This is a special entry dedicated to the random friendly strangers we have met on our trip. We are reflecting on the interactions we have had with native Koreans or other travelers because our trip together is drawing to an end. Amanda just took off for the airport.
In no particular order, here are our "special friendly friends"
1. Lady on 128-1 Bus in Gimhae: She took Amanda's duffel bag as we were being swung around like crazy on the bus ride.
2. Bus driver on 128-1: Had a conversation with Amanda and Amanda told him all of the Korean words she knew. (While he was driving-which made me nervous)
3. Two Inje Student "Security?": stopped the university car they were driving to say hello and talk with us for about 5 minutes. They invited us to have lunch, and when we declined lunch, asked if we would have coffee (which we also declined).
4. "Train Kim": Watched Amanda and me play and make faces with the little girl in the seat in front of us. Struck up a conversation by telling us, "I think the little girl enjoyed you!" and then we had a conversation for about 20 minutes before he got off on his stop.
5. Peter: Amanda and I were on the subway and we were sitting next to him; he was studying English in a workbook and Amanda asked him something like, "what are you studying?" And we had a short conversation with him before getting off at our stop.
6. Minnesota Guy and 2 Korean friends: They were making fun of one of the friends for using a purse and Minnesota Guy said, I would use one for candy and chapstick. To which Amanda responded: Candy! And showed her bag of candy in her purse.
7. Worker on Subway Studying English: Amanda and I were talking while on the subway and this young man interrupts us and tells me I have very good English and asked Amanda where she was from.
8. Four Malaysian Friends: We saw four women trying to take a group photo and Amanda offered to take their picture so all of them could be in it; then we chatted a little about where we were from.
9. Londoners: On our JSA tour we met 2 friends from London-the guy is teaching her and the girl was visiting him.
10. Australian & New Zealand Travel Conference Tour Folk: We saw a big group of older people trying to take a group photo in the subway. We offered to take some pictures for them and chatted with them til the subway arrived. I assured them they were headed in the right direction and I told a woman I wanted to go to New Zealand. She gave me a small woven bag as a souvenir from New Zealand!
11. Canadian Korean Lady: On the subway, Amanda tried to give her seat to a grandfather, but he declined and kept walking. Canadian Korean Lady turned to her and said, "Oh that was nice!" and then we had a conversation with her til we got off the subway.
12. Chinese Couple at Cheongyecheon: Hwa Sun was looking for someone to take our picture and the wife offered to photograph us, then she asked her husband to take a picture of her with us.
13. Ajusshi's in the Mountain: I asked them in my broken, limited Korean if they wanted a picture of them together, so I did that, and then they asked if we wanted one together so we said yes. They also took a picture of us with their own camera too.
14. Girl on Train: She was looking at us so we smiled at her and then began about 5-7 minute interaction of face making and playing before she said, "bye, bye!" and got off the train with her family.
15. Girl on Subway: Amanda was hanging on the hand 'straps'/'stirrups' (to hold on to so you don't fall over on the subway) and this little girl (about 10 or so) copied everything Amanda did. When she got off on her stop, she waved bye to Amanda.
16. Little boy on subway: On our way to go mountain hiking a little boy made faces back and forth with us.
17. Doghouse Friends: Some students at the Dog House in Gimhae asked to play darts with Amanda
18. Singapore Family: We went for breakfast in our hostel and started chatting with an man in his 50's-60's, later his wife joined him. About 5 minutes later, his son arrived and he looked familiar to us-then we realized we were on the JSA tour together!! That was pretty wild. We had an hour long conversation sharing information about our countries and about ourselves.
19. Front Desk Guy at our Hostel:Every day he and the woman (owner?) would ask us where we were going or if we had any questions about how to get where we needed to go.
20. Two random men in the subway: Helped Amanda and me with our luggage as we were en route from SWS to our new lounge
21. Two brothers at the park: Amanda and I were watching these 2 adorable little boys running around-they would run closer and closer to us. Finally, the younger one came within 8 feet of us and waved and said, "hellllo!" and then ran away, this happened a few more times. As we continued watching them running around, the younger one also approached a young couple eating McDonalds. The man might have been Korean-American as he seemed quite fluent in English (no accent) and Korean; he told the boy, "If you speak English I'll hook you up" (meaning french fries). I don't think the little boy said anything, but the woman gave him a fry, and then the little boy ended up grabbing several other fries on his own. His older brother came and he took a fry or two also. Then he ran back to Grandma, (maybe tattled) and he and Grandma returned. Grandma spanked the youngest one and then chased him around-as he was trying to get more fries. It was hilarious. A few minutes later, Grandma and both boys went walking by to get a snack from the convenience store; they stopped and said "hellllo!" again and chatted with us very briefly and brokenly.
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