Korean Hospitality

There is nothing like fun in the sun just before school begins. We made an overnight trip to DaeCheon Beach. It is located on the Yellow Sea (West coast). The trip was great.

Since Bonnie and I went alone and had not been there before there was some apprehension. Getting train tickets to the right place and then handling taxis to get to our guest house always seems challenging. However, there was no need to be anxious. Koreans are so helpful. We have never been treated as well as we were at the DaeCheon Station. Upon arriving I walked over to the train schedule and began to study about our return trip for the next day. I was soon joined by an English speaking Korean who offered his help to me. He made sure we received a schedule from the attendant, and then proceeded to put us at ease about the next day's trip.

Leaving DaeCheon was just as easy; again a station attendant came to help us. We were OK, but they just seemed to want us to know they were there to help, and they did. We were escorted to the elevator and personally taken to our train platform. No chance of the wrong track here! We planned on taking the 12:57 pm train. We arrived at the station around 12:05. They sold us tickets for a 12:20 train. Settling in our seats around 12:15 we felt like VIPs the way we had been treated.

Arriving at the Asan station we transferred to a subway for our 3 mintue ride back to Cheonan and the Univeristy. Plenty of time, except the ticket attendant gave us the wrong track number! We made our way up the escalator to track 1 and waited for our subway. We had a few minutes now before our subway arrived when someone jumped up and started frantically signaling to us to go to another track. Gestures work quite well here when trying to communicate.

Another man came up the escalator and started to signal for us to follow him. We now had 3 Koreans helping us to get to the other track. We were taken to an elevator and were instructed with hand gestures how to quickly get to the other side. Again, we felt like VIPs. I guess the ticket attendant caught his mistake and he must have made an announcement of some kind in Korean that the Americans were told to wait at the wrong track. People suddenly seem to come from everywhere trying to help us. We made the track change without incident thanks to those who helped us. I easily made it back to my meeting that was called while on the train!

Korean hospitality is so wonderful. They seem to go out of their way to make us feel safe and comfortable.