The kindness of Koreans!

Since the day we arrived in Korea, I have been amazed at how kind and friendly the majority of Koreans are. Everything from a friendly smile or nod to offering to hold our bags on the bus or subway. Just the other day Justin and I were in the elevator in our apartment heading home and this older woman was in there with us. She smiled at us and reached in her grocery bag and handed Justin a box of crackers and handed me an instant cup of ramen noodles. At first I was like what is she doing but she was just simply being nice and wanted to offer us a gift. That would never happen back home. 

Another instance were I was reminded how friendly people are here is on Saturday night we were in a taxi headed home. The minute we got in the cab I was blessed with having a really annoying case of the hiccups. They were the kind you just can't hold back, I was trying everything to get rid of them, as I was sure they were just as annoying to the driver. But instead of being annoyed he laughed and passed me back a stick of gum to try to help. How nice was that??

Sunday is recycling day at our apartment. Doesn’t seem so bad other than you can recycle from 7:00-7:30 am. We have a half hour window to get our recycling down and sorted. Could they have picked a more inconvenient time? Any how we could not remember the exact time for recycling so we headed down at 8 with two huge and I mean huge bags full, we have not taken it down since May. I know that is BAD but everyday Sunday we postpone until the next Sunday hints why we could not remember the time. The security guard made an X with his hands letting us know recycle time was over. Oh man, okay so we started to head back but then he got our attention and had us leave our bags down there and was telling us something in mostly Korean but a little English. We left a little puzzled like okay well maybe we don’t have to sort it this time and they will just pick it up, so we left the bags and headed back up to the apartment. A few hours later the security guard called asking us to come and get our bags. He sorted everything for us, our bags were empty! We could not believe it; it must have taken him all morning.  We felt so bad, but how nice was that? We treated him to an ice cream cone later. He must have stuck it in the freezer because I just noticed him eating it today! What a nice man! 

I could go on an on with stories such as these. Each time we are always taken pleasantly back and have tried to do the same for others. It is a reminder of how a small act of kindness or even a friendly smile can make someone's day. Justin and I decided to treat a man on the subway that looked like he could use a little extra help to 10,000 won. He was not asking but he just looked like he had seen better days. I truly believe it is all about paying it forward!