Say what?! That's my 800 won!

Let  me start off by saying that I love living here in Korea. I love that the people are typically so friendly and helpful and generous. That said, yesterday I was disheartened by our bus ride. Maybe this just wasn't a good week for us to ride the bus...

See, we have 1 car. No problem (most of the time). We have to go to another town for piano every day (Mon-Fri). We make it work. On days we don't have the car (most days other than Wednesdays) we usually take the bus (though we did ride our bikes there on Tuesday).

So on Monday as we were leaving the house I saw the bus pass by. Sigh, no problem. I looked on my bus app and saw that another one was due to come in a few minutes. It did come. It did not stop. The bus driver just stared us down as he drove on past. Sigh. We waited another 20 minutes and finally got on a bus...we went from running a little late to showing up an hour late. I'm so thankful Yahaira's piano teacher is so flexible with our arrival times (and that it's group lessons).

Then yesterday I didn't have enough money on my T-Money card (think universal cash card...buses, subways, taxis, convenience stores), so I had to pay in cash. No problem. Yahaira scanned her card, then I put in 2,000 won. Well, I don't speak the language yet, but I know it's 1,200 won to ride the bus if you pay in cash. I also know kids should be like half that price (and my 2 littlest are free). I put in my money. The first 1,000 won went in and the second 1,000 got stuck at the top where you drop the money in. Some change came out. Then the bus driver started to say something about the money. I didn't understand. So I took the stuck 1,000 won back out. Again, more Korean. Again, I'm confused. I put the 1,000 won back in and go for my change, which the driver then took. Now I know that I am due back 800 won in change. But, I have no idea how to tell the guy to give me back my change. I get annoyed but sit down and suck up the 80 cent loss. I then examine the posted bus fare sign as we drive along, to see exactly how much Yahaira should be paying. Using her T-Money card, she always seems to be charged the same price as me (an adult), 1,100 won. The sign says that children are 650 won. So why is Yahaira always charged 1,100 won when we ride the bus? Now, I know it's only 45 cents extra, but when you multiply that by 2 (there and back) and then again by 5 (5 days a week) that starts to add up! We thought we had made her card into a child one while in Seoul when we first arrived in country, and I never really checked price wise when we do travel because she scans it herself. I did notice when we went to Seoul for the race that her price was the same as ours, but shrugged and went on my merry way.

Maybe it was just knowing I was being robbed yesterday that pushed me "over the edge" or maybe not. Either way, when we got to piano I asked the director how much a child fare should cost. He wasn't sure, but his wife (Yahaira's piano teacher) said that she should be about 550 won with the T-Money card. I tried to explain that we are always charged 1,100 won. Kind of lost in translation again, but Mr. John took me down the to convenience store so he could help me add money to the card. After a few minutes of language confusion, Mr. John, the convenience store worker and I all understood that I was trying to make Yahaira's card a child card (though this for the 2nd time for us). I think it worked...I have yet to find out since we walked from piano to post to go to running club. Then Daniel picked us up after work and drove us home. So we will find out next time we ride the bus.

I must know how my Nate and Erin feel, navigating life in a completely foreign language....ah, me encanta la idioma de Español.