DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

We had a fantastic last weekend of March. On Friday night, we hurried downtown to catch a 5:30 showing of Captain America (highly recommended), ate Kimbab for dinner, and played two great games of Settlers of Catan at the boardgame cafe, all with our friends Abbi and Gianni. On Saturday, Maria and I stayed closer to home in Chilgok and saw Noah (what an interesting and unique movie) and bought some outdoorsy clothes and shoes at a sidewalk sale. Then on Sunday, we went to church with our South African friends Collete and Bruce, went to the Daegu Arboretum, and quickly browsed Seomun Market for some much-needed fresh fruit. It's this last day that I want to focus on for this post.

 

There were two lovely instances of gracious attitudes on this particular Sunday. The first was on the way to church. We were running late, having missed the first bus from our neighborhood to where we transfer to the second bus, so we decided to hail a taxi. One stopped, we told him where we wanted to go, the driver repeated what we said (with some additional Korean) and pointed in the direction of the church. We said yes, and he drove. Eventually, though, I realized he was not going in the right direction. Unsure of what the confusion was about, I pulled out a map on my phone and pointed to the name of where we wanted to go. The driver immediately turned and headed back in the right direction. What should have been a quick, roughly $3 cab ride was now going to be more like an $8 cab ride that was going to make us even later. Instead, the driver stopped the counter at 5000 won and took us to our destination. Appreciative of the gesture, we gave him 6500 won once we got to the church. 

 

Later that day, Maria and I stopped at the market to buy some fruit. We didn't have any large bags or backpacks with us, so we were stuck with a bunch of small bags. The bus pulled up and it was already crowded, with a lot more people trying to get on. We crammed inside the bus like sardines with our bags. Within a few stops, the woman in the seat in front of me got up and off the bus. The seat was free. The people closest to the seat were me, Maria, and a Korean woman a few years older than us. She offered us the seat, but we insisted that she take the seat. Eventually she sat in the seat, but immediately took my bags out of my hands (I had the heavier ones) and set them on her lap for the remainder of the ride. How kind!

 

The Korean people can be confusing at times, and I do get tired of being stared at (mostly by children who are innocent, and elderly people who should know better), but moments like these remind me that I've seen FAR many more examples of kindness, grace, and friendliness from the Korean people than any other attribute. Now if we could work on standing in straight lines...

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.