3.

Today marks the end of the 3rd month that I’ve been in Ulsan, South Korea. December started out slow and cold but as Christmas approached my days seemed to fly by. 

For the longest time I have wanted to write a blog post with the title saying: “Korea: 595 Foreigner: 3” because things seem go the opposite of what I’d like them to and honestly some days I feel like Korea wins all of the battles I face. But this afternoon I decided to visit my favorite coffee shop and reflect on my life and it hit me: no matter how confusing the logic and culture is; this is also a very generous and forgiving place. 

I’d like to share some of those stories today.

The common interactions I experience with the Koreans in public places typically involve big, unblinking eyes, quickly spoken Korean (as if I can understand the language if they use hand motions), and grabbing my arm to steer me in the right direction. But sometimes I encounter this magical, get-out-of-jail-free, royal treatment.

1.   Meredith, Janene and I bought tickets to Seoul this past weekend. Janene and I got tickets for the express bus that left near my apartment while Meredith got a ticket for her express bus stop. We figured that if my ticket said 7:40 that she’d need to buy a ticket for earlier so she bought a ticket for 7:10am.  At 7:30 I see Meredith in the window of a bus and I quickly jump on the bus and the driver takes my ticket and looks at it and then at me. I could tell something was wrong and I started to ask if we had the wrong bus but he just waved me on the bus. He did the same with Janene’s ticket. We just laughed as we got the back seats and settled in for the 4 and a half hour ride to Seoul.
2. In Seoul we were relying on our Subway Map App on our cell phones and while we were deciding what direction to take an older man came up to me and started pointing to the map. We told him where we were going and he literately started grabbing every young Korean who walked by asking if they spoke English. After a few failed attempts he got one to help us. The funny thing is we would've figured it out eventually, but it was nice to be "taken care of". The older man even got on the same subway car and made sure we got off at the right stop. 
3. The best example of this kind treatment is on our journey back to Ulsan early Tuesday morning. We had a slow start due to snow and missed our bus home. While we were trying to decide what to do a bus driver got out of his bus and looked at our tickets. He then started to talk to us in Korean and kept pointing to his bus. He ended up getting another man to help translate and told us that the bus driver wanted to give us a ride and that we can switch to an Ulsan bus later. So we got on the bus not fully understanding what was happening. We only knew that the bus was headed for Busan (which is the big city an hour away from Ulsan). About 4 hours later the bus stopped and the driver stood up and motioned for us to get off the bus. So we grabbed our bags and got off. I expected to be at a bus stop but instead we were on the freeway pulled over behind another big express bus. The bus driver motioned for us to get onto the other bus and we handed over our tickets that said Ulsan. The passengers in the new bus seemed surprised to see waygooks (foreigners) get on the bus. I had barely made myself comfortable in the seat when we arrived in Ulsan. I still don't fully understand what happened but somehow that first bus driver got us home! 

There are certainly worst places to be lost and confused. I can now say confidently that I'm going to survive the rest of the year. In fact I look forward to more crazy-confusing-get-out-of-jail-free experiences.  

Bless friends.