random act of kindness

I am so excited that two of my best friends from teacher’s college are in Seoul right now! What are the chances? Unfortunately, we all live at opposite ends of the city. I’ve been able to meet up with Shannon a few times and with Paige several times but we never seem to be able to all meet up together. Not having phones is brutal.

On my second get-together with Paige, we decided to meet up in Itaewon, an area where a lot of foreigners can be found. It’s about half way between us and it’s a good place to meet new people, so we thought why not? I asked my fellow teachers what the best way to get there was, and they said the bus is quicker than the subway, since there are so many transfers on the way. I was a little bit wary because so far I had only taken the subway and taxis. So fine, I got the directions to the bus stop and found out which bus to take. I didn’t ask which stop to get off at because I figured it would just stop at Itaewon station. Wrong. I would have never found the right stop if it hadn’t been for a girl who heard me ask the bus driver if the bus went to Itaewon.

She said (in perfect English) “excuse me, are you going to Itaewon?”

Me: “yeah…”

Girl “you need to get off here.”

Me: “oh really!?”

Girl: “yep, it’s a short walk from here. I’m going there too, I can walk you. So where are you from?…”

We talked the 10 minutes to where I was meeting up with Paige and said goodbye. That simple, short convo made my day. It was so heart-warming to have someone be so kind… especially in Korea where I find Koreans will barely look me in the eye, let alone say hello.

Since then, I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t met this girl and had just stayed on the bus. I probably would have eventually realized I had gone too far and decided I was too late to meet up with the girls and just gone home. I doubt I would have met up with Paige and friends for a pleasant evening of white wine and bar hopping.

I’ve experienced so many helpful people during my time here. Usually when I am speaking to Korean people and they don’t speak much English they will still do whatever they can to get the message across.

Hooray for random acts of kindness!

so true!