Notes of a Native-Speaking English Teacher: subway

Showing posts with label subway. Show all posts

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saturday, October 06, 2012 -

A Taxi From Sanbon (Gunpo) to Gojan (Ansan)

I had a little too much fun last night and ended up missing the last subway home. I got on at a stop on Line 2 and got on the last Line 4 train. That last train, however, only goes as far as Sanbon station in Gunpo. I never got stuck like this before and was a little nervous about how I would go the extra 5-6 miles. Should I just chill out and explore Sanbon for a few hours until the trains restarted, or should I risk an outrageously expensive taxi ride?

As it turns out, taxi drivers have this covered! There was a driver standing just past the turnstile announcing rides to Ansan. I told him that I wanted to go to Ansan and I expected to go with him, but he pointed me downstairs to even MORE taxi drivers announcing rides to Ansan.

When I figured out exactly what was happening, I saw that there were about 10 people just like me who needed a ride to Ansan. There were taxi drivers on both sides of the street sorting people out as to who would be going where. I was shuffled in and out of cars a few times. They took care of people and made sure that no one was left behind, even the really drunk ones. ^^ I eventually shared a ride home with three other Koreans with varying levels of consciousness.

In the end, a 12:45am ride from Sanbon in Gunpo to a place near Gojan station read about 16,000W on the meter. Because I shared the ride (I think), I got a discount and paid 13,000W.

Piece of cake.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Sunday, May 06, 2012 -

money / banking,subway,survival tips

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Spare Change

Updated 11/24/12 - see below

Because I am always working during the hours that the bank is open, I've never worked out a good plan for how to get rid of spare change. For a while, I would use the change to fill up my T-Money card. T-Money is accepted on the subway, busses, and many convenience stores. It's a nice idea, but it accumulated over 50,000w and it keeps rising. (nice problem to have, eh?) I know that some convenience stores can refund up to 20,000w if you give up (forfeit) your card. Refunds over 20,000w require a trip to the T-Money corporate office in SEOUL. ;;;

Here is my ridiculous scheme:
I use the big 10w coins in the school drink machine.
I use the small 10w coins when I go shopping.
I use the 50w and 100w coins to charge my T-Money card.
I keep the 500w coins on the off chance I will actually be able to visit a bank.

Update:

For what it's worth, KB bank does have change counting machines. At the location in Jungang, it is inside the bank itself with only Korean language menu screens. At the location near Homeplus, there is one OUTSIDE the bank with an English option. However, the ATMs there on the second floor shut down when the bank is closed. They pull down a garage-style door over them. Hard to say why those ATMs close at a different time than the ones on the first floor do. It's also hard to say why they close at all.