By jlee4946
As long as I can remember, I loved the metro (or the subway or WMATA or whatever else you want to call it). But I always hated taking the bus. Actually, more accurately, I'm scared of the bus. They're both forms of public transportation, but the main and most important difference is that the metro stops at every stop while you need to tell the bus to stop at the correct stop. As a result, I would always just take the metro even if it took longer than taking a bus.
However, things changed when I got to Korea and my roommate nonchalantly mentioned that to get to school everyday I would have to take 2 buses. I take the town bus #4 then transfer to #2. Now at first glance this doesn't seem too hard, but as my friends know from my daily Snapchats of me just barely missing the bus, this bus journey can take anywhere between 10 and 30+ minutes.
Nowadays, I don't mind taking the #4 bus because much less people take it and I can always get a seat. But the #2 bus is the one that apparently the entire school takes. During busy hours, it gets to the point that honestly, if you lose your balance you wouldn't even stumble because there are so many people squished together. It gets to the point where since the doors don't close if people are standing on the steps, people literally hang off the bars that are meant to just be held to stay balanced to ride the bus.
Okay, so you say, "Well yeah, it's Seoul with 10 million people." Alright, so it is. But something I genuinely worry about is if you're standing on the bus and the button to stop the bus is too far, what are you supposed to do? Do you try and reach the closest one? Do you ask someone to push it for you? But what if everyone around you has earbuds shoved into their ears? And better yet, if you're in the middle of a crowd, how are you supposed to get off when the doors open??
Well, here are some tips that I've acquired in my past ~2 months here if for some reason you take a bus in Seoul, Korea. Keep in mind that to get on the bus you tap your transportation as you get on and again when you're getting off.
- As soon as you get on the bus, situate yourself close to a button and stay there no matter how much people shove past you.
- To let people know you're getting off so that they move out of your way, tap your transportation card (called T-Money Card in Korea) before your stop while the bus is still moving.
- Don't be afraid to directly talk to the bus driver if you're at the front of the bus and can't reach the button. And remember, you can get off the front of the bus and get on from the back!
Perhaps this is relevant and you can relate, but those are just the little tips I've gathered during my time here. I hope it serves you well in some sense or another at some point!!