Sardines in a Can

Today's idiom lesson is "like sardines in a can." This idiom is often used to describe situations where people are in a crowded place, usually full of people standing shoulder to shoulder.

I've been waiting to tell you all about our first commute to work! Well, you see, the first-first time was on a Saturday. Our helper-teacher showed us our apt and then how to get to work on the number 10 bus. It was about half full with old ladies and teenagers out for the afternoon. But Monday came quickly and all 10 million+ occupants of Seoul (including ourselves) came out of the little box-like apts to go to work all at the same time. So, as we entered the number 10 bus to Guro Middle School, Danielle and I found that the bus had not only the old ladies and teenagers but the business men and women, mothers, school kids, merchants, squid sellers and bums of the Guro district all in one little bus. After only 2 or three stops I could most likely lift both my feet off the ground and remain in the standing position by the mere force of bodies pressed against me. You see, here in Seoul personal space does not exist in the public transit environs.

While the oxygen level was rapitly decreasing, I remember hearing the radio station on the bus repeat the phrase, "...like sardines in a can...", about three or four times. All the rest of what they where saying was in Korean and so like simple background noise to me. But from what Dani and I could tell, that morning the English lesson for those listening to that station was "..like sardines in a can.." Yes, it was very appropriate.

Really, I believe that was our lesson for the day. As if the morning radio program was telling us, "Welcome to Seoul! Where you can truly feel like sardines in a can!"

--TO