily - and if you do, do you want a card or tokens? or do you want a multi-ride Toppass (I kid you not) that you add money to and ride for months? and how do you get one from a machine when it doesn't speak English? or where do you find the person that may or may not speak English to purchase a card in the middle of the extensive shopping malls and concert stages (again, I kid you not) that make up the underground labyrinth that is a Korean subway station?

Sauteeing beetles (look closely!)

After the 20 minutes it took to navigate a tour group of 15 through that process (I got the multi-use card, of course!), the rest of the day was spent sightseeing the most popular subway stops - Banwoldang (the middle), near Woobangland, which is a big playground for adults and kids; Seomun Market which has EVERYTHING: textiles, pots, spices, clothing, dried-cooked/cooking-fresh-even live animals (for eating...I had to avoid the bunny and puppy cages...couldn't take it...DID get pics of the sauteed beetles, even tho agima selling them tried to stop me!), and myriad others. Its incredible, and I will def go back; and Downtown (not sure which station it is...oops!) for lunch and shopping.

Entrance to WoobangLand

Pheasant, anyone?

The nicest agachi selling spices - wanted to see the pic I took and gave me thumbs up approval...as did the agima sitting across from him who ALSO had to see the pic! 

I thought I'd finally found the desserts - then I looked closer! No sweets, all seafood!

So pretty, so organic, so local

All in all, a great day, and a good way to meet people and feel confused as a group in a safe environment;) Thanks again, DOD, for making the transition to independence a bit easier than doing everything on my own!