My Favorite Subway Ride

One of our favorite things about Korea is how curious the small children are about foreigners. They are fascinated by how different we look and it shows in their facial expressions. :)

The other day I was on the subway minding my own business and reading my book. Suddenly a small high-pitched voice said "hello." I turned to look and saw it was a little pint-sized boy of about 8 years old. "Hi" I said. "How are you?" He replied "fine thanks and you?" "I'm fine, you speak English well. Did you learn at school?" "yes" he says. "What's your name?"....this went on for a minute or two until he ran out of questions. Then he just turned his head away and stared at the other passengers. I began to realize that this little boy was all alone. I asked him where he was going and he said "Ansan" which is a stop about 30minutes from where we were. He was on his way to an after school academy. I couldn't believe he was all alone. Seoul, generally is a very safe city but sending an 8 yr old on a subway trip 30 minutes away when it's already dark out, seemed slightly worrisome. The little boy didn't seem to mind though.

Periodically, he would think of a new question to ask me in English and he'd turn back to me and pipe up saying things like "How old are you?" "Where do you live?" "Do you like books? I really like books." He was the cutest kid ever and not afraid to use his English skills. Many children are too afraid to talk to the strange foreigners. :) When we got closer to my stop I reached into my bag and pulled out a new pencil I had just bought. I gave it to him and said "Here, this is a present for you." "Oh thank you!" he said. "This is a very nice 'sharp' (mechanical pencil)." Then he reached his hand into his bag and pulled out some 'duk' (Duk is a traditional Korean food that is basically white rice mashed up and formed into a tube shape). I pried it off his sticky fingers and said "thank you!" with far more excitement than I felt. Then I promptly took a bite, sadly thinking that I had no mints with me to wash away the flavor. :) I said my goodbye and walked over to the door preparing to exit the train. The train decided to take it's sweet time in stopping and opening the doors....so I sat there slowly nibbling on my duk. Finally, the doors opened and I stepped out. I turned as the train was leaving just in time to see the little boy waving.

I think this experience has just risen to the top of my favorite subway rides. :)