Good Samaritans, even on a different continent

So, I'm going to start this off by saying this happened quite a few years ago. There might be a few missing details or gaps because of my own terrible memory, but this experience impacted my life and just goes to show how good humans can be, even if you can't understand each other's languages.

This story starts in October of 2017 where my best friend and I decide to take the trip to Korea. We had saved up for a long time, using our graduation gift money and any money we earned working in the states as our money for this trip. We had planned to stay for 3 months, and we had already secured a place to stay and a group of friends that unbeknownst to us, would last a lifetime. As it neared toward the end of December, our plans changed. We loved it in Korea, but as US citizens, we could only stay for 3 months at a time. We had a decision to make.

We decided to stay, but in order to do so legally, we had to find a way to renew our 3 month visa free entry. The answer came to us from a few of our friends who are also Americans staying in Korea. They suggested that we take a brief vacation to Japan, and when we fly back into Korea, immigration would renew our visas.

We liked this plan, as not only would it allow us to stay for an extra 3 months, but we could also visit another country while we are at it. So, we bought tickets to Narita Airport in Tokyo at the last minute.

For those that have never been to Korea, one thing that you should know is that the public transportation system there is excellent. They have bus and train systems spanning the whole country. As it was our first time in Korea, we had to get a lot of help from our friends as we learned how to use the bus and train systems. We made a plan to get to the airport.

From our apartment in Gimpo, we had to make it to Incheon airport, and our flight was very early in the morning, so one thing that I was counting on, as it was quite a long ride, is sleeping a little bit on the bus. Now, usually sleeping on the bus in a foreign country seems like a phenomenally bad idea, and it was, but I thought I had the timing down to a specific science. Also, by this point, we had already been in the country for almost 3 months, and as we had already had some previous experience with the Korean language, meaning that we could read the characters and figure out where we were, and maybe order food at a restaurant, I thought that I could get away with sleeping for 30 minutes on the bus as we rode to Gye Yang Station for the airport railroad.

This was not the case.

I woke up on the bus and as I looked at the next station announcement, I realized that I had messed up big time. We were only 19 years old, missed our stop, and panic was starting to set in that we would miss our plane to Tokyo.

This is now where a good Samaritan in the form of an older Korean man steps into the picture. It didn't seem like he knew English at all, and even though my friend and I could read a little bit, speaking and listening to Korean in a conversation was just something that we couldn't and still cannot do. He could somehow tell that we had missed our stop, and started asking in rapid fire Korean where we needed to be. We somehow got the message across which station we needed to be at, and he guided us to get off the bus at the next stop.

From there there was still panic in the air as we were still afraid that we would miss our train, leading us to missing our plane, and overstaying our visas, which is something that you just do not want to do under any circumstances. Through gestures and what Korean we could make out, he instructed us to cross the road and get on the same number bus that we had just gotten off of. We thanked him profusely as he had just inadvertently saved us from so much trouble that we certainly did not want to deal with.

Through the kindness of this older Korean man, who spoke little to no English, who decided to help two foreigners who also couldn't speak Korean, we were able to make it to the correct station and the airport on time. I will never forget this man's kindness so early in the morning, and even though I could not tell you his name or even recognize his face, his kindness impacted my entire life.

This experience made me gain faith in humanity, which is something that is hard to do with all the negative news that we see on a day to day basis. Thank you for taking the time to read this experience, and thank you to the older Korean man who restored my faith in humanity.